Getting started: The logical starting point is the airport in Norfolk, Va., served by Southwest Airlines. You can rent a compact car here for no more than $140 per week with unlimited mileage, even in peak season. Call ahead to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau (877-629-4386) for its 112-page visitors’ guide.
Day 1: From the Norfolk airport, take I-64, Route 168 and then U.S. 158 south. The 70-mile drive passes through mostly flat coastal farm country. When the lofty sand dunes of the Outer Banks come into view, they seem almost like mountains. At their widest, between Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, they expand to about a mile. This is where you find the most popular beaches–the ones that draw the summer throngs. In the resort town of Kill Devil Hills, check in to the tidy 54-room Cavalier Motel (252—441-5584; from $84 for a double with ocean view), which nudges right up to the beach dunes. Soak up some sunshine at the pool or the beach, but save time for a visit to the Wright Brothers National Memorial (252-441-7430; nps.gov/wrbr), just a few minutes away. Here, on a sand-covered site a century ago, Orville and Wilbur Wright launched air travel with their famous 12-second flight. Markers indicate the takeoff and landing spots–so close together it seems the brothers might more easily have jumped. Afterward, join the crowds at Pigman’s Bar-B-Que (1606 South Croatan Highway; 252-441-6803), a no-frills joint. You can’t go wrong with the messy pork ribs ($10.25), served with coleslaw, baked beans and plump hush puppies.
Day 2: Today’s drive, along Routes 158 and 64/264, temporarily leaves the Atlantic shore for Roanoke Island. You’ll pass Jockey’s Ridge State Park (877-359-8447; kittyhawk.com), where prospective fliers line up on an 80-foot-high dune to take hang-gliding lessons. Kitty Hawk Kites, the nation’s largest hang-gliding school, has a three-hour introductory course ($89, including five solo flights). Some gliders, maneuvered by confident, well-coordinated students, float gracefully back to earth. Others plummet with a seemingly painful thud into the not-so-yielding sand.
In Manteo, check in to the Dare Haven Motel at 819 Highway 64 (252-473-2322; $70 for a double), about 10 minutes from the beach, and head for Roanoke Island, site of the first temporary English settlements in the New World. Across an inlet rests the 69-foot Elizabeth II, the featured attraction at Roanoke Island Festival Park (roanokeisland.com; $8 for adults, $5 for children 6 to 17). Onboard this replica of a 16th-century vessel, costumed interpreters answer questions in Elizabethan English. Inside the park, watch re-creations of Colonial settlements and a dramatization (“The Lost Colony”) of the mysterious events surrounding the first, ill-fated Roanoke colony (800-488-5012; $16 for adults, $8 for kids under 11). Had your fill of history? Grab some dinner at Big Al’s Soda Fountain and Grill (100 Patty Lane; 252-473-5570), a ’50s-era cafe with an all-American menu; fresh seafood dinners with fries and slaw cost about $14.
Day 3: Past Manteo along Highway 12 lies my favorite portion of the Outer Banks: the quiet southern end, where the islands narrow considerably. At their skinniest, only a few hundred yards separate the rough Atlantic from calm Pamlico Sound. You’ll find miles of nearly desolate beaches and towering sand dunes topped by wind-stunted trees. Stop by the 156-foot-high Bodie Island Lighthouse. Exhibits at the visitors’ center illustrate how the area earned its unhappy nickname, “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” As many as 600 ships have been wrecked on this shifting coastline since 1526.
South of the lighthouse, the road hops from Bodie Island to Hatteras Island over an arched bridge and long causeway. At the end, stop at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge (252-473-1131; peaisland.fws.gov) to glimpse its 400 species of birds, many of them migrants blown off course by fierce Atlantic storms. Be sure to check out the ranger-led activities, which are free or minimally priced: canoe on the sound, learn how to catch crabs, build a kite or go snorkeling or fishing.
Not far away is the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States. Test your leg muscles by climbing all 268 steps to the top ($4 for adults, $2 for kids). Then recuperate at the Falcon Motel (800-635-6911; $79 to $89 for a double), in the soundside village of Buxton. Dine across the highway at the Diamond Shoals Restaurant (252-995-5217). On the family-friendly menu, try the catch of the day, usually sea trout ($13.95). Return the next morning for one of the famous hearty breakfasts.
Day 4: In the morning, catch the free car ferry (800-293-3779; www.ncferry.org) to Ocracoke Island, a 40-minute ride. On Ocracoke, Highway 12 continues for 13 miles through the mostly untouched seascapes of Cape Hatteras National Seashore to the village of Ocracoke and the Ocracoke Lighthouse. (The highway is sometimes closed during bad weather, so check with the highway department.) En route, stop at the Pony Pasture, a 100-acre field nurturing a small herd of the island’s unique ponies, possibly descendants of Spanish ponies that survived a shipwreck. Then ferry back to Hatteras, Buxton and the beach. After the history lessons, you’ve earned more playtime.
