Source: Wikipedia.
Raleigh may lack some of the country’s more famous attractions and landmarks but there’s still a lot here to keep residents and visitors amused. There are numerous museums, theatres, shops, parks, and restaurants in the city.
Dining Out in Raleigh
Raleigh doesn’t have a specialty as such when it comes to cuisine, but North Carolina as a whole is known for its pork barbecue, so try to sample some of this if you’re visiting the city.
Across Raleigh there’s an excellent assortment of restaurants serving many different international cuisines. Those classed as American are definitely the most plentiful, but there’s Chinese, Greek, Italian, Mexican, and Japanese restaurants too, among others.
The top rated restaurant in the city, according to Trip Advisor, is actually Peruvian. Machu Picchu Restaurant in North Raleigh. Other popular establishments include 18 Seaboard, Sitti, and Winston’s Grille.
Raleigh’s Attractions
Museums are definitely among the best attractions in Raleigh, so if you and your family enjoy discovering culture or educating yourselves, Raleigh is perfect. Marbles Kids Museum is a great one to visit if you have younger children, and slightly older kids will appreciate the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. This is actually the oldest museum in the state and the largest of its kind in the Southeast. It’s a natural history museum so has a large selection of exhibits.
Raleigh City Museum is the one to visit to learn about the local history, and there are historic homes open to the public too, including the Joel Lane House, Mordecai House, Montfort Hall, and the Pope House Museum. In fact, if you like history there are several historic districts to explore in Raleigh which have historic homes and other buildings.
Parks and Gardens in Raleigh
There is 8,100 acres of park land in the city, so plenty of places to get out and enjoy the fresh air. The JC Raulston Arboretum is a popular attraction and it’s open to the public and free to enter. It’s an arboretum and botanical garden that has over 5,000 taxa of plants and trees. There are more natural areas like the William B Umstead State Park where you can hike, fish or canoe, or explore the trails around the lake at the Lake Johnson Nature Park.
Shopping in Raleigh
Like most cities of its size Raleigh has numerous places to shop, from the smaller neighborhood shopping streets to the big box stores further out from the city center. In downtown Raleigh there are individual stores, and the historic City Market is popular. Cameron Village is popular too and it’s home to the oldest boutique stores in the city. It was the first shopping center to be built between D.C. and Atlanta and has a friendly feel to its shops and services. If you want to shop in a mall though, head for Crabtree Valley Mall as it’s the largest in the region.
