Best Romantic Mountain Getaways in the Southeast: Hiking, Spas, Wineries & a Little Luxury

If you read this blog based solely on my Google traffic, you would probably assume I am a beach girl. And I do love a beautiful beach, especially if you give me clear water and somewhere to snorkel or dive. But mountains have always been home for Heath and me.

When we lived in Colorado, we spent pretty much every free weekend hiking. We put thousands of miles on our boots, climbed several 14ers and thought absolutely nothing of disappearing into the mountains for an entire day. Then we had Coop and apparently decided a baby wasn’t going to interfere with this plan because he was in a hiking carrier at three months old. We’ve slowed down a little since then, but not much.

Our idea of a perfect day together is still pretty simple. Give us a trail, a backpack and a couple of trees where we can set up the hammock for a while. We are perfectly happy walking miles through the woods, getting dirty, finding a waterfall and coming back completely exhausted. But we’ve also reached a point in life where I don’t necessarily want to follow that day by sleeping on the ground. I would much rather follow it with a hot shower, a fluffy robe, an incredible meal, a glass of wine and, if we’re really doing this right, a massage.

After putting together my list of romantic beach getaways in the Southeast while researching ideas for our 14th anniversary, I started wondering what the mountain version would look like. Not simply beautiful hotels in the mountains, but places where we could actually spend the day outside doing the things we love and then come back to a stay that feels a little special.

Turns out, there are some really good ones.

Barnsley Resort – Adairsville, Georgia

Barnsley Resort immediately caught my attention because it doesn’t require us to choose between spending the weekend outside and having a luxury getaway. It’s tucked onto 3,000 acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with more than 10 miles of its own hiking trails ranging from easy walks to more strenuous sections. There are also bikes, canoes, fishing and guided hikes, so we could park the car when we arrived and not touch it again until Sunday.

But I think I’d book one of the cottages. They have private porches and fireplaces, which sounds pretty darn perfect after spending a cool fall day outside. At night, there are fire pits throughout the village, complete with s’mores, and Barnsley even has an evening bourbon tasting ritual. Add in the full spa with steam rooms and saunas, and this is quickly becoming my kind of weekend. They even offer a guided forest bathing and journaling experience out on the property.

This one feels like an easy romantic getaway when we want to escape without spending half of Friday getting there. We could hike, explore the old Manor House ruins and gardens, come back for a massage, clean ourselves up for dinner and finish the night by a fire. Yes, please.

Dahlonega Resort & Vineyard – Dahlonega, Georgia

And then I found the A-frames. Honestly, Dahlonega Resort & Vineyard could have stopped right there because an A-frame cabin in the North Georgia mountains surrounded by wine country is already speaking our language.

The resort sits in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and has its own network of wooded trails, which is one of the things I really like about this property. We wouldn’t have to make every day an itinerary. We could wake up, grab coffee, walk straight out into the woods and decide what we felt like doing from there.

This also isn’t trying to be some massive, over-the-top luxury resort, and that’s part of its appeal. There are cabins, rooms and those adorable A-frames, plus a restaurant featuring locally sourced ingredients, mountain views, local Georgia wine and spa treatments including massages, facials and body treatments.

It’s more wine-country cozy than five-star resort, and I’m completely okay with that. Some weekends I don’t need someone waiting beside the pool with a chilled towel. I need a porch, a mountain view, somewhere to walk and a glass of wine in my hand. Bonus points if I’m drinking it outside an A-frame.

Banner Elk Winery & Villa – Banner Elk, North Carolina

Then there is Banner Elk Winery & Villa, which may have created an entire package specifically for Heath and me without knowing we exist. It’s called the High Country Hiking & Massage package, and I’m listening.

The package is for two and includes a local hiking trail guide, picnic lunch, wine, chocolate, in-room massages, dinner delivered from local Banner Elk restaurants and breakfast each morning. So basically, go get dirty in the woods all day and then come back and have somebody massage the muscles you just abused while dinner magically arrives. Someone finally understands me.

The Villa itself is set among vineyards, a blueberry orchard and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It has only eight suites, all with private Jacuzzi tubs, and two have fireplaces. You can wander through the gardens and blueberry orchard, walk up to the upper vineyard or take a glass of wine down by the trout pond for sunset.

I think this one would feel completely different from a traditional resort stay. It’s smaller, quieter and much more intimate. You’re essentially staying at a vineyard in the mountains with Banner Elk just a few minutes away, and I keep coming back to that hiking-and-massage package. Seriously. They get me.

