Exploring Biltmore Estate in North Carolina - 250 Rooms & 8,000 Acres.mp4

Hey guys, we're Ian and Anna. Welcome to Biltmore House. Over the next three days, we're going to be staying on the estate here and exploring all that it has to offer. And the first thing we're doing is visiting the largest house in the U.S., which is 178,000 square feet and has more than 250 rooms that we get to explore today. Because we're staying at the inn on Biltmore Estate, we were able to get here extra early. We left our place at around 8 30 a.m. and got here. And as you can see, there's no one around. We had this place all to ourselves. And it's definitely one of the most stunning buildings I've ever seen in my entire life. I am blown away. It reminds me of Versailles in Paris. And it's just so detailed on how they did the landscaping, the architecture. The estate is absolutely massive. It's 8,000 acres. And to put that into perspective, that's 10 times as big as Central Park. So you can only imagine how large it is. It has Biltmore House, the inn, hiking trails, farms. They make use of this land. It is kind of crazy how long the drive is to Biltmore House. Once you reach the gates, it's like five to 10 minutes, three miles long. But I want you to imagine guests arriving here in the 1800s with horse-drawn carriages because from the entrance, that journey took around one hour. And they did that to build anticipation. Where is it? Where is it? When am I going to see it? Boom. There it is. Anna just brought up Central Park and there's actually a connection because the architect and designer behind Central Park also designed Biltmore Estate. So I feel like a lot of people come to Biltmore House just because of how extravagant and stunning it is. And a lot of people miss out on the insane history here. So it goes all the way back to the mid-1800s where Cornelius Vanderbilt, he was a railroad tycoon, owned a huge portion of the railroad industry in the U.S. And he also had shipping too. So that is what gained their family this massive wealth. And with that wealth, the kids, one of them being George Washington Vanderbilt II, he came over and built this estate. It used to be 125,000 acres, so way more than just the 8,000 we're at right now. The North Carolina government ended up buying a lot of the acreage from the Vanderbilt family to build the Pisgah National Forest. So what I'm trying to say is the Vanderbilt family and their descendants used their massive wealth for so many different projects, including philanthropy, building estates like this, and for creating Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Right as we entered, we walked into the Winter Garden Room, which George built to connect the indoors with the outdoor beauty surrounding the estate. This was a central meeting place that was filled with exotic plants from around the world. After passing by my favorite place, the Billiard Room, we walked into the Banquet Hall, which had 70-foot tall ceilings and massive chandeliers hanging over the dining table. This was by far the largest fireplace I've seen in my life, and what made it even more special was the Vanderbilt family crest sitting right at the top. After that, we made our way to the iconic library, which is one of the most significant and personal spaces in Biltmore House. George Vanderbilt was an avid reader and housed more than 22,000 books in here. Also, the painted ceiling was originally a part of a palace in Venice, Italy, and was imported piece by piece to be installed in the library. The sheer scale and attention to detail around every single corner really blew us away, and we finished our time off in here by going down into the basement to see the bowling alley and indoor swimming pool. After finishing up our audio guide at Biltmore House, we walked next door to the Stable Courtyard, which has a ton of restaurants and shopping. I looked it up and there's some Christmas shopping we can do, like ornaments and stuff, so I can't wait to go inside. A lot of people working here actually told us one of the best times to visit Biltmore is during the winter and fall months because the decorations add such a magical vibe to the entire experience. This is the one I want. Let me see it, Ann. They have plenty of Biltmore ones, but I think this is so beautiful. I've always been a huge fan of Nutcrackers, and these ones are fun. They are holding champagne. They have a Madeline book and doll. This is one of my favorite books growing up. My grandma had the pop-up version, which was way cooler, but I might get this for my future baby. Also in the courtyard, there's a cafe called Stable Cafe. That's where we're having lunch right now. It used to be the barn here. It was five stories large, and the stable was right outside the door. Now it's a cool restaurant, and on the menu, all the dots next to the food is estate-grown, so once again, extremely fresh. I'm getting a pulled pork sandwich. I cannot wait. Carolina barbecue. People say Texas barbecue is the best, but again, going to school in South Carolina, I argue the Carolinas have the best barbecue. Ann, what was your favorite part? 100% the library. I love, love, love, love to read. I read like eight books in two weeks. George Washington Vanderbilt read 3,186 books. I'm pretty sure throughout his lifetime, they said it was an average of 80 a year, but his were very educational. I read a lot of romance novels, so I feel as though it's not the same. I had to do it. Going with the pulled pork sandwich, and we got a peach barbecue sauce and fries. Oh my god, the pork's amazing. Isn't it? They smoke it for 16 hours. You can really taste it. It's good. This line now is insane at 12 30. I would not want to be waiting for that, so definitely go early. Now we're gonna head to the conservatory and explore some of the gardens. Now we're walking from the inn to Antler Hill Village, where we're gonna have dinner. It's about a 15-minute walk, and then after dinner, we're gonna explore a little bit, so let's go. Not only are there restaurants in the village, there's also a winery, and there are wine tastings every single day, which is really fun to do. There's also gonna be live