As East Coasters, we’ve been hearing about people’s magical vacations to the Outer Banks for what seems like forever and after a years delay in our plans (thanks COVID), we were finally able to check it out for ourselves this summer. Consisting of 200-miles of barrier islands along the coast of North Carolina, with just the right combination of beaches, adventure activities, history, wild-life, seafood restaurants and ice cream shops, our verdict is that the Outer Banks do not disappoint.
Check out our guide to get started on planning your own epic family vacation to the Outer Banks…
Where to Stay in the Outer Banks
With many different towns, each with their own personalities, figuring out where to stay on the Outer Banks can be overwhelming for first-time visitors; luckily the Outer Banks offers options for pretty much any kind of vacationer:
- If you’re into camping: Check out one of the National Park Service or privately owned RV parks and campgrounds; the majority of RV parks/campgrounds are located on Hatteras Island with a few scattered around other parts of the Outer Banks including Kill Devil Hill, Kitty Hawk and Roanoke Island.
- If you want to be near the action: Rent a house on the beach in Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hill or Nags Head if you’re looking to be close to lots of restaurants and activities. The beaches in this area are lined with huge houses, making it a great choice if you’re traveling with a big group that all wants to stay together.
- If you prefer the finer things in life: Book a stay in Duck, or neighboring Corolla, if you enjoy spending your mornings in the water and your afternoons shopping the boutiques, getting a spa treatment or sipping on a cocktail at one of the top-rated Outer Banks restaurants.
- If you’re looking for a quieter family vacation: Head to the towns on Hatteras Island or Ocracoke Island if you’re dreaming of a laid back family vacation; you’ll find quieter roads for biking but still have plenty of water-sport and activity options.
On our recent trip to the Outer Banks, we were traveling with 3 other families so we rented a house in Nags Head that could comfortably fit all 17 of us. We loved the easy beach access and that there were tons of restaurant options nearby so that everyone was happy when we all wanted to order something different for take-out.
Family Friendly Outer Banks Activities
There’s no shortage of fun activities on the Outer Banks; our days were packed during our weeklong vacation and we feel like we didn’t even scratch the surface. Read on to find out more about some of our favorite Outer Banks activities…
Start Your Day Off Right with the Outer Bank’s Famous Duck Donuts
Although you can find Duck Donuts in many parts of the country these days, the company originated in the town of Duck and standing in line at one of their 6 Outer Banks locations for a warm box of freshly made donuts should be part of any Outer Banks vacation (based on the lines it seems that most vacationers agree, order ahead online if you want to save yourself some time).
You can choose a box made of a pre-selected assortment or build a unique donut creation by choosing your own combination of glazes, toppings and drizzles (think options like lemon or blueberry icing, streusel topping and chocolate or maple drizzles). I personally prefer not to venture past my trusty chocolate dip with rainbow sprinkles, but the other adults were all raving about the maple icing topped with bacon donut.
Spend Hours and Hours and Hours at the Beach
With over 100 miles of beaches to choose from, spending the day on the sand is probably one of the main reasons that people flock to the Outer Banks.
The beaches around Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and Nags Head are known to be family friendly, with big waves, and have lifeguards on duty during the summer months. If you have a 4×4 vehicle, drive out onto the beaches of Corolla/Carova or the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and scope out a secluded spot to hang out for the day (permits are required). If your traveling with Fido, consider going to Duck where dogs are allowed on the beach unleashed as long as they’re under control (note that Duck doesn’t have any public beach access, only owners and renters).
Our kids spent hours on the beach with their boogie boards and building sand castles while the adults played corn-hole, lounged and got a good laugh watching my husband trying to catch a wave on his surfboard.
Note: Rip tides are pretty common in OBX so it’s a good idea to teach the kids how to escape a rip-tide and pay attention to the weather conditions (and heed the flags) when swimming in the ocean.
Explore Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Spend a day driving Highway 12 to explore secluded beaches, lighthouses and wildlife. There are dozens of beach access ramps along the 70-mile stretch of Cape Hatteras National Seashore giving you lots of opportunities to find a stretch of beach all to yourself. The quieter beaches in the area are great for shell collecting, the Park Service just asks that you leave any shells with animals still inside where they are.
