by Alexa Panne

The Biltmore Estate is America’s largest home, completed in 1895. Located in Asheville, NC, it was built as the “country retreat” of George Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Just the interior of the 250-room mansion spans four entire acres and includes 63 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms.

Brochures that I picked up along my trip didn’t disclose rates for seeing the Biltmore and for many, including myself, it was quite a surprise to find out the rather high prices at the door. The most basic entry to the Biltmore Estate starts at a hefty $36.00 per person. No Mickey, no water slide, no intergalactic alien laser fight. And only sixty of the two hundred fifty rooms of the home are included in the tour. The basic price of $36.00 includes access to the sixty rooms on a self-guided tour, plus the gardens, grounds and a same-day pass to visit the Biltmore Estate Winery (located approximately four miles away from the mansion itself).

The considerable entry fee does not include any information about what you’ve just paid to see other than a tiny bit of information you may glean from the seven page brochure you receive as you walk in the door. The brochure, which focuses mostly on the many pieces of art in the home rather than historical information, offers about thirty words of information for each room. Unless you pay considerably extra, there are no tour guides or other means of receiving information about the estate’s features, art and history unless you pay considerably more to have a guided tour. For an additional $6.95 per person you can rent an MP3 player that will give you a brief audio presentation for most of the sixty different rooms you’re allowed to see, and there is also a book available prior to the tour for $12.95.

If you were planning to take a few pictures of what you just paid a handsome fee to see, forget it. Your photo album will have to survive without pictures of you standing inside America’s largest home. Taking photographs and/or videotaping the inside of the home is not allowed. You can't take your own pictures but photos are available in the gift shop(s), at additional cost, of course.

Some of the rooms, such as the main banquet hall and the upstairs living room were truly magnificent and breathtakingly beautiful but I felt that many of the other rooms, especially the bedrooms, seemed to take on a ‘cookie cutter’ theme. The sheer size of the home and the utterly extravagant manner in which it was appointed was mind-boggling and for my taste, offensive. It was difficult for me to understand why someone might want to throw away such a profane amount of money on such things as imported, custom-made, handcrafted and decorated leather for wallpaper instead of well, just darn good domestic wallpaper or even custom faux paint. Excessive and incredible extravagences such as this can be found throughout the home.

No one knows exactly how much the Biltmore Estate cost to build, but it is believed to be around ten million dollars. That’s ten million dollars in 1895. The home had electric lights, telephones, indoor plumbing, an elevator and central heat and air in a time when everyone else was going potty in the outhouse. I enjoyed the many fireplaces, many of which seemed large enough for a family of five to live in.

I felt that the gardens were quite a disappointment but it may have been due to the time of my visit. I visited during the first week of May. I believe that many of the summer flowers were not yet in bloom and the spring flowers, such as tulips had already passed. In some of the photographs that I saw the gardens looked beautiful.

Would I recommend visiting the Biltmore Estate?

I realize that America’s largest home may also be considered a monument to capitalism, and I’m actually a huge fan of capitalism and the American way of doing things. But personally, I felt the utter extravagence and sheer waste of such huge amount of money nauseating. In addition to my disappointment about the unfriendly photography policy and the way in which guests are not informed of this before buying tickets, I also felt that the prices represented a poor value. I came away from the Biltmore Estate feeling disgusted as an American and embarrassed for the people who built this remarkably excessive temple to money. I like money, too, but when I leave this Earth, I hope I leave behind a greater legacy than being the person who built the biggest, most luxurious, excessive home in America while widows and orphans struggle to survive. If I had it to do again I think I’d donate my $43 to a deserving charity, get a picnic lunch and take a free drive through the beautiful Smokey Mountains on the beautiful awe-inspiring Blue Ridge Parkway.

But that’s just my opinion. Let us know what you think!

For more information you can contact the Biltmore Estate, 800-543-2961 or visit www.biltmore.com.