13 Most Beautiful Small Towns In North Carolina You Should Visit
North Carolina's most beautiful small towns are scattered across three very different landscapes. Some sit on the sounds and barrier-island waters of the Atlantic coast, where colonial ports grew up around fishing and trade. Others stand a mile up in the southern mountains, built as summer escapes from the heat. The rest fill the rolling Piedmont in between, county seats and old mill towns with their downtowns intact. The thirteen here cover all of it, each chosen for the history, setting, or architecture that sets it apart.
Bryson City
Bryson City sits just west of where the Tuckasegee River meets Deep Creek, about an hour west of Asheville. It is the western gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and most of what brings people here is outdoors. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad runs heritage excursions up the Nantahala Gorge. The Nantahala Outdoor Center guides rafting and paddling on the Nantahala River and Fontana Lake in the surrounding national forest.
The Swain County Heritage Museum and the Smoky Mountain Trains Museum cover the local history, and Nantahala Brewing pours the craft beer downtown.
Manteo
Just beside the Outer Banks, Manteo and its waterfront downtown keep locally owned shops, galleries, and restaurants along its harbor. Roanoke Island Festival Park and the North Carolina Aquarium anchor the north end of the island.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and the Elizabethan Gardens mark the site of the lost 16th-century colony, and The Lost Colony has retold that story in an outdoor theater each summer since 1937. The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse stands at the end of the downtown boardwalk.
Hillsborough
Hillsborough lines the Eno River about 12 miles northwest of Durham. Its downtown historic district holds more than 100 houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among them are the Federal-era Ayr Mount and the Old Orange County Courthouse, along with the Alexander Dickson House that now serves as the visitor center.
The Riverwalk follows the Eno as part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, with Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area and Eno River State Park nearby. The town's calendar includes the Hog Day barbecue festival and the Solstice lantern walk.
Highlands
Highlands is on a plateau above 4,000 feet in the southern Appalachian Mountains, within the Nantahala National Forest and spread across Macon and Jackson counties. The elevation made it a summer retreat from the heat of the lowland South, and it still fills in the warm months.
Its small downtown keeps inns, antique shops, and theaters, including the Highlands Playhouse and the Martin-Lipscomb Performing Arts Center. Waterfall trails run out to Bridal Veil Falls, Dry Falls, and Cullasaja Falls along the nearby gorge. Anglers fish Cliffside Lake Recreation Area and the small lakes around town, including Harris Lake.
Banner Elk
Banner Elk is in the North Carolina High Country, less than 20 miles from Boone, between two of the state's ski areas. Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain draw skiers and snowboarders through the winter, and in summer Wildcat Lake in town opens for swimming, fishing, and paddling.
The Blue Ridge Parkway, Grandfather Mountain, Linville Caverns, and the Blowing Rock are all within reach. Working farms, cafes, and small wineries fill in the rest. Every October, the Woolly Worm Festival marks the start of the cold season by reading the coming winter in the stripes of a woolly worm.
Edenton
Edenton sits at the head of Edenton Bay on Albemarle Sound, in the Inner Banks region, and it has drawn retirees and history travelers for years. The town is named for Charles Eden, a colonial governor of North Carolina in the early 1700s. In 1774, 51 local women led by Penelope Barker signed an agreement to boycott British goods, an act now known as the Edenton Tea Party and one of the earliest organized political actions by women in the colonies.
The waterfront keeps a dense stand of 18th- and 19th-century buildings, among them the Cupola House, the Chowan County Courthouse, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Water trails run out toward the canals along the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp.
Sylva
In the Plott Balsam Mountains, near both Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is Sylva. Its Main Street climbs toward the old Jackson County Courthouse, now the public library, past shops, bookstores, cafes, and craft breweries.
The Pinnacle trail above town opens onto the Scotts Creek valley. The American Museum of the House Cat and the Appalachian Women's Museum sit nearby. Annual events like the Greening Up the Mountains festival pull crowds downtown each spring.
Mount Airy
Mount Airy lies on the Ararat River at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, three miles south of the Virginia line. It was the birthplace of actor Andy Griffith and the model for the fictional town of Mayberry in his 1960s show, and it has built much of its identity on that connection. The Andy Griffith Museum, Floyd's City Barber Shop, and the squad-car tours downtown keep the Mayberry theme going year-round.
The Mount Airy Historic District holds commercial buildings from between 1880 and 1930, including the North Carolina Granite Corporation quarry complex north of downtown. The town hosts Mayberry Days each fall, along with the Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention and the Autumn Leaves Festival.
Saluda
About 35 miles south of Asheville is Saluda. The town sits at the top of the Saluda Grade, the steepest standard-gauge mainline railroad grade in the country, which carried trains up from the Pacolet valley until Norfolk Southern took it out of service in 2001. Its tree-lined Main Street keeps Victorian storefronts, art galleries, and century-old general stores.
The Green River Gorge, Pisgah National Forest, and DuPont State Recreational Forest surround the town with trails. Saluda's Coon Dog Day each July fills the streets.
Hendersonville
Hendersonville's tree-lined Main Street keeps historic storefronts, galleries, and museums. There are also theaters and breweries. The Henderson County Heritage Museum, the Mineral and Lapidary Museum, and the Western North Carolina Air Museum are all within walking distance. Jump Off Rock, in nearby Laurel Park, overlooks the Blue Ridge and Pisgah ranges. The North Carolina Apple Festival fills downtown over Labor Day weekend.
Blowing Rock
Blowing Rock's namesake rock formation rises more than 1,500 feet above the Johns River Gorge and gives long views over the mountains. Tweetsie Railroad, the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, and the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park on the nearby Parkway draw steady crowds.
Glen Burney Falls drops below the village on a trail from downtown. The town runs a full summer calendar, including Art in the Park, a Fourth of July parade, and the Symphony by the Lake at Chetola.
Southport
Southport is on the Cape Fear River about two miles inland from the Atlantic, in southeastern Brunswick County, with 3,971 residents at the 2020 census. The town built its identity on the river and the sea, and its quiet streets hold galleries, shops, and seafood spots near the docks.
The North Carolina Maritime Museum, Fort Johnston, and the Old Brunswick County Jail cover its history. Southport has stood in for small-town settings in films and shows including A Walk to Remember and Dawson's Creek. Its North Carolina Fourth of July Festival draws 40,000 to 50,000 people to the waterfront.
Boone
Boone, the seat of Watauga County, sits in the Blue Ridge at about 3,300 feet, the economic hub of the High Country. Named for the explorer Daniel Boone, it is home to Appalachian State University and a base for hiking, skiing, and mountain biking in the surrounding mountains.
The Daniel Boone Native Gardens, the Hickory Ridge Living History Museum, and the Jones House sit in or near downtown, with Grandfather Mountain and Elk Knob State Park close by. Every summer since 1952, the Daniel Boone Amphitheater stages Horn in the West, the nation's longest-running Revolutionary War outdoor drama. Boone is also one of the best-known college towns in the state.
Worth The Drive Off The Highway
What these towns share is that their pasts are still visible in them. Edenton kept its colonial waterfront, Mount Airy kept the streets that became Mayberry, and Hillsborough kept a hundred houses older than the state itself. The mountain towns, Highlands and Bryson City among them, were built for their settings and still answer to them. None of these places trades on being near a city. They hold up on their own terms, which is the reason to go out of the way for them.
