Travel in Charlotte and the Carolinas

November 14, 5:41 PMCarolinas Travel ExaminerPaul McDaniel

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Charlotte, North Carolina (Public Domain Image)

I’m Paul McDaniel and as the Carolinas Travel Examiner I’ll be covering travel opportunities in and around Charlotte, the Carolinas, and beyond.

Charlotte is a city located in a prime position for a variety of travel opportunities and experiences for both Charlotteans and those visiting the Queen City. Located on the central Piedmont on the border with South Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina is an average of about two hours drive from some of the highest mountain peaks in the eastern United States, including Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern U.S. at 6,684 ft.  In fact, Asheville, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, all part of the larger Appalachian Mountain Range that forms the spine of the eastern U.S., are all within a two to four hour drive from Charlotte.  In the other direction, Charlotte is around three and a half hours from the Atlantic coast and historic Charleston as well as the resort city of Myrtle Beach, both in neighboring South Carolina.

As you can see, Charlotte’s central Piedmont location allows ample opportunity for both half-day, full-day, and weekend trips in and around the surrounding region. If you prefer outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, or whitewater rafting, then you’re sure to find plenty of places to head, including spots as closeby as the U.S. National Whitewater Center, to sights within a few hours’ drive, such as spectacular segments of the Appalachian Trail. If history and culture are more to your liking, you will be pleased by the many museums and attractions both within Charlotte and in the cities, towns, and countryside of the surrounding region.

Everyone has to eat, so why not enjoy it. When it comes to food, Charlotte, like other large U.S. cities, has countless variety of culinary delights to please the most epicurean of travelers. From down home southern food and Carolina barbeque, to the most exotic of international cuisines, Charlotte is sure to please the palette time and again. Even beyond Charlotte in the surrounding region, the gourmand traveler will undoubtedly find many unique eating establishments to sample.

As mentioned previously, Charlotte is situated in a central location making it easy to plan weekend excursions and getaways to such places as Asheville and the Great Smoky Mountains, the Outer Banks of North Carolina’s Atlantic Coast, historic Charleston, South Carolina, or Savannah, Georgia, historical sites of Virginia, whitewater rafting, hiking, and camping in the mountains of western North Carolina, east Tennessee, or West Virginia, or even venture to a larger urban area such as Atlanta, Georgia or Washington, D.C via car or train.

In addition to quick trips in the surrounding region, Charlotteans may also take advantage of their local airport’s airline hub status by planning quick non-stop trips to hundreds of destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (the tenth busiest airport in the world by traffic movements in 2007) is a major hub for U.S. Airways, which offers non-stop flights to many cities and exciting destinations in the aforementioned world regions.

Whether you’re a native Charlottean looking for something to do in Charlotte or in the surrounding region for half a day, all day, or an entire weekend (or longer), or if you are planning a trip to the Charlotte area, I hope you will find my articles helpful. I see my Charlotte-based articles falling into one of three broad categories: things for Charlotteans and travelers to do within Charlotte itself; things to do and see in the surrounding Carolinas region; and places across the globe to travel to directly from Charlotte. I will do my best to write about travel opportunities from the above perspectives while incorporating my understanding of the world from a local, regional, national, and global perspective garnered from my experience as a geographer and my extensive domestic and international travel.