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North Carolina
Visit North Carolina

Beach lovers flock to North Carolina's Outer Banks for fun in the surf, sand, and sun, and the Blue Ridge Parkway snakes along Appalachian mountaintops, offering views of misty valleys and mountain peaks where you can hike, ride horses, and go white water rafting. North Carolina is rich in history, too, from the story of its many native peoples and the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail to the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk.

Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue Ridge Parkway Association

National Park Service web site

This incredibly beautiful drive stretches through Virginia and North Carolina and includes several recreation areas with opportunities for camping, picnics, hiking, and learning about the Appalachian region's history.

Charlotte

Charlotte Convention and Visitor's Bureau

Nicknamed the Queen City and one of the fastest growing urban areas in the South, Charlotte offers a wide variety of attractions from NASCAR and professional sports teams to nightlife and cultural venues to shopping.

Comments:

I lived in Charlotte for a year my freshman year of college and really liked it there. I like the Carolinas in general. Have been all over North Carolina and a lot of South Carolina as well with husband's job.

Great Smoky Mountains

Visitsmokies.org

On North Carolina's border with Tennessee visitors can enjoy the Great Smoky Mountains, America's most visited national park.

Outer Banks

The Outer Banks is a chain of barrier islands on the Atlantic seaboard with wildlife refuges, maritime forests, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the highest sand dunes on the East Coast.

Comments:

The Outer Banks are gorgeous.

Trail of Tears

National Park Service web site

One of the darker chapters in American history is the forced resettlement of native peoples from their ancestral lands to the Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma. Thousands died on this long journey under terrible conditions, and rich cultures were devastated as a result. Today the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates this sad story.

Wright Brothers National Memorial

Two brothers from Ohio who owned a bicycle company experimented for four years before successfully flying an airplane at Kitty Hawk in 1903. Their achievement is commemorated at the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

Trip Report - The Carolinas, April 2004

Has anyone ever stopped at South of the Border, South Carolina before? I would like to officially nominate it as Most Depressing Place on Earth. Also depressing is Myrtle Beach, which I for some reason always imagined as being upmarket and almost snooty, like Napa Valley except with golf courses instead of wineries. Of course, this illusion was quickly shattered. It was more like a cross between Vegas and the carnival that came through Greeley, Colorado each summer. It's extra sad because Wall Drug, with which South of the Border clearly shares a lot of DNA, is a fun diversion along the endless wastes of the Dakotas. Yet the endless wastes of the Carolinas have given birth to a sad, smelly, mutant cousin of the advertised-for-hundreds-of-miles tourist trap genre.

Another illusion I had been laboring under was that Hooters was sort of like the Hard Rock Cafe, in that each town was allotted one and only one franchise. Not so, as there is one every few blocks in Myrtle Beach.

On the other hand, the Outer Banks in North Carolina are lovely and at the moment on the positive side of the unbearably touristy border. Charleston, South Carolina is also a fine town that I wish we'd had more time in. Lastly, it warms my heart to have seen a place that is actually called "The Great Dismal Swamp," as if it were out of a Winnie-the-Pooh book or something.

Comments:

I don't consider North Carolina to be in the "South." In fact, I draw the line at the infamous South of the Border hellhole mentioned above. I used to draw it at the first Waffle House exit heading south on I-95, but NC has too many cool cities/places/events, etc., for me to associate it with the South that I despise so well. Driving up to Wilmington, NC, one is rewarded with clear waters and wonderful beaches ... and a great 4th of July celebration if you're ever there (rugby tournament, too, over the 4th).