If you plan your visit in mid-September, you can take advantage of a Dirty Dancing highlight – the annual Dirty Dancing Festival in Lake Lure. The film was shot on the 16th hole, but it was made to look like a practice green. Lewis in 1968, the course was featured prominently when Baby interrupted her parents while they were practicing their swings to ask her father for money. Learn about the history of the area, along with the natural and cultural background of Hickory Nut Gorge.Ĭome afternoon, take the longer but more scenic route along the lake to Bald Mountain Golf Course, an 18-hole course at Rumbling Bald on Lake Lure. See the area of the original camp that served as the staff housing and banquet room in Firefly Cove at Lake Lure. Sail past the stairs where Baby carried the watermelon up to the staff cabins and where she practiced her dance moves coming down. Wander over to the marina and book a guided Dirty Dancing tour with Lake Lure Tours, where you'll board an open-air pontoon boat for a narrated tour of the lake. Admire the antiques and artwork of the historic inn, stroll the property and lakeside, or treat yourself to a massage or facial in the Irongate Spa. Spend the morning enjoying the charm of the 1927 Lake Lure Inn & Spa. Day 3: Lake Lure Tours and Bald Mountain Golf Enjoy a sumptuous dinner in the Esmeralda Restaurant, which takes pride in using local meats and vegetables as often as possible and features an exceptional wine list. Although not originally at this location, the floor was salvaged after the gymnasium where the scene was shot was demolished in the late 1980s it became part of the lobby floor in the Esmeralda Inn during a renovation in the late '90s.

Just a bit farther west is The Esmeralda Inn, Restaurant & Spa, where you can walk on the actual floor where Baby and Johnny showed off their legendary dance and lift at the end of the film. If you time it right, enjoy a magical sunset – and channel Johnny and Baby’s mountain romance – along the Blue Ridge Mountains. For those looking for a more leisurely ascent, check to see if the state-of-the-art elevator is running, and then climb the final steps to take in the spectacular views from the top of this peak. For the adventurous and bold types, take the nearly 500 steps on the Outcroppings Trail to the top. Head a couple of miles west to Chimney Rock State Park and make your way to the top of the 535-million-year-old 315-foot rock outcropping. Day 2: Chimney Rock State Park and Esmeralda Inn Grab dinner at the Inn at Veranda Restaurant, where you can enjoy an elegant meal with mountain views. Today, the property is a private residential development called Firefly Cove at Lake Lure, where a few remaining ruins of the camp have been incorporated into the planned community. The cabins doubled for the film’s Kellerman’s staff housing, and the gym was converted into the banquet room where Baby and Johnny performed their epic “Time of My Life” dance routine. Settle into Johnny’s Cabin or Baby’s Bungalow, both spacious Dirty Dancing-themed cabins.Īlthough none of the film was shot at the Inn, the landscape at nearby Camp Chimney Rock – including its original cabins, dining hall and gymnasium – were used in the film. Check in to the 1927 Lake Lure Inn & Spa, where Patrick Swayze, portraying bad-boy dance instructor Johnny Castle, and Jennifer Grey, the beloved Frances “Baby” Houseman, stayed during filming. Start your walk down Dirty Dancing memory lane in the town of Lake Lure, where a handful of scenes were filmed. Who can forget the watermelon scene, the sultry dance moves, the coming-of-age love story, the lake lift and, of course, the pivotal final dance when no one put Baby in the corner? Though Dirty Dancing was set in a fictional Catskills resort in the summer of 1963, today, it’s easy to spend a few days exploring some of the original film sites of one of the most endearing love stories to film in North Carolina. Have the Time of Your Life Reliving 'Dirty Dancing'

New dirty dancing location