The Best Boutique Hotels in Asheville, North Carolina

Downtown Asheville is the place to find hipster-concept restaurants, cold-brew coffee specialists and craft breweries (one of its nicknames is Beer City USA). It’s also where you’ll find the Windsor Boutique Hotel, a striking, canopied restored structure with plush, maximalist interiors set against exposed brick and unpolished wood floors softened by thick rugs and jazzy throw pillows. Elsewhere at this Asheville boutique hotel, a bijou urban spa is on hand for aromatherapy massages and post-hike foot scrubs.

“Boutique” and “motel” might sound like an oxymoron, but the Beaucatcher nails the concept. Rooms are rather basic at this motel in Asheville, with greige bedspreads, clashing red curtains and graphic-print carpets, but on the communal front, it has a sunny courtyard with a firepit and barbecue, locally sourced toiletries and coffee, and a cute bar with a focus on local beers. Set just off Tunnel Road, a five-minute drive from the city center, this is a no-frills, good-times spot that has everything you need for a short stay.

This distinctive 1920s inn has lashings of character and nostalgic American charm. Rooms are simple but polished, with pretty wooden furniture and foam mattresses, while the suites have kitchenettes with Nespresso machines. It’s also a local brunch spot – with an in-house chef – meaning that the inclusive breakfast is top quality. Surrounded by tree-lined avenues and huge houses with distinctive white verandas in historic Chestnut Hill, this boutique hotel in Asheville is only a 25-minute walk from downtown, a foodie haven.

As one of the most romantic hotels in Asheville, Haywood Park is the couples’ choice thanks to its sumptuous modern rooms in duck-egg blue and pale gold, chic plant-filled lobby and decadent restaurants – a ritzy French bistro and a daiquiri-blitzing Cuban joint, to be exact. Right in sought-after downtown, it’s the perfect option if you’re interested in digging into the city center, whether for shopping, craft-beer tasting or restaurant-hopping your way around this sociable quarter.

Hotel Indigo is the no-frills, no-fuss base for a younger crowd who wants all of the amenities – valet parking, a 24-hour snack bar, a gym – but isn’t bothered about excessive opulence. Spend the night in smart rooms with bright feature walls and mini-fridges. From here, you can head out on easy-reach hikes by day and into the grid of downtown bars by night (you’re right on the edge of it). Accessible rooms with wider doorways, roll-in showers and TTY facilities for guests with hearing loss make it a warm welcome for all.

One of Asheville’s key sights is the Historic Biltmore Village, one of the best places to stay in Asheville is set around a whimsical château-style mansion built in the late 19th century. Across the street is the Grand Bohemian Hotel Asheville, a similarly faux-historical hotel, this time aping a Tudor hunting lodge – but done with great charm, style and coziness. Here, you can tuck into a hearty steak amid the logs and antlers of the Red Stag Grill or stop by the upmarket Poseidon Spa for a neuromuscular massage or custom facial.

On the outskirts of town, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Omni Grove Park Inn is a country-clubby retreat for pool lounging (both indoor and outdoor), peak-view wine-tasting dinners and sunset hikes through the landscape. It’s home to an 18-hole golf course and a luxurious spa – voted one of the best in the country – which takes full advantage of the rugged surroundings with mineral baths, a cavernous grotto pool and fire-lit outdoor lounges perfect for relaxing.

A reimagined steel foundry of boxy, red-brick buildings and vast industrial windows, this sharply designed number lies on the edge of downtown. Style hunters sit out on the lantern-lit terraces and sip nightcaps underneath exposed lightbulbs in the lounge, with every glossy black edge and charcoal accent chair tailored around the handsome bones of the building. Don’t miss the chance to try Appalachian soul food – short ribs, fried catfish, grits – at Benne on Eagle, the on-site restaurant.