Many years ago, before we were married, my husband and I visited Biltmore in Asheville North Carolina. Today, 27 years later, we stopped by again.

Have you ever been? If not, visit their website, or if you’d rather, I’ll take you on a short (not covering nearly everything you understand) tour. I personally love the long drive back to the big house.

It inspired me years ago, to dream about building a house in the middle of a hundred acres, just so that I could have a lovely long drive home through the trees similar to this one up to the Biltmore mansion.

The first glimpse of the house itself always makes me gasp, and then smile. It’s just so magnificent! Not my style, by any means, but it’s a beautiful structure. Completed in 1895, it was a summer home for George W. Vanderbilt and his family. With thirty-three guest rooms, it was a summer getaway for family friends too.

You can view it after climbing a switchback to an elevated stone wall…

…or climb way up a hill for higher vantage point.

But once you get up close you notice all the amazing detail. Like the carvings and statues as seen on the front of the house, lining the grand staircase.

Even the windows are elaborate.

Inside it’s even more intricate, with a glass enclosed winter garden…

…and an opulent dining hall.

Each room has ceilings that are different and extravagant…

…and the furniture is ornate too.

But my favorite place in the whole mansion is the back veranda…

..where the view of the distant mountains is stunning. I could sit out there all day, and I’m sure there were people a hundred years ago that did just that.

Inside, the library was amazing, thousands of books that George Vanderbilt handpicked, covering all sorts of topics. The bedrooms were beautiful too, complete with their own bathrooms long before en suites were normal.

And in the basement was a giant party room, painted by members of a party in 1920…

…a bowling alley…

…and a 70,000 gallon pool with water pumped in from a mountain stream.

Biltmore, it’s an amazing, almost magical place, and that’s just the house.

Wait until you see the greenhouse and the gardens!