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My husband and I will be visiting NC in April as part of out search for the perfect location to retire. I would really love an area that is on or near the water in a nice, clean town not too far from shopping, restaurants etc. I have a horse and would like to find a place to board him within 30 mins distance. We are retiring early and not in need of senior type activities yet. Any ideas would be appreciated.
I would really love an area that is on or near the water
Define this a little better. Do you want a sandy beach with waves breaking (best for walking), a sound that you can't see across and may have a small beach without the waves most of the time (best for sailing) or a small sound or river/creek/inlet that connects to the sounds and ocean (better for motor boating) ? BTW, the "creeks" down there threw me before I found out more. They are usually more like small canals.
Define this a little better. Do you want a sandy beach with waves breaking (best for walking), a sound that you can't see across and may have a small beach without the waves most of the time (best for sailing) or a small sound or river/creek/inlet that connects to the sounds and ocean (better for motor boating) ? BTW, the "creeks" down there threw me before I found out more. They are usually more like small canals.
The Creeks around here are named such because they are distibutaries from the much larger rivers. I had the opposite reaction of you, seeing how small and shallow most rivers and creeks were outside of NC.
Pretty much everywhere from Carteret County south meets your requirement. I'd say the best value would probably be on the intracoastal waterway and creeks on the back end of Eastern Craven/Western Carteret along NC 101. A little trek to shopping though. 15-30 minutes. There are plenty of horse boarding places in the area though.
Another area would be South Eastern Onslow and Coastal Pender County. Sneads Ferry, Topsail, Hampstead and the like. Not an expert on the areas south of Wilmington but they all strike me as either golf/retirement/subdivision communities or straight up rural. Not much in-between.
Most other places I have lived or spent much time, "creeks" are generally too small to be navigable (except maybe in a kayak). So when I went fishing with a friend at the coast and he told me that they had a boat on the creek behind the cabin (very rustic/primitive cabin) a few years ago, I was really surprised to find out it was a decent sized runabout with a big outboard on it. The creek was so narrow that property owners had to carve out niches to park their boats in so other boats could get by. I felt like we were in a bayou movie until we got to the river. Yeah, river can also mean bigger than expected. There is a place near New Bern where the Neuse River is 7 miles wide. But maybe 100 miles upriver, I have waded all the way across the Neuse below Falls Lake when the release was really low during the drought summers.
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