Best North Carolina Beaches?

[themepark]

As far as Hatteras and Lighthouses goes...

Of course Hatteras has theirs but, two hours north is Bodie Island Lighthouse and an hour or two south is Ocrakoke. That would be 3 you could quite easily visit.
c.

The Hatteras and Bodie Island Lighthouses are not that far apart. It's more like an hour. The drive is along a 2 lane beach road with pretty views. From Hatteras, you will ride a 45 minute ferry ride to Ocracoke. The ferry is free and during the summer months it runs every 30 minutes. Any of the beaches between Nags Head and Ocracoke are very laid back, not crowded, and for the most part unspoiled. Nags Head and to the north are more commercialized but not nearly as crowded as say Myrtle Beach. The entire Outer Banks area is beautiful and you can do as much or as little as you desire. We personally love staying on Hatteras Island and making day trips to Nags Head and to Ocracoke. Definitely climb the Hatteras Lighthouse and climb the dunes at Jockey's Ridge in Nags Head. I have never but would love to stay on Ocracoke. It's very quaint and peaceful with big beautiful unspoiled beaches.

We used Hatteras Realty once and got a HUGE house with a pool/hot tub right on the beach next to the pier in Frisco. It was the best vacation of my life. I was very pleased with everything when renting from this company. We were 5-7 minutes from the ferry to Ocracoke, about 10 minutes from the Cape Hatteras LIghthouse, and about 20 minutes to the grocery store in Avon. It was about an hour to get to Nags Head.

HTH!! You will love OBX.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

Bridget, you can check schedules at www.ncdot.org/transit/ferry/ You can make reservations for the Ocracoke ferry. We couldn't get on a ferry and had to wait for the next one. The restaurant beside the ferry dock was full of people that couldn't get on. Luckily, the seafood was great.

Right now the ferry system only takes cash or traveler's checks due to upgrading the computers.

I second Midgett Realty.

Lori

 

[tiggerwannabe]

I use this search engine to help us find a house every year...

http://www.outerbanks.org/accommodations/north_beach/rental_agencies_real_state.asp

Pick a realtor and then put in their page exactly what you are looking for and it'll return to you all the places that fit your requirements.

Up until May a room should be easy to get on the fly, after that you should definitely call ahead...

Sorry I can't help with the hotel question, we take our dog and go with 10 to 15 people each time so we've never stayed in a hotel room there.

c.

 

[Nala56]

We have stayed at a place called Surf Side Inn in Nags Head. It's a small privately owned hotel but it's pretty nice. It is right on the beach, has an outdoor pool and small indoor pool with hot tub. There are two buildings, main and smaller building. The smaller one has a couple of studio rooms with full kitchen. The larger one is mainly just hotel rooms. If you stay on top floor (4th), they have rooms called loft rooms. There is an extra bedroom upstairs, my daughter loves it up there, her own room. Also from the 4th floor balcony you can see both the ocean and the sound.

They also have nice breakfast in the morning, with a large eating area. Wine and cracker in early evening.

This is not a luxury 4 star, but we have always found it nice and relaxing.

 

[Miller1412]

We love Rodanthe and we can also vouch for Midgett realty.

 

[jennobrn01]

We used Hatteras Realty once and got a HUGE house with a pool/hot tub right on the beach next to the pier in Frisco.

We stayed in the exact same location, maybe even the same house! This year we are staying in Avon because our extended family has grown, and not everyone can be fully entertained by sitting on the beach fishing all day. It will be nice to be closer to touristy stuff.

To those of you going soon, don't forget to get your Apple Uglies at the Orange Blossom bakery in Buxton! A sweet tradition. Yummmm!

 

[Barb D]

We have stayed at a place called Surf Side Inn in Nags Head. It's a small privately owned hotel but it's pretty nice. It is right on the beach, has an outdoor pool and small indoor pool with hot tub. There are two buildings, main and smaller building. The smaller one has a couple of studio rooms with full kitchen. The larger one is mainly just hotel rooms. If you stay on top floor (4th), they have rooms called loft rooms. There is an extra bedroom upstairs, my daughter loves it up there, her own room. Also from the 4th floor balcony you can see both the ocean and the sound.

They also have nice breakfast in the morning, with a large eating area. Wine and cracker in early evening.

