Why We Loved the Banner Elk Self-Guided Walking Tour

Last Easter weekend (2024), Debra and I were on the hunt for a leisurely adventure, something chill but engaging, with maybe just a dash of historical charm. Enter the Banner Elk Self-Guided Walking Tour. Spoiler alert: we loved it!

Meet Your Guides, Debra + Lee

Is Banner Elk Walkable?

Banner Elk is the perfect spot for a walking tour—its downtown village is easily walkable, featuring charming shops, delicious restaurants, and interesting attractions all within a comfortable stroll.

Learn more about Banner Elk

How Do Self-Guided Walking Tours Work?

A self-guided tour like this lets you explore at your own pace, following a pre-planned route without the pressure of a group or scheduled guide.

You know how it is—vacations usually involve way too much driving and a whole lot of “are we there yet?” from yours truly. Well, Banner Elk got ahead of us on that one. They ditched the driving and handed us an app instead. Easy to download and, thankfully, easy to use—even for me.

We kicked off at the Banner House Museum, an impressive 1870s-era house built by one of Banner Elk’s OG founders, Samuel Banner. Fun fact: Samuel and his wife Jane raised seven kids there, and the house stayed in the family until 1977. Debra and I marveled at how anyone could survive raising seven kids without modern conveniences like Wi-Fi and microwave popcorn. Respect!

Unfortunately, the museum was closed the day we visited, and in fact, all the indoor tours were unavailable since it was a Saturday. Still, it made a great starting point for our adventure.

From there, we crossed Hickory Nut Gap Road—look both ways, folks!—and headed straight to one of our favorite stops: The Cheese House. Sounds delicious, right? Built in 1917, it was the home of the Shawneehaw Cheese Cooperative, famous for award-winning cheddar cheese. Picture me standing there, trying to imagine how cheddar cheese could be so legendary it needed its own cooperative. Debra rolled her eyes at my cheese puns. Hey, you gouda believe I couldn’t resist!

Then it was on to another quirky favorite, the Clinchfield Caboose #1024. Now, trains and I have an understanding: I admire them from afar, and they don’t flatten me like a pancake. This old caboose was seriously charming and incredibly photogenic. Debra posed, I snapped, and yes, we nailed that Instagram shot.

Other highlights included the Historic Banner Elk School—though, full disclosure, the day we visited there were enough earth-moving bulldozers in the parking lot to make our pictures look like a construction site. Thankfully, we found a nice, clean image on the Banner Elk Walking Tours website instead. We also explored the 1910 Old Town Hall and Jail (now an art gallery—talk about a glow-up!). One particularly interesting stop was the location of the town’s first Ford dealership, conveniently attached to the Original Methodist Church back in the day. The church was later moved to its current spot. Apparently, buying a car and praying it starts used to go hand-in-hand—who knew?

Our walk wrapped up back at the Banner House Museum, where we learned from the app about the charming and slightly humorous origin of Banner Elk’s unusual name. It turns out, in the 1850s, five brothers from the Banner family brought their wives and children from their home in Surry County, near the Virginia border, to a remote area along the lovely clear Elk River, now flowing right by the museum on Highway 194. As the Banner family grew, folks naturally started referring to the place as “Banners at Elk River,” later shortened to “Banner’s Elk.” When the town was officially incorporated in 1911, they dropped the apostrophe and “S,” giving us today’s Banner Elk.

The Banner Elk Self-Guided Walking Tour checked all our boxes: engaging, humorous, historical, and perfectly paced. So, if you’re looking to ditch the car keys and dive into some quirky local history, Banner Elk’s got you covered.

Now excuse me while I go make myself a cheddar cheese sandwich. Thanks for the craving, Banner Elk!