Explore Charlotte if politics loses its pull

 

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The 40,000-square-foot library on 20 acres on Westmont Drive retraces the pastor's youth on a farm to his international missionary work. Visitors can use interactive kiosks, see multimedia presentations and tour the restored house he lived in.

Among other attractions in TripAdvisor's Top 10 are the U.S. National Whitewater Center and the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

The whitewater center is an outdoor recreation and adventure sports facility with a man-made whitewater river for rafting, mountain biking and running trails, a climbing center and zip lines. The center, a U.S. Olympic training site, is on 400 acres of woodlands along the Catawba River.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame, across from the Charlotte Convention Center, has more than 40,000 square feet of space for hands-on exhibits, interactive video displays and a banked ramp simulating numerous auto racetracks.

Jodi Helmer, author of Moon Travel Guides' Charlotte book, says her favorite places are the Levine Museum of the New South and the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.

"The Levine Museum of the New South is a fantastic place to learn about the history of Charlotte and how it helped shape the South," Helmer says. "The Bechtler Museum has a phenomenal collection of modern art."

Mark de Castrique, a Charlotte-based author who has written numerous mystery novels, recommends taking a walk through a small park called The Green, next to the Bechtler Museum.

The park, he says, "is a tribute to literature, with extremely clever artwork and wordplay."

Nightlife

Though luxury cocktail lounges and sports bars abound in Charlotte neighborhoods, uptown — the locals' word for "downtown" — is the heart of the city's nightlife, according to Moon Travel Guides.

The EpiCentre, at the intersection of Trade and College streets, is the place to go, Helmer says.

"In one complex, there are several venues, from a dueling piano bar to an upscale bowling alley and an exclusive nightclub," the author says. "There are also tons of restaurants offering any kind of cuisine you can imagine."

Another popular spot is the North Carolina Music Factory, which Moon Travel Guides describes as "an amusement park for music lovers."

Standing alone in the heart of a former industrial district, the music factory is a former textile mill transformed into a mixed-use entertainment complex with music and comedy venues, bars and restaurants.

Traffic

Alice, the road warrior who formerly lived in Charlotte, implores visitors to avoid rush-hour traffic "at all costs." At certain times of day, "Charlotte's traffic is probably worse than Los Angeles traffic," she says.

Road warrior Dean Burri, an insurance agent who lived in the Charlotte area for 15 years and now lives in Tampa, says Charlotte — like many southern cities — lacks cross streets.

"You basically have a limited number of arteries with no alternatives," he says. "When I lived near Charlotte, we joked they put a road wherever the goat walked that day."