With record-high gas prices at the pump, it is forcing people to stay closer to home instead of driving or flying long distances for their summer vacation.  However, that does not have to mean any shortage of fun. The Chapel Hill area area is full of fun things to do with something for everyone! You can enjoy a fun and relaxing destination in your own backyard. Below are just a few of the wonderful attractions that you can enjoy-close to home!

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
250 East Franklin St
Chapel Hill, North Carolina  Phone: 919-962-1236

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, one of the largest planetariums in the United States, is located on the north end of the campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Morehead Center Building and grounds, complete with a 68-foot, domed Star Theater and Zeiss Model VI Star Projector, scientific exhibits and classrooms, 24-inch Cassegrain reflecting telescope and observation decks, Visitors' Center, art galleries, rose gardens and the massive sundial were built for students of all ages with all interests
 
Ackland Art Museum
101 S Columbia St
Chapel Hill, North Carolina  Phone: 919-966-5736

The Museum's collection consists of more than 15,000 works of art, featuring North Carolina's premier collections of Asian art and works of art on paper (drawings, prints, and photographs), plus significant collections of European masterworks, twentieth-century and contemporary art, African art, and North Carolina pottery. The Ackland organizes more than a dozen special exhibitions a year.
 
Kidzu Children's Museum

105 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

919-933-1455

Kidzu Children's Museum is a hands-on museum in the heart of downtown Chapel Hill where children 0-8 years old and the adults in their lives can safely discover, pretend, and play to their heart’s content. 

North Carolina Botanical Garden
Old Mason Farm Rd,
UNC Campus, Totten Center
Chapel Hill, NC 27599  Phone: 919-962-0522

The NC Botanical Garden showcases plants in artful, authentic displays. Roam the water gardens, inhabited by water lilies, goldfish, tadpoles and koi, to the Mountain Habitat Garden, filled with bluebell, blood root, mountain laurel, rhododendron, and azalea. A fairy garden with hands-on activities such as digging with play shovels, tic tac toe and hopscotch appeals to children.

Summer goes quick, so get out and enjoy what the Chapel Hill area has to offer and save money at the same time!