Charlotte was such a pleasant surprise for a girls trip destination! Originally it was chosen for convenience in terms of location, but we ended up falling in love with the Queen City!

Every time I told people I was spending the weekend in Charlotte, their responses were “that’s random”, “what’s over there?”, or simply “why?”. Even some of the locals seemed surprised that we chose this as the destination for Spring Break/our friend’s birthday weekend! However, I think the fact that it didn’t feel like a big touristy spot was part of the charm here!

CHARLOTTE – COPY MY ITINERARY (3 DAYS)

OUR AIRBNB

This Airbnb was one of the most walkable places we’ve stayed! Brunch, the bars, and CVS for our snack haul were all less than a mile away! The places in South End we had to Uber to, but honestly the Ubers and Lyfts in Charlotte were super cheap! Most of the rides to South End were less than $10!

The host was very responsive and the apartment was really nice! It was 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and since there were 4 of us, it was nice to each get our own room! The set up reminded us of college apartments and we felt like we got to experience what it would’ve been like if we had been roommates in college ◡̈ Click here to check out the listing!

DAY 1

DINNER AT OPTIMIST HALL

I saw Optimist Hall listed on so many blogs and lists of recommendations when I was doing my research on Charlotte, and once we got there I knew exactly why. This was easily the biggest food hall I’ve ever been to- we kept walking and turning corners only to be shocked that there were more stalls! After walking through the never ending amount of places, I decided on getting a poke bowl from Zukku Sushi. After a day of traveling, it was such a good and quick meal! I liked how I was able to create my own bowl since I usually avoid poke bowls because I usually avoid raw fish, but there was an option for tempura shrimp for me!

We also got cocktails from The Spindle Bar here- I believe I got the Taken For Granate! It was a bit strong (which I definitely prefer over it being too diluted), but it was good even with the odd pairing with my poke bowl.

I would absolutely recommend checking out Optimist Hall, especially if you’re going in a group since there’s definitely going to be a place for everyone there!

BARS IN UPTOWN

We decided to explore the Uptown bar scene our first night since it was walkable from the Airbnb! The first bar we went to was SIP. It was a bit on the emptier side the night we went, but the music was good! There was a downstairs as well, but when we went down it was very empty.  I’m not sure if we just went on an off day or too early/late, so we left after we finished our drinks, but I could see this place getting busy on a different weekend!

Next door at Prohibition on the other hand was packed! It was definitely more of the club vibe my group was looking for! There were booths with bottle service and the music was great! Definitely a good place if you want to dance and while it was packed, getting drinks wasn’t a nightmare trying to get the bartenders’ attention! We honestly had such a good time here that we ended up staying until closing!

DAY 2

BRUNCH AT CHURCH & UNION

Just a short walk from our Airbnb was our Saturday brunch spot- Church and Union! The inside is really cute and if you go there be sure to look up and read the writing on the ceiling. My friends and I probably looked crazy with all four of us just looking up at our table trying to read the different words written above us! The service here was super good and they even brought out free raspberry crumble bars and gave us extras to take home! I got the avocado toast and I really liked how the ricotta paired with it and how much avocado they put on it! Definitely also recommend getting a carafe (or two) of the cadillac mimosas to split with the table! One other small detail I liked was how they brought the receipt out in a book that was essentially like a guest book that we could sign and leave our mark in Charlotte in!

TROLLEY PUB

Keeping our Spring Break tradition for the second year, we went on a party bike! We went with Trolley Pub Charlotte and it was a blast! Since there were only four of us, we were paired with 2-3 other groups on the bike and we had such a fun time with them! The bike took us around South End, which we hadn’t yet explored so it was nice to be able to get an idea of the vibe of the area while pedaling through! Unlike the one we did in Nashville, this tour actually made stops at bars- it was a 2 hour tour and since we had multiple groups on the ride, our driver felt out the vibe and picked out 2 bars for us to stop at!

Our first stop was at Charlotte Beer Garden which had so many different beers on tap! It took a little bit to get our drinks because my friend and I got cocktails, so they ended up having to run downstairs to get an ingredient. So we didn’t have time to explore the place that much, but it’s 3 stories and seems like a nice place to hangout and chill with friends on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon watching a game.

The second stop was Sycamore Brewing and I’ve just to say this place was packed both upstairs and downstairs! I’m not sure if it’s like this every weekend, but it was definitely the place to be this Saturday afternoon! Like it was even busier than the bars we went to the night before! We stayed with our new friends we made from the bike ride, but I feel like this could be such a good place to new meet people! Also as someone who isn’t necessarily a beer lover, I actually really liked the tiki time gose!

Just a few FYI’s for the trolley pub- the bike needs 6 people to go on the tour, so if your group is less than 6, another group will need to sign up for your reservation to be confirmed! The company was really good about communicating with us and messaged me a few days before our reservation to let us know that there weren’t enough people scheduled on our ride so they gave us the option to change our time to join another group so we could still have our ride. Also, the bike is not byob, for any drinks that you want while on the bike, you have to purchase at their store before getting on the bike, but each ticket comes with a free drink from their store! And for anyone making the itinerary for their trip who likes every minute accounted for (like myself), you need to get to the check in spot 15 minutes before the ride starts, and even though our ride was supposed to be 2-4, we finished closer to 4:15! 

Overall, 10/10 recommend it if you’re in Charlotte and are looking for something to do during the daytime!!

