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We're going to be visiting the Triangle area for a few days next month, as a side trip while visiting family in Charlotte.
I was first wondering if there is a place that rents bicycles we could take on the greenways. We have young kids, so we would also need to rent a kids bike or trail-a-bike for our 5 year old, and a trailer or child seat for our 2 year old. It would be preferable to rent them somewhere we could ride from, but if not, it might be OK if they offered a bike rack we could use on our car. This might be asking a lot for somewhere that doesn't heavily cater to tourists, but I wanted to see if it was an option.
I am also interested in any recommendations on fun things to do with our kids in March, other than ideas I've already found such as North Carolina Zoo, Pullen Park, Museum of Natural Sciences. Are there any great outdoor playgrounds? We tend to like outdoorsy activities and museums/zoos/aquariums.
In Durham, the REI rents stuff. Not sure if it will have what you need, but worth a check. REI is kind-of close to the American Tobacco Trail, but you probably may want to drive to a park with access because it's a busy road from REI to the trail. Herndon Park is pretty close by and has a playground.
Do you like gardens? Great options around here with Duke, NC Botanical (in CH) and the Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh.
The Museum of Life and Science in northern Durham is a must for your visit.
There is a bike shop on the Neuse River Greenway mile 0 that rents bikes. The place is called The Bike guy. Google has website as thebikeguyonthegreenway.com/ but I could not get that link to work.
Thanks for the recommendations; I'll check them out. We're staying in Chapel Hill, but an are open to checking out anything within an hour or so drive.
Yes, I'm aware the Zoo isn't in the Triangle, but looks like it could be an on the way stop between there and Charlotte.
Definitely go to The Museum of Life and Science in Durham. You can spend all day there with the kids and it ticks a bunch of your boxes — great outdoor play spaces (just really fantastic, there's a whole treehouse village), animals (bears, lemurs, and more), a train, model boats, and science! There is a pretty good restaurant on site, too. It's actually much more fun than the museums in Raleigh for younger kids, but plenty to entertain adults, too. They have two main buildings, one with all kinds of traveling exhibits and permanent ones, too from weather, to animals, to space (they have a rocket and a space capsule) to building toys, and the other building is the bug and insect house. Then there are the treehouse play space, the dinosaur fossil dig (real fossils you can take home), the animal habitats, the Catch the Wind outdoor exhibits, I do love the new wing of the science museum in Raleigh, but the old wing is literally stuffy (lots of taxidermied animals) and boring compared to the NCMLS. That said, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh) is free and the NC Museum of Life and Science costs money, but if you have a museum or zoo membership elsewhere they do have reciprocal agreements with many.
The NC Zoo is very good, too. It's a natural habitat zoo, so less cages and more walking for you. There is an African section and a North American section, so lions and elephants, but no tigers.
You should be able to rent bikes in Chapel Hill (check https://thebicyclechain.com/articles...tals-pg170.htm and https://gotchabike.com/unc/ ) and ride on the Bolin Creek or Morgan Creek Greenways if you want (the free buses in Chapel Hill have bike racks), but I'm not sure it would be worth it. I'd rather just go to the Museum of Life and Science!
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