Highlands North Carolina is a quiet town in the mountains about two hours north of Atlanta. It is absolutely beautiful, very clean, and quaint town.

HIKING… We did some small and some long hikes. We loved WhiteSide Mtn. trail. Be sure to do the loop and not walk up and back on same trail. Beautiful views! It was one of the hardest but so worth the views!

Dry Falls is easy hike to see a HUGE waterfall. The parking lot can be tricky but just wait your turn to get a spot. The wait is not long if the lot is full. It’s not really even a ‘hike’ just a bunch of stairs (with railing).

Glen Falls is a great walk with different views of a waterfall. It is 2 miles round trip. It is easy going down but coming up is hard! It is also muddy at the bottom due to the water falling.

Satulah Mountain Summit is a straight up a paved road hike. It’s just south of town. Once you get to the top, there is a culdesac and then you walk down this trail and it opens up to beautiful views! There is a rocky place to sit to look out and see 270 degrees! The peak is at 4543 ft. The trip down takes half the time than the trip up. It took my daughter and I about 45 minutes to go up and 20 minutes to go down. You can park behind the old Edwards Inn in their parking lot or on the side of the main street and just start walking. The houses are GORGEOUS!

Highlands Nature Center is closed right now due to Covid but the Botanical Garden is open. It is behind the Center and has some wonderful walking trails and boardwalks. There are nearly 500 species of mosses,ferns, and wildflowers featured. It’s very shady. It’s across the street from The Highland Hiker. It is a store for anyone who loves the outdoors.

EATING 🍽 …All the restaurants are socially distancing and so they’re at 50% capacity. Most every restaurant requires reservations. It was hard to get a reservation but we got into Wild Thyme Gourmet and thoroughly enjoyed it. My trout was delicious! We also loved 4118 Kitchen and Bar which is in a strip mall near the grocery store. It does not look like anything exciting from the outside or really the inside but the food is incredible! The Ugly Dog Pub was a perfect place for lunch outside. We went over to Cashiers for lunch for one day ate at Cornucopia . I highly recommend it!

The ice cream shop on Main Street is pricey but really yummy! Kilwins is the name of it. The Mountain Fresh Grocery was also great. My daughter, my niece, and my sister needed to do work on their computers so they went to the Mountain Fresh to get great WiFi and seating! My sister suggests their oatmeal.

We went to the Log Cabin restaurant the last night. My fish (tilefish) wasn’t the best but everyone else loved their food! Service was not their specialty.

SHOPPING … There are so many cute stores! Walking up and down Main Street was so fun! My favorite was a ladies only golf shop. It’s called Classic Linens and Luggage. Be sure to check out the sale room in the back. The Molly Grace was also darling. We got a few things in AnnaWear, too.

In Cashiers, the farmer market is very popular and Cornucopia a great place for a casual lunch! We loved The Robins Nest and Honey Bee for shopping.