13 hidden gems in the 2025 North Carolina Travel Guide

The new North Carolina travel guide gives a first look at the best spots to visit in the Tar Heel state in 2025. 

A new year brings new opportunities to visit places you’ve never been, see things you haven’t seen, patronize establishments you’ve never stepped inside of, and try food you’ve never eaten. 

But where to start with such tasks? In December, our state’s official tourism agency, Visit NC, released the 2025 North Carolina Travel Guide, a 118-page roadmap to wanderlust in the Old North State. 

From stellar attractions to under-the-stars campgrounds, the guide reveals vibrant experiences to be found day and night in cities, towns, and outdoor wonderlands across the state—everything from high adventure to pure tranquility across 500 miles of scenic wonder.

Let’s take a tour of some of the highlights:

Overnight Sensations: The Flat Iron Hotel

20 Battery Park Ave, Asheville

Completed in 1926, one of Asheville’s first “skyscrapers” (nine stories tall) now serves vacationers looking to stay in the heart of downtown’s rich art, music, and culinary scene. The Flat Iron Hotel opened in 2024 and had to turn right around and close from Sept. 27-Nov. 22 due to damage from Hurricane Helene, but it’s back, boasting a popular rooftop that pairs Blue Ridge Mountain views with local wine and beer, along with small plates showcasing the bounty of area farmers. 

Overnight Sensations showcases lodgings, campgrounds, and luxe resorts.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Fiasco Media (@fiasco.media)

The Fast Lane: North Wilkesboro Speedway

381 Speedway Lane, North Wilkesboro

This historic track opened in 1947 and hosted early NASCAR races. After powering down in 1996 and parking in idle for many years, the track was overhauled and returned to host the 2023 NASCAR All-Star Race. Fun fact: In 2024, construction crews discovered what was rumored to be an abandoned moonshine cave under the grandstands.

Check out The Fast Lane for more auto racing, motorcycles, and mountain bikes. 

Oyster Quest: Ocracoke Oyster Company

621 Irvin Garrish Hwy, Ocracoke

This steak-and-seafood joint near Windmill Point serves select oysters from a trio of neighboring farms on the Outer Banks. Enjoy yours on the half-shell with a zippy side of wasabi and ginger, doused in spicy mustard vinegar sauce, or prepared Rockefeller-style.

Extra: We put together this Charlotte Oyster Trail back in November 2023. 

Flip to the Oyster Quest section to explore the rest of the NC Oyster Trail. 

Tuned In: Backstreet Pub

124 Middle Lane, Beaufort

Named one of the South’s best dive bars, and before that dubbed “the friendliest, funkiest little bar from Maine to Venezuela,” the Backstreet Pub in Beaufort has occupied a century-old converted bakery for decades, and the cozy brick building with patio seating rolls out live music every week with rock, funk and blues bands. The clientele is as varied as the performers, and it’s always a friendly crowd.

As a bonus, check out our list of 42 music festivals coming to North Carolina in 2025. 

Tuned in features music festivals, iconic venues, and legendary performers. 

Fresh Air Family Fun: North Carolina Zoo

4401 Zoo Parkway, Asheboro

From April to October, ride in an open-air safari vehicle on a Zoofari tour of the Watani Grasslands for an up-close look at rhinos, gazelles, antelope, and elephants at the North Carolina Zoo. You can also stay on foot and meet bears, barking tree frogs, and hundreds of other creatures at the world’s largest natural habitat zoo.

Fresh Air Family Fun is exactly what it sounds like: outdoor adventures for all ages in all regions of NC. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by North Carolina Zoo (@nczoo)

Distinct Flavors: The Barbecue Center

900 N. Main St., Lexington

Lexington-style barbecue features a vinegary, tomato-laced “dip” along with sliced, chopped, or pulled pork shoulder. It’s traditionally served with a red-tinted slaw at places like The Barbecue Center in Lexington, the oldest of a dozen local spots still cooking in a pit. (They’re also known for their behemoth of a banana split.)

Award-winning restaurants, iconic barbecue joints, global eateries, and Southern staples are highlighted throughout the Distinct Flavors section. 

10 Ways to Water: White Lake

Subterranean springs feed the pristine waters of the White Lake near Elizabethtown in Bladen County. With no tides or currents, its shore is considered one of the nation’s safest beaches. There’s also a commercial resort area if you’re more the water park type. 

Splash around in 10 Ways to Water for more picturesque havens of liquid excitement

Fabled Fairways: Occano

105 Scotch Hall Court, Merry Hill

More than half the holes on the recently updated Arnold Palmer-designed course at Occano offer cart-stopping views of Albemarle Sound and Salmon Creek, particularly the par-three 17th — good luck keeping your eye on the ball and the flagstick. Wide fairways and frequent breezes invite aggressive driving (à la Arnie’s hitch-up-your-pants style), but beware of challenging bunkers. The course is surprisingly rolling for the coast.

