From Staff Reports

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Asheville recently was ranked as the 16th-best spot to go to in 2025 in The New York Times’ rating of the 2025 “52 Places to Go This Year.” 

“Asheville rightfully earns the spot as the city continues to recover from Hurricane Helene, which devastated the region over three months ago,” Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) opined in its 

Jan. 14 news story on the accolade. “The article cites the area’s beauty and creative nature despite still picking up the pieces from the storm.”

The article states the following: “In 2025, this Blue Ridge mountain town invites travelers to ‘plan a return trip with heart’ to celebrate new openings and reopenings.”

The TV station added that “this New York Times article is one of the go-to travel suggestions for tourists every year. Asheville’s placement on the list gives local commerce and tourism officials optimism about visitors coming back to help grow businesses.

To that end, Dodie Stephens, vice president of marketing for Explore Asheville, told the TV station. “It really showed our community’s resilience. Not only that, [but] it joined our voices in welcoming visitors back and being a part of this comeback. It’s a hopeful and amazing story for a bit of national coverage to get here at the top of the year.”

Also, as noted by News 13, The New York Times “posted the story to millions of followers on its social media platforms.”

After its Jan. 14 story on Asheville’s recent 16th-best ranking by The New York Times, Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) included the following responses on its Comment Bubble:

• path0206 — “No, it's not a good place to visit OR move to. Prices are over the moon for houses and rentals, traffic is so bad you are normally in stop-and-go traffic regardless of where you go or what time it is. Area natives are being priced out of a place to live and having to move. No, Asheville doesn't care about anything, but your dollars.”

• treesforme — “Asheville ‘was’ a beautiful city at one time. They better enjoy what's left of it while they can. If the ‘planning dept’ and City and County Commissioners have anything to do with it — and they do — there will be no beauty at all soon. The ‘planning’ dept. is terrified of grass and trees. If they see a clump — they call in their buddies that build ugly apartment complexes to come in and destroy the landscape. You can't drive a few feet without seeing the harm they have done to our once beautiful mountain area.” 

• WindRidge — “Because Shayla Martin said it was. And she thinks Good Hot Fish is the best place to eat and half the article promotes Black venture. Detroit was also a top destination spot.

“Funny - New York didn't make their own list.”

• WasatchJason — “No thanks. Asheville is a liberal mess.”

• Iamdeplorable — “That's weird, I have Asheville as #1 on my list of places I do not go. Huh.”

•EarthCharge — “The New York Times apparently missed the Asheville Helene Flood FEMA Disaster Zone memo. LOL.”

• EarthCharge — “Let the LaDoom bus tours begin...”

• mrniceguy — “Why?”

• Suburbanangler — “Asheville has always been a mixture of natural beauty, and a lot of weird, freaky people. I've worked the flood zone recently and saw tractor-trailer trailers over twenty feet high in trees. One of the most beautiful KOA campgrounds anywhere... in Swannanoa... completely wiped out, looked like Iwo Jima. Debris fields bigger than several football fields, surrounding towns and roads completely wiped out, people on heavy zombie drugs everywhere, had tools stolen out of my truck, and cops showing up at the hotel I was in several/many times a day. Yes, still some hidden gems, but you may want to reconsider a vacation to a city with so much destruction. People just got kicked out of hotels because their FEMA assistance ran out, its freezing up there and been snowing lately, and I'm sure it's like an unspoken slap in the face for anyone to go vacationing there with so many homeless. Not trying to say this to keep revenue away, just take my advice, it's not a top vacation spot. Not for several year's. If you go, watch your back.”