Best Things To Do in Charlotte North Carolina 2024 4K

What's going on everybody this is Island Hopper TV and today we're going to talk about the best things to do while visiting Charlotte, North Carolina. Let's do it. That's right everybody we're coming to you from one of the fastest growing cities in the country right here in North Carolina. Carol Wynns is the best theme park in North Carolina with 14 roller coasters. Tickets during peak summer season cost around $55 and $25 for parking. Here we are now at the National Whitewater Center. Now this place is really cool because it's like an outdoor adventure park with whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and so much more. Day passes are $79 for adults, $69 for youth that's ages nine and under. But if you live here you could consider getting an annual pass for $149. If you just wanted to do single activities you could do rafting for $59, deep water solo for $39, flat water kayaking and stand-up paddleboard $39, whitewater kayaking and stand-up paddleboard for a total of $59, mountain biking around the park area $35, climbing $25, ice skating $25. Obviously that depends on the season. Now this is the largest man-made whitewater river in the world and it's also an Olympic training site. The park though is much more than rapids. They have a 1300 acre playground that you can really explore. If it's your first time doing whitewater rafting it's probably best to get in one of these rafts and get some practice. And as you can see they have this outdoor rock climbing gym. You can see there's multiple different boulders that you can scale going up here. Also if you look off in the distance you can see some zip lining which is another activity they include here. So really a fun place to spend the whole day. Now we're actually going to head to Uptown Charlotte. Uptown is considered the city core. Here you'll see Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. This is where they're going to have many different museums and also activities that you can do. So if you're considering getting a hotel this might be one of your best areas to stay. Also I would call this the downtown. Now the main street is going to be called Tryon Street and they're going to have restaurants, cafes, like I said plenty of museums which I'll show you a but you can also get around on one of these scooters, these handhelds, two-wheel electric scooters. It seemed like they had tours that they offer so you can look that up. But yeah you can also just walk up and down the street. It's not too long. Charlotte also has the Lynx tram network. Originally opened in 2007 there's actually 26 stations. Here we are now at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. If you love NASCAR Charlotte might just be the best place to go because the NASCAR Hall of Fame is a pretty good museum for y'all. And adults tickets are $27. Youth $4 to $12 or $20. Seniors with valid ID are $25. And military with valid ID actually gets a discount at $20. Here you'll find memorials for NASCAR icons. They also have a tribute to the drivers, crew members, and team owners. They have classic and present-day cars as well as interactive experiences, racing simulators. Located right here along Martin Luther King Boulevard. It's actually several different stories for you to explore. It sits on 150,000 square feet surface so it's quite large. And it opened in 2010. So you may be wondering why they chose Charlotte for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. And the reason is because the stock car racing routes are actually known to come from North Carolina. So Charlotte was considered the perfect place for NASCAR Hall of Fame. They also have the Charlotte Speedway which we'll be showing you here in a moment. But here they also have a high-octane theater and a ceremonial plaza along with the Glory Road. The Great Hall and Studio 43 named in honor of Richard Petty's car number used for television productions. There is a look at that theater. Now we're talking about Charlotte Motor Speedway. This is one of the super speedways known as America's Home for Racing for more than 60 years. Okay here we are at the Billy Graham Library. Billy Graham known as a famous American evangelist for Southern Baptist ministry, civil rights advocate. He used to be a televangelist as they would call him. Probably one of the first ones. And if you come out here to the library you'll see a beautiful grounds along with his burial site next to his wife. And of course the library is a place you can hang out and really just relax in this well manicured gardenscape of beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina. Now we're headed back over to Charlotte City Center. This here is Freedom Park. A great place to do activities, walk around at night, get some good exercise. And again a very beautiful place in the North Carolina atmosphere. They do have bike rentals here so that's a great way to actually explore the whole park. Now we're actually going to head out west a bit here to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It's about a two to three hour drive away from Charlotte but it's definitely a place that's one of America's true treasures of natural pristine wilderness. And then from here you can actually go to Asheville. If you feel like driving some more you can go to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Now here we are at Bank of America Stadium. This here is where the Carolina Panthers play and they do other activities and events at this beautiful stadium. The Panthers play