Archive for B&B

Lovers’ Loop Retreat May muse-letter

April 30, 2011 at 9:40 pm · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville art, Asheville B&B, Asheville comedy, B&B, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, music, nature, poetry events, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is one of the prettiest springs we can remember here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville bed and breakfast alternative. Our azaleas are bursting in red, pink and white; our rhododendrons are blushing in pink; the dogwoods are blooming snow-white; the serviceberry had popcorn-like blooms; the forsythia and redbud rocked.

It’s a healthy spring throughout the Asheville area. Asheville is buzzing right along with nature now with an abundance of activities and events that await you. Lovers’ Loop Retreat is a quick, easy drive to lively downtown Asheville, the Biltmore estate in Asheville, the River Arts District and other attractions. And the Blue Ridge Parkway is at the end of our street for outdoor recreation fans and scenic-roadway cruisers.

Free things to do in Asheville in May

Asheville has plenty of free and nearly-free activities. Enjoy some free things to do in Asheville in May. The Big Love Fest on May 1 at Pack Square Park in downtown Asheville will feature live music, arts and crafts and locally-brewed beers. It’s new and FREE. Asheville Wordfest, an annual poetry festival, will be May 3-8 and will include a diverse slate of poets, some nationally known, as well as opportunities for open-mic readings for others. Poetry events are held downtown, and they’re FREE. The Wedge brewery in the River Arts District starts its FREE outdoor movie series May 7 with “Harold and Maude.” The series continues each Saturday night through Sept. 24.

More Free Asheville Events in May

The Weaverville Art Safari just north of Asheville, a self-guided tour of artists’ studios, will be May 7-8. The Montford Arts and Music Festival on May 21 is an outdoor street festival with two stages for music, theater and dance, plus lots of vendors. Nearly free is the Feral Chihuahuas, a local comedy troupe, which performs the second Saturday of each month for free at Broadways downtown; Broadways charges a $5 fee for an annual membership. Another nearly free option is the Asheville Cinebarre movie theater, where a flick costs $3 and just $1 on Sunday.

Make Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our affordable Asheville vacation rental, your place to stay when you explore Asheville, NC recreation, arts, restaurants and festivals. Events are posted and updated through the year on www.loversloopretreat.com. Visit the site to see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip. You can link to our blog, https://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page, and we’re also on Twitter! Our website features a link where you can contact us for a list of many FREE things to do in Asheville.

Asheville’s Downtown After Five

A fun way to get down downtown in Asheville is the Downtown After Five FREE outdoor music series. The first concert will be May 20 with the Asheville Horns and Bayou Diesel. The street festival runs the third Friday of each month from May through September. Food and locally made beer are available, and sales benefit charities. Shops stay open longer, too.

Fanaticon in Asheville

Fans of comic book and pop culture will love this FREE annual event, held May 21 at the Asheville Art Museum downtown. It’s preceded by the Fanaticon Rave party May 20. It’s a tribute to heroes and villains with a costume masquerade, live music, panel discussions, comic book artists and more. Freak out!

Mountain Sports Festival

The Mountain Sports Festival May 27-29 is one of the biggest recreational events in Asheville each year. It’s FREE to attend. The festival offers competitions for professionals and amateurs in a range of activities, from climbing, cycling and paddling to disc golf, running and dodgeball. There’s free live music all weekend, too.

Asheville events in May

Check out these other events in Asheville in May: Asheville Tourists baseball May 5-12 and May 17-23, the FREE East of Asheville Studio Tour of artists’ studios May 14-15, Tret Fure in concert May 20, Little Feat in concert May 24 and a rose show at the North Carolina Arboretum May 28-29.

All of these events and activities and more are listed on our website. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!

Reach us at loversloop(at)gmail(dot)com or (828) 545-2950.

Cheers!

Lovers’ Loop Retreat

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Laugh with Bill Cosby in Asheville

October 20, 2010 at 5:24 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Get your laugh on with Bill Cosby in Asheville on Jan. 23, 2011. Tickets go on sale starting this Friday, Oct. 22 for the show at the Asheville Civic Center.

