After getting back from our trip to Mauritius and South Africa, we stayed at Shae’s parents for a few days before heading on to our 31st state – North Carolina.
Seeing as we used to live in Portsmouth, VA and Shae grew up there, we’d both visited North Carolina several times before the road trip began. That, and the fact that we were visiting in February, meant we decided to skip the Outer Banks and instead stayed in three other cities – Wilmington, Raleigh and Asheville.
We’ve published a couple of posts this past week about specific things we did in North Carolina and we’ll have more posts in the next week or two about fun and interesting things we did there. For now though, here’s a roundup of everything we did in North Carolina.
Where We Stayed
Wilmington
Shae visited Wilmington with her mom last year while I was overseas. She really liked it there and so we decided to include Wilmington as part of our plans for the road trip so that I could spend some time there too.
We booked a week-long Airbnb stay at this property which was a great place to stay. Unfortunately, I got a really bad bout of food poisoning before we visited Wilmington, so we had to delay our arrival by a few days. That wouldn’t have given us much time to explore Wilmington, so we reached out to the Airbnb host to extend our stay by a few days and they sent us a bill through Airbnb to pay for the extra days. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation (as in needing to extend an Airbnb stay, hopefully not getting food poisoning!), this is the best way to do it. That’s because if you just book the extra days as a separate stay you’ll have to pay an extra cleaning fee. Having the host send you a bill through Airbnb for the additional days avoids that.
We subsequently pushed back our next two stays by a few days to ensure we got the same amount of time at them as originally planned.
Raleigh
Our next stop was Raleigh. There weren’t any particularly cheap room rates available at properties we’d want to stay at, so we booked with points instead.
Hyatt has a number of hotels in the Raleigh/Durham area that are category 1 which means they cost 3,500, 5,000 or 6,500 points per night depending on if they’re at off-peak, standard or peak pricing. We booked a week-long stay at the Hyatt House Raleigh/RDU/Brier Creek because it was at standard pricing (i.e. 5,000 points per night). We were also able to use a Suite Upgrade Award to upgrade to a one bedroom suite with a full kitchen. You earn two Suite Upgrade Awards when staying 50 nights with Hyatt in a year, then another two at 60 nights. For every 10 nights after that – up to 100 nights – you can choose between 10,000 bonus points or two more Suite Upgrade Awards.
The hotel was in a nice neighborhood to walk Truffles around in. They have an indoor pool which is incredibly warm, a game room with a pool table, an outdoor seating area with grills if you want to cook out and an airport shuttle.
Asheville
We’d originally booked a stay at the Four Points by Sheraton Asheville Downtown, but when rebooking our stays the room rate there was much more expensive. As a result we had to look at alternative options.
I ended up coming across a great award rate at the Candlewood Suites Asheville Downtown. Candlewood Suites is one of IHG’s brands and thanks to the IHG credit cards we hold we get every 4th night free on award stays, plus a 10% points rebate. That reduced the net cost to 13,230 points per night. We bought those points for 0.5cpp (cents per point) and so effectively cost us $66.15 per night which is much cheaper than paid stays at other hotels in Asheville.
Although the Candlewood Suites is technically downtown, it wasn’t as downtown as we’d been hoping as it’s about a mile away from what we’d have classed as proper downtown. Still, it was nice having a studio suite with a full kitchen. This seems to be a fairly new property and is much nicer than pretty much all of the other Candlewood Suites hotels we’ve stayed at in the past. There were some features you don’t normally find at Candlewood Suites properties – a work area in the lobby and an indoor swimming pool.
The highlight of the hotel is probably its rooftop lounge. It’s a massive area available for all guests with all kinds of seating options. There were great views of the surrounding mountains that I imagine are particularly beautiful in the fall.
What We Did
Wilmington
Battleship North Carolina
One of the highlights of our entire time in North Carolina was the Battleship North Carolina. This was surprising as I’m not normally someone who seeks out military history attractions, but the Battleship North Carolina is fascinating.
Shae wrote a post more about it, but I think the reason I loved it to the extent that I did is because it had so many personal stories from its past sailors. It therefore had more of a focus on what life was like aboard the ship rather than it simply giving accounts of battles it was involved in. We spent several hours there, but you could easily spend even more time exploring the ship and learning about its history.