Old Edwards Inn & Spa – Highlands, North Carolina

Highlands has already made an appearance around here because I think it’s one of the prettiest mountain towns within an easy getaway from Atlanta. But Old Edwards Inn & Spa gives me a completely different reason to go back. This is where I would choose to stay if I wanted the mountain weekend to lean a little more toward luxury.

Old Edwards sits right in Highlands, so we could spend the day hiking and chasing waterfalls and still walk into town afterward. The surrounding area has trails, lakes and streams everywhere, while the resort itself gives you heated pools, fireplaces, golf and an award-winning spa. And that spa is not an afterthought. There are relaxation lounges with fireplaces, whirlpools and steam rooms, plus a Spa Café where spa guests can have lunch or a glass of wine without ever really leaving relaxation mode.

Then we eat. Old Edwards has everything from wood-fired pizza and cocktails to Madison’s, where dinner gets decidedly more elevated. There’s also a Wine Garden, because apparently Highlands has decided I should never leave.

I can picture this weekend very easily. Spend Saturday hiking to a waterfall, come back with tired legs, disappear into the spa for a couple of hours and then put on actual clothes and go have a beautiful dinner. That’s pretty much our marriage in vacation form.

Blackberry Mountain – Walland, Tennessee

And then we get to the one where I apparently need to start saving my pennies. Blackberry Mountain may be the ultimate version of what I’m talking about in this entire post.

The property encompasses 5,200 acres in the Great Smoky Mountains and has more than 36 miles of private hiking trails. There are guided hikes, mountain biking, climbing, yoga, wellness classes and even a daily hike to breakfast. A hike to breakfast? I have found my people.

The accommodations are ridiculous in the best possible way. There are cottages, traditional cabins and treehouses, while the Clingmans Cottages have mountain views, a wood-burning fireplace, porch, jetted tub and an outdoor soaking tub and fireplace. There’s even a separate room that can be converted for in-room spa services. At that point, I’m not sure you could get me to leave.

Meals are incorporated into the stay rates along with morning wellness classes, so this feels much more like an immersive getaway than simply booking a nice hotel in a mountain town. There’s also Nest, Blackberry Mountain’s wellness space, with treatments designed around recovery and relaxation. You can add things like forest bathing, mountaintop yoga or meditation after hiking to a secluded outdoor spot.

This is definitely the splurge of the list. But if we were celebrating something big and wanted the trip itself to be the experience, Blackberry Mountain would be awfully hard to beat.

The Omni Grove Park Inn – Asheville, North Carolina

The Omni Grove Park Inn has been on my radar for years, and the spa is probably 90 percent of the reason why. But there’s more here for us than spending an entire day in a robe.

The resort has its own Sunset Trail that climbs Sunset Mountain and is designed for different skill levels, so we could get outside without even leaving the property or use Grove Park as home base for a much bigger hiking day around Asheville. Then I would happily undo all of that activity by heading directly to the spa.

Dinner with a mountain view doesn’t hurt either. Sunset Terrace overlooks the Blue Ridge Mountains, while Vue 1913 gives you a more elevated dinner with panoramic mountain views and a large wine selection. What I really love about Grove Park, though, is the history and atmosphere. After dinner we could grab a drink and sit beside one of the enormous fireplaces in the Great Hall while somebody else worries about absolutely everything.

I don’t need every getaway to be adventurous from sunrise to sunset. Sometimes the hike can end at the spa, and I am perfectly okay with that.

Apparently This Is Our Version of Romance

Writing these anniversary posts has made me realize something about Heath and me that I probably already knew. We’re never going to be the couple that flies somewhere beautiful and happily sits beside a pool for four days. We will try. We may even make it through the first day. But eventually one of us is going to look at the other and say, Want to go find a trail? And the answer will almost always be yes.

Some of our best days together have involved absolutely nothing fancy. Miles of dirt under our boots, a backpack and finding the perfect place to string up the hammock and staying there longer than we planned. We’ve stood at the top of mountains completely exhausted and wondered why on earth we thought climbing them sounded like fun, only to get up the next weekend and do it all over again. That’s us.

But these days, I’m perfectly happy letting the adventure end a little differently. Give me the trail in the morning. Let us hike until our legs hurt, find somewhere beautiful to hang the hammock and spend the day outside together. Then give me the cabin, preferably an A-frame.

Throw in a fireplace, a bottle of wine, an incredible dinner and a massage the next morning, and I think we’ve officially found our grown-up version of the perfect mountain weekend.

We still like the miles and the dirt. We’ve just decided we also really like the robe.