Things to do in North Carolina Coast
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Ocracoke Village
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John's Drive-In
A Kitty Hawk institution for perfectly fried baskets of 'dolphin' (mahimahi) and rockfish, to be eaten at outdoor picnic tables and washed down with one of hundreds of possible milkshake varieties.
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Fig Tree Bakery
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Wright Brothers National Memorial
This historic site is located among the same windswept Kitty Hawk dunes where self-taught engineers Wilbur and Orville Wright launched the world's first successful airplane flight on December 17, 1903 (it lasted 12 seconds). A boulder now marks the take-off spot. Climb a nearby hill where the brothers conducted earlier glider experiments for fantastic views of sea and sound. The on-site Wright Brothers Visitor Center has a reproduction of the 1903 flyer and offers exhibits and lectures on aviation history.
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Wild Horse Adventure Tours
Offers guided 4WD tours over the dunes and through the maritime forest to see the unique wild mustang ponies that roam the Outer Banks.
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Rundown Cafe
Kiteboarders and surfers slurp up rundown (a Jamaican stew) and nibble on conch fritters, nachos, wontons and other global munchies at this big blue beach shack.
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Outer Banks Dive Center
Has NAUI-certified instructors who run everything from basic classes to guided dives of the shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
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Ocracoke Island
Accessed via the free Hatteras–Ocracoke ferry, Ocracoke Villagesits at the south end of 14-mile-long Ocracoke Island. It's a funky little village that's crowded in summer and desolate in winter, where the older residents still speak in the 17th-century British dialect known as 'Hoi Toide' (their pronunciation of 'high tide') and refer to nonislanders as 'dingbatters.' Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard the pirate, used to hide out in the area and was killed here in 1718. You can camp by the beach where the wild ponies run, have a fish sandwich in a local pub, ride a rented scooter or bike around the village's narrow streets or visit the 1823 Ocracoke Lighthouse, the oldest…
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Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
In the late 1580s, three decades before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, a group of 116 British colonists disappeared without a trace from their Roanoke Island settlement. Were they killed off by drought? Did they run away with a Native American tribe? Did they try to sail home and capsize? The fate of the 'Lost Colony' remains one of America's greatest mysteries, and the vis-itor center has exhibits, artifacts, maps and a free film to fuel the imagination.
Attractions at the site include the Lost Colony Outdoor Drama. This beloved long-running musical from Pulitzer Prize–winning North Carolina playwright Paul Green dramatizes the fate of the colonists. It plays at…
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Currituck Heritage Park
The sunflower-yellow, art-nouveau-style Whalehead Club, built in the 1920s as a hunting 'cottage' for a Philadelphia industrialist, is the centerpiece of this manicured park in the village of Corolla. You can also climb the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and visit the Victorian lighthouse-keeper's home, or check out the modern Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education for an interesting film on area history, info on local hiking trails and duck-decoy carving classes.
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Currituck Beach Lighthouse
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Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Extending some 70 miles from south of Nags Head to the south end of Okracoke Island, this fragile necklace of islands remains blissfully free of overdevelopment. Natural attractions include local and migratory water birds, marshes, woodlands, dunes and miles of empty beaches. Don't miss the 156ft striped Bodie Island Lighthouse, south of Nags Head. You can't climb it, but it's darn photogenic.
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