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Very cool! So, good enough surfing to host a competition, should be good enough!
We're looking forward to getting a plan together. I'll have to decide in the next week or two exactly where we want to go so that we can reserve a place--they go fast and many are already booked up.
I appreciate all the input here. It gave me good direction for my research. We have a lot more to do!
Hey there! I see you're from Montana! I have some local insight for you. I'm originally from NJ but lived in Charleston SC for 4 years, and now live in Raleigh. Used to go to the Outer Banks every summer for a while, and have traversed this entire coast many times.
The best surfing in NC is Hatteras Island/Ocracoke Island. While the ocean is frequently colder north of Buxton NC due to the bend of the coast and the currents (the cold labrador current ends at the Cape), the southern beaches of Frisco, Hatteras village, Ocracoke, and Buxton are much warmer (often 10 F than) the northern beaches of Rodanthe, Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Duck, and Corolla. Because it's so far at sea the surf here can get phenomenal during hurricane swells/noreasters and low pressure systems. It's regularly several feet bigger than the rest of the east coast and it has a huge swell window open to the entire atlantic. While the rest of the coast is flat, it can be 4 feet and fun as heck in Hatteras/Ocracoke. I love Ocracoke, but it's a bit barren. It has horse farms, and an awesome village of 700 people, and the water is warmer. Definitely visit though before purchasing to see if it's too isolated for you.
The northern obx beaches often suffer from upwelling. Prevailing southwesterly winds that flow with the gulf stream in the summer push the "warm" water out to sea and replace it with colder deeper water. So water temps as low as the high 50s aren't uncommon in the summer. That same summer day someone in Ocracoke may be happily surfing in 77 degree water. I hate these beaches, and never go there from Raleigh.
The second best surfing region in the state is probably Kure/Carolina beach. Despite what the other posters say, I think it's an okay family beach, particularly Kure. Housing prices are much better than Wrightsville Beach as well (about the only place where 300k won't get you something decent on the NC Coast). It can pack a decent punch and facing the East it's pretty solid. Also its close to Wilmington, which is a decent city. Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and the other south facing beaches are mediocre due to limited swell window.
Down the coast the next decent surf locale is Folly Beach SC. James Island nearby has decent priced homes. It's also near Charleston, which IMO is arguably my favorite city in the southeast and has tons of culture and history. The surf is maybe a tad smaller than NC but the location is better. It's also several degrees warmer than NC, and I've been swimming here as early as March. The rest of the state barring Pawleys Island and Cape Romain though has terrible surfing. But the Charleston region actually isn't too bad, and the warm water makes up for any lack of punch often. Typically it's only great during storms and low pressure systems, but the warm inviting water will make the flat spells worthwhile.
If you're coming from MT and want warm too, you may want to consider parts of Florida. Melbourne Beach, Cocoa Beach, and New Symrna Beach have surfing on par with any of the other locations south of the outer banks, and the water is very warm (often never below 60F). Housing prices are fairly reasonable, (good ones for under 200k in many areas) as well. Also the water has a very beautiful aqua marine, crystalline clear look that none of the beaches north of FL have.
You say you are coming to NC to vacation and look for a vacation home and your price range is 300k or so.
The NC coast is a beautiful and unique environment from Corolla in the North all the way to Calabash in the south. There are populated areas that run the gauntlet from isolated villages to fishing towns to metropolitan tourist mecca's (well the mecca thing might be a bit of an exaggeration.)
If you have the time I would pick a spot around Morehead City or Beaufort NC as a home base. This is one of the more diversified parts of the NC coast. It is indeed a fishing mecca, at a point where the ocean, sounds, and rivers all come together in abundance. Beaufort is a beautiful little town on its own. There are barrier islands, light houses and wild horses to see that live on the islands.
From there I would probably make two overnight trips.
On trip would be to Cedar Island and take the ferry to Ocracoke. There I would drive up the true Outer Banks to the Kitty Hawk area, stopping at the fishing center at Oregon Inlet and the Hatters Light along the way. I'd spend the night around Kitty Hawk somewhere. If time permits, I'd drive up to Corolla and head back to Morehead City.
The next trip would be south. I'd drive around Jacksonville, to Wilmington and out to Carolina Beach and take the ferry over to Southport. Spend the night in Southport and spend some time looking around there. Check out Oak Island and any other Brunswick county beaches you have time to look at and head back to Morehead City.
