Landmarks in Charlotte include the Mint Museum, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, Discovery Place (a hands-on science museum), the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Hearst Tower, Independence Square, Founders Hall, Freedom Park, The Light Factory, McColl Center for Visual Art, 7th Street Market, EpiCenter and Camp North End, a Model-T factory turned missile assembly, which will reopen as a public gathering spot with food trucks and pop-up shops.

Experience NASCAR (at least once)

Get a ticket, watch the high-speed frenzy, and party in the campgrounds at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. This experience is a rite of passage around here, and you won’t regret it. The races go down on asphalt as well as dirt, with major events like the Monster Energy All-Star Race, the Monster Truck Bash and the World of Outlaws Finals. If that adrenaline high has you itching to drive a derby car of your own, then sign up to drive a real NASCAR race car around the track (about $300 for 3 hours).

Spend the day at the Whitewater

At the U.S. National Whitewater Center, you can go whitewater rafting, ziplining, rappelling, and rock climbing over a 16-foot-deep pool. There are also free public events here like Open Water Swim, yoga classes, and the River Jam concert series, where the music ranges from bluegrass, folk, blues and outlaw country to alt rock, punk, and metal.

Taste the local flavors

Barbecue is Charlotte’s signature dish, and all you need in order to find it is a good nose. Local favorites include Midwood Smokehouse, Sauceman’s, Mac’s Speed Shop, and Queen City Q. Beyond barbecue, the Queen City is booming with innovative foodie enterprises. There are gourmet food trucks, French bakeries, vegan creations, modern fusions, and authentic international eats. Peruse the fresh, local bites at 7th Street Market. Try the schnitzel at Waldhorn Restaurant, the Bosnian burgers at Euro Grill, the antipasta at Portofino’s, or the comfort Polish plates at Taste of Europe Polish Cuisine. Enjoy your way through the flavors of the Middle East at La Shish Kabob and the Golden Bakery. Try the elegant Indian cooking at Copper or The Blue Taj, and the variety of Asian spots like Lang Van Vietnamese and Futo Buta. For African cuisine, there’s Queen Sheba, Ajbani Moroccan Cuisine, and Nubian Queens Restaurant. And for a lively Cuban meal, get a table before the band starts at A Piece of Havana.

Live the lake life

North Carolina is well-known for its mountains and beaches, but in Charlotte it’s all about the lakes. Lake Norman is located 30 minutes from the city center, where you can chill on the sandy lakefront of Ramsey Creek Beach, or rent a boat for fishing, skiing, wakeboarding, or tubing. For a quiet country escape, head southwest to Lake Wylie, where you can find a shady spot by the water, pitch a tent, make a fire, and campout in the serene, undeveloped beauty of the McDowell Nature Preserve.

Prost in a local brewery

‘Prost’ is one of the most important words for beer drinkers. It means “cheers,” and you’ll be saying it a lot around here. There are tons of brewmasters in town, including Cornelius’ Ass Clown Brewery, NoDa Brewery, Unknown Brewing Co., Sycamore Brewing, Wooden Robot Brewery, and The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, which won a gold medal at the 2015 European Beer Star Competition.

Day-to-day traffic isn’t too much of an issue in Charlotte. During rush hour, the busiest routes include I-77, I-85, I-485 between 77 and Ballantine, and Independence Blvd. The most difficult part of driving in Charlotte is learning the lay of the land, or the names of the roads to be more specific. Some roads change names every two miles, curving and looping and intersecting with each other, seemingly just to mess with your head. In fact, there are three intersections of Queens and Queens near the Mecklenburg County Market. But don’t worry, it’s something all the local drivers get used to after a little practice.

Public transportation in Charlotte is provided by CATS (Charlotte Area Transit System), which runs bus and rail lines throughout the city. For those living near the city center, a combination of bus, rail, sidewalks, bicycle paths and greenways can get you anywhere you need to go. However, residents on the outskirts of town might want to check out the CATS maps to coordinate transportation before making a final decision on an apartment.

Charlotte is home to two major professional sports franchises: the Carolina Panthers (NFL) and the Charlotte Hornets (NBA). The Panthers are two-time defending NFC South champions, and the Hornets are in a new era of rising popularity, so it’s a perfect time to hop on board. Charlotte also has a Major League Lacrosse Team, The Hounds, a United Soccer League Team, The Independence, and an American Ultimate Disc League team, The Charlotte Express.

Charlotte sees the full beauty of all four seasons. Spring is warm and full of blooms. Summers are hot, humid and sunny, with daytime highs in the 90’s. Fall brings colorful foliage and cool temperatures. Winters are cold with occasional snow. The average temperature for January is 40 degrees, with about 60 nights that drop below freezing throughout the season. Weather extremes have historically send temperatures both over 100 degrees and below zero degrees, though this isn’t something that happens very often.

Charlotte is situated directly in the path of tropical storms from the Gulf of Mexico, and as a result receives lots of rain during hurricane season. In the fall of 1989, Charlotte received a direct hit from Hurricane Hugo, which brought 87-mile-per-hour winds that caused pretty significant damage and knocked out the power grid for a few weeks. Luckily, though, these types of storms are somewhat predictable and Charlotte has all the right resources to make sure its residents are safe when the worst of them do approach.

After its early gold rush days, Charlotte became an epicenter for banking and finance. Today, it is home to the corporate headquarters of Bank of America and the east coast operations of Wells Fargo, which combine with smaller financial institutions to create one of the biggest banking centers in the country. The Queen City is home to several other Fortune 500 companies, including Lowe’s, Duke Energy, Nucor (a steel producer), Sonic Automotive and Sealed Air Corp. Other major companies with offices here include Chiquita Brands International, Harris Teeter, Snyder’s Lance, Carolina Foods Inc, Bojangles, Food Lion, Compass Group USA, Meineke, and Coca-Cola Bottling Consolidated.