21 Best Sights in Central North Carolina, North Carolina

Set in a wooded 183-acre wildlife preserve, this was the site of the first Moravian settlement in North Carolina. The reconstructed village showcasing the mid-18th-century community includes the original 1788 Gemeinhaus congregation house, a colonial homestead, and well-maintained medicinal gardens. God's Acre, the first colony cemetery, is a short walk away. Children love the reconstructed fort from the French and Indian War, and hiking trails head off into the hills around the settlement. Brochures for self-guided walking tours are available year-round at the visitor center, where interpreters in period attire help bring this bygone era to life.

This interactive science park on 84 acres is packed full of attractions designed to spark wonder and curiosity for children of all ages. There’s a two-story science center, one of the largest butterfly conservatories on the East Coast, and 60 species of live animals in its outdoor exhibits. The Hideaway Woods exhibit features eight tree houses, a flowing stream, and fanciful nature sculptures. Earth Moves invites visitors to climb a large formation of Tennessee sandstone or explore a cave underneath it and control the flow of water from a 20-foot freestanding waterfall.

Part of the University of North Carolina, this tribute to native plants includes wildflowers, shrubs, trees, ferns, and grasses of the Southeast. Other highlights include nature trails that wind through a 300-acre Piedmont forest, a green education center, and an impressive collection of herbs and carnivorous plants.

With seven floors of immersive exhibits spread across two buildings connected via sky bridge, this museum is the largest of its kind in the Southeast. Exhibits and dioramas celebrate the incredible diversity of species in the state's various regions. There are enough live animals and insects—including butterflies, snakes, and a two-toed sloth—to qualify as a midsize zoo. Massive and rare whale skeletons hang from the ceiling. The pièce de résistance, however, is the Terror of the South exhibit, featuring the dinosaur skeleton of "Acro," a giant carnivore that lived in the region 110 million years ago. The impressive bones are the world's most complete Acrocanthosaurus dinosaur skeleton. In the Nature Research Center, visitors can have live conversations with scientists.

Founded in 1766 as a backcountry trading center, Old Salem is one of the nation's most well-documented colonial sites. This living-history museum, a few blocks from downtown Winston-Salem, is filled with dozens of original and reconstructed buildings. Costumed guides demonstrate trades and household activities common in the late-18th- and early-19th-century Moravian communities, and an interactive audio tour tells the stories of the Native Americans, enslaved Africans, and European settlers that lived here. The preserved streets and buildings of the old town are still a functioning community that includes the campus of Salem College. Be sure to stop at Winkler Bakery, where you can buy bread, the pillowy, best-selling sugar cakes, and scrumptious Moravian ginger cookies, baked in traditional brick ovens.

Don't miss "America's largest coffee pot," a 12-foot-tall vessel built by Julius Mickey in 1858 to advertise his tinsmith shop. After surviving two separate car collisions, it was moved to its present location at the edge of Old Salem in 1959.

A wisteria-draped gazebo, the Carnivorous Plant Collection, and a Japanese garden with a lily pond teeming with fat koi fish are a few of the highlights of these 55 acres in Duke University's West Campus. More than 5 miles of pathways meander through formal plantings and woodlands. The Terrace Café serves lunch weekdays and brunch Saturday and Sunday seasonally.

These two public gardens offer a relaxing retreat along a stream that runs between two busy roads. The Bicentennial Garden houses sculptures (including large-scale interactive wind chimes), a Sensory Garden, a pétanque court, and a reconstructed mill and waterwheel. The Bog Garden includes wooden walkways that meander over water and wetlands.

This complex, adjacent to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, houses apartments, offices, bars, and restaurants in a series of beautifully refurbished warehouses left over from the city's cigarette-rolling past. Free summer concerts are staged on a central lawn, in the shadow of a Lucky Strike water tower, and the place comes alive with lights and decorations during the holidays. The growing slate of restaurants include Ekhaya's South African fusion, the Louisiana-inspired Seraphine, and Puerto Rican soul at Boricua Soul. Burt's Bees is also headquartered here, and you can spot Burt's intact original cabin outside, brought here from Maine. Don't miss the bee mural tucked away behind the offices.

Washington Duke, patriarch of the now famous Duke family, moved into this house in 1852. It wasn't until he heard how the Union soldiers were enjoying smoking his tobacco that he decided to market his "golden weed." Explore the family's humble beginnings at this State Historic Site, which includes the first ramshackle "factory" as well as the world's largest spittoon collection. Guided tours demonstrate early manufacturing processes; the visitor center exhibits early tobacco advertising.