Stay at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville B&B alternative, and you’re just 10 funny minutes from the civic center downtown.

Comedy shows in Asheville

A number of internationally-known comedians have brought their humor to Asheville. Bob Hope opened the Asheville Civic Center in the 1970s. Jerry Seinfeld has performed there twice. Cosby last performed at the civic center in 2004.

Kate Clinton has appeared several times at the Diana Wortham Theatre downtown.

Those who loved Cosby’s Fat Albert from way, way back and “The Cosby Show” from way back won’t want to miss his show in Asheville.

Contact Lovers’ Loop Retreat at (828) 545-2950 or loversloop(at)gmail(dot)com for information about our vacation rental.

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Lovers’ Loop Retreat October Muse-letter

September 28, 2010 at 10:47 pm · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville art, Asheville B&B, Asheville seasons, B&B, Fall Foliage, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, nature, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s nearly October, and that means the hunt is on in the Asheville, N.C., area. Red leaves, gold leaves, orange and russet leaves. Come see what the oaks, maples, poplars, sourwoods and other trees are serving up for eye candy this autumn as the fall foliage season gets underway in western North Carolina. Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, love that we’re located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic road that’s part of the National Park Service. The parkway is the best place to enjoy all that autumn offers in color changes and mountain peaks. The leaf-peeping here usually lasts until around mid-November.

Spending time on the Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the popular and FREE things to do in Asheville during autumn and year-round.

Make Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our affordable Asheville vacation rental, your place to stay when you explore Asheville, NC recreation, arts, restaurants and festivals. Events are posted and updated through the year on www.loversloopretreat.com. Visit the site to see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip. Contact us for a list of many FREE things to do in Asheville.

Free things to do in Asheville in October

In October, you’ll find a fun and wide-ranging mix of freebies in Asheville. Oct. 1 is the Asheville gallery walk, when the many downtown galleries stay open later so visitors may check out the art and enjoy refreshments. Asheville’s pride festival is Oct. 2.

There’s also the Asheville Scarecrow Festival on Oct. 2, and Fiesta Latina, the vibrant and colorful annual Latino heritage event, also is Oct. 2.

The North Carolina Arboretum’s regularly scheduled free day is the first Tuesday of each month, Oct. 5. The Asheville Art Museum offers free admission in the afternoon on the first Wednesday of each month, Oct. 6.

If you’re ready to walk the walk, participate in the Asheville Zombie Walk on Oct. 10. It’s an annual gig downtown: fake blood, funky costumes, scary stares. To lighten up, attend the Asheville Ukulele Jam on Oct. 12 at Laurey’s Catering downtown. This new event will be the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.

On Oct. 17, the annual HardLox Jewish Festival will fill your tummy with yummy food and please your ears with klezmer tunes, along with Israeli folk dancing.

Asheville arts events

Two of the most-anticipated arts events in the Asheville area are in October. The Lake Eden Arts Festival, or LEAF, will be Oct. 14-17 in Black Mountain just minutes from Lovers’ Loop Retreat. LEAF features multicultural dancing, poetry, healing and culinary arts and handcrafts. The Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands will be Oct. 21-24 in downtown Asheville.

Halloween in Asheville

Asheville is a happening place to spread your Halloween wings. LaZoom, the comedy tour bus that roams downtown, offers lively Halloween tours. Asheville Trolley Tours and other companies offer ghost tours by foot and bus. And the play “Dracula” will be performed Oct. 22-23 and Oct. 29-30 at the recently restored Masonic Temple downtown. We’ll update our website as we learn of other Halloween gigs.

It’s not scary, but the Asheville MoogFest will be Oct. 29-31 and celebrates the vision and music of the late Robert Moog (based in Asheville), who invented the Moog synthesizer that revolutionized rock music starting in the 1960s.

All of these events and activities and more are listed on our website. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!

Call or email us – 828.545.2950, loversloop(at)gmail(dot)com.

