NC 7 Day Road Trip (Charlotte, Raleigh: chapel, hotel, house)

[Lifestyle229]

Hello, planning on taking a 7 Day road trip in North Carolina starting Saturday. Want to cover whole state but it might look like not going to make it and that's ok as we do not like to rush our road trips and just go with the flow. Never been to North Carolina before but excited to be coming.

This was my idea and hopefully you can advise on good routes, or what to skip.

A few rules we set when we started road tripping a few years ago are:
# 1 stay off highways
# 2 start looking for place to crash when sun starts to go down. Hotel, motel, tent does not matter whatever presents itself first.

What we like when road tripping. Back roads, small towns, charm, mountains, southern living, good food you know dinners drive ins and dives

Ok and off we go:

Part 1.) Outer banks - down 12, ferry over to Ocracoke and then other ferry over to mainland Cedar Island I believe right. stop by Beufort and Morehead, then to Wilmington/Southport??? (idk is Wilmington/Southport worth it??) only saying Southport is because our favorite place in Maine is eastport! awesome little town if ever get up there!

Part 2.) Fayetteville on way Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill - Real question here is what routes should I take to get to Raleigh and Durham????
a.) Rt 117 or 421 or 87 or 211 or from Wilmington
b.) Rt 70 from Beaufort
c.) Rt up through Jacksonville
*another question is should I skip Fayetteville???????

Part 3.) Triad Region (Greensboro, Winston-Salem)
- Rt 54 to Burlington and into Greensborough then Winston-Salem and explore for day or so
Questions: Should I check out Mt Airy?

Part 4.) Charlotte -
- Should I skip and go west toward Rocky's/BlueRidge?
we not a big fan of big city's, we are from Boston which is small and charming
-If do go looks like would break rule # 1 (stay off highways) does not look like there is many
backroads heading south

Part 4.) The Mountains Area - Asheville / Smokey Mountains
On List to do:
-Rt 74 scenic drive towards Lake Lure, Chimey Rock
-Rt Route 64 see the waterfalls/dry falls
-Rt 441 through Smokey Mountains and into Tennessee, Tennessee and left toward townsend
a little
-Tail of Dragon - Rt 28
-Cherry Bounce Trail (off of 74 South Part)
-anything I missed??????


Supposed to be wicked nice week. If you can recommend any swimming holes or natural rock waterslides that would be incredible!

12 + hour drive home..... :/ .... Blue Ridge Highway

[carolinadawg2]

When you say you want to stay off highways, I assume you mean interstates?

I'd say Southport is definitely worth visiting, but I live here, lol. To me, its one of the nicest, most beautiful small towns in NC.

Definitely skip Fayetteville, nothing there. And you might want to skip Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill as well, unless there's something specific there you want to see. If you do go, I'd focus more on Durham. Go to a Bulls game (if they're in town).

Only go to Mt. Airy if you're a huge fan of the Andy Griffith show.

Here's a map of the best bbq places in the state...you should hit as many as you can:

The NC Barbecue Society Historic Trail

Its really hard to say what your plan misses...its a large state, with a lot to do and see. Depends on what you are interested in. Pottery in Seagrove, Mt. Mitchell (highest peak east of the rockies), Blue Ridge Parkway (I'd do that ahead of Tail of the Dragon), Jockey's Ridge are all cool places to go.

You might want to go to "Our State" magazine's website and look through the travel and food sections for other ideas.

[Lifestyle229]

Thanks Carolina! yes definitely off interstates. Not very relaxing

[carolinadawg2]

Here's a list 100 Must Eats in NC's 100 Counties. Most are of the DDD variety:

100 Foods You Must Eat in 100 Counties

[BarLatGo]

I would hit New Bern on the way down. Really all of the little towns along the coast have a ton of charm and lots of history.

Wilmington/Southport - Yes

Fayetteville - Big NO

Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill - Meh. I'd bypass them and go to the state zoo in Asheboro, instead. Pretty country around there, too.

If you're interested, there are a few areas in the middle-western part of the state where you can camp and pan for gold. North Carolina was once a big gold mining state: North Carolina Gold-Panning Sites | USA Today

No to Charlotte as well, since you're not big city fans.

There's lots to do in the western part of the state, but I don't know enough about it to give you specifics.

[JoeTarheel]

Beaufort is beautiful...and try to take a water taxi over to Shackleford Banks Shackleford Banks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wilmington is definitely worth a visit...it's a smaller Charleston SC with a lot of history.

I would skip Fayetteville.

Downtown Raleigh is pleasant and has some great museums if you're into that. I would make a quick stop in Hillsborough (Orange County) if you like history. There are a number of historical Colonial sites there. Hillsborough, North Carolina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Chapel Hill is worth a visit too - a very walkable college town.

A couple of the best stopovers in the Triad are Old Salem Old Salem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the Reynolda House Museum of American Art Reynolda House Museum of American Art - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (both in Winston-Salem), and Guilford Courthouse Military Park Guilford Courthouse National Military Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (in Greensboro). I would skip Mount Airy.

You could easily spend a day walking downtown Asheville, and I wouldn't miss the #1 attraction in NC: Biltmore Estate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It's definitely worth your time.

Charlotte is fine and there is a lot to do, but I would skip it if you aren't looking for big cities. There are more quintessentially NC things to do that I think you would enjoy.