Day Trip Idea: Durham, NC

By TMoM Team Member, Felicity Lewis

Where do I even start on a day trip to Durham? Being from the Bull City myself, there are so many places I cannot wait to visit when we drive in for the day. If you have not recently, or ever, taken a day to trip to Durham, there is no better time than now. For a little background on Durham, it was a tobacco town similar to Winston-Salem and it is where Duke University stands (now don’t automatically stop reading if you enjoy another shade of blue than Duke!) but there is a lot more to Durham than its past history. In the last few years Durham has exploded with new places to visit and I cannot wait to tell you about this places we explored on a recent day trip.

The Museum of Life and Science is a perfect place to start with kids of any age. They have been working on expanding different areas of the museum, like the Hideaway Woods which has a whole town of tree houses! My little kiddo loves dinosaurs and the outdoor dinosaur exhibit provides a different experience for him than the Greensboro Science Center, but just as cool! There is a location where visitors can dig for fossils, which is every toddlers’ dream! If you have a membership to the Greensboro Science Center, you can utilize that for a potential discount.

If it is a nice day, you have to stop by Duke Gardens. This is the perfect place for a walk, or if your kids need to burn more energy, a beautiful place to run around. One section has these fun houses made out of bendable branches. The flowers are all labeled which can be helpful if you are in the market for landscaping ideas or just want to enjoy the creativity put behind these set-ups.  

After a morning of running around it was time to eat lunch. Bull City Burger is the perfect spot. Now they technically don’t open until 11:11 so keep that in mind! Their burgers are great and if you catch it at the right time they have exotic meat options like tarantula burgers. They also try to locally source everything which is great!

A short walk from Bull City Burger is the Parlour. Now we can say this is for the kids, but really the ice cream is so good the adults have to indulge. We strolled around and ate outside and hung out with the huge Bull statue as we ate. You will notice Durham uses the Bull similar to how Greensboro has jeans everywhere!

Downtown is full of so many fun things, but to end off our day we decided to relax at Ponysaurus Brewery. It is kid-friendly and a fun place to relax and enjoy a beverage. The menu changes but we can always find something we like!

Other places you definitely should consider visiting:

• Eno River State Park – lots of walking trails but they have a lot of fun festivals to keep an eye out for!
• Duke Lemur Center – Get to experience Lemurs in a new way. Duke is known for their Lemur studies.
• Notasium– This is traditionally a place that music lessons take place but during the day they have turned it into a fun area that kids get to bounce, slide and play large kid friendly musical instruments.
• Bullocks BBQ – A great BBQ place in the area.
• Guglhupf Bakery and Cafe– A German Cafe you do not want to miss. Get there early or you will miss the tasty croissants that are the best EVER!
• Full Steam Brewery – great beer and awesome atmosphere.  They often have food trucks as well!
• Sam’s Bottle Shop – Can’t beat a rooftop bottle shop when the weather is nice. They have a wide assort of bottled beer and a decent amount on tap too!

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