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3 Day Weekend Travel Guide to Charlotte, North Carolina!

This past weekend when my two favorite Brits came down to visit me during their great roadtrip across America, I enlisted their help in exploring the Queen City and in trying a few exciting weekend activities that Charlotte has to offer.

Check out my 3 day weekend guide on everything you need to see and do in Charlotte!


Day 1:

What is cuter than a puppy? That would be just about any baby ~*exotic*~ animal. This weekend we got to spend an hour at Zootastic Park, a privately owned and operated zoo.  So basically we got to spend an hour feeding, playing, cuddling the cutest animals ever. We got to spend some quality time with a kangaroo joey, a kinkajou (we had no clue what a kinkajou was before this day, but now we are all in love), a baby artic fox (who was best friends with the kinkajou), lemurs, a tiger cub, and a baby giraffe. When visiting Zootastic please note that appropriate footwear is HIGHLY recommended (I still haven’t gotten all the giraffe poop off my sandals) and make sure your hair is neatly tied up (or else you will have to take your luscious locks of flowing hair out of a baby giraffe’s mouth, and it will be drenched in copious amounts of slobber).

 

Charlotte zoo travel blogger

Sammy the kangaroo jooey and Sam the Liverpudlian (top) got on especially well

 

Charlotte zoo travel blogger

Me, Asha, Sam, & the Lemurs

Charlotte zoo travel blogger

Opie the Tiger cub & Jigsaw (“Jiggy”) the Giraffe

Later in the day, after cleaning ourselves up a bit after our animal adventure, we hopped on the light rail and headed to historic south end Charlotte to eat dinner at Foodtruck Friday. We decided to stand in what seemed like the longest line ever, but it was definitely worth the wait for some tacos from The Tin Kitchen (our favorite was the pork belly taco). With our tacos in hand, we got back on the light rail and made our way into the heart of uptown Charlotte, found a fountain (which I’m like 90% was in a scene of Homeland) to sit by and finally eat our food.

 

Left to Right: In front of the Mint Museum of Modern Art; standing behind The Tin Kitchen with our food after waiting in line; our amazing tacos (including thai coconut shrimp, pork belly, BBQ beef brisket, & chicken tinga)

Day 2:

On our second day we decided to do something that none of us had ever done before, so we spent our afternoon at BLACK OUT, which offers different themed escape room experiences. Owners DC and Adam, and all other staff members are always in full character- and really put forth an effort into making sure you have an enjoyable and personalized experience. Right now there are two available themed experiences– South End Psycho & Trade Street Epidemic. Sam, Asha, and I chose South End Psycho, in which we had 60 minutes to break into a serial killer’s house and use clues to figure out who his next victim would be and then escape before he returned home.

 

 
I was expecting to be completely petrified for the entire 60 minutes that we had to escape the room (considering I can’t even handle going to an amusement park during the Halloween season), but to my delight it was more thrilling and exhilirating than it was scary- although during the last remaining seconds of the mission, in which I had the key to escape the room, I may or may not have just thrown the key at the door and then proceed to fall on the floor (taking my team down with me).
After a day of solving crime, we made our way to uptown Charlotte for a movie and dinner at the Epicenter’s Studio Movie Grill. This was the perfect way to end the day, watching a hilarious movie (we went to go see Spy, with Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law) while enjoying our dinner.

 

Charlotte travel blogger

Uptown Charlotte

 

Day 3:

On our last day in Charlotte we drove to the US National Whitewater Center, where we purchased an all-sports pass (which gives you access to all whitewater, flat water, and land activities) and spent the entire day whitewater rafting, kayaking, paddle boarding, zip-lining, and trying out some of the ropes courses.

 

Charlotte travel blogger

Water Sports

 

 
White water rafting was fun, that being said, for some it is an activity that may make or break friendships. This is what I discovered when on multiple occasions I nearly lost a tooth when someone (*cough, cough* Asha) did not hold onto her paddle very well. If you have a dog who loves the water, you can take him/her along with you while you kayak or paddle board (they even provide you with doggy life jackets).

 

 

Charlotte travel blogger

Land Sports

 

Needless to say, after spending about 8 hours at the Whitewater Center we had the most amazing night’s sleep.

 

Now Sam & Asha have started making their way to the West coast, but this is only the first of many future travel adventures with two favorite Brits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
*Sponsored by Zootastic Park & Black Out // all opinions are my own