Biltmore

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

Years ago, when I was a little girl I went to the Biltmore Estate with my Girl Scout troup during the Christmas display. I remember being in awe of the giant mansion and thought Id someday return. Skip forward to now, I am married and thought it would be a good idea to take my Husband to the estate. So we went, as a spur of the moment trip since we were already in that general area. We got there at around 11AM and went to buy tickets which was easy enough. But I was totally shocked at the prices! $60 for each of us and that was only to enter the estate and tour the house. I had always wanted to do the horseback riding at the estate but for $70 per rider...NO WAY! We went ahead and purchased the tickets to tour the house, though. So we drove to our parking area, was promptly taken by the shuttle to the house. When we got there, we were told we could go on inside the house. I guess it was not that crowded at that time. So inside we went. The house itself is worth the trip if you have never seen it. It is gorgeous and yes it is HUGE. But I was disappointed and quite frankly I felt jipped that they want you to pay for audio tours or pay to tour special areas of the house. I think that for $60 the very bored looking employees that stand in each of the rooms of the house could have given the "audio tour". It was very hot inside the house and it does require a good bit of walking. Everyone was standing around fanning themselves with their Biltmore guidebooks. There was a time when employees stopped us for a picture. It took us about an hour to tour entire house. The house was the highlight of our trip. My Husband wanted to go look at the gardens. It was so humid that day it was very tiring to walk up and down the stairs and around those gardens. The gardens feature many different types of flowers and plants and are very pretty. I would suggest that you drive there, though...unless you are wanting a lot of exercise. We then went to look for food and no surprise here...again very expensive! And nothing there appealed to me out of four or five different restaurants. We settled for an icecream snack and it costs us nearly $8 for two waffle cones of plain vanilla icecream. We looked in the gift shop and candy shop...again very expensive! I know I am mentioning "expensive" a lot but we do live in the Smoky Mountain area (Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg) and compared to our own tourist traps I feel confident in emphasizing how Biltmore as a whole is a really expensive place to visit. We went by to just look at the horses and then to the other village area where there were more expensive gift shops and the winery. We didnt do the wine tasting because my photo ID was in the car and I was not feeling like walking back to get it so I cannot comment on the wines. I thought about getting a snack there so I picked up a very small snack size box of cheese crackers to find they were $8! Forget that. But we did buy an overpriced drink. By that time we were ready to call it a day so we left. Bottom line...the Biltmore House itself is wonderful. But I think they seriously need to either lower the admission price for those who are just visiting the house, or else they need to include the audio tours with admission and they should certainly discount the other activities. They did offer an upgrade to a season pass for $25 extra and I thought about going back for Christmas but in the end decided it wasnt worth the extra $50. The house is pretty much the same as it was all those years ago the first time I visited. The only difference was the absence of lights this time. I also agree with the previous review that it is not the best place to visit if you are handicapped. The house has a lot of stairs and walking involved, as do the grounds.

JO

Joel Fedell

Americas Largest Home is everything that everyone says it is. My partner has been obsessed with the Biltmore ever since I met him. He loves old homes, architecture, and gardens. So naturally Biltmore is right up his alley. For Christmas I told him that I would take him to see Biltmore. So here we are! Now I am going to start by saying that going into this, this was my least favorite thing that we were doing on vacation. Just keep that in mind. On the morning we arrived he just could not contain himself. I dont think I could have gotten him there fast enough, to be honest. We arrived, picked up our tickets and proceeded towards the house. We got lucky and most of the parking is covered by trees which is nice. There are several shuttles that run between the parking lot and Biltmore House, but we decided to walk. I thought it would be nice especially since there was a nice trail with signs leading us to the home. When you walk through the gate BAM there is the house. Wow...its even more magnificent than any picture can give you. We walked over to the wall, took some pictures (and selfies) then proceeded towards the house. I just could not get over how massive this house really is. I mean it is just incredible. Once inside we picked up our audio tour wands and began the tour of the home. I can honestly say that learning the history of the home, seeing it all first hand, I was blown away. I cant believe they were able to build something that grand in the 1890s. We dont build like that now, and its 2016! There was not a room in the house that I did not enjoy. Imagining living in a house like that - during that time period is amazing. I think my favorite room in the entire house was George Vanderbilts bedroom. The decor, views, and furnishings were just amazing. We also did the Rooftop Tour, the Up/Down Tour (separate tickets are required for these tours), and toured the gardens and grounds (included in general admission).You honestly can spend an entire day there just trying to see everything you can see. We arrived at 9:30am and didnt leave the grounds until 6pm. No matter if you like old homes, architecture, history, or gardens this is definitely a place to see. This destination really has something for everyone.

RI

Richard Kahn

We saw the estate shortly after the movie Richie Rich came out. The movie was filmed largely at the Biltmore. It was something my son wanted to see, especially with his age being approximately the same as Macauley Culkin. It is not just the estate that was impressive. With its 43 bathrooms, I noticed there was a toilet and bathtub in each one - but no sink! I asked the tour guide about that. She said, "Good catch." She explained that in those days it was customary to call one of the servants to bring a washing bowl and towels to clean up after doing ones business. A lady I was waiting in line with said she did not have indoor plumbing until 1948. This home was completed in 1895. If you go I strongly suggest taking the "behind-the-scenes" tour as well. There you will learn about the central heating system which was coal-fired in the day. Now modified to run on oil. There are three boilers, each appeared to be about 20 feet tall. The estate generates its own electricity. The estate has a still-functioning elevator which has been maintained as it was back in 1895. There was no electric utility back then. The indoor swimming pool had underwater lighting, but did not have a modern filtration system so every three or four days they would drain the pool, clean it, and refill it. There was an indoor bowling alley, gym. Plus there was a trouble annunciator system, similar to modern fire alarm annunciator boards. If there was trouble in one part of the estate (which was separated into six zones) an alarm would cause an arrow to point to which zone was experiencing trouble. There are clocks throughout the estate which are synchronized every minute with the large central clock over the stable. Each minute, a solenoid would close causing all clocks to set to the common clock. The purpose, I was told, was so servants could not claim they were late for work because the clocks were off. There was a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, along with a smaller refrigerator in the main kitchen that operated off a compressor in the basement. The compressor used ammonia gas as a refrigerant. Did I say this place was built in 1895?

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