Touring Scenic North Carolina

In the westernmost part of North Carolina, the High Country is a place to slow down and unwind amid the peace and majestic scenery of the Appalachian Mountains. The views along highways and byways as mist-shrouded peaks appear and disappear are unforgettable.

Westglow Resort & Spa

Blowing Rock, North Carolina

The temperature dropped about 10 degrees as we traveled two hours northwest from the airport in Charlotte to the picturesque mountain town of Blowing Rock. We had booked two nights at Westglow Resort & Spa, a wellness retreat set on a 42-acre estate. Once the summer home of artist and writer Elliott Daingerfield, the 1917 Greek Revival mansion encompasses six accommodations on the second floor and an excellent restaurant. A wooden veranda furnished with Adirondack chairs provides a wonderful location from which to watch the sun set over the Blue Ridge Mountains.

A chipper staff member greeted us with a glass of sparkling wine and, since our room was not yet ready, escorted us to the Life Enrichment Center nearby. Fitness classes are offered daily, and a range of customized wellness programs can be scheduled in advance. The most impressive feature of the complex is the “resting room,” a sunlit space with floor-to-ceiling windows, lounge chairs, a leather couch with blankets, a marble fireplace and glorious views. Alas, a Vichy spa treatment did not live up to expectations, owing to a clinical ambiance and an overly chatty therapist in grubby Crocs. We were also disappointed by mildew between the floor tiles and a rusted Vichy water shower bar. In hopes of an improvement, we headed to the six-seat poolside spa café. Poolside is certainly an accurate term for its location, as water splashed onto our feet while we were eating and the smell of chlorine was pungent. (In fine weather, outdoor seating is available, but it was raining during our stay.) The café offers an organic, low-calorie menu, but our dishes were mediocre. The bean salad comprising an assortment of chopped vegetables and canned beans was bland and tasteless, as was the Thai beef noodle salad.

Back at the mansion, we were led to The Mountain View room. This proved comfortable, though a little on the small side. The historic character of the room was charming, but renovations are clearly needed. The wallpaper was peeling in places, and the furnishings were scuffed along the edges. In addition, while housekeeping was friendly and polite, some of the yellow rose petals that were scattered across our bed upon arrival were not removed from the floor the next morning. In the spacious bath, the brass fixtures were an elegant contrast to the all-white floors and walls, but the claw-foot tub doubling as a shower was very narrow. Across the street, Westglow also has three suites in a two-story building and the four-bedroom Fleur de lis Lodge (ideal for larger groups). These feature a more contemporary style, fireplaces and separate living areas. The downside of these accommodations is that you must drive to get to the spa, gym and the main restaurant (no shuttles are available).

Wary of dinner after our unappetizing lunch, we headed down to Rowland’s restaurant on the first floor. The atmosphere was lively, with a busy bar, a pianist playing in the parlor room and couples nursing their drinks on the back patio and watching the sun set behind the dark-blue mountains. We were ushered to a table in a conservatory-like space in the back. My appetizer was an oversize king prawn atop a garlic butter sauce with tomato and edamame. The flawlessly cooked prawn tasted like a juicy piece of lobster, and the sauce was refined, with a perfect tang of lemon. My filet mignon perched on a blue grit cake with a cream sauce of locally foraged chanterelles was delectably tender, and my wife’s miso-marinated sea bass accompanied by forbidden rice and a carrot-ginger foam was a well-balanced mix of flavors and textures. Though already quite full, we could not resist the local-peach-and-berry crisp with a scoop of goat cheese ice cream; it did not disappoint. Rowland’s surpassed all of our expectations.

While we enjoyed some aspects of Westglow, the property’s flaws and obvious need for refurbishments deter me from recommending this property.

