Asheville Weekend at Upstream Way

Last weekend we were invited to stay at Upstream Way’s Bohemian House in Asheville. The luxury vacation home is huge (sleeps 16!!) so we invited our friends to come with us. The house and the weekend were absolutely perfect.

Shortly after dropping our bags off at the house, we headed a few minutes down the road to introduce our kids to one of our favorite restaurants, White Duck Taco Shop. The kids ate their weight in chips & cheese while Matt and I devoured a variety of tacos. We still stand by the Bangkok shrimp taco as the very best (although the fish taco was a close second for Matt and I also really like the Korean beef). This was also our first visit to the new location and it was SO fun. The outdoor dining space is really cool and it’s right on the river. The kids loved it.

Our friends, Aaron, Michelle and their little girl Nora, arrived a little later and we welcomed them with bubbly and charcuterie to kick off our weekend together.

The Bohemian House Overview

The house is located directly across from the French Broad River in the River Arts District and is really close to everything, including Downtown Asheville. The home has 4 levels and includes 5 bathrooms, 5 bedrooms, multiple outdoor balconies/terraces and more — so much more. It’s perfectly decorated, cozy and the layout is very family-friendly or bachelorette/bachelor party-friendly with several huge communal areas.

There were LOTS of things I loved about the house, but I was really impressed with how well the kitchen was stocked with quality items. I usually bring my own serving platters, knives, trash bags, paper towels, etc. and we never even had to unpack any of those items. The kitchen had everything you could need — from a variety of coffee to ziploc bags to massive serving platters. The rest of the house was thoughtfully stocked too with things like laundry detergent, shampoo & conditioner, firewood, etc.

Another feature that was hugely helpful was every thing was labeled in the house — all of the remotes, switches, speaker system, wi-fi, etc. 

Also, Jay (the owner) is an incredible host. He had his phone number posted in several places so you can easily reach him and was a breeze to work with.

All 3 kids slept in the tree house bunk room and were obsessed. This fun room has two top bunk beds and one bottom bunk bed. The kids could not stop talking about this dreamy room.  The master suite on the top floor is truly stunning. The view is awesome, there’s a massive walk-in closet, the bedding is comfortable, the shower is huge and features dual-shower heads (the kids were obsessed with this shower and we called it the splash park). And right off the master bedroom is a hall that leads you to the rooftop terrace with a hot tub.

The kids loved the hot tub (or as Caroline called it “the cajuzzi”) which also featured lots of fun lights. And once they were all asleep the adults took over and stayed up waaaaaaaaay too late hanging out on the roof.

We spent Saturday tubing the French Broad River! It was seriously the most perfect day for playing on the river and was definitely everyone’s favorite part of the weekend. We booked our trip through Zen Tubing and would highly recommend this company. Their super deluxe tubes have a backrest, cup holder, covered bottom and the ability to hook together. We also rented a few cooler tubes too which were big enough to carry our coolers, extra bags and more. We also brought waterproof speakers to clip on to our tubes.

As soon as we dropped our tubes into the water and got going, the kids were immediately asking for snacks and were annoyed by the slow pace of the lazy river. However, once we passed out lunchables they quickly settled in and we were all shocked by how relaxed they were as we floated down the river. There were lots of places you could stop at along the way and the kids loved getting out and climbing all over the rocks. It took us about 2 hours of floating to make it to the end but no one was ready leave yet so we took the shuttle back to the top, grabbed some ice cream and floated a second time, stopping at more places along the way.

my shoes + my swim suit 

After a full day on the river, the kids were all exhausted so we got them home, quickly showered them up, served Mellow Mushroom pizza for dinner and then they happily passed out in the tree house. Once the kids were asleep, we started a fire, roasted s’mores and devoured lots of appetizers while enjoying the beautiful view.

Sunday morning we packed up and grabbed breakfast from Tupelo Honey before heading back home! It was the most perfect weekend ever.