Start from 26 curated places around Pinehurst, NC, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Elliott's on Linden
The most farm-forward kitchen in Pinehurst village, where the menu rotates with what local NC farms are producing and the chef's relationships with those farms show up in every plate. The dining room is polished without being stiff, and the service consistently earns the kind of reviews that make anniversary reservations feel like the right call. Owner-operated and deeply invested in the community around it.
Ashten's Restaurant
Southern Pines' most celebrated independent kitchen, where the owner works directly with area farmers daily to build a globally inflected menu with a distinctly local foundation. The dining room has a cozy pub component alongside a more formal space, which makes it equally appropriate for a long dinner or a casual plate. The standards here hold across multiple visits in a way that defines a restaurant people call their own.
Trails & outdoors
Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve Trails
A 900-acre state preserve holding one of the last intact old-growth longleaf pine forests in the Southeast, with flat sandy trails through an ecosystem that once covered 90 million acres of the coastal plain and now survives in fragments. The Bower's Bog Trail within the preserve winds through a freshwater bog with pitcher plants and sundews — carnivorous plants growing in the wild within 45 minutes of most Pinehurst accommodations.
Reservoir Park Loop Trail
The most-used trail in Moore County — a 2.2-mile paved loop around the 95-acre Reservoir Park lake that functions as the morning walk for a significant portion of Southern Pines on any given weekday. The lake reflects the longleaf pines on the far shore, and the trail's consistent flat grade makes it accessible at any pace. Connect to the Forest Creek Trail for a longer outing without returning to the parking area.
Things to do
Sunrise Theater
A 361-seat independent theater in downtown Southern Pines screening first-run films, independent cinema, and hosting Metropolitan Opera broadcasts and Bolshoi Ballet screenings alongside community theater and live concerts. It serves as the cultural anchor of Moore County in a way that larger cities take for granted, and the programming calendar rewards checking even if you weren't planning on attending anything.
Weymouth Center Concert Series
The chamber music and lecture programming at the Weymouth Center Georgian manor in Southern Pines, where the intimate rooms create a concert experience that larger venues cannot replicate. The series brings regional and nationally recognized performers to a setting where the building's history adds a dimension to the music. Opening receptions for exhibitions are free and a good way to meet the local arts community.
Landmarks & sights
Pinehurst Resort Grounds & Village
Founded in 1895 as a health retreat and evolved into one of the most celebrated golf destinations in the world, the Pinehurst Resort grounds and the pedestrian Village of Pinehurst are accessible to non-guests as a walking destination — the Carolina Hotel, the Village Shops on sandy paths, the croquet lawns, and the Donald Ross-era architecture reward a slow afternoon even without a tee time. The bagpiper performs at the front of the Carolina Hotel most evenings and is not to be missed.
Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities
A Georgian manor in Southern Pines that was the home of authors James and Katharine Boyd before becoming the cultural center of the Sandhills — hosting chamber music concerts, literary readings, a writers-in-residence program, and art exhibitions in a setting that makes the programming feel elevated by association. The grounds are beautiful and the event calendar is more ambitious than most visitors expect from a community arts center.