Let us know if you’d like to be on the mailing list for our monthly e-news. Want to see what the “official” e-news looks like in color with photos? Click here.

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Explore some frightful findings in Asheville

September 19, 2010 at 5:52 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , ,

Visitors to Asheville will find a number of walking, motor and Segway tours available. Among these are several haunted tours that give a peek into the mysterious, scary and unsavory side of Asheville history.

We haven’t encountered ghosts at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville vacation rental, but our guest suite is a great place to prepare yourself for the scary stuff on the tours. The various tours leave from the downtown area, just 10 minutes from our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative.

Asheville ghost tours

We recently took Asheville Trolley Tours’ ghost tour, a popular ride that informs passengers about some of the city’s spirits. The tour, which operates March through November, tells visitors about the Lady in Pink at the upscale Grove Park Inn and about the ghost that paces on the roof of the Jackson building downtown.

Asheville history

On the tour, you’ll hear about spirits at the Whitegate Inn and the murder of a young woman at the Battery Park hotel, now an apartment building. Another piece of phantom history shared on the Asheville ghost tour regards a minister of the Methodist church on Church Street who is alleged to have killed a nun with whom he had an affair in the 1890s. The trolley also makes its way along a narrow, steep, curvy road to Helen’s Bridge, where a girl is said to have hung herself in 1889. She reportedly appears in a purple mist from time to time.

Halloween in Asheville

There’s no better way to celebrate Halloween than taking a ghost tour. The tour guide told our group that passengers who’ve taken photos of tour sites have reported capturing orbs, faces, auras and streaks in their images. Grab your camera, and get on the bus. Enjoy a good boo in Asheville when you stay at Lovers’ Loop Retreat!

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Get your leaf-peeping eyes on in Asheville

September 14, 2010 at 9:28 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, Asheville seasons, B&B, Fall Foliage, Lovers' Loop Retreat, nature, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Good news! The early fall foliage forecast in the Asheville area is for a colorful leaf harvest in these beautiful mountains. Experts are predicting a great show this autumn. Although it’s impossible to know exactly when the peak in color will be, it’s always sometime in mid- to late October.

Pretty hues usually last until sometime in November, so there’s plenty of time to enjoy the eye candy when you stay at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville vacation rental. The Blue Ridge Parkway, the best road to cruise for foliage changes around Asheville, is a one-minute drive from Lovers’ Loop Retreat. The parkway offers lots of opportunities for hiking, biking and driving – not to mention photography — to follow the trail of  tulip poplars, maples, oaks, sourwoods, dogwoods and other trees that perform their color magic for fascinated eyes each autumn.

We can’t wait for the show! Join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville bed and breakfast alternative.

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Cook up some fun in Asheville

August 9, 2010 at 5:37 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, Asheville Food, Asheville restaurants, B&B, B&B alternative, beer, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

For those of you who enjoy creative cooking or who are chefs-in-training in your own kitchen, you may be interested in the cooking schools in Asheville and the surrounding area. The classes, schools and demonstrations offer opportunities to learn about varied cuisines, from traditional Southern style and Italian to vegan, vegetarian and lots of foodways in between.

 Cooking classes in Asheville

Among the options are the Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts at Warren Wilson College and the Biltmore estate’s cooking demonstrations, which always draw a crowd.

You can practice your skills at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville vacation rental. The alternative aspect of our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative offers guests the opportunity to cook their own meals with the dishes, utensils, microwave, hot plate, refrigerator and coffeemaker in the guest suite. Many of our guests take advantage of this feature.

Asheville restaurants

Asheville restaurants also offer a wonderful chance for food exploration. Satisfy your cravings and tempt your tastebuds with cuisines galore. Check it out: Nepalese, Indian street food, crepes, tapas, pizza and beer, vegetarian, organic, French, South Pacific, traditional Southern, Cuban, Jamaican and many more mouth-watering possibilities.

When you leave Asheville, you’ll be hungry for more!

