Thanksgiving Travel - North Carolina

For convenient travel and few other reasons, I am looking at going to either The Umstead or Old Edwards Inn for Thanksgiving. No kids, just my wife and me. I have not been to either of these yet and hoping to get feedback from others who may have experienced one/both of these. Thank you for any feedback you can give.

Scott

The Umstead is a lovely property, and the service is as good there as anywhere I have stayed. But Cary (Containment Area for Relocated Yankees) is about as nothing a place as you are going to find. If you have a car and are willing to drive (a fair amount) I recommend the hotel highly. But if I hadn’t been there on business I probably would have stayed someplace closer to the fun.

Been to neither, however , The Grove Park Inn , in Asheville , is the cat’s meow !

We live here and I’ve eaten at The Umstead multiple times but not under the current chef, never stayed there though. But if you consider the Triangle area as a whole it’s pretty centrally located, 20-30 minutes from anywhere in Raleigh Durham or Chapel Hill…drive is what you do around here :slight_smile:.

Something else to add to the mix here might be Fearrington House Inn and the main restaurant, more of a quaint country inn vs. the modern Umstead; food may be even better at Fearrington these days but that’s just a hunch. It is exactly the opposite of centrally located :slight_smile:.

If you’d like some more food recos later let me know.

My sister lives in CARY. I don’t know how she does it.

On the one hand, it is only 20-30 minutes from anywhere you’d want to be. On the other, it is 20-30 minutes from anywhere you might want to be. When I am on holiday, a 30 minute highway drive to get to the place I want to visit is not enticing.

Very nice property. Perfect for business in the Cary area. Not what I’d want for a vacation.

Neil I agree with you, I’m normally drawn to significantly historic, old, quaint, etc. places, and Umstead seems as much part of the modern SAS campus as it does a resort property. Just trying to offer a bit of local perspective.

BTW Hai Tran there is an excellent sommelier, probably best in the area. Pretty decent list there now but big-city expensive. We brought some pretty decent old wines there for my 50th birthday and I thoroughly enjoyed his perspective and service on those.

We’re also looking at the Old Edwards Inn. We considered for Thanksgiving, but have opted for the beach instead. Friends have stayed here and it comes highly recommended.