Asheville, North Carolina · Historic Resort · ★★★★
The Omni Grove Park Inn
A 1913 granite-boulder resort on Sunset Mountain — and the most famous spa in the South.
A 1913 granite-boulder resort on Sunset Mountain — and the most famous spa in the South.
"Granite-boulder walls, a subterranean spa, and a Donald Ross course — Asheville's century-old grand resort, still the standard."
When Edwin Wiley Grove opened the Inn in 1913, the building was constructed in less than a year by stonemasons who hauled native granite boulders straight off Sunset Mountain and set them, uncut, into walls so massive that the structure looks less like architecture than geology. More than a century later, the impression is unchanged. The lobby's two enormous fireplaces — each large enough to walk into — set the tone of the entire resort: generous, weighty, deeply American, and built to outlast everyone who stays here.
The property has 513 rooms across the original Main Inn and two later wings, the Sammons and the Vanderbilt. The historic Main Inn rooms are smaller but carry the only authentic version of the experience — wide-plank floors, original fixtures, and the sense that you are sleeping inside a piece of American hospitality history. Mountain-facing rooms in the Vanderbilt Wing offer the strongest views: Asheville below, the Blue Ridge unrolling for forty miles to the horizon. Sunset from the Sunset Terrace bar is the property's defining ritual.
The 43,000 sq ft subterranean spa is the differentiator and, for most guests, the reason to book. Carved into the mountain beneath the Inn, the spa is a network of stone grottos, multiple mineral pools, a contrast plunge circuit, an inhalation room, and waterfall lounges — all dimly lit, all underground, all unmistakably its own thing. There is nothing else like it in the United States. It is, plainly, the most famous wellness destination in the South. Book treatments before arrival; the spa fills weeks ahead during peak season and the half-day water-circuit pass is the entry-level rite of passage.
The Donald Ross golf course — redesigned by Ross himself in 1924 — winds across the lower slope of the mountain and is regarded as one of his most strategically interesting Southern designs. Six restaurants on property handle every meal without requiring guests to leave, though the historic Blue Ridge dining room and the open-air Sunset Terrace are the two worth planning around. A full activities programme covers tennis, hiking trails into the Asheville watershed, and seasonal mountain pursuits.
Ten US presidents have stayed at the Grove Park, from Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama, alongside Edison, Ford, Firestone, and a long list of literary visitors including F. Scott Fitzgerald, who lived at the Inn through two summers while Zelda was hospitalised in Asheville. The presidential history is not marketing — it is part of why this hotel matters. Every great American resort city has a centerpiece property that anchors its identity. In Asheville, this is that hotel. It remains, a hundred and thirteen years after opening, one of America's great resort hotels.
For couples returning to Asheville to mark a milestone, the Grove Park is the only address that carries the weight the occasion deserves. Request a Vanderbilt Wing mountain-view room, book sunset cocktails on the Sunset Terrace, and reserve the Blue Ridge dining room for the anniversary dinner itself. The spa's couples cabana suite — with a private soaking pool — is the right move for the afternoon. Returning guests are remembered by name; long marriages and long stays are this hotel's specialty.
The 43,000 sq ft subterranean spa is the most ambitious wellness destination of any historic resort in the United States — and the reason most first-time guests come. Three nights is the right length: morning hike on the Asheville watershed trails, afternoon water-circuit through the grottos, evening contrast pools and the inhalation room before dinner. Add two treatments — a stone massage and a mineral wrap — and you will leave reset in a way that no city spa can replicate. The grottos themselves do most of the work.
For couples who want a Southern honeymoon with mountain air rather than a beach, the Grove Park delivers a complete world without leaving the property. Book a Sammons Wing suite with a fireplace and balcony, brief the concierge on the wedding date for the in-room arrangement, and plan the trip around the spa, the Donald Ross course, and a day-trip to the Biltmore Estate fifteen minutes away. The Sunset Terrace at golden hour, with the Blue Ridge going pink behind Asheville, is the moment honeymooners come here for.
Rates checked May 2026. Price may vary by date.
The Grove Park's subterranean spa is the most famous wellness destination in the South. Three nights is the right length to feel it work.
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