How to Enjoy - Sylva

This will be a series of how to enjoy the towns our shops are located in. Many of our customers will base their trip out of one of these towns, and this series will serve as a recommendation of how best to enjoy the towns when you are not on the water. First up, Sylva!

Home to the WNC Fly Fishing Trail, Sylva's motto runs; "In the middle of the most". This rings true when using Sylva as a base of operations when fishing WNC. The famed streams of the Great Smoky Mountains are just 30 minutes away. Same can be said for the Tribal Waters of Cherokee as well. The only drives to water that top 30 minutes would be the West Fork of the Pigeon or the Nantahala, and those are only 40 to 45 minutes or so depending on how heavy your foot is.

Where to Stay

Hotel Sylva, what used to be the Blue Ridge Inn, is located right in Downtown Sylva. Tuck Fly Shop customers are actually offered a preferred rate when booking here using TuckFlyShop as the Promo Code. But this location has everything you need. Clean, quiet and comfortable space to rest, clean up after a day on the water or just chill and watch traffic go by in one of the rockers on the balconies. The best part of this lodging is the walking distance to everything! Breakfast - Walk. Lunch -on the water. Dinner - Walk. Night Cap - Walk. It just doesn't get any better especially where Uber still not a thing!

Breakfast

Right now Sylva is in a good position to offer many awesome spots for breakfast! We will start with White Moon. Located on Back Street of Sylva they are the business that is directly under the shop. Only access is from backstreet however. Here, you can get a cup of coffee, fancy coffee, and several choices for breakfast sandwiches. Jonathan and Jill, the owners, bake all of the pastries fresh each day.

Blue Ridge Bootleg Coffee started by Matt King, offers a modern feel coffee shop vibe while honoring these hills with his in house roasting and coffee's and themes. BRB as it is locally known, is on Main Street just down from our Sylva location.

Lucy in the Rye offers fantastic made or order breakfast spot...Sit down breakfast here. Fantastic everything really. Waffles are great, breakfast potatoes are great, and of course the Bacon is great!

Lunch

If you find yourself fishing the Tuckaseegee Watershed in Jackson County, the best part is the ability to come into Sylva for lunch. Usually other excursions are going to require packing a lunch with you, Sylva being so central offers a respite from the grind of donning waders and climbing river or creek banks.

Any of the breweries offer a great lunch paired with your favoite pint of beer. A few favorites are Mad Batter, Cosmic Carry Out Food Truck, and Balsam Falls Brewing.

Dinner

While several of the Lunch options can of course double as dinner options, our favorite is by far Ilda. This fine Italian dining experience is a great way to celebrate a trip. Slow down here and soak it all in. Order wine or cocktails while you decide on an App, then watch the bar tenders create works of art with their custom cock tails. The main course is not one to rush. Pasta noodles made fresh daily, deserve to be enjoyed with as much appreciation as releasing that tricky trout.

A couple of our favotires in nearby Dillsboro are, Foragers Canteen, Kostas Express, and River n Rail.

Night Cap

After that fantastic dinner, wherever you ate, take a stroll around the sidewalks of Sylva. These mountain towns have done a great job decorating for Christmas and they all look like they are out of a Hallmark Movie. But find your way to The Cut Cock Tail Lounge. Great beverage and drink options but the best kept secret here, is their brownies! Totally, legit, and you wont fail any drug test, but they are simply perfect. A second Night Cap option is Dark Moon. White Moon, the breakfast spot, changes names with the sunset and turns into a chill spot to hang out with a beverage and a desert, called Dark Moon. Same business, two names. Finally, go see a nightime view of Sylva from the Old Courthouse.

All of these businesses are local folks who care deeply about their customers and appreciate them as much as we do ours. We have built relationships with these owners that are genuine and communal, and we did not receive any money from them to be mentioned on this blog. They have cultivated relationships as well that create an authentic experience that pairs well with the magic fly fishing has to offer. This, in my opinion, is the best way to enjoy the town of Sylva