The beaches of North Carolina are brilliantly white sanded and generally wide, often wider than an interstate. Much wider if you´re from an area prone to highway work. A southerly latitude and the gulf stream keeps the coast temperate during the winter and the water bathtub-warm towards the end of August. Barrier islands bracket the shore, creating a placid sound and protecting the mainland from the worst of hurricane season. North Carolina´s section of the national intracoastal waterway tranquilly weaves its way to South Carolina to Virginia. And it´s all a short drive from here. Almost a commute, if you´re from one of those areas prone to highway work.

From Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, or Pittsboro, it´s only a couple of hours to the port city of Wilmington and its neighboring beaches. Home to one of the largest film industries outside of Hollywood, Wilmington is a haunt for television and movie actors on location. The coast´s largest city, it´s also a medical, cultural, and academic mecca for the region. Its impressive downtown area is bursting with riverside restaurants, rooftop bars, and swanky shopping. Nearby beaches run the gambit from populist Carolina Beach (a favorite with the NASCAR crowd) to the ritzier-yet-unpretentious Wrightsville Beach (a pleasant mix of young families, UNC Wilmington students, and million dollar condo owners).

The Cape Fear sound, intracoastal waterway, and Atlantic ocean converge here, making easy access to both salt and fresh water fishing and boating. Charters abound, as well as marinas for docking everything from your twelve footer to decommissioned naval battleships. A bit of a hyperbole, though the USS North Carolina is mothballed nearby.

A favorite waterborne locale a few miles from Wrightsville Beach is Masonboro Island, an uninhabited avian refuge. With wide stretches of untouched beach, it´s popular with surfers, campers, and picnicking day-trippers. Yet the island´s size and slight inaccessibility (it´s reachable only by boat ? or surfboard) allow you to enjoy the azure water, alabaster sand, and condo-free dune horizon in relative privacy, even during the summer.

Other beach towns thread the coast like Christmas tree lights, full of requisite Calabash fry houses, piers, and boardwalks. Fishing villages like historic Beaufort offer an idea of antebellum Eastern North Carolina, where boats are still handmade in family workshops. North Carolina´s stunning barrier islands, the Outer Banks, were recently discovered by the rest of the nation in the last fifteen years. Neo-plantations on oceanfront lots from Nags Head to Corolla Light are available for rent throughout the year, as well as cozy beach bungalows and condominiums. Though increasingly developed, it´s still possible to see wild horses here, descendants of shipwrecked colonial stock, grazing on beach grass and fording the sound.

There are probably a even few spots that haven´t been discovered yet. Who knows. It´s a big area, with lots to offer. But with the coast so close, it´s sure that there´ll be plenty of time for side trips to explore on your way to the beach. 

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 Coastal Carolina Connection