DINNER AT INDACO

I can’t recommend this place enough!! If I could rate it 100/10, I absolutely would! Before I even talk about the food, let me just tell you how Indaco went above and beyond for my friend’s birthday! When I made the reservation on Open Table, I made sure to note that we were celebrating my friend’s birthday since it was her birthday trip- but I really didn’t expect anything out of it! But Indaco messaged me a week before our reservation to ask me if there were any hobbies/food/drinks that the birthday girl liked. I still really just expected them to use this information as talking points or something to make the conversation with the waitress more personal. So imagine our surprise when we found a gift at our table that had yarn and a crochet pattern for the cutest bag because I told them that she recently picked up crocheting!! We were all honestly stunned at what a thoughtful gesture it was to get her a gift at all and to even go above and beyond and go out of their way to make it personalized to her!

Okay so now onto the food and drinks- we started the table off with the focaccia which by itself was great, but paired with the pizza shop oil…I think the best way to describe how much we liked it is to tell you that it got a shoutout in our comments for each other’s Charlotte posts on Instagram…twice!! Our waitress even noticed that we finished it so fast that she brought out another focaccia for us for free which was super sweet of her! 

The drink I started on was the Milano Mist (Lunazul, lime-cello, and hibiscus) and it was super good and pretty for all the pictures we took! I also tried my friend’s drink, Venetian Velvet, which was also good, but I think Indaco might have changed the menu already because I don’t see it on the menu anymore on the website.

We all had a hard time deciding between pasta and pizza, but all ended up getting pasta! And we all loved them! I got the black pepper tagliatelle (with egg yolk, pork tesa, chives, and parmesan), two of us got the pappardelle (with C.A.B. bolognese, whipped stracciatella, tomato, parmesan, basil, and one got the casarecce (with kale & pistachio pesto, fennel, jerusalem artichoke, basil). Indaco had one more birthday surprise for my friend and brought out tiramisu for her! It was super good and paired well with the espresso martini and creme brulee martini we ordered! Side note- we had the intrusive thought of mixing the espresso martini and creme brulee martini together and it tasted amazing!! Overall, Indaco hands down was some of the most personable and amazing service I’ve ever experienced at a restaurant and the food was top tier! I’d a million percent recommend coming here and want to come here again next time I’m in town!

BARS IN SOUTH END

We decided to venture back out to South End at night and started at The Brickyard. I really liked their live music and in a way it reminded me of a combo of a small Nashville bar and a college town bar! There was definitely a good crowd here, but I’d honestly say that it was a more chill crowd with most people just standing by the stage to listen to the band or playing some of the games they had. However, reading reviews to write this blog post, I’m realizing that my friends and I missed out on the rooftop portion of this bar which I would’ve loved to check out if we had known about it! There was also apparently a popcorn machine in the corner which I know we would’ve gotten so excited about for a midnight snack!

The other bar we went to over in South End was The Gin Mill! They also had some live music going and definitely felt even more like Nashville with a more country inspired playlist (I’m not sure if that’s always the vibe here or if it was this specific band). The crowd seemed a bit more lively than Brickyard and overall was a good time! The rooftop was a bit quieter, but they had an outdoor section enclosed in a white tent which was packed! They had a DJ and it made me feel like I was back at a college tailgate! I kept going back and forth between the inside with the live music and the tent with the DJ because I couldn’t decide which one I liked more!

DAY 3

BRUNCH AT CHAPTER 6

We headed back to South End for Sunday brunch and what really drew us to Chapter 6 was their spritz/slushie/sangria towers! We ended up getting a hugo spritz/strawberry montenegro spritz tower which made for such cute pictures! I think they might’ve changed the menu a bit since I went last month, but I got a fried chicken sandwich with za’atar fries (they have a fried chicken & croissant on the menu which looks to be the same except served on a croissant instead of a bun). And I loved it! The portion was huge so I even had some to take home. They also brought out an olive oil cake for my friend’s birthday which was super sweet of them! Honestly all of the restaurants and stores we went to had the best service and everyone on this entire trip was so friendly!

EXPLORE SOUTH END

We decided to walk around to get a better look at all the shops we had passed by while on the bike tour the day before. We ended up on a path called the Rail Trail which was a nice walk to different shops and breweries! There were a lot of people on this trail and I could see myself doing a weekly Sunday walk here if I lived in Charlotte! We stopped in a couple places but my favorites were Lilbelle which was the cutest boutique (still thinking about a dress I had tried on there and may end up ordering from their online store), Paddywax Candle Bar which could have been such a fun group activity to make candles if we had known about it beforehand, and Barcelona Wine Bar for a quick class of wine!

DINNER AT CATALINA KITCHEN & BAR

Our last meal in Charlotte- Catalina Kitchen and Bar! The meal started off with a fun surprise of the cutest little bear when I ordered my drink, the Bear Necessities (with gin, lemon ginger honey, tonic, orange blossom, and fresh herbs). My friend and I couldn’t stop playing with it throughout dinner because it was so cute! We also got parmesan fries to share with the table and we were all saying how we liked how they spread the parmesan throughout the fries instead of just the top layer! Now as much of a pasta girl I am, I actually went for the Santa Fe Blackened Chicken Bowl and when I say I’m obsessed, I mean I’ve been recreating this bowl for my lunch for the past 3 weeks. It was so good that I’m still craving the real deal even though I’ve been making my own version!

SOME PLACES I’D LIKE TO SEE NEXT TIME

Since we didn’t quite get to do everything on my 10 page itinerary that I had found while doing research for this trip, I wanted to list some things that I have saved for my next trip that you may be able to get to before me!

Restaurants: Haberdish, Kid Cashew, Ever Andalo, Mariposa

Drinks: Dilworth Tasting Room, Aura Rooftop, VINYL, Coyote Joe’s

Things to do/areas to explore: Camp North End, Atherton Mills, The Mint Museum