The National Seashore is also a great place to check out the local wildlife. Sea turtles nest on the beaches at night during the summer, you can see the nests when you walk the beaches (please just don’t touch them). Although not technically in the park, our girls liked watching the small turtles in the pond at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. They weren’t as big of a fan of the (harmless) snake that crossed right in front of them as they were running down the path but I sure got a good laugh out of how high they jumped to get out of its way.
Take a Hang Gliding Lesson
If hang gliding is on your bucket list (and even if it’s not), spend the day at Jockey Ridge State Park where Kitty Hawk Kites offers beginner hang gliding lessons that both the kids and adults in the group can participate in. Jockey Ridge State Park is home of the highest sand dunes on the East Coast, making it a great place to learn the ins and outs of maneuvering a hang glider while guaranteeing a soft landing.
The lesson started off with a 30 minute Ground School where the instructors went through the history of hang gliding, the body positioning used to control the kites and the 5 key commands that everyone needed to know to ensure a fun and safe flight.
After a short hike to the dunes, it was time for the first flight! The instructors were excellent, helping the kids work through their jitters and making sure they had fun the whole time. Although having your kids hang glide might sound a little scary, the instructors had control over the kites at all times and 90% of the landings we saw were on their feet (with the other 10% being soft belly landings). After their 5th and last flight of the day, all of the kids were begging to go again.
Go on a 4×4 Tour to See the Wild Horses
Seeing the wild mustangs that roam the Outer Bank’s beaches and dunes was #1 on my to-do list; the horses descended from Spanish mustangs and have lived on the beaches north of Corolla for hundreds of years.
The only way to access the beaches where these horses live is with a 4×4 vehicle. If you don’t have experience driving in sand, we highly recommend booking a tour; you don’t want to be one of those cars we saw getting towed out of the sand. There are tons of outfitters offering horse tours; we went with Bob’s Wild Horse Tours but all the companies seemed pretty similar in terms of what they offer. Our guide grew up on the Outer Bank’s beaches and had lots of hysterical stories to tell about the area and horses.
The beach ride was a fun experience itself (pro tip: use the restrooms before you go, it’s a bumpy ride). The majority of the horses can be found roaming between the houses in the dunes so we did quite a bit of driving between the neighborhoods back there, we did get lucky though and saw 2 separate groups of mustangs hanging out on the beach which was definitely the highlight (that and the baby horse we saw stopping a family from getting their lunch as it casually blocked the front door of their house and seemed to have no intention of moving).
Explore the Outer Banks Lighthouses
The Outer Banks has a long history of ships sinking along its shores, having earned the name ‘the Graveyard of the Atlantic,’ due to the approximately 3000 shipwrecks found in its waters. Lighthouses were built along the shores to help prevent ships from meeting their watery fate and today there are 5 lighthouses scattered along the peninsula and islands that make up the Outer Banks: Currituck Beach Lighthouse (Corolla), Roanoke Beaches Lighthouse (Manteo), Bodie Island Lighthouse (Nags Head), Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (Buxton) and Ocracoke Island Lighthouse (Ocracoke Island).
You can climb to the top of the Cape Hatteras, Bodie Island and Currituck Beach Lighthouses for a small fee, if you’re traveling to the Outer Banks during the off-season, check the website to make sure that the lighthouse is open for climbing. Our girls were interested to learn all about the shipwrecks at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse museum and we loved visiting the Bodie Island Lighthouse just after sunset (this one was by far our favorite).
Eat To Your Heart’s Content With A Seafood Boil
When you’re in the Outer Banks, eating seafood is pretty much a requirement and there’s no better way to do it than with a seafood boil. The icing on the cake was having our seafood boil right at the rental house meaning that we didn’t even have to leave the beach early to get ourselves ready for dinner.
We ordered our boil from Outer Banks Boil Company; you have the option to either steam the pot yourself or go with a catered dinner where they come to you, prepare the boil, clean up as you dig in and take everything with them when you’re done (as long as you’re finished by the time they need to move on to their next client).
