Banner Elk, NC

Banner Elk is a friendly resort town between the Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain ski areas (our top North Carolina Ski Town). It's home to outdoor adventure, an elevated culinary scene, and the first alpine coaster in North Carolina, Wilderness Run Alpine Coaster. Nearby is Grandfather Mountain and the popular Mile High Swinging Bridge. 

While the town is only home to about 1,000 residents, it's a hub for the area and offers a nice selection of shopping and an impressive line-up of great restaurants within a few blocks of the town clock tower. Banner Elk also offers breweries, cafes, and award-winning wines at Banner Elk Winery and Villa, which offers tastings or flights daily.  

Winter Holidays & Winter Fun

Escape the holiday rush the first full weekend in December with "A Small Town Christmas in Banner Elk." Friday through Sunday festivities fill the walkable downtown with authentic small-town charm. Weekend lodging packages include a choose-and-cut Christmas tree from Elk River Evergreens—bringing home a genuine mountain tradition.

Adjacent to the two biggest ski areas in North Carolina, Banner Elk is the perfect winter base camp for skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, tubing, and more. Read more.

Theatre 
Banner Elk is home to great professional theatre, including Emsemble Stage. This local theater troupe is known for high-quality performances and a busy schedule of plays. See comedies, dramas, staged radio shows, a Christmas musical revue, and thrillers June through December. Read more.

Summer of Music
Banner Elk’s second Summer of Music in 2026 will feature over 100 live performances by top national, regional, and local acts. Enjoy free concerts several days a week, Thursday Concerts in the Park, weekend shows in the village and at Kettell Beerworks, Friday and Saturday music at Banner Elk Café, musicals at Lees-McRae Summer Theater, plus even more live music nearby at Grandfather Winery and Beech Mountain Resort. Visit Banner Elk's website to learn more.

Banner Elk 2026 Art on the Greene 
May 23-24, July 4-5, Aug. 1-2, Sept. 5-6 10 AM-5 PM. 
Art on the Greene transforms the grounds of the Historic Banner Elk School into an art gallery multiple times each summer. These popular shows take place Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July weekend, the first weekend in August and Labor Day weekend. Discover talented artists working in metal, glass, clay, wood, and enjoy food vendors and entertainment. Admission is free. 

Woolly Worm Festival 
October 17-18, 2026
Banner Elk's biggest event of the year celebrates the coming of the snow season with a Woolly Worm Festival on the third weekend of October. A contest determines which one worm will have the honor of predicting the severity of the coming winter. Enjoy a big selection of arts and crafts, food and live music. Read more.

Banner House Museum
Experience 19th-century life in the North Carolina mountains at the home of Samuel Henry Banner, one of Banner Elk's original settlers. Take daily guided tours mid-June through mid-October by volunteers.

Wineries

• Banner Elk Winery (photo above) is the most celebrated winery in the region, growing new French-American and American varieties of grapes. Banner Elk wines pay tribute to the rugged mountain landscape and capture the delicate nuance and subtle flavors. Stop in for a tasting year-round from noon until 6 PM seven days a week. They also offer private tours and tastings with advance scheduling of at least one week. Located at 60 Deer Run Lane.
• Grandfather Vineyard & Winery is located on a mountainside at the base of Grandfather Mountain on the Watauga River. During a tasting, sample a variety of dry white and red wines. From Banner Elk take 184 south to 105 east toward Boone approximately four miles on your right.

Breweries

• Kettell Beerworks has about a dozen beers on tap. Their year-round brews include a pale ale, IPA, Kolsch and black-rye IPA. Seasonal beers and experimental small batches, as well as stouts, porters, saisons, hefeweizens and brown ales. Located at 567 Main Street East, Banner Elk.
• Beech Mountain Brewing Company is open during ski season and the summer months for bikers and hikers. They brew small batches in the Alpine Village. Their flagship beer is the 5,506’ Pale Ale, named after Beech Mountain’s elevation. Located at 1007 Beech Mountain Pkwy, Beech Mountain.

Greenway & Self-Guided Walking Tour

A fun way to explore Banner Elk is via the one-mile greenway that begins near Flat Top Brewing Company and goes through Tate-Evans Park and past the Mill Pond on the campus of Lees-McRae College. To experience the town’s history, take the Downtown Banner Elk Walking Tour. This 1.5-mile self-guided tour uses a free downloadable app to showcase two dozen points of interest and iconic buildings. As you move about, the GPS-enabled app adjusts to your position and provides an overview of the nearest tour location, allowing participants to skip ahead if they so desire.

Lees-McRae College

Named for two women who founded it in 1907, Lees-McRae College is home to 700 undergrads. Visitors are welcome to explore the beautiful campus with historic buildings crafted with native stone. At the May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (367 Mill Pond Road, 828-898-2568), learn about the area's wildlife with tours on Saturdays at 1 PM (plus Thursdays and Fridays in the summer). Or, stop by anytime to check out their rescued birds outside. It's a great place for performing arts with the Lees-McRae Summer Theatre, weekly summer FORUM series and other annual performances and concerts. 

Cultural Arts Center

The Cultural Arts Center at the Historic Banner Elk School was built in 1939. Go to professional theater productions by Ensemble Stage. Art on the Greene is held on the front lawn on summer holiday weekends: Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. The school is also home to a hidden gem for lovers of arts and crafts: the BE Artists Gallery, a co-op gallery featuring the work of 40 area artists.

Location

The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway is 12 miles from Banner Elk, near Linn Cove Viaduct and Grandfather Mountain. Banner Elk is about 75 miles north of Asheville.

See more of our Coolest NC Mountain Small Towns.