Product Description

This greatly expanded and revised third edition is the only guidebook you ll ever need to explore and enjoy this entire area. Foreword by Rick Boyer, originator of Places Rated Almanac. Included are 15 area maps, over 100 original illustrations, easy-to-use index, listings by category, in-depth chapters, and web links. Find the best: accommodations, restaurants, attractions, festivals & events, nightlife, outdoor recreation, golf, kids' activities, daytrips and much more! Complete coverage of all the best attractions, including: Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Cherokee Indian Reservation; Blue Ridge Parkway; Appalachian Trail; Grandfather Mountain; Blowing Rock; Harrah s Casino; Horn in the West; Mount Mitchell; Chimney Rock; Linville Caverns; Waterfalls; Great Smoky Mountains Railroad; Bele Chere; Much More!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #412005 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Released on: 2006-10-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• 496 pages

Review
Because it was written by someone who actually lives here, the book has a sense of caring, commitment and completeness that is often lacking in regional guides written by visiting authors. --Hendersonville Times-News

Because it was written by someone who actually lives here, the book has a sense of caring, commitment and completeness that is often lacking in regional guides written by visiting authors. --Hendersonville Times-News

Extraordinarily comprehensive, thorough and delightfully illustrated, this 3rd edition of Pantas' best selling guidebook has proven to be a valuable resource not only for the many tourists and visitors who flock to our mountains, but also for those folks who are considering Western North Carolina as a place where they might like to live. All of the important information and resource contact infomation one would need to make such a move can be found in the Ultimate Guide. All in all, it is a unique and valuable resource for promoting our mountain paradise. --Asheville Citizen Times

The Ultimate Guide is thoroughly researched, organized for easy use, and illustrated with many of Pantas own gorgeous pen and ink drawings. --Hendersonville Times-News

Extraordinarily comprehensive, thorough and delightfully illustrated, this 3rd edition of Pantas' best selling guidebook has proven to be a valuable resource not only for the many tourists and visitors who flock to our mountains, but also for those folks who are considering Western North Carolina as a place where they might like to live. All of the important information and resource contact infomation one would need to make such a move can be found in the Ultimate Guide. All in all, it is a unique and valuable resource for promoting our mountain paradise. --Asheville Citizen Times

About the Author
Lee James Pantas, originally from Greenwich, Connecticut, has lived in the Asheville area since 1989. He has a Master s degree in Ecology from the University of Vermont, and has worked as a research scientist, military officer, lecturer, parapsychologist, marketing director, painter and illustrator in Vermont, Georgia, the orient, Brazil, Colorado, Connecticut and North Carolina. He is active in youth track and field and coaches sprints and hurdles for A.C. Reynolds High School as well as the Asheville Lightning Junior Olympics Team. Well-known throughout North Carolina for his award-winning, exquisitely detailed pen and ink drawings, Mr. Pantas has completed more than 2,000 private and corporate commissions. Mr. Pantas is also known for his imaginative visionary and fantasy paintings. His work has been exhibited in New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and locally in Blue Spiral 1, Broadway Arts and Seven Sisters Gallery, among others, and is found in many private collections. He is currently at work on a ten-year project, Liza's Reef, a series of paintings of an imaginary coral reef located near an imaginary island in the South Pacific. The goal of the project is to raise funds for selected environmental organizations and orphanages in the South Pacific.

Customer Reviews

A personable and charming guide
Ultimate Guide to Asheville is a very personal and personable guidebook by someone who clearly loves his adopted city. Reading the guide is rather like chatting with a well-informed friend who stands behind his recommendations. The detailed illustrations are lovely and the historical information is highly entertaining. The book includes a great deal of practical information, like how much time to allow to see specific sites or how difficult a particular hike is or where to buy the local paper to find event listings. It may not be a traditional tourist guide in that it includes some things that are more oriented to the longer term (or permanent) visitor (e.g., schools and hospitals) but I enjoyed reading it (which I can't always say for a guide book) and it has reinforced my interest in visiting Asheville. My only complaint is that there could be more/better maps.

More like a bunch of lists
I didn't find this book to be at all what I expected. It has alot of lists, may be more helpful for someone moving to North Carolina than visiting or vacationing.

Some comments from the author's wife
My husband's book is 476 pages long, and contrary to the negative reviews of the two other reviewers, it is not just a bunch of lists. Far from it, it is a comprehensive reference book, written in the format of a traditional guidebook, with commentary on restaurants, accommodations, natural and cultural attractions in the mountains, history, architecture and much more. It is proven guidebook,covering every aspect of Western North Carolina that would be of interest to visitors, and over 20,000 copies have been sold.