What’s Inside: A fun, family-friendly guide to the best eats, sights, and nostalgic experiences in Andy Griffith’s real-life hometown!
Curious what it would be like to step back into a different era and vacation in The Andy Griffith Show’s Mayberry? Well, we packed the van with the grandparents and headed to Mount Airy, NC, Andy Griffith’s hometown to find out. We came home with full hearts (and stomachs) after experiencing three days of true Southern hospitality, classic diners plus homemade baked goods, and old-fashioned affordable fun (including a tour in a squad car).
Here’s everything we did, ate, and explored—organized by category so it’s easy for your family to plan your own Mayberry memories.
Thank you to Visit Mayberry for hosting us during our stay.
Where We Stayed in Mayberry
We stayed at a rental home just 5 minutes from downtown titled “Mayberry’s Best”, and it was definitely a spot we would recommend for other families. Our home was spacious, pet-friendly, and just right for three generations. It had a game room with a real Atari arcade machine, a big yard with a deck, and a stack of Andy Griffith DVDs in the family room.
- Kid favorites: The home was stocked with kid-friendly games, Magna-Tiles, puzzles, and even an arcade machine.
- Grown-up wins: Clean, roomy layout, two full bathrooms, and a great kitchen, plus we were even greeted with fresh flowers, moonpies, and a bottle of wine.
- Pet-friendly: We didn’t bring our dog, but the home also allows you to bring a dog with a small fee. There were dog bowls and treats available. Note: The yard was not 100% fenced in, but the street wasn’t busy, and there was plenty of space for a dog to run.
The area has a number of family-friendly rentals plus hotels that aren’t far from the center. A new hotel is being built downtown that should open in Spring of 2026.
⭐Fun Fact: If you want a truly unique stay, Andy Griffith’s childhood home is available for rental stays.
Places to Eat in Mount Airy, NC
You won’t go hungry while visiting Mount Airy, NC, with several diners that have been open for decades and lined with celebrity photos, to family-friendly breweries.
Snappy Lunch
📍 125 N Main Street
🔗Snappy Lunch
Eating lunch at Snappy’s is a bucket list item when visiting Mount Airy, NC, and the best part is that you can still order a meal there for around $5. We kicked off our trip by splitting four signature sandwiches on the menu—The Ultimate Pork Chop Sandwich, Fried Bologna, Breaded Cheeseburger, and the Ground Steak Sandwich with slaw.
The booths, counter, and vintage photos made it feel like stepping into the show. We heard from one local that they once met a group that drove all the way from Ohio just to pick up a cooler of pork sandwiches.
Tip: We got in fast during our trip in the off-season, but heard the line can sometimes stretch down the sidewalk in the summer.
The Derby
📍 1901 S Main Street
🔗 The Derby Restaurant
The Derby has been a local favorite since 1937 and has remained family-owned through 3 generations! We enjoyed eggs, potatoes, and southern hospitality. The biscuits were amazing, and we loved the skillet breakfast.
Dairy Center
📍 407 W Lebanon Street
🔗 Dairy Center-Trip Advisor
We ordered sweet potato pancakes, omelets, bacon, and homemade strawberry jam. Everyone thought the strawberry jam was amazing. This diner is known for its delicious ground steak, typically served as a sandwich, but we got a great tip to order it in an omelet for breakfast. The open kitchen and retro ice cream window made this spot feel like a step back in time.
Barney’s Café
📍 206 N Main Street
🔗Barney’s Cafe
We stopped here for lunch and again at the end of our trip for a traditional milkshake and homemade slice of pie at the soda counter. The Barney Burger was great, and the homemade Coconut Pie totally stole the show. My dad said it tasted just like his mom used to make it.
Thirsty Souls Community Brewing
📍 238 Market Street
🔗Thirsty Souls Brewing
You know you are in a spot where the locals eat when you get asked where you are from while you are waiting for your meal. This brewery specializes in small-craft beers and artisan pizzas. The atmosphere was chill and family-friendly (you could even relax on a couch if a traditional table wasn’t your style). We got to stay long enough to not only enjoy a delicious flight of beer and a couple of pizzas but also to compete in a game of trivia.