We had fun getting our hands dirty, digging into a meal that was just freshly cooked and poured directly onto our table (topped with a red checkered tablecloth of course). Our boil included snow crab, clams, shrimp, corn, potatoes and sausage with sides of coleslaw and corn muffins (there’s also BBQ pork available for the non-seafood lovers in the family); the food was delicious, there was nothing but a few shrimp left by the time we were done with it. Oh yea, we can’t forget about the Key Lime Pie we had for dessert, yum!
Spot Onion or Fatlip on a Dolphin Tour
For animal lovers, spend a morning out on the waters of Roanoke Sound watching pods of dolphins playing in the waves. We took a 2-hour tour on a pontoon boat with Nags Head Dolphin Watch, during which one of their dolphin researchers explained how to spot the dolphins, all about their habits and environment and how to tell which dolphin was which (our girls thought the dolphin’s names, including Onion and Fatlip, were pretty funny). It took us a while to spot our first dolphins but once we did we were all entertained by the 2 dolphin pods that swam alongside the boat for the remainder of the tour, particularly watching them jump through the wakes created by the other boats around us.
On the way back to the dock, our guide showed the kids how to measure the water temperature and salinity and the importance of keeping track of these measurements to make sure the dolphins who call the area home remain healthy. I will say that this tour may not be for everyone, it’s great if you really like animals and want to see dolphins up close but if that’s not really your thing, I would recommend skipping this as the boat ride itself isn’t particularly exciting or scenic.
Check Out Jennette’s Pier
Jennette’s Pier is a fun spot to check out if you have anyone in the family that is into fishing; it’s known as one of the best fishing spots on the East Coast. Never fished before? Learn how to cast your line during one of the lessons they offer right on the pier. If you’re not looking to reel one in, check out the aquarium and educational exhibits along the pier. There’s a small fee to walk out on the pier, $2 for adults and $1 dollar for kids under 12.
Where to Eat in the Outer Banks
Since we were traveling with a big group, we didn’t get a chance to check out many restaurants but below are a few places that we did enjoy:
Blue Water Grill and Raw Bar (Manteo, NC): Located in Pirate’s Cove Marina, we liked this place so much we ate there twice. We’d recommend the crab cakes or fish tacos for a delicious meal. For a casual atmosphere, have your meal on the dock at Mimi’s Tiki Hut; you’ll find mostly the same menu as the main restaurant plus live music on weekends. If you’ve been out fishing (and lucky enough to catch something), the restaurant offers to ‘Cook Your Catch,’ bring in your cleaned fish and they will cook it up for you.
Buxton Munch (Buxton, NC): This is a great spot if you are near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The location is a hole in the wall but this ranked as our favorite meal of the trip. Don’t miss the fish or shrimp tacos, they will not disappoint!
Nags Head Pizza Company (Nags Head, NC): I grew up in NJ so I’m picky about my pizza, this joint passed with flying colors. They offer a bunch of specialty pies, a make your own option and 3 vegan specialty pizzas (including gluten free crust). We loved reading the different positive hand-written quotes as we opened each box, a nice little touch.
Booty Treats Ice Cream & Shave Ice (Nags Head, NC): This ice cream shack has such a fun vibe. Try the Booty Freeze, a combination of Hawaiian shave ice with mini melts ice cream in the middle (mini melts are similar to Dipping Dots); I highly recommend the cappuccino shave ice with cookies and cream mini melts, yum! They also had a couple vegan ice creams that were really good between their homemade cookies according to Steve.
We’re already talking about a trip back to do some of the things we missed including:
- The Wright’s Brothers Memorial
- Horseback riding on the beach on Hattera Island
- Exploring the towns of Duck and Corolla (we plan to stay in that area next time)
- A shelling excursion to Ocracoke Island
- Parasailing, sea kayaking and ocean SUPing
- Kayaking in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
- Snorkeling one of the shipwreck sites
Have you been to the Outer Banks? Tell us about your favorite activities so we can add them to the list for next time!