Outer Banks Travel Guide
I grew up visiting the Outer Banks so when Shane and I moved to North Carolina in 2018, I knew I wanted to go back. But then I found out it was over SIX HOURS from Charlotte. Not exactly an easy beach weekend getaway. While this year has been weird for travel, Covid ended up being the reason we went. Back in March when we knew Shane wasn’t going to be traveling for work we decided to book a beach house for the week. I mean, if we had to stay inside a house, why not it be a house at the beach. But then obviously things escalated well beyond what anyone expected and the Outer Banks closed to visitors. Our VRBO host asked if we wanted to reschedule so we did. We picked September over Shane’s 40th birthday. It seemed so far away and certainly everything would be fine by then. And while it was sort of fine Covid wise, in true 2020 fashion we had abnormal weather and got stuck there.
Arrival
As I mentioned, Cape Hatteras is a 6.5 hours from Charlotte as it’s at the very southern end of the Outer Banks. If you stay in the northern area around Nags Head it’s only about 5.5 hours. And you won’t be past the spot where the road washed out (and the reason for us being stuck there). There is no direct interstate to the coast once you get past Raleigh which is one of the reasons why it takes so long. The closest major airports are Raleigh (4.5 hours to Cape Hatteras) and Norfolk airport in Virginia (3 hours). So if you don’t drive from your house you’ll be driving from an airport with a rental car. You’ll want a car anyway once on the Outer Banks to be able to really explore.
Stay
There are a handful of hotels in the Outer Banks but the only chains are up in Nags Head. The rest are small with minimal amenities and locally owned so vacation rentals are where it’s at. We stayed in this VRBO house and, yes, it was much bigger than we actually needed (we literally didn’t use the entire second floor) but we didn’t care. VRBO has hundreds of listings for the Outer Banks as does Airbnb. There are also a lot of non-VRBO/Airbnb vacation rental companies that you can contact. Camping is also extremely popular here as there are spots within the National Seashore area but also full service locations like the Cape Hatteras KOA (where we stayed at as little kids!).
View of Pamilco Sound from our VRBO Vacation Rental
See
As you drive to the Outer Banks you will cross over Roanoke Island. This island is home to the North Carolina Aquarium. Once you leave this island you’ll officially be in the Outer Banks and in Nags Head, essentially the ‘entrance’ to the area. Nag’s Head is the home to Jockey’s Ridge State Park which has the tallest living sand dune on the Atlantic Coast and a couple of piers. Nags Head is definitely the most developed area of the OBX in terms of stores, shopping, health care, etc.
The Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills area is just north of Nags Head and where you will find the Wright Brothers Memorial and why North Carolina claims ‘First in Flight’ on their license plates. We visited this area growing up and it kind of brought their whole story full circle for us as I grew up just outside of Dayton, Ohio where the Wright Brothers are from. The memorial stands where their first flight occurred and markers show the distance it traveled. It’s miniscule compared to today’s flights but still pretty awesome to see a spot where history occurred.
Just past Nags Head is where you’ll enter the Cape Hatteras National Seashore area. It is home to the iconic Cape Hatteras Lighthouse which also happens to be the tallest brick lighthouse in America. This National Seashore includes Hatteras Island, Bodie Island (which has another black and white lighthouse) and Ocracoke Island. I distinctly remember visiting Ocracoke Island when I was younger because we took a ferry there and it was the first time I saw wild horses. The only way to get to Ocracoke is by boat and I still think that is pretty cool. You access it from the very southern end of the Outer Banks. They have accommodations there as well and include the plethora of water activity options that all of the OBX has.
Obviously being on the water is the thing to do here. But even if you don’t want to get wet there are some hiking trails in the area or you can visit one of the numerous lighthouses in the region as well as the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. If your accommodations don’t have water access, there are several spots all along highway 12 that can get you to the beach or sound. Some even have picnic areas and all are free to access. Fishing is probably the most popular watersport there. We saw several people fishing on the beach but you can charter a boat to take you off the coast. We also saw people surfing, kite boarding, canoeing, kayaking and also just chilling on the beach - which was our preferred activity!
My favorite lighthouse in the country - Cape Hatteras
Food & Drink
When you are there I would say the goal is to eat as much seafood as possible. 🐟 And if you have a place with a kitchen, stop by one of the numerous seafood shops to get something fresh to cook at your own place. We did this twice with fresh shrimp from Risky Business Seafood Co. There are lots of stores in the Nags Head area but once you get further south the stores are fewer and far between. Avon has a Food Lion, the only chain grocery you’ll find down there. Buxton has the sizeable Connor’s Supermarket and it’s right across from the only North Carolina ABC liquor store I saw out there. In Hatteras Village we went to both the Village Red & White Market and the Nedo True Value Shopping Center. Both had a little bit of everything and were sufficient to get the things we needed.