Downtown Wilmington
On a couple of days we enjoyed walking around downtown Wilmington and along the Riverwalk.
One of the best places to visit in downtown Wilmington is the Cotton Exchange. This is made up of a number of historic buildings, one of which is the Old James Sprunt Cotton Exchange that was once the biggest cotton exporter on the east coast. Nowadays the Cotton Exchange complex features many boutique stores, restaurants and cafes and is pet-friendly inside.
Wrightsville Beach
On one of the sunnier days we had while staying in Wilmington we made the short drive down to Wrightsville Beach. It ended up being more windy and chilly than we’d been expecting though, so that and the fact that the beach was less sand and more broken shells meant we didn’t stick around for too long after going for a bit of a walk.
Learning about the 1898 Wilmington Coup
Shae’s account follows
Before heading to North Carolina in the fall I finished up this book about the 1898 Wilmington Coup (our affiliate link). I went around to different important sites from the day and recorded videos for my YouTube channel. A post will be coming soon with more details for you, but the basics are that this is the only known successful coup in American history with white supremacists overthrowing the Republican/Fusion government and key black men in political and prominent positions in the city.
Visiting Holden Beach for Sea Biscuits
Shae’s account follows
One thing that was a fun addition that I did with my mom when we visited in September 2022 was searching for sea biscuits. Sea biscuits are fossilized sand dollars and are found along the edge of the shelf where the waves crash in to the shore. Holden Beach is a prime spot for sea biscuit hunters and sea shell searchers. Bonus – the beach was dog-friendly!
Here’s a video I made as The Traveling Teach about sea biscuits:
Raleigh
I spent much of our time in Raleigh working, so here’s Shae’s account of what she did there.
Capitol Building
We have a booklet to keep track of visiting our state capitals – even though we missed the first few since we didn’t get the book until state 4 in Ohio – so I make it a point to go to each state capitol building to see them, especially the different domes that most have, get a stamp, and learn a bit of history.
North Carolina Museum of History
This museum covered a wide history of North Carolina. I especially enjoyed how many interactive exhibits there were and I thought the parts that looked like a town, homes and businesses were especially well done. I’d recommend popping in to learn a full and complete history of North Carolina with an especially good exhibit about North Carolina’s participation in the Civil War.
Greensboro History Museum
I went to Greensboro, NC for the day (about a 60-90 minute drive away from Raleigh) to see a friend from high school and go to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. I had some time before meeting up and decided to pop into the Greensboro History Museum and boy am I glad I did. It had an excellent exhibit about voting and democracy in North Carolina focusing on 11 major elections in the history of the state. There were other exhibits about the wider history of the city and state that I wish I’d had more time to investigate. I’d recommend stopping in to this free museum in Greensboro.
International Civil Rights Center & Museum (Greensboro)
This museum was the reason for my visit to Greensboro and while I’m really glad I went, this museum ended up being very disappointing. My friend was also expecting more of the museum. You pay different prices based on the level of your experience. For $15 you get to have a seated virtual tour in the theater and then a self-guided tour of the exhibits. Most of the exhibits were a lot of words and not many artifacts from the time.
While it’s possible that I’ve had more experience visiting Civil Rights locations than the average person – especially the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN which was an exceptional museum on the subject – this experience was very underwhelming. When you add the fact that you can’t take any photos of the remade Woolworth’s lunch counter (it’s based in the Woolworth’s Building where the lunch counter sit-ins took place in 1960), it was just a very lackluster tour. We left the virtual tour early and then walked through the exact same exhibits in about 40 minutes. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you don’t have any intention of going to any other Civil Rights Museums, ever. If you want to see the original lunch counter – it’s at the Smithsonian in DC.
Asheville
Dupont State Recreational Forest
We met up with some friends who live in Asheville and went for a couple of short hikes in Dupont State Recreational Forest. The first was the Big Rock Trail which had some lovely views of the surrounding mountains at the top.
We’d originally hoped to do one of the trails to waterfalls, but all the parking spots in those parking lots were taken when we arrived. After finishing up on the Big Rock Trail, we drove back to the High Falls trailhead and there were now some spaces, so we walked the short trail down to the waterfalls that looked like they’d be a lot of fun to slide down on the left side of them.
