Explore Asheville — Downtown Food & Art Walking Tour

Downtown Asheville is one of the most walkable and interesting food cities in the Southeast, and a guided walking tour is one of the best ways to absorb it all without having to make a dozen individual decisions about where to eat. For families with older kids (8 and up), it's a genuinely good experience — part food sampling, part city history, part architecture appreciation.

Asheville's downtown has a remarkable concentration of Art Deco architecture from the 1920s and 30s, when the city was a booming resort destination before the Depression hit. Guides weave this history into the tour in ways that make it tangible rather than textbook. And at every stop, there's food — local chefs, craft chocolate, regional ingredients, and the kind of Appalachian-influenced cooking that Asheville has become nationally known for.

For families, the format works because it structures a few hours of downtown without the decision fatigue of figuring out where to go. Kids who'd tune out a pure history walk stay engaged when there's something to eat at each stop. The 2-hour duration is manageable.

Multiple operators run downtown tours — Eating Asheville is one of the most established and family-friendly. Book in advance, especially on weekends — these tours fill up. Don't eat a large breakfast beforehand.