Visit the Fabled Fairways section to learn more about the most storied golf courses in NC

Get Social: Kindred

131 N. Main St., Davidson

Younger generations are drinking less but going out more, so any savvy restaurateur should be catering to that crowd as much as they are the drinkers. You’ll never go wrong with the barkeeper’s choice at the nationally recognized restaurant of Joe and Katy Kindred, famed for their milk bread. Discuss your preferences and savor a custom drink, which comes with a keepsake handwritten recipe.

The Get Social section highlights the state’s newly legal social districts as well as more mocktail menus and unique sipping scenes. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kindred (@kindredrestaurant)

No Limits: International Civil Rights Center & Museum

134 S Elm St., Greensboro

Three tour options suit different mobility and comfort levels at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, known as the site of the Greensboro sit-in (Yes, they actually built the museum around the Woolworth’s where the iconic protest took place). Interactive virtual tours are entirely online, consisting of prerecorded footage and a live discussion via Zoom with a senior museum docent.

No Limits showcases a number of accessible attractions for everyone to enjoy across the state. 

Passion Points: ZipQuest

533 Carvers Falls Road, Fayetteville

It’s one thing to build an epic zipline park sustainably integrated into a dense forest and waterfall terrain. It’s another to ensure that the destination is as accessible as possible, which is a North Star value at ZipQuest. “A big part of the tour guide’s role is to coach and support guests in every way,” course manager Greg Shinn says. During his 14 years at ZipQuest, one of his most memorable experiences involved supporting a wheelchair user who was determined to zipline after a paralyzing traffic accident. 

Shinn has also guided a 95-year-old guest and her 93-year-old sister through all eight ziplines. For a truly unique thrill, anyone can book a weekend NightQuest expedition, complete with a bridge walk past the course’s waterfall illuminated by a spotlight. “I call us the Disney World of Fayetteville,” Shinn says.

Follow the lead of more local guides in Passion Points. 

Bird Spotting: Hawksbill Mountain

601 N King St, Morganton

Hikers have long loved the short but rigorous climb (1.5 miles round-trip) to the top of Hawksbill Mountain near Linville Falls for stunning views of the gorge below, but birders will find their eyes gazing skyward to watch the raptors that frequent the area. Peregrine falcons, turkey vultures, owls, and numerous hawk species seem to float effortlessly above the craggy landscape — then suddenly dive for dinner.

A field guide for avian aficionados awaits in the Bird Spotting section. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Taylor Mobley (@tayymobley)

Artistic Showcase: Levine Avenue of the Arts

Uptown Charlotte

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art is easy to spot. The 17-foot-high Firebird, a Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture glittering with mirrored tiles, guards the entrance. Inside, three floors hold some 1,500 works by modern masters like Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso. Next door is the sleek Mint Museum Uptown, where Summer Wheat’s Foragers inspires awe. Four-story-high vinyl panels glow like stained glass, filling the atrium’s 96 windows.

Then, just across South Tryon Street, you’ll find the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, rounding out a trio of museum trips on a single block for the perfect afternoon of art appreciation and education. 

Explore more creative spaces that compete with NC’s natural beauty in the Artistic Showcase section.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Harvey B. Gantt Center (@hbganttcenter)

About the North Carolina Travel Guide

“With four distinct seasons and our geographic medley, North Carolina inspires wish lists of every description,” said Wit Tuttell, Visit NC’s executive director, upon the guide’s release. “The new Travel Guide brings a fresh approach to channeling what, where, why, and how into meaningful getaways that reflect authenticity along every mile.” 

By the time readers reach the end of the guide, they’ll have passed through 158 towns and cities to glimpse more than 300 attractions, restaurants, lodging properties, and events.

“The Travel Guide illustrates what makes North Carolina alluring for first-timers and returning visitors alike,” Tuttell said. “It showcases experiences that draw travelers to our cities, mountains and beaches while presenting them in a new light.” 

Tuttell pointed out one of his own favorite features of the new guide, called Passion Points, in which local guides add an insider perspective to popular attractions they know best. 

Available for free in print, PDF, or to read online, the latter version offers interactive features including hyperlinks and the ability to skip to certain parts from the table of contents or other spots near the front of the book. 

Besides Passion Points, other editorial highlights include Get Social, which showcases the state’s booming social district scene; No Limits, featuring wheelchair-accessible and sensory-friendly destinations; and Bird Spotting, an illustrated field guide to birding in North Carolina. 

There’s an overwhelming amount of info and ideas included in the NC Travel Guide’s 118 pages. No need to worry, we’ve read through each page and picked out some of the best hidden gems. We highly suggest you order a copy or stick the online guide in your Favorites bar, but in the meantime, here are some highlights from a dozen of the guide’s 17 sections to show you what to look for while traveling across North Carolina in 2025. 

“We extend a special invitation for travelers to pin down plans for 2025 trips as a ‘Happy New Year’ to destinations across the state, especially those that are newly recovered from the effects of Hurricane Helene,” said Tuttell. 

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.