A few suggestions for 'The Carolinas' needed please ;)

[DodgyGeezer]

in a few weeks time we are off to spend a couple of weeks with Mrs DG's cousin, who has kindly given us a number of ideas and a loose itinerary of things to do/places to see nr Asheville NC. In addition to these we'll be leaning heavily in to the kitsch and visiting Dollywood - I figure it's got to be done

The issue is what to do for week 3 - we were thinking of Pigeon Forge and Nashville (I know they're 3 hours apart) but in the end decided that we'd 'do' Nashville on another visit. The plan then became to visit Savannah (ghost tour, 8th AF museum, possibly the Prohibition Museum) followed by Charleston (Fort Sumpter, USS Yorktown, the historic district, some antebellum sites) before getting back to Charlotte for our return flight. Any suggestion that people have done would be gratefully received.

As an aside I was quite (unpleasantly!!!) surprised at the cost of accommodation in both cities - looks like 'budget stays' are not the order of the day there - mind you, if you're going to enjoy a weeks history and scenery I guess you have to pay for it

[C-J]

Many years ago I lived in North NC.

Top places that I visited in NC:
>Kitty Hawk (Wright Bros)
>Hatteras/Okacroke (bridges/ferry)
>Chaple Hill (Duke Uni/huge sports facilities incl college basketball & football)
>Durham (Bull Durham)
>Charlotte Motor Speedway (great atmosphere but watching 300 oval laps was 299 too many for me)
>local town fete/festivals (rodeo)
>Blue Ridge Parkway (perhaps best in autumn though for the leaves colour change)
>Boone (for reasons that I can't remember - but impressive American looking main street)

Outside NC (hapily did 450 mile one way journey after work!):
>Nashville (Honkytonks)
>Chattanooga (Choo-Choo - spur of moment 3hr diversion)
>Charleston (USS etc)
>Myrtle Beach (why not!)
>Atalanta (Braves, MLK)

Things may have changed in 2 decades!

Edited by C-J on Sunday 28th April 16:07

Edited by C-J on Sunday 28th April 16:25

[Truckosaurus]

I believe Asheville is known for its many craft beer breweries.

There's lots of Guilded Age mansions in that part of the world, the summer homes of all the turn of the 20th century billionaires.

[satans worm]

Both Charleston and Savannah are great place to spend a few days (see angel oak when in Charleston and Wormsloe in Savannah), Myrtle Beach is , well, Myrtle Beach so could be worth it or could be a must avoid depending on your position to loud bars and being in the American version of Blackpool

Just north of Charleston is McClellanville which is interesting and worth a quick explore while your there

Personally, id miss Atlanta, Georgia, unless you're into aquariums in which case it's got a bloody big one (largest in America, 4th largest in the world) with 4 whale sharks. A coke museum next door is totally ste and full of fizzy drink trash pulled from peoples bins over the years, or at least in my opinion (if your really into fizzy drinks Pepsi have their 'museum' in New Bern a bit north of Charleston)

I Personally think the Smokey Mountains are crap, and too busy (one of the few free national parks), the Blue Ridge highway nice drive for 30mins, then gets relative, unless you in a Lambo or something im sure!

We drove form New York to Georgia and back in 10 days (i think) so depending on how you road trip you can go pretty far in a 3 week road trip!

Edited by satans worm on Monday 29th April 20:24