This is not a luxury 4 star, but we have always found it nice and relaxing.

We just got back, and stayed at the Surf Side based on your recommendation. Thank you! We had a wonderful time, and even ultra-picky DH really liked it. We had a room in the smaller building the first two nights. It was ocean front, but a dune blocked the view of the beach. We could see the ocean over the dune. It was still lovely. The last night we moved to one of the loft rooms. The kids loved it! (I have to say, though, that if I had a toddler I would have hated the loft. The stairs were very narrow, steep, and open.)

We had to get a "wind check" (like a rain check) for the hang gliding; DS14 couldn't get off the ground because it wasn't windy enough and he was too heavy. The smaller kids in the group did fine. DD12 got a few good flights, but got a wind check for the rest of her flights, too. IOW, we'll definitely be going back. DD said the trip was worth missing WDW for.

 

[jennobrn01]

I'm glad you had a fabulous time! We just got back from our OBX trip at 1am on Saturday morning. It's an annual extended family affair, and our largest yet since all the sibs have significant others now.

We had 4 great days on the beach, and we came back brown as berries.

The house we rented had a theater room so in the evenings we had LOTR marathons.

 

[Nala56]

Barb D - I'm so happy you liked Surf Side. We are going in July. We go same week every year, we've met a lot of people who come the same week so it's like a reunion. We all hang out on the beach and by pool in evening. Like I said it's not a 5 star, but for the 3 of us me, dh, dd (14) it's perfect.

We have rented condo's and house when we've gone with family, but prefer our time alone and Surf Side is affordable for us (have to save money for DW every year) !!

I hadn't thought about the narrow steps for little ones till you mentioned it. We used to stay in the smaller bldg with kitchen when she was smaller, just started doing loft room last 4-5 years.

We've never tried hang-gliding maybe we'll have to give it a try!!

 

[rockin_rep]

I love Wrightsville Beach if you just want beach.

But listen to everyone else if you are looking for lighthouses and retaurants.

Denae

Love this thread!

My MIL also wants to *treat* her entire family to a beach vacation later this summer, yippie!

However, she's considering either Wrightville Beach or Carolina Beach.

Which do you guys think is best?

There will be three sets of parents and 7 kids, ages 13-21 - and my MIL and FIL, too.

TIA for your help!

 

[Buckalew11]

My brother does-lucky dog

And lucky you (cause you can visit him!)

And I see we both like Sunset Beach AND BCV! (I'm closing this week ) You have excellent taste B bcvgal!!!

 

[bcvgal]

Thank you- we are hoping to go see him within the next month. And enjoy the BCV's they are fantastic. Great minds think alike.

 

[DisneyPhD]

My personal favorite place to visit it Ocrakoke Island. However, it takes a long ferry ride to get there. It feels like your own little world in a village far off in the ocean. I really like the style of that lighthouse. It is shorter and all white.

Me too, but my interest is personal. My grandmother was born on that Island (a very very long time ago, like 1900 or some time close to that.) I never knew her really she died before I was born, but we have many family connections to the Island, and my grandfather owned a number of houses that are now Inn's. (and my cousin has a restaurant there now, the flying melon. Funny name, great food.)

So I am biased about Ocraoke. That is my vote. There really isn't any other place like it. Just take what you need with you, it can be hard to find food and supplies on the Island.

That Island is home to me. I have actually been in the light house, but it was such a wicked hot day I thought my skin was going to melt!

 

[momm2four]

I would try vrbo.com (Vacations Rentals by Owner). We used them to find a nice house in Corolla last year.

Lori P.

 

[shortbun]

We're leaving for Hatteras in 5 days. We've been there several times before. We love it! Check the extra costs on cottage rental, sometimes they add a couple hundred dollars. Also, oceanfront usually means looking at a dune on Hatteras. Rodanthe area actually has very little or short dunes so the views are good. Several lighthouses in the area and it's much less developed than nags head, kittyhawk, duck and corolla.

 

[KittieKat]

Holden Beach is lovely

 

[GoofyBaseballMom26]

bcvgal,

You have a PM

 

[Minnie_Moo]

Many thanks to whoever resurrected this thread - I was trying to find it recently, but the search function didn't work.