Angry Troll Brewing
📍 308 N Main Street
🔗Angry Troll Brewing
This was yet another great trivia night stop! We shared cheese curds, fried pickles, fish and chips, pizza, and salad. This family-friendly brewery has not only a beer menu and full cocktail menu but also some fun mocktails for the kids (or non-alcohol drinkers).
Mount Airy, NC Activities & Things to Do
Squad Car Tour (Wally’s Service Station)
📍 625 S Main Street
🔗 Squad Car Tours
If you only do one thing in the town of Mayberry, this is it. This is one of the top Mount Airy, NC activities, and it’s no surprise why. We rode in a real 1960s squad car just like the ones in the Andy Griffith show and learned all about Mount Airy and the people and industries that make it famous. The tour takes you downtown, to the largest open-face granite mine in the world, by Andy Griffith’s childhood home, and past local architecture, much of which was made out of the local granite.
Our local guide liberally used the car’s siren and kept us laughing the whole time with his stories, and yes—it was hot inside that car since it didn’t have AC, but totally worth it.
Next to the Squad Car Tour, you can lock yourself up inside the jail at the Mayberry Courthouse or grab ice cream. This entire area is free to enter and full of fun photo ops. It’s also a great area to purchase souvenirs as they had a wide selection of Andy Griffith themed shirts and memorabilia, including even fun nods to the show, such as a jar of Aunt Bee’s Pickles.
Ghost Trolley Tour
📍 Starts at 301 N Main Street
🔗Ghost Trolley Tour Info
If you want to experience the town at night, get on the trolley for a spooky ghost tour. The ghost stories were funny, spooky, and also touched on local history. Great for adults or older kids and tweens. Walking ghost tours are also available.
Floyd’s City Barber Shop
📍 129 N Main Street
🔗Floyd’s Barber Shop
We sat in the same chair Andy and many other celebrities once did. You can peek in this Barber Shop even if you don’t need a haircut, but if you need a haircut, make an appointment. Not only will you see the famous barber chair, but also a child-sized barber chair and a cash register from a century ago.
Andy Griffith Museum and Playhouse
📍 218 Rockford Street
🔗Andy Griffith Museum
We took a backstage tour of the Andy Griffith Playhouse, where we learned all about Andy’s early life and career. The tour also allows you to stand on the original stage that Andy performed on in 3rd grade, as well as takes you back into the dressing rooms of the theatre.
The Playhouse is an active theatre with a performance always in rehearsal. Another way to experience the theatre is to purchase tickets to one of the many shows.
The Andy Griffith Museum showcases the largest collection of memorabilia connected to Andy Griffith, much of which was collected by a childhood friend. Inside the museum, you can watch snippets from his movies and see artifacts from his life.
Adjacent to the museum, you can also check out the Betty Lynn exhibit. Betty Lynn was known for her role in the Andy Griffith Show as Thelma Lou, Barney Fife’s girlfriend. Betty Lynn relocated to Mayberry in retirement and has played an important role in the area’s connections to the Andy Griffith Show.
This museum is best suited for older children who can read and understand the significance of the museum exhibits. For those who are Andy Griffith fans, it’s the best place to get a fuller glimpse into his life.
Museum tickets also grant access to go inside the Historic Earle Street Theatre during select times.
Siamese Twins Museum
📍 215 Rockford Street
🔗Siamese Twins Museum
We crossed the street after visiting the Andy Griffith Museum to tour the Siamese Twins Museum. This museum tells the story of Chang and Eng Bunker, the first fully documented set of conjoined twins.
Chang and Eng were born in Siam (now Thailand) but moved to the United States as adults after years of traveling the world as part of an exhibition. As young adults, they managed their own contracts and eventually amassed enough wealth to marry sisters and settle in Mount Airy.
This museum tells the story of Chang and Eng Bunker with photos, texts, artifacts, and even a life-size statue of Chang and Eng. It’s compact but fascinating. We recommend this museum for older kids and adults.
Mount Airy Museum of Regional History
📍 301 N Main Street
🔗Mount Airy Museum of Regional History
This multi-level museum surprised us with its variety of exhibits and appeal to a wide range of ages. The exhibits range from local history to a floor dedicated to fire history, complete with three retired fire engines. Since the history of Andy Griffith is prominent throughout Mount Airy, NC, especially at the Andy Griffith museum, this museum focuses mainly on additional history and people connected to the area.
