Tours in Hendersonville

The guides who founded Better Tours of Asheville draw on experience leading excursions in far-flung locations in Puerto Rico, France, and Italy. Now, they accompany groups past the basilica and other historical buildings in the town, delivering stories developed through constant research and an ability to smell fossils. The guides divulge colorful tidbits of local history during pub crawls through storied taverns with group drink specials and allude to haunting tragedies along ghost tours that occasionally yield eerie photos of orbs, wisps, and buildings an inch from where they normally are.

Moving Sidewalk Tours' knowledgeable staff turns Asheville's streets into a mobile adventure as they take small groups of Segway riders on scenic tours. Before each departure, guides train each participant on how to operate, steer, and merge consciousness with their second-generation Segway i2. They then lead groups through downtown Asheville, coasting across some of the area's current hot spots as well as historic sites. Moving Sidewalk's staff keeps Segway riders safe and comfortable throughout journeys with helmets and complementary bottles of water. They can also sell customers commemorative T-shirts or a Segway machine to give to their car as a pet.

Electro Bicycle Tours’s Kettler Twin electric bikes assist riders with a motor that provides extra power to match how hard they’re pedaling. Three “assist” settings allow riders to customize the added speed, from a minimal boost to a high setting that helps bikes easily mount Asheville’s hills and then laugh at them. Alternatively, riders can switch the assist off to pedal using their strength alone. Sightseers can rent the bikes to carve their own paths through the city or let someone else do the navigating on scenic tours of Asheville that include a stop at the Asheville Botanical Gardens. Electro Bicycle Tours also teams up with the Asheville Brewing Company to offer Bike and Brew capers about town.

Asheville changed drastically in the half-century following 1880. Railroad workers broke through the Appalachian Mountains' natural barrier and connected the city to the world, forever changing its culture and social zeitgeist. Though decades have passed, Brenda Seright Williams still feels the impact of this period, and the tour guide isn't content to let it fade into history. As it says on her website, she believes "the study of those who came before can inspire us to stretch our own limits."

Her Urban Trail walking tours not only explore the 19th century’s Gilded Age but also tiptoe through four other time periods, including the Frontier Period and the Age of String Cheese. Alternatively, Brenda shifts the spotlight to Asheville's pivotal female figures during the aptly named Herstory tours. However, neither of these excursions are cookie-cutter adventures. To weave her stories, Brenda has conducted more than 100 interviews and spent countless hours researching minute details and the correct pronunciation of the word "pioneer."

Featured on NBC and CBS, John Nolan’s Greenville History Tours provide access to the city’s storied past via educational strolls through the West or South End, landmark-peppered drives, and samplings of the city’s restaurant scene. Nolan founded the company in 2006 after spending a decade immersed in local history as a museum docent and time-traveling crime fighter. Since striking out on his own, Nolan has authored A Guide to Historical Greenville, South Carolina and has remained at the top of TripAdvisor’s rankings. Participants can reap the benefits of Nolan’s knowledge of history, culture, and architecture on traditional tours as well as special VIP tours.

Paranormal researcher Jason Profit has earned the title of "Greenville's Ghost Hunter." He has worked with the spirit world since an early age, watching his mother banish spirits from neighbors' homes and selling lemonade to specters unable to sate their thirst for vengeance. He developed a passion for the unexplainable and, now, tirelessly studies the history and rumors surrounding known haunted sites. On tours, Profit shares his research on local hauntings and gives guests the opportunity to explore the location of mysterious deaths and accidents.