North Carolina

On a dune near Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers took off on the first powered flight in history in 1903 – just one of many superlatives in North Carolina. A vacation in North Carolina takes you along the Blue Ridge Parkway into the Great Smoky Mountains, through tobacco and college towns, and out to the narrow island chain of the Outer Banks. The state packs mountains, Southern culture, and the Atlantic into a compact area.

Landscape: Mountains, Hills, and Barrier Islands

The western part of the state is home to the highest peaks in the Appalachians: at just over 2,000 meters (6,684 feet), Mount Mitchell is the highest mountain east of the Mississippi. The Great Smoky Mountains on the Tennessee border are the most-visited national park in the United States, known for their blue haze, black bears, and synchronous fireflies in early summer. The Piedmont, with its cities, stretches across the center of the state, while the east is flat coastal plain with river mouths and swamps. The Outer Banks are a chain of narrow sand islands that curve far out into the Atlantic and create treacherous shoals; so many ships went down off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic."

Cities: Charlotte, the Research Triangle, and Asheville

Charlotte is one of the most important banking centers in the U.S. after New York and home to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Raleigh, the capital, forms the Research Triangle with Durham and Chapel Hill, a region with top universities such as Duke and UNC as well as many tech companies. Durham has gone from a tobacco hub to a city with restaurants in old warehouses. Greensboro is known for the 1960 sit-ins at the Woolworth lunch counter, Winston-Salem for Old Salem, a Moravian living-history museum. In the mountains, Asheville offers an art scene, numerous craft breweries, and Art Deco architecture. On the coast, Wilmington pairs a historic riverfront with nearby beaches, while Fayetteville is shaped above all by the Fort Bragg military base.

Attractions in North Carolina

The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, a Loire Valley Renaissance-style château, is the largest privately owned house in the U.S. and was built for George Vanderbilt in the 1890s. The Blue Ridge Parkway winds for hundreds of miles through the mountains, with overlooks, hiking trails, and the Linn Cove Viaduct at Grandfather Mountain. Among the most beautiful destinations in North Carolina are also the Outer Banks, with the black-and-white spiral-striped Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the shifting dunes of Jockey's Ridge, and wild horses near Corolla. At the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, you can retrace the first flight. On Roanoke Island, an outdoor theater commemorates the Lost Colony of 1587.

History and Culture

On Roanoke Island, the English attempted the first settlement in North America in the 1580s – the colonists vanished without a trace. In the 18th and 19th centuries, tobacco, cotton, and slavery shaped the economy. In the mountains, Appalachian culture lives on in bluegrass, old-time music, and crafts; the western part of the state is also home to the lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, with a museum and cultural village. The textile and furniture industries later became important, while today banking, research, and biotechnology dominate.

Food and Drink

Barbecue is a matter of faith in North Carolina: in the east, the whole hog is smoked and served with a vinegar-pepper sauce, while around Lexington in the west only the shoulder is used, with a slightly tomato-based sauce. It comes with hushpuppies and coleslaw. Pepsi-Cola was invented in New Bern in 1893, and Cheerwine is a cherry soda from Salisbury. Sweet potatoes, shrimp from the sounds, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts from Winston-Salem are part of the picture, too.

Getting There and Best Time to Visit

Charlotte (CLT) is a major hub with nonstop flights to Europe, and Raleigh-Durham (RDU) also offers international connections. Amtrak links Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham, and Raleigh. The best time to visit is spring, when rhododendrons bloom in the mountains, and fall, when the foliage along the Blue Ridge Parkway glows. The beaches are at their best in summer, though hurricane season runs from June to November; in late September 2024, Hurricane Helene caused severe damage in Asheville and the mountains, and the region has been recovering ever since.