The Carolinas

Sitting next to each other on the Atlantic coast and adjoining Georgia, North and South Carolina can easily be combined in one fly-drive holiday or added on to a longer trip starting as far south as New Orleans. Both states offer a winning combination of good places to stay, history, lovely beaches, great golf courses and superb food.

From the mountains to the coast, North Carolina features natural beauty, history, arts and adventure as well as 500 golf courses and 70 native wineries. The mountains offer hiking on the Appalachian Trail and rafting in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Mountains as well as being the home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Central North Carolina has one-of-a-kind shopping, dynamic cities and is the “heart” of NASCAR racing. The coast offers the Outer Banks, lighthouses, fresh seafood and 300 miles of unspoiled beaches.

South Carolina is noted for its hospitality, its food, its beautiful plantation houses as well as the history of the American Civil War of which the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. It is home to eight national parks and 47 state parks, perfect for exploring the state’s history and natural landscape. Visit Ninety Six National Historic Site to uncover the history of Revolutionary War battles, or Myrtle Beach State Park for hiking and biking trails across the sand dunes. Drive the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway to discover peach orchards, rustic towns and Lake Keowee contrasting with South Carolina’s jewel in the crown: Charleston.

The Carolina beaches are some of the best in the US, with South Carolina boasting the lively Myrtle Beach, peaceful Edisto Island, Kiawah with its challenging golf courses and Hilton Head, another of the barrier islands with upscale hotels and good golf. North Carolina is famous, among other things, for the Outer Banks: the 200 mile chain of barrier islands protecting the state from the Atlantic storms and notable for their magnificent sand dunes and for seeing the launch of the Wright brothers’ first flight.