Grown-ups Getaways Inspire Trips Across NC

Chetola Lake Picnic at Chetola Resort  | Photo Credit: VisitNC.com

Take cabin fever, a normal wintertime affliction, and compound it with a year of COVID-19-induced travel restrictions, and it would be hard to find anyone not longing to hit the road. That may be especially true for parents who have worked heroically to create quality family time. The ideas that follow are designed with adults in mind for whenever the time seems right to explore North Carolina.

If the scales suggest a “quarantine 15” weight gain, indulge in a weeklong, all-inclusive stay at Skyterra Wellness Retreat in Lake Toxaway. Just beyond Skyterra’s cottages, culinary center, activity house, dock and trailheads, guests find a vast Pisgah National Forest playground for waterfall hikes, kayaking and rafting, fishing and cycling. Once the stay ends, benefits continue via free Skyterra at Home resources and long-distance coaching.

At other mountain resorts, respite-seekers can build wellness into a stay with a mix of on-site amenities and natural assets. Options at the Greystone Inn at Lake Toxaway include yoga and guided hikes. Old Edwards Inn and Spa in Highlands incorporates sessions in the fitness center with nature walks and power hikes. In Asheville, visitors to the 8,000-acre Biltmore estate can turn the experience inside out with hiking, biking, horseback riding and French Broad River activities. Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock combines fitness classes, on-site trails and Blue Ridge Parkway hikes with fly-fishing, archery and other activities at the Chetola Sporting Reserve.

To quench the thirst for optimism, book a golf getaway to the Pinehurst area, where positive outlooks prevail on three dozen courses. Options range from stay-and-play offers at Pinehurst Resort and Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, past and future hosts of the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open, to package deals at other courses set amid the pines. Visitors can work their muscles at the multi-sport National Athletic Village, with indoor and outdoor skydiving, on nature walks and through shopping marathons.

Par makes a perfect quest elsewhere in North Carolina. County-owned Tanglewood Park in Clemmons  delivers two Robert Trent Jones courses (the historic Championship Course is newly refreshed by son RTJ II), a B&B, RV camping, gardens, horseback riding, tennis and Softgolf. Two courses unfold at Greensboro’s Grandover Resort & Conference Center, and the 18 holes at The Ballantyne Hotel come with an array of luxury a few miles from bustling Uptown Charlotte. On the southern coast, Brunswick Plantation Resort & Golf packages lodging and play on the resort’s course and others.  At Harrah’s Cherokee Resort, the Great Smoky Mountains frame the challenging shots at Sequoyah National Golf Club.

If peace and quiet speak to your soul and your soulmate, book a lodge room or a cabin at Singletree Gun & Plough in Westfield. With its private wilderness preserve on the Dan River near Hanging Rock State Park, Singletree allows guests a yin-and-yang menu to pursue solitude or social interaction, to feel enriched by rustic woods or elegant furnishings, to hole up with a book or let nature lead them through the outdoor wonders. At Fearrington in Pittsboro, the bucolic beauty of a historic farm (complete with Belted Galloways and Tennessee fainting goats) evokes the tranquility of simple times with dream-come-true pursuits of fine wine and dining, village shopping, and strollable grounds and gardens.

For more inspiration, stop by VisitNC.com, where you can also connect to travel-related updates on COVID-19.

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