· 7 min read
The Best Beaches in the Outer Banks, Ranked by a Former Local
From Coquina Beach to Corolla, a longtime Outer Banks resident ranks the best OBX beaches for swimming, shelling, and finding an empty stretch of sand.
Coquina Beach, Nags Head
Wide, lifeguarded in season, and backed by the tallest dunes on the Bodie Island stretch. Coquina stays calmer than the beaches north of it because the parking lot is set back far enough that most day-trippers keep driving.
Come early for shelling after a northeast blow. The wrack line here holds whelks and scotch bonnets more often than anywhere between Kitty Hawk and Oregon Inlet.
Cape Hatteras Point, Buxton
The Point is where the Labrador and Gulf Stream currents collide, and you can watch the two sets of waves meet each other head-on. It is a fisherman's beach first, but the walk out past the lighthouse is the most dramatic hour on the entire barrier island chain.
Carova, north of Corolla
Four-wheel drive only, no pavement, and wild Colonial Spanish mustangs grazing in the dunes. Air down your tires, carry a tow strap, and give the horses the fifty feet the law requires.
Ocracoke Island
You have to want it — a free ferry from Hatteras and an hour of your life. That filter is exactly why Ocracoke's sixteen miles of undeveloped shoreline still feel like the Outer Banks of forty years ago.