Outer Banks, North Carolina
Outer Banks
My husband and I enjoyed a relaxing spring vacation on the barrier islands of North Carolina famously known as the Outer Banks (OBX). This location has become our favorite beach destination. The Outer Banks has everything we like: lighthouses, beaches, restaurants, shopping, and putt-putt golf. We started visiting OBX, years ago, in the month of September. It was near the end of the summer season, so the temperatures were still warm, while the crowds were minimal. The only problem we encountered was hurricane season. Unfortunately, hurricanes and tropical storms affected more than one of our visits. In 2022, we decided to try visiting in April. We planned to avoid school spring breaks in hopes of keeping the crowds small, and knew our chances of encountering a hurricane were zero. We had the best time on that trip! You can read about our experience on my blog here.
As expected, the weather temps can be a bit unpredictable this time of year. That’s an easy problem to solve though, we just packed clothes for all weather possibilities. 😅 Mother Nature provided a us with a variety of weather. Some days were cooler and required layers of clothing and some days shorts and t-shirts were a must for comfort. Every day was windy, some days it was stronger than others. No matter the temps or the wind speeds, the ocean consistently looked beautiful. As you’ll see in my pictures, some days the ocean produced huge waves and other days the waves were smaller. The color of the water even changed day to day.
Hotel Accomodations
Once again, we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Kitty Hawk. The hotel just completed renovations of the lobby and restaurant/bar area. Having looked at the website before we traveled, we were expecting renovations to possibly be finishing up, but they had everything completed and spotless. When we entered our ocean front room with a balcony, we were pleasantly surprised to see the room had been renovated too. The bathroom had been completely upgraded, the room had been painted with new wall art, and the furniture was of a new modern style. All the changes look beautiful! It’s always nice to see a business put money into their property. The hotel also had an outdoor pool, hot tub, and courtyard seating with a fire pit. They have an ocean pier that’s popular for fishing and relaxing. We were lucky enough to watch multiple schools of dolphins one evening during sunset.
We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel restaurant a couple of times and the food was really good. They were open in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for dinner. A very accommodating option for travelers.
Beaches
Our goal for this vacation was to relax, visit our favorite lighthouses, return to some great restaurants, do a little souvenir shopping, and discover something new to us. Each morning started with a long walk on the beach. We both enjoyed discovering unique sea shells, and my husband was on a mission to find a shark tooth. 😜🦈 This trip, we spent time walking on different beaches. Of course, we walked the beach in Kitty Hawk each morning and sometimes in the evening too. We also spent time on the beaches in Corolla and Cape Hatteras. It’s interesting how the sand in Kitty Hawk seems to be made of crushed shells while the other beaches are softer and whiter. We also found different shells on each of the beaches too. The beach where the Cape Hatteras light station originated is a gorgeous stretch of beach. No houses, just ocean and sand dunes. Seeing the light house from the beach perspective is breathtaking.
Lighthouses
The lighthouses are truly the showstoppers of OBX. We visited Bodie Island (pronounced Body), just south of Nags Head. It’s open for climbing, but it was too windy the day we visited, which was nice because we were able to get some spectacular pictures without people on the top viewing platform. Inside the old lighthouse keeper’s residence is a gift shop. Jigsaw puzzles, books, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and keepsakes were all available for purchase to support this national park.
There are a couple of easy trails to the water for admiring the lighthouse, birdwatching, and fishing. The most popular trail is the boardwalk to a viewing platform in the marshes. This provides amazing views of the lighthouse. This trip, we discovered a somewhat hidden walking trail that offered a different perspective of the lighthouse. Not to mention solitude and beautiful trees. Gorgeous tall pine trees and flowering trees down a path that changed from sand to grass to pine needle covered.
In Corolla, we visited the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. I never tire of seeing the original brick color as it’s never been painted. It’s nestled among huge pine trees and offers a rather small area to walk around and view the lighthouse from the ground. There’s a small house on site that serves as a gift shop, loaded with precious keepsakes. The area was a bit busy with two tour buses of high school students. I’ve already mentioned our desire to avoid crowds, so you can imagine our displeasure with two large groups of students. We were able to navigate around them and enjoy our time in peace. After visiting the lighthouse, we walked around the nearby park looking at the Whalehead Club, taking in the gorgeous sound side views, a wooden bridge, magnificent oak trees, and bird watching.
