Asheville

Asheville is on the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers in western North Carolina. The city is a good place to stay if you want to visit the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Pisgah National Forest. Asheville is a popular resort, convention and tourist center. The city is also a financial, transportation and retail center for western North Carolina.

Tobacco is processed and marketed, while textiles, electronic equipment, paper, food, auto parts and glass products are made there. The Vanderbilt estate, or Biltmore, is often referred to as 'America's largest house'. It is among the city's numerous recreational and scenic attractions. The home of writer Thomas Wolfe and the University of North Carolina at Asheville are in the city too. The Eastern Cherokee reservation lies west of town.

There are many hotels and restaurants in Asheville. The city is on a plateau in the Blue Ridge Mountains, 255 km west from Raleigh and 670 km southwest from Washington D.C.