Once a wellness haven for American elites in search of mountain air, Asheville, N.C., has reinvented itself many times over the last century. In recent years, the city, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, has become a culinary hot spot, with multiple award-winning restaurants, and an inordinate number of breweries. Art lovers will find much to savor in the River Arts District, and bikers and hikers will have miles of trails in and around the city to explore. In the downtown area and beyond, Black residents are embracing their “Affrilachian” heritage through tours and art collectives, and creative spaces featuring the work of Indigenous artists acknowledge the region’s ties to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, on whose ancestral land the city sits.

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