music in the village tonight, which will be awesome, so we're definitely gonna spend some time here, but I love just being able to walk to dinner from the inn up there instead of having to drive an Uber far away. We're eating at the bistro. I ordered the scallops and succotash, and Ian has a lamb steak. The lamb is estate grown, so it's super fresh, and then also a lot of the vegetables are grown here. I already tried it before I vlogged, and it's all really good. Look how big this thing is. I didn't expect it to be that big. No, this is unbelievable. This is not our first time in Asheville. We actually have a history in this area. The first time we came to Asheville was to visit Anna's friend Val, who was a guide on the Nantahala River, so we went whitewater rafting down there, and it was so much fun. Couldn't recommend it anymore, and then we came back during fall one year to go down the Blue Ridge Mountain, which is famous for fall leaves, and we stopped here in Asheville and went and brewery hopped, which was really fun too. There's just so much to do around this area. Also, I studied at the University of South Carolina, and Ian and I lived in Charlotte for like a year there, so this area is definitely familiar to us, and we love coming back to the Carolinas. It's always kind of feels like a taste of home. Let me be the one to hold you to this far away time. So cute. It kind of looks like Europe, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. Look at this alleyway with all the lights leading up to the tower. We've made so many different videos over in Europe. We shipped our van over there, we found our three cats from over there in Serbia, so if you missed that whole entire series, you can click this playlist right up here. You got it? There's not a firefly. There's nothing like summer fireflies. And I got one. Go on, fly away. See, now it wants to be my friend. Well, we can't have that. I already got three cats, and off we go to bed for another full day tomorrow. Every morning, right across from the inn, there's hiking trails. There's more than 22 miles of hiking. This is the perfect way to start every day, and now Anna just found a wild turkey. Some people yesterday saw black bears and their cubs, which is really cool. Last time we saw bears was all the way up in Wyoming at Grand Teton National Park, so it's really cool that you have an opportunity to see them here too. We are gonna go do some archery today. We actually just did it for the first time in Ireland. It was so much fun. We loved learning how to do it, like kind of got addicted. Let's see if I can beat Ian. So we crossed the French Prod River coming over to the west side here, and it splits us just about in half. We have 4,000 acres on this side of the river and another 4,000 on what we call the east side, where the House of Gardens is. So we do a lot of activities that get you over here, like archery, sporting clays. Land Rover would be one of them. Fly fishing. There's our bow set up. We got the targets. How far away are we, Melissa? We're about 30 feet. These targets here are about four times smaller than the ones in Ireland, so it's going to be much harder, I think. The range is hot, so we're shooting. Are you kidding me? The first time? Yeah! Good job. First time for you both. That's crazy. So I think we did better than expected on these small targets. This is mine. Since you got red, yellow, blue, I got red, yellow, white. I hit two bullseyes, a red, a blue, and a black, and Ian hit a lot of black and blue. I win 1-0. Melissa said that was all practice. Now she has the points up on the board. We literally started that round with, this is a competition. This is the first time we're competing. You agreed to it. All right, and the one thing open in the village is the creamery, so we got some sandwiches. I got a malt chocolate. It's amazing. Yeah, cookies and cream, and it's seriously one of the creamiest cookies and cream I've ever had. And then right here, I got the turkey brie, and I got roast beef sandwich. We're rushing right now because we do want to go on a bike ride around the property. And look where we just biked to. That is Biltmore House up there with this lagoon, and it was only about a 15-minute bike ride from the bike barn. Super easy. How much was it to rent? $25 per standard bike. For two hours. Yeah, two people, two hours. Tonight, we're having dinner at the dining room, which is located inside the inn. Having a old-fashioned mezcal. The views from here are spectacular, and this is one of the best restaurants within the estate. Anna got a lamb with crusted pistachio, and then I got the classic filet. This is the winner of the entire weekend here. If you leave Biltmore State without having this, big mistake. I think one thing that surprised me about this place is how community-focused it is. What I mean by that is it's not just tourists coming from out of town. There's a lot of day trippers who live in Asheville. They have annual passes, and they can come in. They can go to the concerts. There's playgrounds, and you know, just a lot going on here all the time. And to finish it off, we got this chocolate hazelnut cheesecake. The vastness of these mountains in front of us during sunset is the best way to end it all off. Kind of feel like you're in a different world. We had the most amazing time here, and I cannot wait to come back, hopefully with our family one We absolutely loved our stay at the Inn on Biltmore Estate, especially because we were able to beat the crowds to a lot of the attractions. And of course, you saw how delicious the food was here. They also have a swimming pool with unbelievable views, and we even did a spa day here too, which was super relaxing. If you want 10% off on your stay at the Inn, make sure to use the code MEDIA2025. And if you're local to the surrounding area, or you live in Asheville, you can actually purchase an annual pass, which gives you 10% off stays at the Inn or Village Hotel, and you'll also save on restaurants and experiences too. Make sure to check the description below this video for all the links and information, and we hope you have the most amazing time at Biltmore.