Courtyard By Marriott Chapel Hill

Walk around the Campus of UNC

by Lemonita

It is always a pleasure to walk on campus. I haven't seen many american campuses in my life but Chapel Hill is, by far, the one I like the most.
Everywhere is so green and the contrast with the bricks'red is so pretty.

Grab some coffee

by acemj

As with most college towns, coffee shops do a brisk business with students cramming for exams and needing all the caffeine they can get. This is a shot of the Carolina Coffee Shop that's been around since 1922 on Franklin Street.

Visit Maple View Farm

by pamelacmiller

No trip for families - or any one else for that matter is complete without a trip to Maple View Farm - a Dairy Farm 20 minutes from downtown Chapel Hill. There is a Country Store here - with Ice Cream made on site from the cows you can look at while you eat your ice cream on the big front porch of the Country Store - as you rock in a rocking chair - look over the beautiful rolling fields and watch a beautiful Carolina sunset. Here you can buy milk in a glass bottle, buy farm beef ( organic), homemade local soaps and bread - even an ice cream cake for a special occasion. Maple View is part of our thriving locovore food movement. Dont miss it!! Sometimes there are hayrides with - yes- real horses, and its not uncommon to see the locals ride up to the hitching post and vist the store to buy fresh milk, homemade butter and local eggs. Don't miss this gem. We love our Maple View. Please don't visit all at once. Its the Best Kept secret we all know!!You will love the Ice Cream!!! Those of us who live here in the environs are all about preserving our rural heritage. Come out to Maple View for a taste of the country 20 min. from Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill (the south "lite")

by amy312

"Carolina on my mind..."

I've lived in the Northeast and California in the US and have only lived in Chapel Hill for 2 years, but I've got to say, this is the best community in the US that I've ever lived in. People in the south really are genuinely nicer and more polite than people in the other regions (at least, the other regions I know) and that makes such a difference to the quality of life here. Even after 2 years, I'm taken aback sometimes by how friendly everyone is.

Chapel Hill has it all. It's a cute little college town, but part of a larger area, the Triangle, made up of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh, the state capital. So you have small town charm with big city amenities. The Triangle is consistently ranked as one of the best places to live in the US, and with good reason.

Lots of good recreation in this state. A 3-4 hour drive west takes you to the Appalachian mountains, and 3-4 hours east to the coast and the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands off the coast. The beaches are balmy and sometimes feel almost tropical. In the mornings, you can watch dolphins swim as you walk on the beach. The mountains are among the best east of the Rockies; lots of rafting, hiking, even old growth sections.

Chapel Hill is much more international and diverse than I realized before I got here. The Latino population grew more between 1990 and 2000 in North Carolina than in any other state - by almost 1000%!! And because there are several universities, there are lots of students and professors from all over the world. There's a strong African-American heritage here, too. Lots of historically black colleges are in the area, and several of the famous civil rights protests, like the Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in, happened nearby.

The only things I miss by living in Chapel Hill are winter (we hardly get any snow here) and the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

And the south "lite" reference - the Triangle definitely has lots of newcomers, so in some ways, it feels less southern than the deep south or even more rural parts of NC.

A great american college experience

by Lemonita

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

Many of you may not have heard about Chapel Hill... Nor have I until I flipped through the exchange programs brochure, provided by my French business school. I wanted to go to the United States and Chapel Hill seemed to be one of the most prestigious american exchange programs my school offered. I decided to ask for this one although I had no idea where exactly was located Chapel Hill, except that it was in North Carolina.

Chapel Hill is a small town, mainly college town, situated in North Carolina. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the nation's first public university.

It is a 20 minutes from Raleigh, the state capital. Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill form the Research Triangle, a concentration of research companies or high tech ones.

I have never been to the US before and Chapel Hill was my first american experience. My stay lasted one semester, from August to December 2000.

The campus is really gorgeous ! I like the red bricks buildings, characteristic of North Carolina. The campus also has lots of trees, which makes it so nice...

Hope you like Chapel Hill, as much as I did while staying there...