We drove down the coast to Buxton to see the Cape Hatteras Light Station. We love this drive. It’s stunning to see both the sound and the ocean at the same time. The closer we got to Buxton, the more people you see kite surfing on the sound side. There are lots of areas to pull over and walk over the dunes to see the ocean. This area also attracts loads of people for fishing. It’s cool to drive through the other OBX towns like Rodanthe and Avon. You may be familiar with Rodanthe because of the gorgeous beach house showcased in the movie Nights in Rodanthe, based on the book by Nicholas Sparks.
We were aware a restoration project was underway at the Cape Hatteras Light Station and we wouldn’t be able to climb the lighthouse this trip. We were surprised by the magnitude of the restoration. It’s a 20 million dollar project that began in February 2024 and will last 18 months. They put a huge scaffolding around the lighthouse and are redoing the grounds too to improve the visitor experience. The residences on grounds appear to have been painted and given a small facelift too. It was an amazing thing to witness. Most likely the only opportunity in my lifetime to see such a massive project. The lighthouse maintains its impressive presence underneath the scaffolding. The museum inside the old lighthouse keeper’s residence and separate gift shop remained open and accessible.
Cape Hatteras lighthouse is my husband’s favorite. He’s an artist and created a stunning painting of the lighthouse. He used one of his photographs from our previous vacation as a reference. You can also check it out on his website here.
Shopping
As for shopping, OBX has your standard Super Wings stores every mile or so that sells every souvenir t-shirt you can imagine, as well as mugs and trinkets to help you relive your dream vacation when we return home to the daily grind. They also have you covered if you need a swimsuit, beach towel, or wave board. These stores are always fun to us to browse. We have also purchased our share of t-shirts from Super Wings too. 😅
OBX has a new store in town called Sugar Planet. The stores look like they used to be Wings stores and have been transformed. If you’ve ever been to a store called It’s Sugar, it’s just like that, only on steroids! There is every sugary candy imaginable, ice cream, taffy, fudge, chocolate candies, and truffles galore! We enjoy sweets on vacation when it feels like a special treat, so we had fun making a few selections.
Sugar Planet
Our favorite store is Life is Good. We are already walking billboards for the company as we own a ton of their shirts. We were excited to see what new OBX specific shirts the stores were selling this year. They have plenty to choose from! There are so many of these stores and they are most often connected to or next door to Kitty Hawk Kites stores. I have no idea why, it’s just a pattern we noticed. Of course, we stop at each store we see. 😅
Jamaica Bay is like an upscale Super Wings. They sell name brand OBX themed t-shirts such as, Puppie Love, Simply Southern, Salty Life, Jeep, and Columbia. They also have shoes, Tervis and Yeti mugs, and trinket souvenirs. It’s a really nice store with quality products.
No trip to OBX would be complete without stocking up on hot sauces from the Pepper Palace and Try My Nuts. My husband loves hot sauces and while he has some favorites, he loves trying new creations. Try My Nuts specializes in nuts, of course. My must have favorite is the Butter Toasted Cashews.
Restaurants
Pigman’s Bar-b-que is a must when we visit OBX. This place serves up good ‘ol North Carolina pulled pork barbecue with a vinegar base plus cole slaw, baked beans, and bread. Customers have their choice of five homemade sauces and can help themselves to as much as they want. They have secret sauces, traditional, and hot. The establishment even lets you experience life as a piglet. You have to squeeze teats to get your sauce (not milk). 😜 Excellent, friendly service goes along with the delicious food. My husband loves this place so much, he talked about eating here for weeks leading up to our trip.
One afternoon, we drove to Corolla for lunch at the Corolla Cantina. I ate the delicious Island Rice Bowl and my husband had a burrito. We enjoyed chatting with a local sitting at the bar and the waitress. The locals educated us that “no one is from here” as most people living in Corolla are transplants to the area. It was nice to talk with people who live here all year and learn about their lifestyles. They shared stories and pictures of the treasures they find on the beach; shark teeth and beach glass.