At this expansive park designed to fascinate children at every turn, you can roam through a room filled with dinosaurs, see tigers and red pandas in the 24-acre zoo, meet a penguin or shark in the aquarium, and soar through the treetops on the SKYWILD high ropes course. The grounds include a petting zoo, a reptile and amphibian house, a carousel, and a 3-D theater.

Wander through the 1786 John Haley House and the 1801 Hoggatt House, where rotating exhibits highlight Piedmont history and Quaker heritage with local artifacts. On Saturdays, costumed reenactors demonstrate trades like traditional blacksmithing. The museum is home to native son John Coltrane's childhood piano and a school bus cab with operational lights that's fun for kids.

Twelve miles north of Chapel Hill, Hillsborough shares Orange County, a loyalty to the Tar Heels, and a similar sensibility for culture and history. This is a small town with much of what you'd expect (historical homes, arts and crafts galleries, a picture-perfect town square) and a few things that may surprise visitors (a record store bar, a vintage jewelry store, farms with goat yoga). Good weather invites people to stroll along the Eno Riverwalk on the NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail, picnic outside the Federal-era Ayr Mount estate, or hike up Mt. Occoneechee. Last Fridays brings live music, gallery openings, and late shopping hours to Churton Street and downtown. A full events calendar includes the Handmade Parade, Hog BBQ Days, and a Solstice Celebration Lantern Walk.

This 84,000-square-foot cathedral of play and learning is aimed at children 10 and younger. Everything is hands-on, so your child is free to fill a shopping cart in the marketplace, don a fireman's hat, clamber through the cab of a city bus, scale the crow's nest of a three-story pirate ship, or splash in numerous water stations. Older children can play chess with 2-foot pawns, perform simple science experiments, or learn about the value of cash at the Moneypalooza exhibit. Toddler Hollow, designed with an enchanted forest in mind, is meant for kids under two. The space's wide-open design and its architectural details, including a suspension bridge and a courtyard with a 6-foot marble fountain, give adults something to look at as well. There's also an IMAX theater.

A well-preserved example of 19th-century domestic architecture, this homestead (including the main house and several outbuildings) sits in a cove along a peaceful creek. As Quakers, the Mendenhalls opposed slavery, and here you can find one of the few surviving false-bottom wagons used to help those enslaved escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

Come in July, when kids can learn how to make a corn-husk doll or design a quilt square during the Village Fair.

The exhibits at this fun museum are designed for children under 12, who can tour an airplane cockpit, explore a fire truck or police car, scale a climbing wall, create crafts out of recycled materials, or learn about buildings in the construction zone.

Admission is reduced to $5 Friday 5–8.

The original Apollo astronauts trained here, at one of the largest planetariums in the country. A $9.2-million renovation, completed in 2020, expanded the exhibition areas. You can see planetarium shows, science demonstrations, and interactive STEM exhibits for children and adults.

A highlight of any Duke visit, this museum displays African, American, European, and Latin American artwork. The collection includes works by Henri Matisse, Kehinde Wiley, and Pablo Picasso. The museum offers a steady stream of engaging events throughout the year.

Founded in 1902, this Smithsonian-affiliated museum is now in a state-of-the-art facility on Bicentennial Plaza. Its signature exhibit, The Story of North Carolina, traces more than 14,000 years of the state’s history. The museum also houses the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, which displays memorabilia from hundreds of inductees, from college heroes to pro superstars and Olympic contenders. You can see Richard Petty's race car, Arnold Palmer's Ryder Cup golf bag, and Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon's uniforms. Even if your time is short, it's worth popping in to admire the wall-sized oil paintings of the state's most beautiful natural vistas.

The state's first public park includes train rides, paddleboat rentals, and a 1911 Dentzel carousel. You can also swim in a large indoor aquatic center, play tennis, or, if the timing is right, see a summer play at the Theatre in the Park.

Once land claimed for Queen Elizabeth by Sir Walter Raleigh, this park's amenities include golfing, boating, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, and a large swimming pool with waterslides. There is also a dog park, campground, and an arboretum filled with plants native to the Carolina Piedmont. The Tanglewood Festival of Lights, one of the largest holiday-lights festivals in the Southeast, runs from mid-November to early January.

This 404-acre city park on the banks of the Eno River boasts a restored mill dating from 1778—one of 32 that once dotted the area. Also on-site are a 19th-century Greek revival farmhouse that was occupied by John Cabe McCown, the onetime owner of the mill, and a museum that showcases early-20th-century photographer Hugh Mangum's pictures of the surrounding area. The Festival for the Eno, held around July 4, includes musicians, artists, and craftspeople from around the region.