By Winston-Salem wears two names for a reason. Once a pair of separate towns, the Moravian settlement of Salem and the industrial boomtown of Winston grew into a single city that still balances both sides of its character: cobblestoned 18th-century history on one end of Old Salem Road and a lively downtown of breweries, murals, and art studios on the other. Whether you are visiting the Triad for a weekend or you have lived here for years and need fresh ideas, this guide rounds up the best things to do in Winston-Salem, with the practical details you need to actually plan a trip.
Step Back in Time at Old Salem Museums & Gardens
No first visit to Winston-Salem is complete without Old Salem Museums & Gardens, the restored Moravian congregation town founded in 1766. This is one of the most authentically preserved early American communities in the country, and it tells the layered story of Moravian, Black, and Indigenous people in the colonial South. Costumed interpreters work the gardens, the tin shop, and the gunsmith forge, and the smell from the wood-fired oven at Winkler Bakery alone is worth the walk down Main Street.
Locals know to time a visit around the bakery’s Moravian sugar cake and thin ginger cookies, and the cobblestone district is lovely to stroll even before you buy a ticket. Children under 3 enter free, and an All-in-One ticket is valid for two consecutive days, which makes it easy to split your exploring across a morning and an afternoon.
Plan Your Visit
- Address: 900 Old Salem Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27101
- Phone: 336-721-7350
- Hours: Generally Wednesday through Saturday, with hours around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. depending on the season. All venues are closed in January. Confirm current hours before you go.
- Admission: Two-Stop tickets are $22 adults, $12 students and children, plus tax; free for ages 0 to 3. Pricing is subject to change.
- Website: oldsalem.org
Discover Art and Nature at Reynolda
On the north side of town, Reynolda spreads across roughly 180 acres next to Wake Forest University, the former estate of tobacco heir R.J. Reynolds and his wife Katharine. The Reynolda House Museum of American Art holds a respected collection spanning colonial portraiture to modern works. Note that the historic house wing is closed through August 2026 for preservation, though the Babcock Gallery remains open with rotating exhibitions, so check what is on view before planning around the museum itself.
The real year-round draw, especially for locals, is Reynolda Gardens: formal English-style gardens, a glass conservatory, wooded trails, and open lawns that are free and open daily from sunrise to sunset. Pair it with a coffee or lunch at the shops in Reynolda Village and you have an easy, low-cost afternoon.
Plan Your Visit
- Museum address: 2250 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106; phone: 888-663-1149
- Gardens address: 100 Reynolda Village Way, Winston-Salem, NC 27106; phone: 336-758-5593
- Hours: Museum Tuesday through Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Gardens open daily, sunrise to sunset.
- Admission: Gardens and grounds are free. Museum tickets are available online; some free admission categories apply.
- Website: reynolda.org/visit
Explore the Downtown Arts District and Trade Street
Downtown Winston-Salem has reinvented its old tobacco-warehouse bones into one of the most walkable creative districts in the Triad. The Downtown Arts District along Trade and Sixth Streets is dense with galleries, studios, indie boutiques, and restaurants. On the first Friday of most months, the Gallery Hop opens doors late, and the streets fill with browsers, live music, and food.
This is also the heart of a genuinely good brewery scene. The city packs nine or so craft breweries and taprooms within an easy mile-and-a-half walk, which makes a self-guided crawl simple to do on foot. A few anchors:
- Foothills Brewing (638 W 4th St) is the city’s flagship craft brewery, famous for its once-a-year February release of the Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout.
- Fiddlin’ Fish Brewing Company sits in a converted early-1900s tobacco warehouse on Trade Street, straddling the Arts District and Industry Hill.
- Hoots Roller Bar & Beer Co. at the West End Mill Works rounds out the historic West End neighborhood.
For planning a route, Visit Winston-Salem’s craft brewery crawl maps the walkable cluster. Always have a designated driver or use a rideshare.
Bring the Kids to Kaleideum
Families have a standout option in Kaleideum, the children’s science and discovery museum that opened its sprawling new downtown home in 2024. Five stories and nearly 70,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits, a planetarium, animal encounters, and a rooftop give kids hours of room to roam. It is a reliable rainy-day rescue for local parents and a worthwhile stop for visiting families.
Plan Your Visit
- Address: 120 West 3rd Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101
- Phone: 336-767-6730
- Hours: Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Monday mornings are members-only during the school year; extended summer hours apply.)
- Admission: $15 adults, $13 seniors (62+), $12 youth ages 1 to 19, free for 11 months and under. The Museums for All program offers $3 admission for SNAP/EBT and WIC cardholders with photo ID.
- Website: kaleideum.org
Get Outside at Tanglewood Park
About ten miles west of downtown in Clemmons, Tanglewood Park is the Triad’s go-to playground for outdoor recreation. The former Reynolds estate now offers nature and greenway trails, an arboretum and rose garden, two golf courses, horseback riding, a seasonal water park, and an off-leash dog park that local owners love. It is a full day’s worth of options on a single property.
Tanglewood truly comes alive in winter for the Festival of Lights, a 5.1-mile drive-through display of more than a million lights and 80-plus scenes that runs nightly from mid-November through January 1. It is a beloved holiday tradition, so expect long lines on December weekends and arrive early.
Plan Your Visit
- Address: 4061 Clemmons Road, Clemmons, NC 27012 (enter through the main park entrance off US-158)
- Festival of Lights: Open 6 to 11 p.m. nightly from mid-November to January 1. Typical family-vehicle entry runs about $20 cash or $23 by card; larger vehicles cost more.
- Website: Visit Winston-Salem Festival of Lights guide
Take a Day Trip to Körner’s Folly
Just east in Kernersville sits one of North Carolina’s strangest and most delightful buildings. Körner’s Folly, built in 1880 by designer Jule Körner as a showcase for his interior decorating work, is a 22-room maze of mismatched ceiling heights, hidden passages, and seven different levels crammed into three stories. It even holds what is believed to be the oldest private little theatre in the country. Self-guided tours take about an hour and make for an easy, quirky add-on to a Winston-Salem trip.
Plan Your Visit
- Address: 413 South Main Street, Kernersville, NC 27284
- Phone: 336-996-7922
- Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m. (last entry 3 p.m.)
- Admission: $10 adults, $6 children 6 to 18, free under 6
- Website: kornersfolly.org/visit
Where to Stay
Winston-Salem keeps its visitors close to the action with a good range of hotels. Downtown puts you within walking distance of the Arts District, breweries, and Kaleideum, with full-service options like the Kimpton Cardinal Hotel in the landmark old R.J. Reynolds building, the Marriott and Embassy Suites in the Twin City Quarter, and the historic Brookstown Inn for boutique charm near Old Salem. For a romantic Reynolda-area stay, the Graylyn Estate and the Hawthorne Inn are local favorites. You can compare rates and availability for these hotels and inns on Expedia.
More to Explore
This list only scratches the surface. The city also offers minor-league baseball with the Winston-Salem Dash, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), the Mast General Store’s barrels of retro candy on Trade Street, and Quarry Park’s surprising overlook of the skyline. For the full, regularly updated rundown of attractions, events, and seasonal happenings, browse Visit Winston-Salem.
Planning tip: Many of the best experiences here are free or close to it (Reynolda Gardens, the Arts District, downtown murals), so anchor your day around one paid attraction like Old Salem or Kaleideum, then fill the rest with walkable, no-cost exploring. Confirm hours and seasonal closures directly with each venue before you set out, since several adjust their schedules in winter.