After this you will BEGIN to have some appreciation of NC's coast and what it has to offer. The hardest thing will be deciding what area you like best.
I would note that each of these trips will involve driving 4-6 hours each day depending on how many side trips you make. Also note part of the time will be riding a ferry. This is usually a pleasant experience and cheap. Some of the ferry rides are 2 hours. Check the NC ferry schedule in advance to plan the trip and get a early start.
You say you are coming to NC to vacation and look for a vacation home and your price range is 300k or so.
The NC coast is a beautiful and unique environment from Corolla in the North all the way to Calabash in the south. There are populated areas that run the gauntlet from isolated villages to fishing towns to metropolitan tourist mecca's (well the mecca thing might be a bit of an exaggeration.)
If you have the time I would pick a spot around Morehead City or Beaufort NC as a home base. This is one of the more diversified parts of the NC coast. It is indeed a fishing mecca, at a point where the ocean, sounds, and rivers all come together in abundance. Beaufort is a beautiful little town on its own. There are barrier islands, light houses and wild horses to see that live on the islands.
From there I would probably make two overnight trips.
Good luck
This is excellent advice. I guess before that's even done though we should assure that they actually want to have a house in North Carolina. I work here, hence why I go to the beach here. If they have family in the area that also makes sense. And if they truely are big into surfing, then a vacation home in Buxton/Frisco/Ocracoke wouldn't be a bad idea at all. Like I said the surf consistency in that area is much better than everything else on the eastern seaboard south of New England and due to currents the water is consistently pretty warm from June-September (unlike the northern outer banks).
If they just want a place to surf sometimes however, and surfing and going to the beach are not the only reasons to be in an area I'd recommend looking further south. Heck, they may want to get out of the freezing Montana winters and fly to their warm beach house. Then what? Hatteras is pretty cold/foggy/isolated in the winter (well average highs are in the low 50s but it's often very windy). If this is the case I wouldn't write off james island/folly beach/pawleys island South Carolina or New Symyrna Beach/Cocoa Beach/Melbourne Beach/Indialantic in Florida. All of the aforementioned breaks can be as good as any of the surf spots in southern NC. Also I'd rate Charleston as a much more enjoyable city than Wilmington. The central Florida breaks get pretty good, and there's some stuff to do in the area. Also 70F average January Highs are something to consider.
Wow! Thanks for the very specific and helpful information. This really helps us narrow things down a bit; we've been overwhelmed.
We do understand that NC is too chilly in the winter as a warm beach vacation destination; that and the more isolated nature of some of the spots we're interested in are the drawbacks. The beach/ocean are the primary draw, but we love the idea of daytrips to historical sites etc. when we're not at the beach. Walking on the beach in the winter works for me to some extent, but we have a place in Phoenix for those times I just need heat during the winter. Trouble with Phoenix, of course, is...no beach.
We are also entertaining the thought of the Cocoa Beach area of Florida or the Florida panhandle (not as warm as the East coast though). For us, though Florida would be exclusively about the beach (not constantly about surfing. One of my 4 kids really enjoys it and wants to do more of it though, so it would seem silly to choose a beach place in a spot where surfing stinks), so where the winter weather is better than NC, to us the scenery and cultural attractions aren't as interesting as NC. Hummm, always a quandary.
But the last page of feedback here give us so much more to go on. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond with so many helpful specifics.
We do understand that NC is too chilly in the winter as a warm beach vacation destination; that and the more isolated nature of some of the spots we're interested in are the drawbacks. The beach/ocean are the primary draw, but we love the idea of daytrips to historical sites etc. when we're not at the beach. Walking on the beach in the winter works for me to some extent, but we have a place in Phoenix for those times I just need heat during the winter. Trouble with Phoenix, of course, is...no beach.
We are also entertaining the thought of the Cocoa Beach area of Florida or the Florida panhandle (not as warm as the East coast though). For us, though Florida would be exclusively about the beach (not constantly about surfing. One of my 4 kids really enjoys it and wants to do more of it though, so it would seem silly to choose a beach place in a spot where surfing stinks), so where the winter weather is better than NC, to us the scenery and cultural attractions aren't as interesting as NC. Hummm, always a quandary.
Thanks. I've lived on the East Coast for much of my life, and am just trying to help out. I've lived in the southeast a while and have been to beaches in every state from Maine to Florida.
