• Clarion Hotel, 320 Hillsborough St., (919) 832-0501. The 20-story hotel is undergoing its first major renovation since the 1960s. Try to get a room on the lower floors, which are being fixed up first.

 • Days Inn, 300 North Dawson St., (919) 828-9081. Closest to Glenwood South, where many bars and restaurants are located.

 • Sheraton Hotel, 421 South Salisbury St., (919) 834-9900. Another 20-story hotel, a touch fancier,   More...

Downtown Raleigh provides easy travel and access through its grid of one-way streets. If you're   More...

Driving in Hickory is quite easy, although the remaining one-way streets and eclectic street naming conventions can be somewhat bewildering. If you get lost, just ask a local and say you're out of town. They'll refrain from an age-old Hickory tradition of giving directions based on where things "used to be".

 • Hickory Museum of Art . Although American art was almost unrecognized outside of New York and Philadelphia in 1943, the North Carolina   More...

Durham owes much of its wealth and history to tobacco. Through the second half of the 19th Century, Washington Duke and his family grew from a single farm into American Tobacco, which controlled 90% of all cigarette production for the United States. The Duke family donated money to Trinity College, which in 1924 was renamed Duke University.

In the early 20th Century, North Carolina Mutual Life   More...

Charlotte is first and foremost a city of business and commerce. Charlotte is the second leading banking center in the United States, with the headquarters of Bank of America and Wachovia. Charlotte is also a distribution center   More...