Welcome to Orange County, North Carolina

Planning a trip is always exciting, and traveling can bring wonderful experiences, but when traveling with physical limitations or even small children, the unknown can easily become frustrating. This guide aims to provide as much information as possible about what any body dining or staying in a hotel in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill or Carrboro might encounter.

Between May and December of 2022, visits were made to each hotel, restaurant, cafe, coffee shop, and brewery in operation at the time, and data pertinent to visitors with physical limits were collected, such as where the nearest handicap parking is, how heavy entry doors are, what the seating is like, the type of service, specifics of the restroom accommodations, and if there’s a diaper changing table.

Visits to every listing were conducted between May 2022 and January 2023, so phone numbers and website addresses have been included to make it easy for you to check hours of operation and make reservations or ask questions.

Detailed Explanation of Restaurant Guide (includes cafes, coffee shops, and breweries)

Wondering why the names are in different colors? They correspond to a color-coded map. Find the area on the map where you are staying or planning to spend time sightseeing, then look for listings of that color to locate choices that fit your needs and tastes.

Parking: This will tell you if the restaurant has a private parking lot, is in a shopping center, or, if in a downtown area, where to find the nearest handicap parking (HP). The downtowns of Hillsborough and Chapel Hill have both street parking and municipal parking lots. Downtown Carrboro only has a few street spaces, and 12 municipal parking lots (See https://visitcarrboro.com/maps-and-parking/). Only downtown Chapel Hill requires payment for parking, but if you have a handicap parking plaque or license plate, you can park in any marked town space for free without fear of being ticketed or towed — including in the Welcome Center parking lot. If it’s open, please come in and see us, but when we are closed, feel free to park there if it’s convenient to where you are going. A valuable parking guide for downtown Chapel Hill is the website, Park on the Hill (https://parkonthehill.com), updated by the Town of Chapel Hill, with a map of HP spaces.

Seating: Booths, tables and chairs (T/C), bar seating, high top tables with tall chairs, step-up booths; inside dining, outside dining — all these specifics are listed here, as well as a description of the space around the seating. In many places, tables were removed to allow social distancing during the pandemic, so if you are using this guide after risks have lifted, space may be more limited than listed. Entrance doors will be noted here if it is either exceptionally easy to open or heavy; or if it is difficult in some other way to enter. Also, exceptional ambience (quiet, loud music, elegant, etc.) is mentioned here.

Service: This category lets you know before you arrive if you will be ordering at a counter (and possibly lining up), and if so, if they will bring the food to you or require you to go back for it. If needed, ask to have your order delivered!

Restrooms (RR): Gender neutral (G/N) restrooms in Orange County are all large rooms and wonderfully convenient for wheelchair users who need assistance from an opposite sex partner. Single room and stall restrooms are both noted with anomalies listed — if a stall is too narrow or not deep enough for larger chairs, a measurement is included; if there’s a cabinet under the sink, or if paper towels or a light switch are high, it is noted. The door “weight” is provided with ratings of: easy, medium, medium heavy, and heavy.

Lastly, a Diaper Changing Table is noted with DCT.

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