1. America’S Best Value Carolina Duke Inn
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 286-0771
Address: 2517 Guess Rd.
Description: This is a budget traveler’s best bet—complimentary breakfast, mini-fridge, outdoor pool, and some of the best rates in the Triangle. It’s not shiny, but it’s cheap. The hotel is close to Duke’s campus, and offers a shuttle to Duke University Hospital. The more expensive rooms have high-speed Internet connections. Pets are welcome.
2. Comfort Inn Medical Park
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 471-6100
Address: 1816 Hillandale Rd.
Description: Location and value are the biggest draws for this Comfort Inn, which is about a mile and half from Duke. The hotel offers free shuttle service to the campus, hospitals, and downtown on weekdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. In-room amenities include free high-speed wireless Internet and, in some rooms, sofa beds. The hotel has an exercise room, a guest laundry facilities, and an outdoor pool. Pets smaller than 50 pounds are allowed and some smoking rooms are available.
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Address: 807 W. Trinity Ave.
4. Durham Marriott At The Convention Center
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 768-6000
Address: 201 Foster St.
Description: The downtown Marriott is in the middle of Durham’s revitalizing urban scene. From here, it’s an easy walk to the American Tobacco Historic District and the Durham Performing Arts Center as well as some of the best restaurants in the Triangle. Its 185 rooms and two suites are tidy. The airy ground-floor restaurant includes several water features. Guests can use the on-site fitness room or the YMCA across the street.
5. The Washington Duke Inn And Golf Club
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 490-0999
Address: 3001 Cameron Blvd.
Description: Old-school elegance befitting the Duke name rules here. Built to mimic grand English inns, the Washington Duke opened in 1988. The inn is named for the family’s patriarch, and Duke family artifacts and photographs adorn the hallways. It is set beside the Duke University Golf Course, and rooms offer views of the fairways or of the landscaped grounds. The inn has 271 guest rooms and suites, fitness center, and pool. The Fairview Dining Room serves sophisticated cuisine and afternoon tea while the Bull Durham Bar offers more casual fare. Free transportation is available by appointment to Duke campuses, the Duke University Medical Center, and Ninth Street daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The hotel is pet friendly.
6. Arrowhead Inn
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (800) 528-2207
Address: 106 Mason Rd.
Description: Built in 1775, the inn sits on six acres of gardens and lawns about 15 minutes north of downtown Durham. Seven rooms are in the house, all have fireplaces, and many have whirlpool tubs. A separate log cabin with a sleeping loft offers a whirlpool, wood-burning fireplace, TV, and dining area. The owners can amend the layout of the log cabin to make it accessible to guests in wheelchairs. The garden cottage, housed in the former carriage house and surrounded by landscaped paths and flowers, features a whirlpool tub, gas-log fireplace, private dining area, and TV. Phil Teber, who owns and operates the inn with his wife Gloria, is a trained chef. He specializes in breakfast pastry treats, such as mango-orange scones, which he bakes fresh every morning.
7. Blooming Garden Inn
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 687-0801
Address: 513 Holloway St.
Description: Architectural details inside and out, including a wraparound porch, original fireplace mantels, and high, curved ceilings, lend charm to the 1890 Queen Anne style house. The four accommodations include the three-room Morning Glory suite, which has an intricately carved wooden bed and a whirlpool for two. Period antiques and a carefully landscaped yard complete the picture. The Blooming Garden offers extended-stay rates for guests staying more than a week. The inn is about a mile from downtown Durham in the Holloway Street Historic District in the Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood, which includes some of Durham’s most architecturally significant homes.
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Address: 618 W. Morehead Ave.
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Address: 204 N. Buchanan Blvd.
10. Old North Durham Inn
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 683-1885
Address: 922 N. Mangum St.
Description: In the middle of one of Durham’s first streetcar suburbs, the Old North Durham Inn is surrounded by Victorian-era and Arts & Crafts homes. The inn itself is an early 1900s Colonial Revival with a deep wraparound porch that makes it easy to imagine the days when streetcars and bicycles were the primary modes of transportation to downtown, about a mile away. Its four second-floor guest rooms feature antique bed frames and floral motifs. Innkeepers Debbie and Jim Vickery are regarded as excellent guides to the area, including sites that were featured in the movie Bull Durham. Breakfast is part of the deal.
11. Birchwood Rv Park
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 493-1557
Address: 5901 Wilkins Dr.
Description: The park is in northwest Durham between I-85 and I-40 in a wooded area near Duke Forest. It is about 5 miles to Duke Hospitals, which makes it a convenient spot for patients in long-term treatment and their families. Most sites include phone hookups and wireless Internet access. The park has public phones, a laundry room, a playground, vending machines, a propane refill station, a repair shop, and storage space. It is pet friendly and open year-round. Spots are $32 per day, with weekly and monthly rates available.
12. Eno River State Park
City: Durham, NC
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (919) 383-1686
Address: 6101 Cole Mill Rd.
Description: All of Eno River’s campsites are hike-in. Five are at Fanny’s Ford Campground, a mile from the Fews Ford parking lot, and five are at Piper Creek Campground, a little more than a mile from the Cole Mill parking lot. Both campgrounds are near the river, but neither has a source for potable water. The campsites have tent pads and pit toilets.