2 Best Hotels in Winston-Salem, Central North Carolina

The former estate of RJ Reynolds executive Bowman Gray and his wife, Nathalie, is now a luxurious inn 2 miles north of downtown, near the Wake Forest campus. The expansive yet welcoming stone building includes many architectural wonders, such as the elaborate ironwork and intricate wood panels imported from Europe during the Roaring Twenties. Most rooms are spacious, stocked with every amenity (as well as a communal ice-cream refrigerator), and well soundproofed. Antique furnishings—in private rooms and the billiards room, butler's quarters, and the library—give the feel of abiding within a living museum. It's like staying in a real-life game of Clue, with all of the luxury and none of the murder mystery.

No two rooms are the same in this historic, affordable, and very pleasant lodging, built within two former cotton mills dating to 1837. The interior, with its exposed rafters, high ceilings, and brick walls, retains its historic character. A "graffiti wall," where young female factory workers left their mark, has been carefully preserved. There's a wine and cheese reception in the breakfast room each evening, as well as cookies and milk before bed.  The Art-o-mat machine in the lobby is one of the first in the world. Artist Clark Whittington created the concept in Winston-Salem.