America’s Beach offers a treasure of free stuff to do!
If you are looking for fun in the sun without burning your bank account, head to the Outer Banks of North Carolina this summer for a treasure of free activities and adventure that will make this year’s vacation one to remember. We’re just a tank of gas or two away from most major cities on the East Coast, and you won’t find a more pet-friendly beach in America, because we know the value of traveling in a pack! www.outerbanks.org.
Most importantly, our beaches are FREE to access with plentiful FREE parking. Spend your quarters on more important things. The Outer Banks are 130 miles long and are home to some of the most wild and natural, undeveloped beaches in the country along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Take your four wheel drive SUV off-road in select areas to access some of the best fishing and scenery on the eastern seaboard. There are literally miles and miles on Hatteras Island you can navigate in the summer that you can’t find anywhere else.
Think your kids would like to play in the largest natural sandbox in the south? Try Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head, a 426 acre sand dune system that’s about 90 feet tall and mecca for kite flying, sunsets or just rolling down the giant sand hills. Incredible panoramic scenery with a bird’s eye view of the island. Visit Bodie Island Lighthouse, Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse for free. Want to take a boat ride but think it’s too expensive for your group? Take the FREE ferry to Ocracoke Island, a 40 minute trip where you can walk around the boat, feed the birds or just bask in the sun.
Take your friends and loved ones to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and see one of the most popular stops for birds on the Atlantic Flyway. Hundreds of species of birds have been documented here. It’s free to enter, and the kids will love the turtle pond or looking through the free binoculars at the observation platforms overlooking miles of refuge. America got its start at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, where England’s first colony settled here at Roanoke Island from 1584-1587. Their disappearance is one of our history’s most enduring mysteries. So is the price. It’s free.
Want to learn about waves and coastal dynamics? The Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, NC offers free summer tours. See really neat vehicles, buoys and devices that scientists use to measure waves during storms, etc. and engage your kids with a family field trip. The coast of Cape Hatteras is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, because of the 2000 plus shipwrecks that line the Outer Banks. You can visit the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, NC for free and see what the sea has thrown back! Learn about the lost Civil War submarine Alligator, see a real Enigma machine recovered from a German U-boat, and learn about the ghost ship Carroll A. Deering.
