Sights in North Carolina
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Biltmore Estate
With 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces and a private bowling alley, the Gilded Age Biltmore Estate, is a veritable American Versailles. The country's largest private home and Asheville's number-one tourist attraction, it was built in 1895 for shipping and railroad heir George Washington Vanderbilt II, who modeled it after the grand chateaux he'd seen on his various European jaunts. Viewing the estate and its 250 acres of gorgeously manicured grounds and gardens takes several hours. There are numerous cafés, a gift shop the size of a small supermarket, a hoity-toity hotel, and an award-winning winery offering free tastings.
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Historic Site
The historic site is located among the same windswept Kitty Hawk dunes where self-taught engineers Wilbur and Orville Wright launched the world's first successful airplane flight on December 17, 1903 (it lasted 12 seconds). A boulder now marks the take-off spot. Climb a nearby hill where the brothers conducted earlier glider experiments for fantastic views of sea and sound.
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Mingus Mill
The 1886 Mingus Mill, 2 miles west of Cherokee, a turbine-powered mill that still grinds wheat and corn much as it always has. The on-site Mountain Farm Museum is a restored 19th-century farmstead, complete with barn, blacksmith shop and smokehouse (with real pig heads!), assembled from original buildings from different parts of the park.
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Chimney Rock Park
At Chimney Rock Park, a 20-mile drive southeast of Asheville, the American flag flaps in the breeze atop this popular park's namesake 315ft granite monolith. An elevator takes visitors up to the chimney, but the real draw is the exciting hike around the cliffs to a 404ft waterfall.
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Afro-American Cultural Center
The Afro-American Cultural Center, largely housed in a historic old church has excellent visual-arts exhibits, films and performances in the outdoor amphitheater. The fine art collection is well worth a look and performances cover everything from trad jazz to poetry 'slams'.
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Visitor Center
The visitor center has exhibits, artifacts, maps and a free film to fuel the imagination. Look for the prints based on 1585 illustrations by colony leader John White, now some of the best-known depictions of pre-European North America.
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North Carolina Aquarium
Just south of Fort Raleigh, head to the North Carolina Aquarium to watch tiger sharks glide through the gloomy depths, chill by the gator pond or stroke the slimy bellies of (de-barbed) stingrays in the touch tank. Great for kids.
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Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
At 208ft, the black-and-white-striped Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in the US and is one of North Carolina's most iconic images. Climb the 248 steps and check out the visitor center (open year-round).
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Mint Museum of Art
The Mint Museum of Art is housed in the imposing 19th-century US mint building. The hushed halls display historic maps, American paintings and an impressive number of gruesome Spanish Colonial bleeding saint statues.
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Discovery Place
Wander through a rainforest, peer inside a huge eyeball or sample liquid-nitrogen ice cream in the chemistry lab at the hands-on Discovery Place science museum, complete with an Omnimax cinema.
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Whalehead Club
The sunflower-yellow, art nouveau-style Whalehead Club, built in the 1920s as a hunting 'cottage' for a Philadelphia industrialist, is the centerpiece of this manicured park in the village of Corolla.
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Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
At the northern end of Hatteras Island, the 5834-acre Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is a bird-watcher's heaven, with nature trails and 13 miles of unspoiled beach.
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Levine Museum of the New South
The slick Levine Museum of the New South has an informative permanent exhibit on post-Civil War Southern history and culture, from sharecropping to sit-ins.
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Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education
The modern Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education has an interesting film on area history, info on local hiking trails, and duck-decoy carving classes.
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Thomas Wolfe Memorial
Downtown, Look Homeward Angel author Thomas Wolfe's childhood home is now the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, displaying artifacts from his brief life.
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Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station
Built in 1874, the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station was the first lifesaving station in the state, now a museum filled with pre-Coast Guard artifacts.
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Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum
Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is all about preserving the Outer Banks' maritime history, with exhibits about shipwrecks, piracy and salvaged cargo.
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Elizabethan Gardens
The 16th-century-style Elizabethan Gardens include a Shakespearian herb garden and rows of beautifully manicured flower beds.
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North Carolina Aquarium
Pine Knoll Shores is home to the North Carolina Aquarium, with an ultracool exhibit re-creating local shipwrecks.
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Mint Museum of Craft & Design
The Mint Museum of Craft & Design, which chronicles the history of glass, wood, metal, and jewelry crafts.
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Oconaluftee Indian Village
Cherokees demonstrate traditional crafts in the 18th-century replica Oconaluftee Indian Village.
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North Carolina Maritime Museum
See artifacts from the ship and meet modern shipbuilders at the North Carolina Maritime Museum.
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Fort Macon State Park
In Atlantic Beach, Fort Macon State Park draws crowds to its reconstructed Civil War fort.
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