Beach Trip-Wilmington (Raleigh, Oak Island, Carolina Beach: hotels, college, live)

[NoVA2NC]

New to NC...could someone let me know what beach would be best (family oriented) to take a six year old? Carolina, Wrightsville or Kure? Thanks!

[Ricklh]

Wrightsville would be my pick. The public access beach, right next to the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort.

[Darmstrong12]

I lived in Wilmington/Wrightsville for 2 years and I can only tell you it is very crowded. I would recommend Kure because it is not as crowded even during peak season.

[rubber_factory]

None of those beaches really strike me as family beaches. They are all too crowded.

If those are your choices, I'd go with Wrightsville, Kure, and then Carolina Beach, in that order.

[arsbadmojo]

The only one I've been to is Wrightsville. We've done 2 off season spontaneous day trips and one planned, in-season overnight stay.

We didn't require anything fancy - for the most part we brough our own food even, we just wanted sand and water.

The pier (Johnny Mercer's) was a nice bonus.

[byebyenortheast]

Wrightsville is nice, but it does get a little crowded and seems to attract more of a college crowd more than families.

[toot68]

I like the north end of Wrightsville. There is a small public parking lot next to the Shell Island resort, and a larger one about a half mile up the beach. The best time to arrive is a little before 9 am, when they start charging for parking and a bunch of folks parking for free bug out. But you can get a parking spot pretty with a 10-20 min wait pretty much any time of day, just send one parent to the beach with the kid and leave the other to wait.

Two very nice things about this end of the island. First, very uncrowded, as the beach is wide here and is undeveloped for a good half a mile north of shell island. Pretty gradual slant to the beach, so the surf does not crash right next to shore. Second, if you show up about 1-2 hours before low tide, a wonderful tidal pool develops right in front of the hotel, which is great for wading and looking for fish, crabs and clams (bring a small net). It will be there for around 3-4 hours around low tide. There is also a nice estuary behind the hotel which is fun for hunting for critters.

[orulz]

Carolina, Kure, and Wrightsville are indeed very crowded. Carolina and Wrightsville definitely appeal more to the young adult / college student crowd then a family crowd. Kure is a bit more low key, but is still pretty built up.

I would recommend Oak Island instead. It's less crowded, more family friendly, but not so remote as to be short on amenities (unlike Topsail Island.) I would guess that if you take traffic under consideration, it takes just 15 minutes extra to drive there vs. Wrightsville. Counting traffic, it's probably FASTER to get there than Kure. Oak Island doesn't have so many hotels right on the beach, but to me that's overrated anyway.

Allow me to relate a recent experience. My wife and I did a weekend (one-nighter) trip to the beach around the end of June. FYI, We don't have kids so our experience might not be directly comparable to yours. We went to Fort Fisher (just south of Kure Beach) one day, stayed in Southport for the night, and when to Oak Island (Caswell Beach) the next. We had a much better time at Oak Island than at Carolina/Kure/Fort Fisher.

On Saturday, we drove through Wilmington and Carolina Beach to get to Fort Fisher. Got there at about noon. Traffic was bad, and the beach was crowded. We spent all day there. Unless you like a crowded beach, I would not really recommend it at peak season. My wife and I prefer something a bit more relaxing.

When we were done at the beach, we then took the ferry from Carolina Beach to Southport. We got there right at departure time and figured we would probably miss the ferry and have to wait for the next one (45 minutes.) Sure enough the ferry was taking off just as we got there, but there was already a long line for the next one. We just barely made it on. (we were the 3rd to last car.) So if you plan on using the ferry, figure on getting there about 1 hr ahead of time. Still faster than driving, and the boat ride is cheap, scenic, and very relaxing.

We stayed in Southport at the Wingate. The prices were reasonable, the inn is brand new, and it's about 10 minutes from the beach. Personally I find that a hotel directly on the beach is overrated. As a bonus, Southport is a neat town with lots of fun shops and a cool riverfront, too (reminds me of Beaufort if you've been there)

We went to the beach at Caswell Beach... we used this public beach access. No bathrooms but they have a shower. This is a great kids beach, definitely NOT a good surfers beach. Evidently it's close enough to Cape Fear so that the waves are usually on the gentle side.

[orulz]

Carolina, Kure, and Wrightsville are indeed very crowded. I would recommend Oak Island instead. Takes about the same amount of time to get there. Not as many hotels right on the beach there, but I think that's overrated.

My wife and I recently did a weekend (one-nighter) trip to the beach. We don't have kids so our experience might not be directly comparable to yours. We went to Fort Fisher (just south of Kure Beach) on Saturday, stayed in Southport for the night, and went to Oak Island (Caswell Beach) on Sunday. We had a much better time at Oak Island than at Carolina/Kure/Fort Fisher.


On Saturday, we drove through Wilmington and Carolina Beach to get to Fort Fisher. Got there at about noon. Traffic was bad, and the beach was crowded. We spent all day there. Unless you like a crowded beach, I would not really recommend it at peak season. My wife and I prefer something a bit more relaxing.

When we were done at the beach, we then took the ferry from Carolina Beach to Southport. We got there right at departure time and figured we would probably miss the ferry and have to wait for the next one (45 minutes.) Sure enough the ferry was taking off just as we got there, but there was already a long line for the next one. We just barely made it on. (we were the 3rd to last car.) So if you plan on using the ferry, figure on getting there about 1 hr ahead of time.

We stayed in Southport at the Wingate. The prices were reasonable, the inn is brand new, and it's about 10 minutes from the beach. Personally I find that a hotel directly on the beach is overrated. As a bonus, Southport is a neat town with lots of fun shops and a nice riverfront -reminds me of Beaufort if you've ever been there.

On Sunday, we went to Caswell Beach and used this public beach access. No bathrooms but they have a shower. This is a great kids beach, definitely NOT a good surfers beach. The fact that Cape Fear is so close, shields it so the waves are a bit gentler than elsewhere.

[NoVA2NC]

Thank you all for your responses. I was hoping to find a beach not too far from Raleigh that small children can enjoy without it being too secluded or lacking amenities. I just moved here and haven't been out of the Triangle region to see the rest of NC so this gave a lot of insight Thanks!