Outer Banks located on the coast of North Carolina has been on our to visit list for a while. This past April Vacation we made the trip. Below is how we spent the six days.
Saturday
We flew out of Boston to Raleigh, rented a car then headed east. We stopped at Tap House 1918 in Rocky Mount for some good local food and beer. The little over three hour drive was pretty uneventful with lots of farm land.
Townplace Suites by Marriott in Kill Devils Head was home until Thursday. The hotel was beautiful and updated. Our room had a small kitchen, table and chairs, lounging chair and two queen size beds. It was perfect for the week.
There were several amenities, an indoor pool, laundry, workout area and free breakfast with a good variety and lots of protein. Across the street was an outdoor pool with snack shack with private access to the beach. The pool and snack shake opens in May.
Sunday
The day started with a morning walk on the beach where we saw a pod of dolphins. Then on to explore Jockey’s Ridge State Park for 2 hours. The park was way better than expected. The sand dunes were so much fun to explore. For Star Wars Fans the beginning scene of The Force Awakens was filmed here.
We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial, lots of great history and we did a lot of walking.
Lunch was the Outer Banks Brewing Station. They had a cool outside area. Twice during our vacation we ate here. We recommend the Lemon Grass Beer.
The afternoon was spent at the beach. But first a stop at Brew Thru, a Drive Thru Beer Store these are popular on the Outer Banks. We were those crazy New Englanders that jumped in the water. It felt like the Maine Ocean in June.
Thanks to TikTok I read about the Little Red Mailbox of Hope, which is a mailbox with journals that people leave inspirational quotes, sayings etc. It is located in Kill Devil Hills. We left our own message of Hope.
Monday
We were up early to head north but first a stop at Duck Donuts. Yum!
About a month before our trip we scheduled a wild horse tour with Wild Horse Adventure Tours. Today was the day for the tour. A tour guide drove us in a hummer along the beach highway and through the small neighborhoods of Carova looking for wild horses. We saw one of the two foals on the island, her name is Dove. Due to it being cold and windy not many of the horses were out, we saw about 10 horses. The tour guide gave us a lot of great history about the area. I loved exploring the rural community and driving the beach highway.
Carrituck Beach Light House is a lighthouse where you can climb to the top to get a panoramic view of the area. It was worth the fee and the climb to the top.
Duck Boardwalk was a fun boardwalk with nature views, shopping and food.
We found a hole in the wall restaurant, Two Roads Tavern, in Kitty Hawk which had delicious and fresh oysters.
We did two different hikes, one at Nags Head Woods Preserve and another at Sandy Run Park. We saw so many turtles at both parks. Both hikes were beautiful. Very flat, not the hills I am use to in New Hampshire.
We stopped at Jeannette’s Pier a fishing pier with fish tanks, gift shop and fishing gear rental. Then we finished the evening with a hike back out to Jockey Ridge to watch the sunset.
Tuesday
We got up at 6am to watch the sunrise on the beach.
We drove down Rt 12 to Hatteras Village where we caught the ferry to Ocracoke Island. This is a free ferry, but you can wait several hours. We lucked out and only had to wait 45 mins. The ferry ride is about an hour, then you drive about 15 to 20 minutes to the town. We parked the car and walked to lunch at Ocracoke Oyster Company. Another great serving of oysters.
After lunch we rented a golf cart from Wheelie Fun, which was so much fun exploring the small town. It reminded me of our day trip to Peaks Island in Maine.
We spent a couple hours on the island and stopped the Pony Pen to see more wild horses, then we caught the ferry back to the the main land. Before heading back to our hotel we stopped to check out the inn from The Nights and Rodanthe Movie.
Wednesday (Last Full Day)
We drove to Mateo and Roanoke Island to explore for the day. First stop was the Elizabethan Gardens. There was not a lot in bloom, but still beautiful.
Then onto Roanoke Island Festival Park where they have a small reenactment camp set up for the Lost Colony. The live interpreters were fun to interact with. We walked around downtown Manteo, such a cute area with shops, a lighthouse and water sports.
We visited the Aquarium, my daughter said she liked this one better than the Boston Aquarium. So many fun exhibits and staff with a lot of knowledge. Our favorites were the otters, turtles, sharks and alligators. We spent a couple hours here, longer than we expected. Reservation in advance are required and they do sell out.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the beach and pool.
Thursday we left the Outer Banks to head to Fayetteville to visit with a close friend from my childhood. On the way we stopped at the Alligator Refuge to drive around to see animals. I was hoping to see an alligator or a red wolf, but all we saw were turtles and a mom with her ducklings.
Take aways:
Next time we want to do horseback riding and deep sea fishing.
There has to be better rental car options. Our car from Budget had several issues and when we called for assistance they were not very helpful. Luckily my husband knows about cars and was able to fix the problem. The cost was very expensive for what we had.
Instacart is wonderful to have groceries delivered to your hotel.
Having a hotel with healthy and a variety of free breakfast options was great.
The weather was not warm enough to enjoy a lot of beach time and ocean swimming.
The good thing about visiting in April is it is their off season, so it was quieter and easy to get around.
