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Next, head to Duke University. The sprawling campus of Gothic and Georgian architecture spills over from downtown to the east campus hospital, and includes acres of some of the finest hiking in the area, the semiprivate Duke Forest. The favorite picnic spot of students and Durham residents to stop and, well, smell the roses is the Sarah P Duke Gardens. Just down the street is the Nasher Museum of Art, a $24 million modernist endeavor sponsored by art collector Raymond Nasher. The collection includes a permanent collection of 13,000 pieces by artists such as Andy Warhol, John Singer Sargent, Kara Walker and Ed Ruscha, in addition to ancient Greek and Roman pieces and African art. Inside, the Nasher Museum Café is worth a visit just for the seasonal, organic meals sourced from local farms and, especially, the scrumptious cupcakes. Or, for perhaps the most secret dining location in the entire Triangle, head to the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine and its restaurant, The Café, where the deliciously health-conscious lunch menu is open to all, including nonpatients.

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“(It’s) worth a visit just for the seasonal, organic meals.”

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Whether you have a five year old in tow or not, the Duke Lemur Center is a must-see. The reservations-only guided tour takes you through outdoor enclosures and an indoor sanctuary where you can meet the real Zoboomafoo (the lemur star of the PBS kids nature show, as anyone under the age of seven will tell you). The Duke student hangout zone is the relatively tame Ninth Street, where shops and restaurants outnumber the bars. A coffeehouse, dessert café, tapas restaurant, two bookstores and an old-fashioned soda fountain means most Durham residents end up here at least once a week. If you want to be one with the university forefathers, sleep at the Washington Duke Inn and Fairview Restaurant, the country inn-style hotel, restaurant and golf club where commissioned portraits of Duke family members watch over guests and dinner patrons.

Getting a ticket to Duke basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium isn’t so hard. Either sell your first-born, or earn a 3.8+ GPA in high school (extracurriculars strongly encouraged), apply to Duke, get accepted, buy a tent, find seven friends and live in it for four months at Krzyzewski-ville. Pronounced Sheshefsky-ville, the encampment is named for beloved Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, and pops up every January as the “Cameron crazies” student fans camp out in a highly structured bid to snap up tickets to the sought-after games, especially the annual Duke-Carolina game.

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“Duke Gardens is one of the most soulful places in the Triangle - beauty and peace and art and nature. When you stand under the round gazebo entrance, festooned with wisteria, you’re at the threshold of a magical place. I remember my wedding reception there. The “white garden” - where white roses climb all over a trellis and arbor - was the perfect place to slip away from the party with my new husband and steal a quiet kiss.”

Rah Bickley, Durham, NC

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Or, as it’s known at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (usually known as UNC or Carolina), the Carolina-Duke game. UNC is the oldest public university in the USA, chartered in 1789. The Tar Heels’ rivalry with the private Duke University started 90 years ago. Books have been written and families torn apart since, but as both teams are consistently ranked among the top 10 collegiate basketball teams in the country, this is a rivalry that won’t be going away any time soon. If you’re a sports fan, you’re welcome to stop by the Dean Smith Center on nonevent days to tour its Memorabilia Room. If you’re not a sports fan, you’ll do just fine visiting Chapel Hill, the ultimate college town, as Franklin Street, running directly in front of campus, is the ultimate college town street. Restaurants, bars, sorority houses and shops line the street, and students in Carolina blue sweatshirts walk the off-campus corridor day and