A kid-friendly vacation in Asheville
The goals and realities of planning travel as a family
Our 4-day trip to Asheville, North Carolina, was a test of how to keep a 5-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl active and occupied without meltdowns. This is not an exhaustive list of kid-friendly activities in Asheville — it’s a realistic view of the realities of traveling as a family.
Hiking for kids
I used to live in Montana’s Glacier National Park and my ideal vacation would be camping and non-stop hiking. My family doesn’t quite share the same level of enthusiasm, but they do enjoy shorter hikes. I thought North Carolina’s mountains would be a good compromise.
The AllTrails app saved my life. You can filter hikes by closest hikes, kid-friendly hikes and easy or moderate hikes. My goal was to find hikes where I wouldn’t have to carry anyone.
The first hike we completed was the 2.1-mile Catawba Falls trail, one of the most popular hikes in the Pisgah Mountains. It’s a moderate hike that’s described as “low effort…