Where We Ate & Drank
All three places we stayed at in North Carolina had a kitchen, so we ate in most of the time. We did eat out and have drinks at a few places though.
Wilmington
Java Dog Coffee House
The Cotton Exchange is pet-friendly inside, so Truffles joined us while looking in the stores and was even offered a free deluxe puppuccino – whipped cream with some small dog biscuits on top – when we stopped for a hot chocolate at the Java Dog Coffee House.
End of Days Distillery
Shae, Truffles and I visited End of Days Distillery a couple of times. They produce several spirits, all of which are very good and provide complimentary tastings.
Their cocktails and neat whiskey were also great. Check out this post for more about End of Days Distillery.
Palate
Another pet-friendly place we went for a drink was Palate. Shae got a glass of red wine and I got their Cocoa Comatose imperial stout. The stout had coffee, vanilla, chocolate and raspberry flavors which sounded like it would be very tasty. It was fine, but not as amazing as I was hoping. The bar had a bit of a strange vibe too, so we only stayed for one drink.
Raleigh
Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken
Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken has a number of locations in the Raleigh/Durham area and one was fairly close to our hotel. It sounded delicious, so we ordered a whole chicken with sides of green beans and sweet corn. Sure enough, it was absolutely delicious!
Asheville
Root Bar & Los Tacotes Food Truck
One of Shae’s friends was singing at Root Bar while we were in Asheville, so we went there for drinks one night to see her in action. They also had a food truck outside – Los Tacotes – which served burritos, tacos, nachos, etc.
We both ordered dinner from there – Shae got their nachos and I ordered a burrito. Both of our meals were very good, with my burrito being particularly delicious. In fact, it’s one of the best burritos I’ve ever had.
Hi-Wire Brewing & Foothills Food Truck
We met up with the same friends we’d gone hiking with for drinks at Hi-Wire Brewing in the Biltmore Village area of Asheville. It’s a great space which is pet-friendly both inside and out and so Truffles had a night out with us.
I tried a few of their beers and they were all very good – much better than the one I’d had at Palate in Wilmington.
Hi-Wire Brewing had Foothills Food Truck outside, so we got dinner from there. Shae got a hot dog while I ordered their BBQ sandwich, both of which came with fries. Their fries were excellent, as were the hot dog and BBQ sandwich – some of the best food truck food we’ve ever had.
Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ
We couldn’t go to North Carolina and not have proper BBQ (although the BBQ sandwich from Foothills Food Truck was awesome), so I looked for a list of the best pet-friendly BBQ spots in Asheville.
One of the locations listed was Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ, so we went there for lunch and drinks one day. The setup for ordering was a little strange as you get your food in one building and your drinks from another.
That’s a minor quibble though because the food was superb. I ordered their three meat platter and picked beef brisket, ribs and pulled pork as my meats, along with baked beans and coleslaw as my two sides. The brisket was excellent, while the rest of the meat and sides were also tasty.
Shae meanwhile got their Bear Attack which is cornbread topped with mac & cheese and your choice of meat – she went for their brisket. She enjoyed her lunch as much as I did.
One thing that wasn’t quite as good there was Shae’s drink. She’d ordered some kind of strawberry cider, but it tasted more like a rhubarb sour and was kinda funky tasting, so she had to leave most of it. My blueberry wheat beer was fairly good though.
Bear’s has a “kissing booth” which is a mural on a wall of a bear ready for action. Truffles isn’t fussy, so she gladly reciprocated.
Little Jumbo
Shae’s account follows
I met up with my friend Kendra once more before heading out of town. I had so much fun trying their “Rye-Tai” – a Mai-Tai made with bourbon rye whiskey. It was so tasty and very drinkable. For a great cocktail menu, stop in to Little Jumbo and don’t miss out on the salt and pepper pistachios either!
Hole Doughnuts
A friend had highly recommended Hole Doughnuts, so we stopped by there on our way out of town at the end of our stay. Hole Doughnuts makes your donuts fresh in front of you, with a few different flavor options available. We ordered a couple of plain glazed and a couple of cinnamon sugar donuts. They were very good, especially the two that we shared while they were still warm. The cinnamon sugar donut reminded me of hot donuts I used to sometimes get at night from a bakery in the village I grew up in back in England, so it had some nostalgia value too.
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