Is Outer Banks worth it? Help convince my husband it’s better than any New England beach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OBX: big house, big sandy beaches, big flags, and big trucks/SUVs. You’ll definitely come across MAGA/Trump flags, especially as you head north to Carova on the beach 4WD road.

That said, my in laws love OBX and we go every year so we can have 15 people in a house with a pool and one block walk to the beach. It’s hard to find that in the Northeast for under $20K/week.

This is why people go to the OBX. Big, multifamily houses. Beyond that, the beaches aren’t that great - narrow, steep, rough gravely sand, super windy. Traffic blows. Not a lot of restaurant options. Duck Donuts are trash. Too many MAGA/confederate flags.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you need to try to convince him it's so much better. They're both good beach vacation sites. But OBX is much cheaper than most NE beach rentals, and some of the rental houses/cottages have pools because they're newer construction.

Ew. So trashy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OBX: big house, big sandy beaches, big flags, and big trucks/SUVs. You’ll definitely come across MAGA/Trump flags, especially as you head north to Carova on the beach 4WD road.

That said, my in laws love OBX and we go every year so we can have 15 people in a house with a pool and one block walk to the beach. It’s hard to find that in the Northeast for under $20K/week.

This is why people go to the OBX. Big, multifamily houses. Beyond that, the beaches aren’t that great - narrow, steep, rough gravely sand, super windy. Traffic blows. Not a lot of restaurant options. Duck Donuts are trash. Too many MAGA/confederate flags.

So we now rate beaches by the quality of their donuts? I’m not a donut person, but I’ll take a Duck Donut over Dunkin every day,

Obviously, you don’t like OBX, but have you actually been there? Hatteras Island (other than Rodanthe) and South Beach, on Ocracoke, have great beaches. Sand is nice and the water is usually beautiful. Water quality depends on wind direction. If it’s blowing from the west, water is turquoise blue/green. Wind from the east, and water gets muddy. BTW, this is the case with most beaches on the east coast.

Finally, I will concede that restaurants on OBX are not that great. This is true in a lot of resort areas- overpriced and usually a pretty uninspiring menu. Luckily food isn’t that important to us. We’ll grill most nights and get pizza one night. Doesn’t have to be complicated.

[Anonymous]

Very disingenuous debate if you don't address the #1 thing against OBX: the traffic getting there. Unless you own your own house and therefore can go down anytime, driving down there for a rental is among the most horrific experiences I've ever had. 1000s of people driving over this two lane bridge so they can get to intersection where half the people (at least) have to turn left. then slogging up Rt. 12 at 2 mph for another hour just to go 10 miles.... come on. then you spend back half of the week worried about doing the same thing in reverse. no thanks - almost any beach (even going over Bay Bridge or getting to Cape Cod out of Boston - both of which I've done dozens of times) is no where close as awful...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very disingenuous debate if you don't address the #1 thing against OBX: the traffic getting there. Unless you own your own house and therefore can go down anytime, driving down there for a rental is among the most horrific experiences I've ever had. 1000s of people driving over this two lane bridge so they can get to intersection where half the people (at least) have to turn left. then slogging up Rt. 12 at 2 mph for another hour just to go 10 miles.... come on. then you spend back half of the week worried about doing the same thing in reverse. no thanks - almost any beach (even going over Bay Bridge or getting to Cape Cod out of Boston - both of which I've done dozens of times) is no where close as awful...

Traffic to/from OBX isn’t fun. We don’t go there as much as we used to, but when we did we would leave Friday, and stay the night in Suffolk/Chesapeake. This would put us ahead of the traffic on Saturday. We usually stayed in Hatteras. Did Corolla once and the crawl north on 12 was brutal.

Been to Cape Cod multiple times. Love the Cape beaches, but that drive isn’t a walk in the park either.

As much as we love OBX and Cape Cod, lately our beach trips have been to Fenwick and OCMD. Easier drive, beaches are nice enough and it just seems like less work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like people from this area started going to the obx because it’s cheaper than the DE beaches and OC and Va beach are trashy.

This.

[Anonymous]

OBX beaches: very windy, rough surf

OC Md and Delaware beaches--gentle wind or no wind, surf is gentler, not as rough as OBX

[Anonymous]

There’s no other better place to buy and fly kites than the OBX.
The only thing I don’t like from the OBX is the tremendous amount of Rnecks. It gets tiring.

[Anonymous]

Summer is a whole month longer in NC

[Anonymous]

We go to OBX with extended family of 12. It is really the only place we can go and have lots of options of houses with plenty of rooms (real beds for everyone), walking distance to the beach for the family members who love the beach, and a private pool for the ones who don't love the beach. I'm sure other beaches are nicer and near cuter towns, but OBX fills a need for our family that other beaches do not.

[Anonymous]

As a native LI'er I know that they aren't vacation destinations (probably due to the lack of lodging options) but the South Shore beaches of LI are really my favorite ones and not just due to nostalgia.

Lido Beach is my favorite. Jones Beach when not crowded. (Not Gilgo Beach!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OBX: big house, big sandy beaches, big flags, and big trucks/SUVs. You’ll definitely come across MAGA/Trump flags, especially as you head north to Carova on the beach 4WD road.

That said, my in laws love OBX and we go every year so we can have 15 people in a house with a pool and one block walk to the beach. It’s hard to find that in the Northeast for under $20K/week.

This is why people go to the OBX. Big, multifamily houses. Beyond that, the beaches aren’t that great - narrow, steep, rough gravely sand, super windy. Traffic blows. Not a lot of restaurant options. Duck Donuts are trash. Too many MAGA/confederate flags.

We had friends who waited in line yesterday at a popular bagel place in Corolla and after waiting in line forever they got to the front where there was a huge sign for a "MAGA Bagel" with a video of Trump dancing next to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OBX: big house, big sandy beaches, big flags, and big trucks/SUVs. You’ll definitely come across MAGA/Trump flags, especially as you head north to Carova on the beach 4WD road.

That said, my in laws love OBX and we go every year so we can have 15 people in a house with a pool and one block walk to the beach. It’s hard to find that in the Northeast for under $20K/week.

This is why people go to the OBX. Big, multifamily houses. Beyond that, the beaches aren’t that great - narrow, steep, rough gravely sand, super windy. Traffic blows. Not a lot of restaurant options. Duck Donuts are trash. Too many MAGA/confederate flags.

We had friends who waited in line yesterday at a popular bagel place in Corolla and after waiting in line forever they got to the front where there was a huge sign for a "MAGA Bagel" with a video of Trump dancing next to it.

and they were so shocked by this affront of eating a bagel from someone who votes differently than them that they dropped dead and really showed all those maga bagel eating people in corolla!

unfortunately for them they will not be missed, but rip.

[Anonymous]

Mansion Beach on The Block and biking all over BI is the only way for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a native LI'er I know that they aren't vacation destinations (probably due to the lack of lodging options) but the South Shore beaches of LI are really my favorite ones and not just due to nostalgia.

Lido Beach is my favorite. Jones Beach when not crowded. (Not Gilgo Beach!)

Amen. Fire Island is my favorite.