From steep, sloping mountain forests to lush farmlands that evoke the English countryside, the Carolinas and Georgia offer a landscape as diverse and colorful as the personable demeanor of the region's residents.
The tri-state area has aged gracefully with time, leaving in place an amiable drawl and such culinary traditions as hot buttered grits and fresh boiled peanuts, yet it has also managed to rival its Northern competitors in technology and style. Long burdened with a "Scarlett" reputation cluttered with pickup trucks and good ol' boys, these Southern states now boast bright, neon-lighted cities complete with cutting-edge architecture, high-tech industry, exhilarating sports events, and intricately designed highways -- not to mention big-city gridlock.
Still, the Old South lives on, at least in pockets, and some achingly pastoral countryscapes seem to be torn from the pages of such Deep South authors as Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, and William Faulkner. But it is in the bosom of the tri-state area, in a setting of old-style graciousness, that the muscular, gleaming New South engine of commerce, industry, and innovation powers on.
Clichés die hard, though, and Hollywood has been reluctant to let go of its love affair with the colorful Old South. Best-selling novels and Academy Award-winning screenplays continue to mine the mystique of a South clad in its own troublesome history. The region has become a big attraction for writers and movie producers lured by superb natural settings, historic ambience, and (in the case of the producers) beneficent right-to-work laws. So many movies have been made in and around Wilmington, North Carolina, that it has been dubbed "Hollywood East."
The South of yore may live on in Hollywood, but the talk today is of the New South, a land characterized less by drawls and "y'alls" and more by a bright, intelligent group of people bringing culture and business to an area that once slept quietly by the cotton gin. These new sons and daughters of the South might invite "y'all to come back now" for a second visit, but they'll suggest that you bring along a checkbook to buy their products (such as a set of high-end furniture manufactured in Lenoir) or that you invest in one of the mega-pharmaceutical research labs that have set up shop in the Research Triangle of North Carolina.
The Carolinas and Georgia are no longer whistling "Dixie," but standing up and making their voices heard in the world marketplace. The voices reflect the diversity of a population that not so long ago faced considerable challenges regarding racial inequality, challenges that Georgia native son Martin Luther King, Jr., so eloquently called upon the nation to meet. One happy result of the efforts to surmount those challenges in recent years has been the reverse migration of many African Americans from the North home to the South.
The New South has other voices, including those of politicos clamoring to fill the shoes and Senate seat of the seemingly immortal but at-long-last-expired Strom Thurmond. And of course, there's the dignified, soft-spoken peanut farmer from Plains who became president of the United States and is now an agent of world peace.
The Carolinas and Georgia are major destinations for travelers. Charleston and Savannah rank among the top 10 cities in the country in Condé Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards year after year. From the Smoky Mountains to the sun-kissed Atlantic coastline, from the windswept dunes of Kitty Hawk all the way to Georgia's Suwannee River country and Okefenokee Swamp, the tri-state area is attracting visitors by the millions.
Taken as a whole, the North Carolina/South Carolina/Georgia tri-state area is like a country unto itself. It's wildly diverse and packed with places to see and things to do. We've traveled the back roads of the Carolinas and Georgia since we were kids, exploring the Old South and the New South. That's why we feel qualified to bring you our suggestions of the best, with the understanding, of course, that there's always plenty of room for disagreement. Here are our picks for the cream of the crop.
