Sample chèvre cheese and organic omelettes from the goats and chickens grazing out back at the Inn at Celebrity Dairy (from $90), an eight-room B&B; and dairy farm that supplies cheese to local restaurants. (Watch the evening milking at the barn out back between 6 and 7 p.m.)
Request one of the south-facing rooms on the sixth floor at the Umstead Hotel & Spa to ensure a view of the three-acre lake and gardens from a private balcony. Even the spa is seasonal the 50-minute raspberry-rhubarb facial ($110) is available only through August.
Listen to live bluegrass on the front porch of the Carolina Inn, a 1924 hotel decorated in southern colonial style (from $174). Picnic-style southern comfort food ($12) and cocktails ($6) are available during the Friday-night concerts.