At Carowinds alone, you'll find more than 60 first-class attractions, the best water park in the Carolinas, live entertainment, Camp Snoopy, and Carolina's home cooking. Special events for the whole family keep guests returning for new ways to play throughout the season. Conveniently located just off Interstate 77, on the border of North and South Carolina, Carowinds is a giant 400-acre amusement park with more than 50 thrilling attractions for visitors to enjoy. One of the park's most popular rides is a 325-foot-tall roller coaster known as the Fury 325, but there are also a dozen other roller coasters, as well as many thrilling rides such as the Slingshot and rides for children designed with families in mind.
The ticket price also includes access to Carolina Harbor, the 27-acre water park located within the park. Offering something for everyone, Frankie's Fun Park is an exciting amusement center with enough rides and games to keep the whole family entertained all day long. Visitors can stay active on the rope course, in the batting cages or on the mini-golf course, but they can also immerse themselves in a virtual world in the games room or in the flight simulator. There is no admission fee to enter the park; instead, visitors pay for each activity as they go.
Drinks and snacks are available on-site, and the park is proud to offer birthday party packages with pizza and access to attractions. Located just outside the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Santa's Land is a Christmas theme park with lots of attractions, shows, and attractions. One of the highlights is the opportunity to meet Santa Claus, but visitors can also marvel at the zoo animals, enjoy the rides, the rowboats on the lake in the park and see exciting live magic shows. The park is open every day from mid-May to the end of October, and there are discounted tickets for birthday parties and groups of 20 or more people.
The North Carolina Zoo is a zoo in Asheboro that houses more than 1600 animals of more than 250 species, mainly from the North American and African continents. Located in the Uwharrie Mountains, in Randolph County, the zoo covers more than 2,000 acres and is one of the largest pedestrian zoos in the world. The North Carolina Zoo is open 364 days a year and is one of North Carolina's most popular tourist attractions. The North Carolina Zoo is home to more than 1600 animals from more than 250 species from regions around the world, including the largest collection of Alaskan seabirds and chimpanzees in the country.
The zoo is divided into two main areas: Africa and North America, with five miles of trails connecting the two, as well as air-conditioned trams and buses for visitors. The zoo's exhibits are designed to reflect natural habitats as found in the wild, with vast tracts of land and natural vegetation. The North Carolina Zoo spearheaded efforts to rebuild and maintain the Kabul Zoo after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, raising funds, organizing the reconstruction and renovation of exhibitions, the care and purchase of animals, staff training and business strategy. The zoo did the same with the Baghdad Zoo after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and is now coordinating a veterinary medicine program with the zoo instead of maintaining animal exhibits.
The garden was founded by Professor William Chambers Coker in 1903, when he began planting shrubs and trees on the University's central campus, now known as the Coker Arboretum. University trustees donated an additional 70 acres to the garden in 1952, and William Lanier Hunt donated another 103 acres. Significant expansions were made in the 1960s, including the sustainable Visitor Education Center designed by Frank Harmon, which contributed to the vast 1,000 acres that make up today's Botanical Garden. The North Carolina Botanical Garden has 14 unique collections and exhibition gardens, containing more than 2,500 species of the nearly 5000 species of plants that are native or naturalized in North and South Carolina.
Built as a gift from John Motley Morehead III in 1891, the Morehead building and planetarium has been used to train astronauts for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, including astronauts who walked on the Moon like Neil Armstrong. The Morehead Planetarium has a 68-foot-wide and 44-foot-high dome, can accommodate up to 240 people and has two different projection systems, including a full-dome digital video projection system (FDV) for super-high-definition image resolution, surround sound and a fully immersive planetarium experience. The North Carolina Zoo offers a variety of educational programs, camps, workshops and projects for visitors of all ages that focus on the conservation and preservation of the natural environment. The mission of the North Carolina Botanical Garden is to inspire a deeper appreciation and understanding of plants and nature and to encourage interest in plant conservation to provide and maintain a sustainable relationship between nature and people.
Located between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, North Carolina is often thought of as a destination for hiking, fishing and sunbathing on the beach. The herbarium has 750,000 natural history specimens that document the identity and distribution of plants in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast. The carnivorous plant collection is an acclaimed collection of unique carnivorous plants, including pitcher plants, butterflies, Venus fly traps and sundecks, and the habitat gardens of Coastal Plain and Sandhills feature fauna and flora found in the ecosystems of eastern North Carolina. The North Carolina Botanical Garden has 10 acres of exhibition gardens and several pristine natural areas in the North Carolina Piedmont.
The North Carolina Zoo is located at 4401 Zoo Parkway in Asheboro, North Carolina. The zoo has three restaurants that serve a variety of snacks and beverages, as well as ATMs. Joseph Caldwell was a professor of mathematics and the first president of the University of North Carolina. Often regarded as one of the best boardwalks in the United States, the Carolina Beach Boardwalk amusement park offers a wide variety of classic family fun.
Depending on what interests you, you can ride a roller coaster that will cause screams, visit Santa Claus in the middle of summer, or spend the afternoon cooling off in a water park. .