A lot of the restaurants were only open for dinner - and not every day - so be sure to pay attention to that when selecting a place. Some are also seasonal but most were still open when we were there. One of the dinner only places we really enjoyed was Dinky’s in Hatteras Village. While it was raining we still enjoyed a beautiful view of the sound and I loved the Crabmeat Cocktail. On Shane’s birthday we sat right along the water at The Wreck Tiki Bar (also in Hatteras Village) and had some local brews and good sandwiches. Their Pirate’s Punch (a rum punch) was also very good. To watch some football we went to the Lighthouse Sports Bar in Buxton. I LOVED their Carolina BBQ wings and they had a pretty good selection of beers. We had lunch one afternoon at The Froggy Dog in Avon. They started out as a hot dog stand so that is what I went with - and got their version of a Skyline Cheese Coney. It was very different but also very good. One of the seasonal restaurants that was still open was Top Dog Cafe. Due to Covid they were only doing take out but we took it and found a close by picnic area right along the sound and I very much enjoyed my Cajun Crab Wrap. For some breakfast options we went to the Orange Blossom Bakery & Cafe in Buxton on a recommendation and it was awesome. We got their famous Apple Ugly and it was so freaking good. The only way I can describe it is that it was a giant donut ball with some apple pie like filling mixed in. We got ours to go and it was still warm when we ate it back at the house. Down in Hatteras Village we had other good pastries - and really good coffee - at The Dancing Turtle Coffee Shop.
As you know, my and Shane’s favorite thing to do while traveling is check out the local breweries. There are none on the southern end so because of the weather we, very sadly, didn’t get to go to any of them. I did get to have the Hatteras Red from Lost Colony at the Wreck Tiki Bar. So, we will just have to go back to get to them. There are three in the area. There is Lost Colony Brewery & Cafe in Manteo on Roanoke Island, Outer Banks Brewing Station in Kill Devil Hill and finally, on Ocracoke Island you’ll find 1718 Brewing.
Weather
The best time to visit weather wise is the summer but it’s also the most popular and the most expensive. No matter when you go, purchase trip insurance. Some places won’t give you a refund due to the weather. We weren’t even directly dealing with a hurricane yet thousands of people’s vacations were affected (it was in the 70’s and sunny for all the days of the road closure!). With the roads closed they also stopped running the ferry to Ocracoke. Dozens of people who were supposed to stay there got stuck for days and had to pay for their accommodations there as well as emergency ones until they could get there. If you have trip insurance you would definitely be able to recoup some of that money. If you don’t, you’re out of luck.
When we first booked our trip it was for March (off season). After it had to be canceled our VRBO host said we could come back after Labor Day since that was the next off season. This makes it less expensive than summer but we would have greatly preferred spring over fall because of hurricane season. We took a risk picking the time we did but we didn’t want it to be cold when we went and because it was over Shane’s birthday. OF COURSE a storm came and we drove through all the remnants of Sally the whole way there on Thursday but we thought we were in the clear after Friday. There wasn’t any more rain forecasted our entire trip so we just thought we’d be having to deal with the wind. Well, we had no idea what that wind was going to do - the wind was from the remnants of Sally meeting up with Hurricane Teddy well off the coast in the Atlantic. And it caused extremely higher than normal tides. This caused the tides to come up over the entire beach in spots and wash sand onto the roads. And while the wind quit over the evening on Monday the high tides persisted through Wednesday afternoon. The one and only road closed on Sunday and didn’t reopen until Thursday at noon. We were lucky and only had to stay one extra night (others had 4!) and, even luckier, our wonderful VRBO host let us go back and stay there for free. Another thing to keep in mind is that once Hurricane Season is over you aren’t always safe. Nor’easters can come up the coast and do the same thing with washing out the road (and those come with cold weather). They appear to be building a new bridge that will circumvent this troublesome area so once it’s done, road closures shouldn’t be something you have to deal with. Until then buy that trip insurance!
Below:
Our driveway was flooded the entire week from the amount of rain left by the remnants of Hurricane Sally.
Once Highway 12 opened up it was easy to see why it had been closed. All that sand on the right had been covering the roadway.
