The Levine Museum of the New South, http://www.museumofthenewsouth.org/

The Double Door Inn (http://doubledoorinn.com/) might have some good Jazz/blues.

North Davidson (ie: NoDa) http://www.noda.org/

Charlotte’s not very tourist oriented unless you’re into visiting Concord and the Nascar stuff. We’re a central banking community like Tampa with a nice green belt, great restaurants, with a vibrant community of artists and eclectics growing in the peripheries (East Blvd/West Blvd/Thomas St./North Davidson/First Ward/Fourth Ward).

I hope you enjoy your time here.

-a

Well. Depends on the days I guess. In and around downtown there are a number of things to see and do. There is Discovery Place which is one of the nations top rated science centers with an indoor rainforest, IMAX theater, all sorts of science exhibits and usually some sort of significant attraction as the Dead Sea Scrolls or the worlds largest T-Rex (large exhibits change frequently). There is of course, the corners of trade and tryon with the tall statues at each corner marking significant traits of the city. There are a number of “MINT” museums. The Mint Museum of Crafts is downtown, another Mint museum (of art maybe) is located on Randolph road just outside of town. There is the historic south end starting just south of the city and can be found on Tryon Street (Tryon is the center street of the city). There are many galleries and shops to be found in this arear. Very artsy, very deco.. I would include a ride on the Trolley EXCEPT they have decommissioned it to add light rail to the system and there’s no way that’s gonna be done before your visit. There are a number of places downtown if you want to just walk and view things. Many informational plaques, fountains, parks… Make sure you check the visitors center located on Tryon at about 1st or 2nd street. Much more information can be had there. Also, there is another historically inclinded ‘gallery’ on 7th street (give or take a street) that may be of interest. And the downtown library (around 6th and tryon) also contains a nice gallery of the local area, and of course great information for further tourism. Hope this helps…

I’d recommend checking out NoDa, Southend, and the Plaza-Midwood neighborhoods. You can do some more searching at the following;

http://www.noda.org
http://www.weirdcharlotte.com/home.html
http://charlottesoul.bravehost.com

Ditto on spending most of your time in uptown, as well as NoDa and Southend (both those areas are about 1.5-2 miles on either side of the city to the north and south, so it’s a short drive from uptown or as it’s also called here, “Center City”).

The Mint Museum uptown has a great gift shop—or if you are really into shopping you can venture out to SouthPark Mall, which is Charlotte’s best upscale shopping mall, or up to Concord Mills which is more of a gigantic outlet under one roof.

Even though the light rail is years off and the trolley is not running, there IS a free uptown shuttle called the Gold Rush that runs Monday-Friday. These resemble old trolley cars as well.

A great website for what to do, events, etc. is http://www.visitcharlotte.com. There is a very good online guide as well as this list of “101 Things to Do in Charlotte.”

http://www.visitcharlotte.com/resources/pdfs/FINAL101_Things_to_Do_June_2006.pdf