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Banner Elk Winery & Villa

Many people assume that my traveling life is one of unmixed pleasure and indulgence. To illustrate the inaccuracy of this supposition I offer an account of our visit to the Banner Elk Winery & Villa estate, the self-described “jewel of the High Country.” The hilltop seven-room inn is located a 40-minute drive from Westglow. On arrival, we found the door locked, and it was only after knocking and waiting for several minutes that a disheveled man finally appeared and asked us who we were. He then handed us a piece of paper with our room name. Our reservation included breakfast, so we asked him to show us where it would be served. He led us to the large, open kitchen, with a central island table and a lounge area with patterned couches and a fireplace. The manager then appeared and informed us that the first man did not even work at the property. Bewildered, we headed to our lower-level suite.

The Alicante Barrel Grande Suite came with a dark foyer with two black leather couches, a writing table and a large television. Even with all the lights on, it felt a bit like a cave. On the other hand, the main room was expansive, with a seating area around a gas fireplace, an exposed-beam ceiling, wide French doors to a patio and a bath with a jetted tub. We were impressed and started to unpack. Regrettably, not all was as it seemed. The fireplace was not working, the thick velvet curtains had moth holes and I found a large dead cockroach in the closet. Neither an ice bucket nor robes were provided.

In the afternoon, we headed to the Tuscan-inspired winery, a three-minute walk away. It is a small commercial operation, where all wine is bottled by hand. The interior of the building has a long tasting bar, large circular wooden tables and a stone fireplace. The wines did not appeal to our palates, and I couldn’t help but notice that the majority of guests were drinking glasses of the house sangria.

At breakfast, the pastries served in the communal kitchen were still in their plastic packaging and the juices were not freshly squeezed. When I asked the manager to help us book a horseback riding excursion, she suggested that we do our own research online. Suffice it to say, we were delighted to leave.

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The Swag

Waynesville, North Carolina

We spent the day in Asheville and visited the Biltmore Estate. (Biltmore House, the main residence, was built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States.) From there, it was a one-hour drive westward to reach The Swag, in Waynesville. I have long endorsed this property, but a return visit was overdue. A mountaintop refuge at 5,000 feet, the resort sits on 250 secluded acres and shares a boundary line with Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After an uphill drive for two and a half miles along winding mountain switchbacks, we reached the top and were greeted by a smiling staff member, who led us into the main wooden lodge to check in. From the second we arrived, we were treated like family and felt right at home.

The property was purchased as a private country getaway in 1969 by Dan and Deener Matthews. When the World’s Fair came to Knoxville, Tennessee (90 miles away), in 1982, the Matthewses were approached to open their home to a few guests who were unable to find lodging for the exposition. It was when these first guests were clearly reluctant to leave that the idea of transforming the family home into an inn occurred to the Matthewses. The property has since been converted into an all-inclusive sanctuary, with 14 lovingly decorated accommodations spread among various log structures.

Each room features a rustic décor, with handmade quilts, woven rugs, twig headboards, stone bath floors, reclaimed-wood walls, hefty wood beams and original Appalachian folk art. Many hotels these days offer frivolous amenities that you will never use, but The Swag is attentive to comforts and conveniences that matter. Glass jars of rich coffee beans accompanied by an in-room grinder, personalized walking sticks and homemade oil-soaked wood shavings set beside the fireplace were refinements that stood out. The Loft room in the Chestnut Lodge featured a second-floor lounge with a second bath, a private furnished balcony with an outdoor shower, skylights and a comfortable seating area in front of a stone fireplace. The space was so wonderfully homey and snug that it was tempting to spend the whole day there. Public areas in the Chestnut Lodge included a central living room, a cathedral beamed ceiling and a library.

Other shared spaces include the main Swag House, where buffet-style breakfasts and four-course gourmet dinners are served at two long communal tables in the dining room or at private tables in the grand living room. Hors d’oeuvres are served prior to dinner to encourage conviviality. Wine is only available to be purchased by the bottle.

Lunch orders must be confirmed the day before, and you can choose to have it in a brown bag, backpack or picnic basket. We opted for the backpack and enjoyed a delicious Asian chicken salad and specialty Swag energy bar while seated on a fallen old-growth tree on the side of the Hemphill Bald Loop trail in the Great Smoky Mountains park.