Photo : brandon walker

Hack Your City Each Friday we ask you for your best city tips: driving tips, restaurant recs, things to do, and any other advice for visitors and locals. Sometimes the weekly topic is a specific city; other times it's an aspect of all cities, so everyone can participate. Prev Next View All

The city of Charlotte is growing faster than it looks, according to Wikivoyage’s extensive guide to the city, and it’s retained its Southern charm and friendliness while taking in an influx of residents from all over the U.S., and all over the world. Let’s see how that charm extends to visitors, and hear your best tips for visiting the city.




Each Monday on Hack Your City, we ask readers for your best tips on a city: driving tips, restaurant recs, things to do, and any other advice for visitors and locals. Then on Thursday, we present the best comments. We’re working our way around the U.S. and around the globe.

Any travel guide can point people to the Billy Graham Library and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. What are the underrated destinations in the city? Where can people go to avoid tourists—and how should they behave if they don’t want to piss off the locals?


What’s good for a longer visit? And what’s good for all the new transplants? (Don’t tell them not to move here, that’ll just encourage them.) What are the up-and-coming neighborhoods, and what should people know about them?

What are Charlotte’s historical sites like? Do some handle the city’s history better than others? Who gives the best tours and has the best answers for curious visitors?

What bars and restaurants deserve more business than they get? What quirky spots do you only recommend to a specific kind of visitor? How do you get around the city, and how do you like to explore the areas you’re not familiar with?

What do you tell visitors to help them understand the city? What local vibes do you explain, what laws and customs do you follow, and what are the little things you keep in mind—like how to pronounce a street name, how to mentally divide the city, or how to handle a particularly frustrating local system?


When you want to get out of Charlotte, where do you go? And if you hate living in Charlotte, what do you do to cope?

Tell us all you know about Charlotte below, and come back Thursday for a list of the very best of these tips.