from September to December so try to watch some of those games. Also local breweries, very famous in Charlotte. Charlotte is known for that. The old Mecklenburg Brewery and Beer Garden is one of the most famous. Now when in Charlotte you got to try some of that famous North Carolina barbecue, mostly ribs as you can see. And then they have great steakhouses that I've had and I've tried across Charlotte. You can check out Midwood's Smokehouse, McCoy's Smokehouse or Sweet Lou's Barbecue. They also have great bakeries and pies here like Sweet Potato Pie or Cherry Pie. Don't forget to try some of that locally caught trout as well. Well here we have the Levine Museum of the New South. The Levine Museum of the New South is actually a free museum. You walk around and you learn a lot of history about Charlotte. Probably takes you around 30 minutes. Something to do when you're in the downtown area and you'll learn a lot about Charlotte. And as we continue to show you around Charlotte, I want to let you guys know if you're enjoying this video and you want to see more videos from the east coast of the United States. We've recently done many cities along the eastern seaboard. So I hope you guys subscribe to the channel and check out those videos as we continue to show you around. The area around the Levine Museum is one of my favorite areas in all the uptown area. As you can see, very scenic. At Ratcliffe's Flowers and the Green right here. So here we are in front of Knight Theater. For those of you who love going to theater shows, you can do that all across Charlotte's downtown area. Now between breweries and theater shows, that's very popular in Charlotte. You'll hear that from most locals. Belk Theater at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center is another popular theater along with Knight. And right next door is the Mint Museum. Now this is actually an art museum. You can go inside here. They have five different floors that you can explore. Various art galleries and exhibits. It's a lot of fine art and some cosmopolitan new age art that I discovered here. And yes, and ticket prices for adults $15. $65 and over is $10. And then $5 to $17 is $6. And the good news is military members actually qualify for a military discount. Don't quote me on this, but I believe it's free if you're a military or veteran. So be sure to confirm that at the front desk. There is also a Mint Museum Randolph along with the Mint Museum Uptown, which is the one we're showing you here. Expect to spend around two to three hours here. So now that we've shown you most of the things to do, what we're actually going to do is give you some information that's going to prepare you for your trip to Charlotte, such as transportation, demographics, and other pertinent information. So let's get into that now. Just so you know, this was my second trip to Charlotte. Now let's talk about some things to know when visiting Charlotte. So transportation wise, driving around here is a bit scattered. It's not as organized as most American cities. There's not as many freeways. Sure there is a freeway, but it's not as common. So you spend a lot of time on surface streets to go long distance. Even going from the airport, it seemed like I came in on a surface street and not a freeway into the downtown Uptown area. There is plenty of Uber. There's a light rail, there's buses, and it just seemed like Uber was the best way to get around if you don't get a rental car. There's probably enough parking for rental cars here, so that's a good thing. But there you go, that's what you need to know about transport. Now let's talk about the arrival into Charlotte. So more than likely you will arrive into Charlotte Douglas International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country. And from there, it'll be about a 20 to 25 minute drive in a town, mostly on those surface streets. If you arrive by train, you can easily do that coming in from Virginia or Atlanta. There's an Amtrak route. Also people can arrive by bus. There's also a bus that goes out to Asheville. So it just depends on how you want to arrive. You can also arrive by one of the many highways that go through here. Okay, now let's talk about the weather and climate while here in Charlotte. So, it doesn't really snow here. I mean, it can get cold enough to where it can feel like if there is a cloud system or moisture in the air, it could snow. But really it doesn't. But generally speaking, it does not get as hot as Florida, of course. Still can get quite humid. It can have its hot spells and it can have its cold spells where it goes below freezing. But for the most part, the weather in Charlotte is considered mild. The best time to arrive here would probably be around May or September, October, if you want probably the best weather without too much extreme hot or extreme cold. So mostly the thing you need to know, mild weather. General facts about Charlotte. It is 2.5 million people almost in the metropolitan area. If you include just Charlotte alone, that's around a million. So it's growing fast here. Lots of people are trying to move to Charlotte and it's becoming one of the most popular places in the country to move. Almost all of North Carolina really has taken off in popularity. And it is known as the second most powerful financial region of the United States, just behind New York. So you could say it is the financial capital of the South. And that's going to conclude this episode of Charlotte. If you enjoyed this one, consider watching our Atlanta video or Philadelphia next.