Must see places in Raleigh/Triangle Area

[VickiR]

Originally Posted by rory breaker

When I think "must see" I think of towns like NYC, Paris, LA, Chicago, etc.

Raleigh/Cary/Durham is an awesome place to live, an amazing place to enjoy life, but not really a vacation/tourist destination with "must see" activities. I know what you mean though, hey while Im down there what should I check out if we're thinking of moving there. My thoughts:

- Go walk around Cameron Village
- Hit Franklin St in Chapel Hill, check out the campus, eat at 411 West, Tallullah's, etc. Have a chicken biscuit at TimeOut.
- Go downtown Raleigh, hit Fayetteville Street, check out some of the historic buildings down there (museum of nat sciences, etc). Eat at The Pit (bbq), Beasleys Chicken & honey, Chucks Burger Bar, Poole's Diner
- Go walk around Glenwood South - eat at Solas, there is also a great cupcake shop there
- Check out downtown Apex - it's a small little town strip but has some cool unique oddball shops and is a quaint little town you may want to live near
- Umstead Park is a great place to see some nature - Bond Park in Cary is good too if you're a nature person, it may make you want to live close to the park for easy accessibility
- Downtown Durham has some AWESOME restaurants - Dame's Chicken & Waffles is a must go. Parker & Otis is awesome too...make sure you shop there as well as eat, and also walk over to Morgan Imports, another really quirky store.

I agree! We are in a great place to LIVE! But...not so touristy! Still, the couple of lists that have been presented are some really good places to visit.

My parents were born in New York and NEVER went up into the Statue of Liberty. Funny how when you live somewhere, you don't always go to some of the really cool places! I've actually learned, from this forum, some of the places that I've never seen and I'm trying to get to them all but the list keeps growing!!!

Vicki

[DavidSki82]

Originally Posted by ALStafford

If you're here on a Saturday, I'd recommend visiting one of the weekend Farmer's Markets. Durham and Carrboro are generally the two best. If you go to Durham, I'd also add a visit to the Duke Gardens. So beautiful and peaceful there.

Great historic building to visit, that not many know about, is the historic Yates Mill. It's in Wake County, it's a refurbished corn mill that is older than Wake County itself (which was founded in 1771)! The gentleman that refurbished it spend a great deal of time researching, and the mill is operating much as it did in when it began operations in 1756. There's also a small county park at the mill site.

Must eats? Definitely Poole's Diner in Raleigh, Lantern in Chapel Hill, and if you really want a splurge night, Heron's in Cary, at the Umstead Spa and Hotel. For a bit of a drive, just west of Chapel Hill is a small town called Saxapahaw. It has turned into a vibrant little community, boasting one of the most creative eating establishments in the state; the Saxapahaw General Store. It's a restaurant set in a former Shell station. It's still a full service convenience type store, where you can get unleaded, biodiesel, Goody's headache powder, replacement wiper blades, locally grown organic produce, locally produced wine, and sit down to a plate of seared diver scallops over local bacon and chickpea succotash. As you dine, you could have someone in need of a quart of 10-40 oil or a loaf of bread politely pardon themselves as the slide past your table to retrieve it.

For looking at a potential place to live, are you looking to build? You said "great deals on new homes," and I'm wondering if that means a new house, or a home that may be new to you but not necessarily a brand new home. I love older, established neighborhoods, with big trees, and smallish houses on decent sized lots, rather than brand new subdivisions. So I can really direct you to those areas most easily. The Bloomsbury/Five Points and Oberlin Village/Sunset Hills areas are like this, that I really love. There's also the North Hills area, just outside the beltline in Raleigh. In Cary, I like the Greenwood/Pirates Cove area, too. Like I said, though, these are older, established neighborhoods. The houses are older, but the yards are often bigger than in newer subdivisions. Trees are established, creating great shady areas, so going for a walk doesn't have to involve being subjected to blazing sun in the summer.

Not sure if any of this helps, but I hope this helps at least a bit!

If we ever move down there, we are thinking of buliding a new house in a new development but if our "dream house" is already bulit we just want to know where those types of homes are. Thanks for your help, it helped a lot!

[DavidSki82]

Thanks for input everyone! I appreciate it! Thank you!

[StaticMedia]

If you like the outdoors,

-Falls Lake
-Jordan Lake
-Umstead Park
-Lake Crabtree
-Mountain bike trails everywhere.
-Kayak/canoe/sailboat rentals for cheap
-Harris Lake county park (plus the nuclear reactor is pretty cool)

[dcbfamily]

I think you said early Sept, but the Wake County Parade of Homes runs the last weekend of Sept, and first few weekends in Oct. This is when hundreds of new homes have open houses for 3 weekends in a row, and it will give you a good idea of what your money can buy in terms of new house. Of course, I also think there are lots of great resales in our area. I am originally from New England, and in the northeast, resales are typically 30-100 years old; in Wake County, resales are typicaly 0-10 years old

Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake | Parade of Homes for Builders

[CHTransplant]

MikeJaquish has some good recommendations here for Raleigh:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/513480-post2.html