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Lovers’ Loop Retreat August Muse-letter

July 31, 2010 at 5:27 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville adventures, Asheville B&B, B&B, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

August in the Asheville, N.C., area explodes in activities. We’re talking the nation’s longest-running folk festival Aug. 5-7, the annual antiques fair, an annual quilt show, one of the bigger crafts fairs in the area, dance concerts, dulcimer workshops, a carpet of flowers, an Olympiad, an Afro-Caribbean fest and more! What bounty for a small city! Come and indulge yourself. 

Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville bed & breakfast alternative here in western North Carolina, pursue with gusto these opportunities, some of which are FREE things to do in Asheville. For more free activities in Asheville, check out our June 21 blog (at www.loversloopretreat.com).

Make Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our affordable Asheville vacation rental, your place to stay when you explore Asheville, NC recreation, arts, restaurants and festivals. Events are posted and updated through the year on www.loversloopretreat.com. Visit the site to see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip. You can link to our blog, https://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page, and we’re also on Twitter! Our Web site features a link where you can contact us for a list of many FREE things to do in Asheville.

You’ll find some awe in August in Asheville, starting with the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival Aug. 5-7 at Diana Wortham Theatre downtown. The festival, in its eighty-third year, features bluegrass and old-time music, clogging and other mountain dancing and ballad singers.

Speaking of longevity, one of the oldest antiques fairs in the Southeast is the Asheville Antiques Fair Aug. 6-8, a busy weekend that also brings the annual quilt show at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville Aug. 6-8, and the Village Art and Craft Fair Aug. 7-8, one of the most popular, and free, such fairs in the area.    

The Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance will perform in downtown Asheville Aug. 12-14. That same weekend, Aug. 13-15, will be the Asheville Wine and Food Festival. You can perfect your dulcimer-playing at workshops Aug. 14 at Chimney Rock Park just east of Lovers’ Loop Retreat, and it’s a lovely drive to the park from our guest suite.  

Water lovers should check out the River Fest Aug. 14 in Asheville on the French Broad River, which winds through Asheville on its determined way to Tennessee. Aug. 14, Aug. 21 and Aug. 28 offer Shindig on the Green, a laid-back evening gathering outdoors with free music in Asheville.

Here’s a carpet you can’t walk on, but it will dazzle you. The Flower Carpet at the Biltmore estate will be on display Aug. 20-Sept. 12. The design this year is a stained-glass window. The carpet will be on display during the day and illuminated at night.

A signature event in the area for the adventurous and those who like to watch them is the Hickory Nut Gorge Olympiad Aug. 26-29. This takes place just east of Asheville, and it’s an easy, beautiful drive from Lovers’ Loop Retreat. It’s one of the biggest such happenings in the Southeast.     

Aug. 27-29 is Goombay!, one of the FREE street festivals in Asheville. Enjoy music, vendors and food that represent Afro-Caribbean cultures. It’s a hopping, joyful gig.

Early September brings one of our favorite events. The Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Fest (LAAFF) will be Sept. 5, so you can attend the festival during the big, fat Labor Day holiday weekend. Check out the funkier side of Asheville. It’s one of the free things to do in Asheville on Labor Day.    

All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. Want to receive our full color monthly museletter with photos? Just let us know and we’ll add you to the list. loversloop@gmail.com And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!

Cheers!           

Lovers’ Loop Retreat  

 828-545-2950

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Lovers’ Loop Retreat November muse-letter

October 24, 2009 at 5:57 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B, B&B alternative, B&Bs, Fall Foliage, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Lovers’ Loop Retreat November muse-letter

The view from Lovers’ Loop Retreat here in Asheville, N.C., is looking like lollipops, with the trees doing the orange, yellow and red foliage dance, and our mountain views re-emerging as the leaves in the distance drop from their tethers. For the next few weeks, there should be nice color around our Asheville vacation rental and in the surrounding mountains, so it’s a great time to come and embrace Asheville’s autumn.

