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We have never been to any beach here at NC and would like to go to one over the Memorial day weekend. We are okay with a slightly longer drive but are hoping for a beach that is not too crowded - preferably which has a nice restaurant or two. Would love some recommendations.
P.S:I have been looking online and at old threads most of the afternoon and still very lost.
We have never been to any beach here at NC and would like to go to one over the Memorial day weekend. We are okay with a slightly longer drive but are hoping for a beach that is not too crowded - preferably which has a nice restaurant or two. Would love some recommendations.
P.S:I have been looking online and at old threads most of the afternoon and still very lost.
TIA
Where are do you live and where are you driving from? That could make a difference.
Well, from North Raleigh the closest beach would be Wrightsville. It is likely to be very crowded and it can be hard to park. It is only a 2 1/2 hour drive to Topsail Beach (Surf City) which is a very nice beach. Restaurants would be way nicer at Wrightsville but on the other hand in Topsail you are pretty close to Wilmington where there are some very good restaurants.
Someone else suggested Emerald Isle, while it is a lovely beach it takes longer to drive there from Raleigh, and I don't think it has anywhere specifically nice to eat either. (If you had a place to stay at Wrightsville that included parking you could like it, it is crowded but good if you care about restaurants.)
Wrightsville is going to be nuts this weekend. Carolina and Kure will be busy too, but probably less with 20 somethings and more families. Holden beach, further to the south (45 min or so from Wilm) might be less crowded since its much more family oriented, but i'm not familiar with the restaurants in that part of the world.
my vote is for Pleasure Island, in other
words Carolina beach and Kure beach.
they will still be fairly crowded , Kure beach the least , but nowhere near
what Wrightsville beach will be.
while there are several good restaurants on Pleasure island
it is not too far to drive into Wilmington to dine.
You are about three hours from Emerald Isle. While we will have people on the beach, it will not be nearly as crowded as most beaches.
If you head up to Eastern Regional access about 5 miles east of Emerald Isle you should be away from the worst crowds.
There are some beach accesses even further up.
Check out my travel guide to Emerald Isle (http://coastalnc.org/emeraldislenctravelguidecd - broken link) or this post on beaches in the area.
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Go can find a spot on the Crystal Coast