Anyway the most historical city in the southeast Atlantic Coast is hands down Charleston, South Carolina. The city is chock full of historical house tours, museums, has awesome carriage tours, ghost tours, plantation tours etc, and is just beautiful. Parts of downtown are really sketchy (places you would avoid when driving in), but I'd recommend looking into purchasing a place in James Island if you're interested in the area. Good houses downtown are very pricey but you could get a nice place 5 miles from the beach and a 15 minute drive from downtown Charleston in James Island for less than 250k. The weather is also a bit more of a compromise between Florida and NC. I go down there frequently in the winter because its a solid 7-10 degrees warmer than Raleigh where I live on average. Around Cape Hatteras January daytime temperatures are probably in the lower 50s. In Charleston daytime highs in the dead of winter average in the upper 50s and lows are around 40. Coastal SC is really where the ice storms and winter flurries stop and all the exotic cool subtropical vegetation begins. Winter surfing can also be done with a full wetsuit and booties without too much shivering as the ocean rarely drops below 50 degrees (though it gets to the mid-80s in the summer). Theres also a lot of interesting swamp and kayak tours that go out from Charleston all the time and in general lots of outdoor activities. You could certainly swim comfortably from mid-April to the end of October in the ocean with no wetsuit for the most part. Surfing in Folly Beach is about the same as most of NC outside the outer banks, which are hands down much better than everywhere else from Florida to southern NJ. Theres also some very awesome scenic beaches to the south in beaufort and Kiawah if you're willing to drive a bit (though with a bit of lackluster surfing). You can also get to the boardwalk fun at Myrtle Beach in 2 hours.
Wilmington NC is a bit of a smaller version of Charleston. There is a university and a cool downtown with good food and decent live music. The dining options are decent but are somewhat limited. Wrightsville Beach is lovely, but is very pricey. There's a cool ghost walk and a decent aquarium and theres a few plantations (but it has nothing on the ones in the deep south i.e. Charleston, Savannah). Its also at least 5 degrees cooler in the winter than Charleston SC and probably 15 from central florida, and even gets occasional snow/ice storms. The best beach to live here is probably Kure Beach.
Savannah also isn't too bad an area around Tybee island but the waves are very poor and large swaths of the city are pretty dangerous. Still its a very scenic historical city, similar to Charleston.
Saint Augustine Florida is probably the best place in that state if you like history. That was an old spanish settlement and has lots of history. The waves are similar to southern NC/Folly Beach and the ocean is a bit "bluer" due to less sediment in the water. Also daytime highs will probably average in the upper 60s in the winter which is nice though its not swimmable without a wetsuit (though very manageable with one) mid-winter. Further south Cocoa Beach, Melbourne Beach, Indialantic in Brevard County make up some nice but boring beach suburban communities.
You can't really swim all year in Florida rubber free until you get down to around Vero Beach (on warmer days of course, even Fl gets cold snaps). Keep in mind south of Fort Pierce the Bahamas block all but northern swells so the waves are a lot less consistent. Of course south Fl has the gulf stream track right by the coast and the water from Palm Beach down rarely drops below the upper 60s. Unfortunately there's lots of high rises in south Fl but the beaches are beautiful crystal white sand lined with coconut palms and the water is a beautiful turquoise blue year round. Of course ocean front real estate in this area can be ultra-pricey though, but moving in a few miles can improve this. There's definitely stuff to do in South Fl though it's not very historical.
I hate the gulf beaches. I need waves, but thats just my opinion. Some are very pretty, and some are flat, brown and hideous.
Last edited by njbiodude; 10-08-2014 at 02:27 AM..
I don't know if you're considering the Wrightsville/Carolina/Kure beaches areas, but I went for labor day weeked and Carolina Beach was VERY underwhelming. I kept hearing how family friendly it was, but not to me. It seemed really trashy, a little dirty, lots of "rednecks." Compared to Kure and Wrightsville, it was not great. And that's coming from someone who's used to Ocean City as the "ghetto beach."
The shops had plenty of bongs (even some shaped like penises right in the front of the store by the registers) and other weed related paraphernalia. The shop owners weren't very nice either and ignored me as I stood in line. Later in the night, people were soooo drunk even with kids around. I remember some really hammered, random guy left his little girl with my friends and I because he needed to go somewhere.
This was just my experience and we did go in the evening. The restaurants there were great, though and the beach-goers were nice, just not as "family friendly" as I assumed.
I don't know if you're considering the Wrightsville/Carolina/Kure beaches areas, but I went for labor day weeked and Carolina Beach was VERY underwhelming.
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