A delightfully old-school house of optical illusions near Blowing Rock east of Boone, where water runs uphill and balls roll the wrong way — an easy goofy detour off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Road trips · North Carolina
North Carolina road trips & hidden gems.
The stops worth changing a travel day for in North Carolina — crowd-voted gems, events worth traveling for, and the public golf you can actually book. Curated by Roamward, the scenic road-trip planner.
Hidden gems
What locals say you shouldn’t miss.
Crowd-nominated in the Gem Hunt. Add yours and vote the finalists into the app.
A whole building shaped like a giant Victorian dresser, complete with two enormous socks dangling from a drawer, in downtown High Point — the self-styled furniture capital of the world.
Old mica mines turned into a hands-on gem-panning and underground-tour complex near Little Switzerland, tucked in the Blue Ridge high country off the Parkway.
A 15-foot cast-iron skillet parked in tiny Rose Hill, built to fry thousands of chickens at once — a quick, very Southern photo stop in the coastal-plain farm country.
A giant tin coffee pot from 1858 that once marked a Moravian tinsmith's shop, still standing in Old Salem in Winston-Salem — a charming relic in the heart of the historic district.
Tucked into a former general store on Highway 441 south of Sylva, one man's lifelong, gloriously overstuffed collection of cat memorabilia funds a local spay-neuter charity — a grin-inducing mountain detour.
Tee it up
Public golf you can book in North Carolina.
Pinehurst · $$$$$ — Ross's crowned-green cathedral
Pinehurst · $$$$$ — Sandy, rugged sister to No. 2
West End · $$$$ — Sandhills golf near Pinehurst
Southern Pines · $$$$ — 1921 Ross, frozen in time
Southern Pines · $$$$ — Four-time Women's Open host
Pinehurst · $$$$ — Secluded longleaf pine seclusion
Plan the North Carolina trip
Get the scenic route, the stops, and the timing.
Roamward turns these into a real road trip — the drive, the detours, and the stays. Join early access for the iOS beta.