            The foliage, of course, is FREE to view, and Lovers’ Loop Retreat is within a minute of one of the very best viewing routes, the Blue Ridge Parkway. Treat yourself with a stay at our guest suite, and experience the splendor! We have events posted through December and into 2010 on our Web site, www.loversloopretreat.com. Use the Web site to check out what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative. You can link to our blog, https://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page.

            In addition to the foliage and the Halloween happenings listed on our home page’s events calendar, November brings a cool mix of music to downtown Asheville. The Asheville Civic Center (and its Thomas Wolfe Auditorium) and the Diana Wortham Theatre host troubadours Leonard Cohen on Nov. 1, Jackson Browne on Nov. 12, Nanci Griffith on Nov. 14 and George Winston on Nov. 21.

            If film is your fancy, the Asheville Film Festival will be Nov. 5-8 with its diversity of films political and dramatic, quirky and comedic, weird and wonderful. This festival is growing and gaining acclaim, so come and enjoy the range of entertainment.

            Catch the holiday spirit at the “Christmas at Biltmore Estate” extravaganza, which runs Nov. 6- Jan. 3, 2010. This annual transformation of what claims to be America’s largest home draws lots of people who find magic in the setting and the decorations.

            For art lovers, the River Arts District Studio Stroll just outside downtown Asheville on Nov. 14-15 is a must-see, and it’s FREE. Dozens of artists open their studio doors to visitors, who can watch art being created and get some good deals sometimes, too. 

            If you’re ready for more Christmas events, the Asheville Lyric Opera’s annual Christmas concert will be Nov. 20 downtown. Asheville’s Montford Park Players perform “A Christmas Carol” Dec. 3-6 and Dec. 10-13, and there’s a Christmas festival Dec. 4-6 in the historic Biltmore Village outside downtown Asheville.   

            All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!

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Have a FREE, labor-free Labor Day weekend in Asheville, N.C.

September 1, 2009 at 6:13 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

            With Labor Day coming up this weekend, we’re taking stock of a few fun, free things to do in Asheville, N.C. We love holidays!

            Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, are close to all things free in the Asheville area. One of our favorite events, the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival (LAAFF), happens this Sunday, Sept. 6 downtown. It’s a blast, a circus that’s not really a circus, a zoo without animals. It’s the best people-watching opportunity in the city each year, and it has a terrific mix of live music and dance – and it’s all FREE! It’s all local, too—planned by local people with local vendors and local performers, so it offers the best authentic taste of Asheville’s heart-felt funkiness that there is.

            Another free annual event is the North Carolina Apple Festival in Hendersonville, just south of Asheville, this coming weekend, starting Friday, Sept. 4 through Sept. 7. Hendersonville is North Carolina’s biggest apple-producing area in a state that’s among the top apple producers in the U.S. Live music, a parade, crafts. Check it out with the apple of your eye!

            Another great, free activity for the holiday weekend is hitting the Blue Ridge Parkway, the beautiful scenic road just around the corner from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, one of the Asheville vacation rentals. The parkway is the perfect place for hiking, biking, taking photographs and just cruising on a fabulous holiday weekend. You’ll be in nature, and you’ll see some great mountain views. The parkway leads to Mount Mitchell State Park, not far from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, where you’ll find the highest peak in the eastern U.S. Shouldn’t miss it!

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Enjoy your peddle and paddle power for free in Asheville

July 25, 2009 at 5:49 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

 Asheville is a popular place to kayak on the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers. And the Blue Ridge Parkway, a stone’s throw from our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an economical Asheville vacation rental, is a great place for cycling. The moderate climate here allows these pursuits for most of the year.

Some guests at our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative bring toys to explore our waters and roads. Our guest suite is great for that because you can leave your bikes, kayaks and canoes safely here when you’re not using them.

The best part is that you can kayak and bike for FREE. Long stretches of lovely river await you, and the many scenic miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway attract many cyclists to check out the wonderful vistas.

Come activate yourself in Asheville from Lovers’ Loop Retreat.

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