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The Outer Banks
Explore the Outer Banks of North Carolina
By Anne Jacques-Merle
I should probably have my head examined for sharing the location of the best vacation spot on the Atlantic coast.
Everyone I know who finds this place returns. Surely some day it will become so popular I won't find "room at the Inn." But in 20 years of vacationing at our secret spot on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, there's always plenty of room on the wide, beautiful beaches, so I suppose I'll never get over my love affair with Hatteras Island.
You'd never expect to find peace and quiet just an hour south of the popular – congested and commercialized – Nags Head and Kitty Hawk, location of the Wright Brothers' first successful airplane flight, as well as thousands of tourists. But drive south on the impressive bridge over Oregon Inlet and your blood pressure immediately drops. Seventy percent of Hatteras Island is National Park property and will never be developed. Your first miles along the highway here actually cut through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, and there's not a billboard or neon light in sight.
Dotted along this calm stretch of wide lovely beaches and maritime forests are a handful of small towns and vacation rental communities. Available housing ranges from modest cottages, motels and campgrounds, to luxurious modern seaside homes and condos. Every location is either right behind the barrier dunes, or a few minutes walk to the ocean.
We usually rent a beachfront house in the community of Avon, a wide spot on the island, half a mile from ocean to sound. My husband and I would be very happy to just linger on a porch over a cup of coffee and stare at the waves for the better part of a week. Breathing the salt air and walking on the beach at sunrise is purely renewing.