“Pristine beaches, wild ponies, and seclusion draw people to the North Carolina coast year after year, and a single visit will leave you wanting to make a return trip every summer,” says The Discoverer contributor Anna Cook, who has deemed the beaches of Corolla, Kill Devil Hills, and Ocracoke among the best in the Tarheel State.
While driving on the beach is one of the most well-known amenities that Corolla has to offer, The Discoverer goes even further to highlight the “adorable” Historic Corolla Village adjacent to the Currituck Lighthouse. “Both light up the imagination with what this town must have been like in the early 1900s,” notes Cook.
Highlighting it as the most populated destination along the upper Outer Banks with about 7,500 residents, Kill Devil Hills receives it’s respective honor for housing one of the last wooden piers on the Carolina coast, the Avalon Fishing Pier.
If the main priority for your beach trip is exclusivity, the travel outlet recommends the 16-mile long island wedged between Cape Lookout National Seashore and Cape Hatteras — Ocracoke. The Discoverer’s recommendations aside from its bountiful beaches? Springer’s Point hiking area, the British Cemetery, and local establishments Dajio and Magic Bean Coffee Bazaar.
The three Outer Banks beaches are joined by Carolina and Kure Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Cape Lookout/Shackleford Banks. Click here to review the full listicle.