Things to Do in Fuquay-Varina, NC

Historic brick storefronts on a small-town main street like downtown Fuquay-Varina, NC
Photo by J Dean on Unsplash

I spend more time in Fuquay-Varina than anywhere else in the Triangle, so this is the page I wish existed the first time I went looking for what to do here. Not a list scraped from a tourism site, just the places I actually take friends when they visit and the events I plan the year around. It gets updated as things open and close, and it links out to my deeper posts when I have one.

Quick orientation: Fuquay-Varina is the southernmost town in Wake County, about 15 minutes below Raleigh on 401. It was two separate towns until 1963, which is why it has two downtowns about a 15-minute walk apart. That quirk is the best thing about it.

Start with these

The best things to do in Fuquay-Varina

Walk both downtowns

Downtown Fuquay (South Main Street) is the heritage half: the Arts Center, Mineral Spring Park, the museums and the shops. It also has a daily social district from noon to 10pm, so you can carry a drink between stops. Downtown Varina (East Broad Street) is the livelier side, anchored by Aviator’s TapHouse in the restored 1903 train depot and the “I Love Fuquay-Varina” mural everyone photographs. Do Fuquay in the afternoon and Varina after dark.

Aviator Brewing

Aviator started in an airplane hangar in 2008 and now has a small empire: the TapHouse in the Varina depot (600 E Broad St), the Pizza Pub across the street, and the new brewery campus at 688 Brewing Drive with the Hangar Bar, an amphitheater and a whiskey bar. Saturday brewery tours are worth doing once. My full rundown of every taproom in south Wake is in the south Wake brewery guide.

Fuquay Mineral Spring Park

This is where the town started. Stephen Fuquay found the spring while plowing in 1858 and people came by rail to “take the waters.” The restored springhouse, footbridge and picnic tables at 105 W Spring St make it a quiet stop, and in December the whole park is strung with lights.

Fuquay-Varina Arts Center

A former Belk department store at 123 E Vance St, now a 294-seat theater, gallery and studios. The shows punch well above what you would expect from a town this size, and the classes fill fast.

South Park and the Jeff Wells Trail

The family default at 900 S Main St: two playgrounds, a 6,000 square foot splash pad (Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, 10am to 7pm), fields, and a 0.7-mile greenway that connects to Carroll Howard Johnson Park. If you have kids, you will end up here.

Carroll Howard Johnson Environmental Education Park

Twenty-eight wooded acres at 301 Wagstaff Rd with a two-mile nature trail, bridges and overlooks. It is also where the town runs its Haunted Trail every October. For longer walks, Hilltop Needmore Town Park (4621 Shady Greens Dr) has about five miles of trails on three loops.

Fuquay-Varina Growers Market

Saturday mornings, 8am to noon, at 121 N Main St. Local farmers and makers, live music, and kids’ activities most weeks. Get there before 10 if you want the good bread.

Naylor Family Farm

Just north of town on 401, and the fall tradition for most families here: a 10-acre corn maze, pumpkin patch, petting zoo and play area. Here is why it is worth the drive.

Events to plan around

  • Celebrate Fuquay-Varina, first Saturday in October on South Main Street. Live music, chili cook-off, art vendors, kids zone. The best day of the year downtown.
  • FM2FV concert series, Thursday evenings in spring and fall in Downtown Fuquay.
  • Haunted Trail at Carroll Howard Johnson Park in October, with family-friendly and full-fright nights.
  • BBQ, Blues and Brews, early November, run by the Downtown Association.
  • Tree lighting and Lights in Mineral Spring Park, early December, with ice skating, a night market and train rides. The lights run nightly into January.
  • Christmas Parade, first Sunday in December at 4pm in Downtown Fuquay.
  • Independence Day at South Park in July, with live music and fireworks.

Neighborhoods to know

Fuquay Springs Historic District is the Victorian and Craftsman core around South Main and Vance. Varina Commercial Historic District is the railroad-era strip on Broad Street built on tobacco money. Close-in older neighborhoods like Ballentine and Southern Oaks put you within a walk or a short drive of downtown, and the newer growth is north toward South Lakes and Sunset Lake on the Holly Springs line. Ten minutes up the road, Holly Springs is worth its own page.

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