A popular Mexican restaurant is 3 Tequilas. They offer traditional Mexican dishes as well as some unusual pairings I don’t find at home. For instance, I ate spinach and chicken enchiladas with a creamy green sauce. Delicious! I loved our server; she had a spunky, entertaining personality.
Vilai Thai Kitchen is quaint little restaurant across the street from our hotel. We ate here during our last trip and enjoyed the food and family ownership so much, we looked forward to our return. We ordered the beef with broccoli and wanton soup; delicious once again! This visit, there were three young sisters working in the front of the restaurant. The two youngest waited on tables and the oldest seemed to be handling take out orders. Listening to them bicker with each other like siblings do, made the experience unique and very entertaining. It’s also nice to see them so well behaved and responsible. It’s one of the reasons we keep going back. We observed a trend in OBX where many places had their children at work with them, actually working. Of course, nothing to violate child labor laws or anything, just ingraining responsibility. It’s refreshing to see young people enjoying work tasks and interacting with customers. It gives me hope for our future.
Slice Pizzeria is a nice little place we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza while out shopping. It’s fairly quick. The pizzas are cooked, they just heat up your preferred flavor and off you go. They have some outdoor seating, which is only ideal when the temps are favorable. I ate a slice of Hawaiian and my husband chose the Supreme.
Chilli Peppers is another restaurant we visited again. It’s a small place with lots of personality and friendly people. The entrance welcomes you right at the bar with lots of people sitting around the bar and more standing around socializing. The dining room is off to the left. Overall, the atmosphere is kind of loud, which can vary depending on the crowd. It was really loud when we were there. We ordered stuffed jalapeños for appetizers. I had the Black and Blu burger and my husband had the Diablo burger. It’s nice they offer lots of their brand hot sauces on the table.
Duck Donuts is my favorite food to eat in the OBX! They have the most unusual donuts. They fry the donut when you order and then put on the toppings you ordered. We usually order from the fan favorites selections, but you can order whatever topping arrangement you want. You can also order as few or as many donuts as you want. There are several locations nationwide now, which is good. I don’t have to wait until our next OBX vacation to satisfy my craving. There is a store right across the street from our hotel. Unfortunately, they were only open Friday through Sunday this year. I’m sure it’s because the beach season hasn’t officially taken off yet. No problem though! There are so many Duck Donuts on the barrier islands, we had no trouble finding a store open 7 days a week. We devoured Blueberry Pancake, Boardwalk, Beach, Sunrise, Smores, Cotton Candy, and Raspberry Fluff. Delicious!!
The last time we were here, I wanted ice cream and never got it. This time, my husband was determined I get to eat ice cream. We discovered a unique place called The Spot. The ambiance was great with a hip, surf vibe. I had homemade brownie batter ice cream and he had the Reef açaí bowl. The desserts were scrumptious! We will definitely go back as they have lots more options for us to try!
Entertainment
Entertainment for us is pretty mild. There are several mini golf courses in OBX. This trip, we only played one round of mini golf at The Lost Treasure course. It’s very nicely maintained and we had a lot of fun. They seem to navigate customers to the two courses to manage crowds so our playing time was easy, one hole to the next. While I may have lost the overall game, I did get a hole in one on this course.
No beach vacation of mine would be complete without reading on the beach. I often carried a beach towel and my Kindle so I could take a break from walking and plop down in the sand and read. Nothing beats reading with the sound of the waves and views of the ocean. In preparation for our vacation, I purchased Simari water friendly shoes for walking on the beach. They were a perfect companion for all of my beach walking as I could get them wet walking in the surf and they protected my feet when I stepped on shells. They dried easily and knocking the sand off was a breeze. I know a lot of readers spend their summers on beaches and lake shores and might benefit from a pair of these shoes. I like mine so much I wrote a biblio boutique post for anyone interested. You can check out that post here.
Grateful for the wonderful time we had together in OBX. I’m already looking forward to our next trip. 😍
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