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Unless you feel you need to stay near the airport for an early flight, I'd suggest staying downtown. The Sheraton is a pretty good location for exploring museums and nightlife. From there you can walk down Fayetteville Street to the Capitol Building. On the other side of it are a couple of good museums (Natural History and NC History).
2 Blocks over and one block up from Fayetteville Street from the Capitol is the Moore Sq/City Market area. Caffe Luna is a great Italian place - very lively. Pour House is a good place to catch live music. There are galleries at City Market (Artspace, for one).
A few blocks the other way is the Power Station area with some cool places (Napper Tandy's Irish pub, 42nd Street Oyster Bar is a very fun seafood place with live music). Around the corner from there is the very popular Glennwood South area (Enoteca Vin is great if you love wine, Sullivan's Steak House, Bogarts, Hibernian Pub, etc).
That would definitely fill up an afternoon and evening.
Thanks - that's exactly the info I needed! It sounds like there will be several good options downtown.
I would prefer NOT to end up in a generic airport hotel if we can help it.
Are the areas you mentioned all pretty walkable? Will we be able to park easily? Is it relatively safe? I've spent a lot of time in cities, so I'm aware of the common sense issues in any city, but is it common for people to be walking through those areas at night?
The individual legs I mentioned are all very walkable. But they add up. If you are stopping after one and doing something for awhile, then moving on to the next leg it isn't too bad. But if you are trying to go from one extreme end to the other it is a bit much. For instance, when we stayed at the Sheraton for New Year's Eve a few year back, we cabbed it to Glenwood South.
All those areas are fairly safe. You might have a homeless person approach, but that is about it (they tend to congregate in the park at Moore Sq).
Parking is generally pretty plentiful. I've only paid for parking on weekends maybe twice in 20 years downtown when something big was going on.
Resturants: In Raleigh on Glenwood...DEFINATELY the RedRoom. Spanish Tapas! Amazing atmosphere...Excellent service...Classy "Joint"...Fair prices. Depending on the night...Live Salsa music and dance floor. Not your thing... Irish pub across the street with great food, ambiance and again...Live Music. Whatever you find I hope you ENJOY!
If walking becomes a hassle, you can always take the "Raleigh Rickshaw" pedicabs. They bike you from place to place for tips only. But, please tip them! http://www.raleighrickshaw.com/
John
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