We visited Raleigh in November 2024 as part of our two-week Carolinas in November trip.

At long last, we’re on the road again! It feels like forever since we’ve been out Airstreaming: our last trip was a week in the mountains of North Carolina back in May. The most recent write-ups from Asheville and Black Mountain are bittersweet reads now that some of the places pictured no longer exist post-Helene. We’ll talk about that more at the end of this trip when we visit those two towns.

Our first stop (after the requisite Biscuitville breakfast in southern VA) on this Carolinas in November trip was Raleigh, a favorite non-Airstream/non-Bugsy destination for us Central Virginians, so we were thrilled to be able to take the dog and the trailer. Raleigh is a big city with lots to do, but we didn’t do any touristy stuff this time in town.

Campground

We’ve not camped in Raleigh before because the commercial camping options aren’t convenient for in-town explorations. But lo! Raleigh Brewing Company is a Harvest Host, and we’re new Harvest Host users! Well, “new” is a stretch: we joined Harvest Host almost a year ago after talking to a beertender in Knoxville in December, but never actually used it until now. Our stay at RBC was super.

We had a choice of two parking spots and chose the more level of the two, a mulchy area clearly used for dog-walking by patrons who don’t necessarily clean up after themselves. Luckily, most of the dog poo was old and easy to avoid. Other than that, everything was great: super friendly people, very quiet location (other than a short but loud train at 6:30am), and easy access to our targets around Raleigh.

Meredith College is across the street, NC State is maybe a half-mile away, there’s a bike rental station in front of the brewery, Gym Tacos is around the corner, and Lucky Tree coffee shop is in the next block. And RBC’s beer is good! We’ll stay at RBC again!

Eating and drinking

Dinner

With just one night in Raleigh, we made a reservation at our favorite restaurant there: Brewery Bhavana. It was packed and delicious, even for this pescatarian wading through a very meat-heavy dim sum/creative Chinese menu.

Drinks

A last-minute surprise for us was finding out half of our favorite cousin-family from Atlanta would be in town for a soccer tournament! After dinner at Bhavana, we met the team and parents at Carolina Ale House, an easy place to feed a gaggle of 12-year-old girls and let the parents relax with a beer. Upon smelling the fried food we immediately realized we’d been to a Carolina Ale House before, to watch a basketball game near Charleston in 2017.

We didn’t stay too long at Carolina Ale House because we had to get home to RBC to spend the requested $30 in exchange for the parking spot (that’s how Harvest Host works). Luckily, the beer is very tasty! We sat outside with Bugsy and enjoyed the sour and hazy IPA and free dog biscuits, and hit our $30 by treating a brave karaoke singer to a round.

Coffee

Lucky Tree is a cute-looking coffee shop near RBC, and we planned to go until we saw that the only food they serve is baked goods. We were coming home from a tough workout and needed something more substantial, so we got bagels from Brueggers to eat in the car. Not exciting, but quick and easy.

Activities

The girls’ soccer tournament was at Middle Creek Park, a huge public park next door in Cary, with ball fields, tennis courts, a disc golf course, trails, a playground, all the things. If you’re staying in Raleigh and need a spot to run your kids or yourself around, it’s a good spot. Dogs aren’t allowed on the soccer fields but it was no problem to watch the game from behind the short fence. If you want to get closer to the action and set up one of those fancy shade chairs that all the soccer parents seemed to have, you might leave your pupper at home.

Our morning activity before shipping out was to hit the Raleigh outpost of our home gym, MADabolic. Coach Lynette was lovely and kicked our butts. Next visit, I’m excited to explore Raleigh’s extensive running/walking/biking trail network that runs past RBC. Reedy Creek Trail and Rocky Branch Trail come together next to the brewery and connect to numerous other trails, including the 15-mile Walnut Creek Greenway Trail.

Next stop: Georgetown, SC! It’s a charming, historic harbor town, but we were now a little concerned about our choice of destination: our Atlanta cousin’s memory of Georgetown from 20+ years ago was that the town smelled bad from its paper plant!