Are you ready for the ultimate day trip to Chapel Hill, mapped out step-by-step? 

Let’s go! 

1.  After you park or hop off the bus, start your tour of campus! If you’re interested in attending Carolina as a student, you can book a special prospective students tour through the UNC Visitors’ Center. There are also walking tours available that talk about the history of the university and campus and walk you around. However, this is super easy to DIY! Grab a copy of The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s campus newspaper (which dates back to 1893) and let’s get started!
   •  Start your visit on the quad closest to Franklin Street, McCorkle Place. As you walk around, admire the oldest buildings on campus– Old West, Old East, and the South Building all date back to the 1700s. Peek inside Graham Memorial if you can for old-school study vibes– plush armchairs and classy books and art on the walls abound– this was the site of the original Student Union, back in 1931. The Morehead Planetarium is located on McCorkle Place– but you may have to come back later depending on which show you’d like to see there. Be sure to check out the Unsung Founders Memorial (a bronze and stone table) in front of the Alumni Building, which honors the people of color, many of whom were enslaved, who helped build many of the buildings on McCorkle Place. Nearby is the Davie Poplar (a beautiful tree with a bench under it, in the middle of the quad)— as the story goes, if you sit on the bench with your sweetheart, you’ll get married someday… so be careful who you sit with! The Campus Y (YMCA), located at the edge of McCorkle, dates back to 1860 and is a totally different architectural style to the rest of campus– and painted light purple! 
   • At the edge of McCorkle, walk over to the Old Well, the symbol of campus, and take a sip (and a photo!) Legend has it that if you drink from the Old Well on your first day of school each semester, you’ll get a 4.0! Not exactly true from personal experience… but it’s a nice story. The Old Well was the university’s very first water source, and served as the primary water source on campus for over 100 years. 
   • Crossing the street and continuing past Carolina’s performing arts center, Memorial Hall and the South Building, you’ll emerge onto Polk Place, the university’s main academic quad. Named for native North Carolinian and UNC alum U.S. President James K. Polk, this is truly the hub of campus. Most of the academic buildings are grouped here, and the magnificent Beaux-Arts Wilson Library, with its huge dome, forms its other extreme. If you walk to the left of the Wilson Library, you will see more academic buildings, the Undergraduate Library (or UL), and the Pit. 
   • The Pit, a sunken brick courtyard in the shade of 2 looming trees, is the beating heart of campus. It is said that every one of Carolina’s 30,000 students goes through the Pit at least once each day, and there’s always something going on– from student government campaigns to social justice initiatives and more. Behind the Pit is the Student Union, the Davis Library, and the student store, in case you’d like a t-shirt or souvenir of campus. 
   • If you go down the stairs (behind the Pit and student store) you’ll see the magnificent Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower, which measures up at 200 feet in height and chimes every 15 minutes, sometimes playing “Hark the Sound,” Carolina’s anthem, or other lovely melodies like “Amazing Grace” or “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”
   • You can visit more dorms and buildings on the center of campus, but be sure not to miss the Coker Arboretum— a lovely place for a stroll or a rest on one of its quiet benches. 
   • On the South part of campus, there are also a lot of dorms, mainly newer constructions. UNC’s student population has boomed in the last few decades, calling for more and more on-campus housing. In fact, there are over 250,000 living alumni of UNC, located all over the world, today. If you keep walking, you can visit the Dean Smith Center, or the Dean Dome, where the champion UNC basketball teams play, as well as see a dorm named for UNC’s very first student– Hinton James. Hinton James walked from Wilmington (on the coast, an almost 2-hour drive away!) to enroll. UNC was the only public university to grant degrees in the 18th century in the U.S., and opened its doors to women (for teaching programs) and its medical school within the next century, with its first woman graduating in 1898. 
   • Elsewhere on campus, check out the Playmakers’ Theatre, a Greek Revival-style theatre dating back to 1851, now a National Historic Landmark. It housed Union soldiers at one point during the Civil War, and today hosts excellent performances from students and visiting talents alike. Across the street, check out the amphitheatre-shaped Forest Theatre, located at the entrance to 93-acre Battle Park.
   • The Carolina Inn, a beautiful hotel, sits on the original founding site of New Hope Chapel, where Chapel Hill gets its name. The Inn is on the National Register of Historic Places, and proceeds from guests benefit the North Carolina Collection at the Wilson Library. There’s a lovely porch to sit on, and you can order tea or a bite to eat even if you aren’t a guest. 
2. Once you’re done exploring campus, meander around Franklin Street for window-shopping (or actual shopping!)
3. Next, it’s brunch or lunch time! Scroll down a bit for all the best recommendations, depending what kind of cuisine you’re in the mood for. 
4. In the afternoon, check out the Morehead Planetarium if you didn’t this morning, as well as the Ackland Art Museum. Spend some time exploring town’s historic architecture– it’s wonderful to drive behind the Forest Theatre to check out beautiful homes and the slightly-bizarre Gimghoul Castle, said to be the headquarters of a secret society founded in 1889. If you have some spare time, cross over into Carrboro, Chapel Hill’s hip neighbor.
5. In the evening, pick another place for dinner (there’s so many to choose from! Some tips, again, are below), and linger for a nightcap.