Winston-Salem: Art, History, and Nature

When looking for a hotel for a stay in Winston-Salem, you can plan your trip around a range of interests: American art, early settlement history, historic crafts, or nature and trails. The topics featured here each have their own focus and give you specific points to consider when making your choice.

Art and Landscape at Reynolda

The historic Reynolda House Museum of American Art was completed in 1917 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The collection also has a clearly defined time span: it covers 250 years of American art and is presented chronologically. This chronological arrangement connects the works in a sequence, while the broad time span invites visitors to look beyond a single era.

Reynolda also includes gardens and grounds with scenic walking paths and a waterfall. Art and landscape are thus distinct themes, yet both are anchored at the same named location. For your planning, this means that Reynolda is not limited to the collection in the historic house, but also has a landscape component.

One specific point to consider when planning your journey is the Winston-Salem Transit Authority bus stop near the entrance gates of Reynolda House.

Settlement History and Trails in Bethabara

Historic Bethabara Park is the site of the first European settlement in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad. One notable historic building there is the Gemeinhaus Church, dating from 1788. It is the oldest surviving church with an attached residence in the United States. The park’s connection to the settlement and the history of this particular building offer two distinct perspectives on the past.

The park includes a 183-acre wildlife preserve; Historic Bethabara Park also has more than 10 miles of trails. The trail network includes the Monarcas Creek Greenway, also called Bethabara Greenway, the Mill Creek Loop Trail, and the Woodland Loop Trail.

Visitors interested in Bethabara can therefore consider its historical context and landscape separately: the Gemeinhaus Church represents a specific building with a date and distinctive historical status, while the preserve and trails describe the park’s natural setting and trail network. This makes it easier to decide which aspect is especially relevant to your own trip planning.

Living History and Crafts in Old Salem

Old Salem Museums & Gardens is a living history attraction that presents the cultural history of the early American South. This includes the history of Moravians, people of African descent, and Indigenous peoples of the Southern Woodland region. The historic district covers nearly 100 acres and includes almost 100 restored buildings—a scale that describes the physical extent of this area of interest.

In Old Salem, artisans dressed in 18th-century clothing demonstrate, among other crafts, blacksmithing, gunsmithing, pottery, carpentry and woodworking, pewter casting, baking, cooking from historic recipes, and shoemaking. Alongside the historical groups and their stories, a range of crafts is also in focus. These trades give the subject a concrete, hands-on dimension without limiting it to a single building or activity.

Another Area of Interest at Kaleideum

Kaleideum’s Digital Dome offers immersive experiences about space, the human body, and Earth’s geography. This focus differs from the historic houses, settlement history, and crafts: here, the emphasis is on three broad topics ranging from cosmic phenomena to the human body and the Earth. If you are also considering your interests when looking for a hotel in Winston-Salem, you can use these different areas of focus as a guide for your stay.

Discover more destinations: Clemmons, Kernersville.

View the broader travel guide: Forsyth.