If you are looking for an indoor activity to keep all ages entertained, this museum is a good choice. It offers an extensive play area on the top floor. The play area includes a playground, a full dress-up bin, puppets, a small house, and a fire pit. While there, we saw that it was a popular local hangout for small children.
While still in construction, visitors will soon be able to enjoy a new industry-themed exhibit that includes a model train room.
Blackmon Amphitheatre
📍 145 Rockford Street
🔗Blackmon Amphitheatre Info
This outdoor concert venue was one of the highlights of our trip. If you live near the area, season passes are pretty affordable and include over 50 concerts a year, but even for a night, the tickets are just $20. Kids 12 and under are free.
You can bring your own chairs, sit on the grass, or get there early enough to snag a table. The venue is casual with plenty of green space for kids to run around and dance.
If you’ve visited before, what are your favorite Mt. Airy, NC activities?
Where to Shop in Mt. Airy
Of course, we saw a couple of the normal tourist shops, but downtown Mount Airy, NC is fun, quirky, and full of local flair. We browsed everything from local sweet shops to antique stores and even found a store full of quirky socks at discount pricing, a cat cafe, and a boutique/arcade.
Opie’s Candy Store
📍 135 N Main Street
🔗Opie’s Candy Store
This vintage candy store is just down the street from Snappy’s. It’s not just any candy shop, though, with its vintage candy jars, ice cream counter, bottled sodas, and even old-school candy that’s hard to find, such as candy cigarettes and vintage gum.
Miss Angel’s Heavenly Pies & Hillbilly Creamery and Gluten-Free Desserts
📍 153 N Main Street | 155 N Main Street
🔗Miss Angel’s Heavenly Pies
This store is literally lined with pies. You can buy everything from a strawberry rhubarb pie to an apple pie with cinnamon buns on it. We bought perhaps the largest peanut butter cookie sandwich we have ever seen just for $4. The smell inside was amazing, and the desserts lived up to the hype. The Gluten-Free Desserts are extensive and in a separate but adjacent store. This store is also known for its moonshine-flavored desserts.
Mayberry Antique Mall
📍 160 N. Main Street
🔗 Mayberry Antique Mall
The Mayberry Antique Mall is just one of many antique shops lining Mount Airy’s downtown, but it must have been the largest.
Renfro Sock Outlet Store
📍229 N Main Street
We accidentally wandered into the Renfro Sock Outlet Store while waiting for the history museum to open. This store was truly a hidden surprise as it was full of all types of socks, from fun and quirky designs to practical white socks for tennis shoes. These socks were all amazing prices, too, since it’s an outlet of discontinued patterns.
Danabell’s Bocade
📍247 N Main Street
🔗Danabell’s Bocade Facebook
This store labels itself as Mount Airy’s very first Bocade (Boutique plus Arcade), and honestly, we hadn’t heard of that either. It was a Bocade, though. You could shop on one side and play a game system or arcade game on the other.
Blue’s Whiskers Lodge/Cat Cafe
📍133 W. Pine Street
🔗 Blue Whiskers Lodge / Cat Cafe
We discovered this cute and big-hearted cat cafe while exploring downtown, and it even had kittens. For a small fee, you can play with the cats for half an hour, and the funds go towards the cats’ care, and your play helps socialize them so they can be adopted. All the cats at this cafe are up for adoption, so watch out or you might come home with a new pet.
Why We Loved Mount Airy, NC
Mount Airy offered a beautiful mix of nostalgia, local charm, and family-friendly fun. It wasn’t just a trip down memory lane for my parents—it was a chance for three generations to connect and create shared memories.
The people we met were just as warm and welcoming as the characters in the show. Locals stopped to chat and share their town with us like we were neighbors.
Whether you’re a lifelong fan of Andy or just looking for a relaxing, affordable, and unique place to bring the kids, Mount Airy hits the mark.
North Carolina is beautiful! Find lots more travel ideas in our Kidding Around Guide to Travel in North Carolina.
