Lockdown 2020 has been tough on everyone. We’ve been trying to get out of the house more, exploring local parks and hikes. But sometimes you need more than a few hours away from the house. Hoping to stay ahead of cabin fever (and still away from covid), we wanted to take a long weekend at the beach in early fall when the boys had a few days off from school.
Our requirements were pretty minimal – we wanted a house with a private heated pool within walking distance of the beach. Literally any beach. Just to go someplace different, we started our search in GA, including Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, and Sea Island. And we came up empty everywhere. Clearly we were not the only ones who had this idea.
So I expanded our search from northern FL to northern NC. And still came up with very few options. Apparently a private pool within walking distance of the beach (at a reasonable price point) is a bit like a diamond in the rough, at least during the fall of covid-19. We were just about to give up and book an uninspiring condo when someone posted their Ocean Isle Beach rental on a Facebook group I follow. Bingo! This was exactly the place we were looking for – private pool, a block from a public beach access, and on the canal. And the house looked beautiful to boot!
I knew nothing about Ocean Isle Beach so I got to work researching. It was off-season and we were mostly just going to relax and get away so honestly there wasn’t a ton of research to do. We didn’t plan on eating out and, although I looked into some activities, I wasn’t sure we would do anything outside of the house and beach. But vacation research is my happy place so I read all about it anyway.
Ocean Isle Beach is less than three and a half hours from Charlotte, making it one of the closest beaches to us. It is one of the very southern-most beaches in North Carolina and sits quietly between its two busier neighbors, Wilmington to the north and Myrtle Beach to the south. Either can be reached in less than an hour if you relooking for a day trip with a more exciting scene.
OIB is a 5-mile long barrier island, with a bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway connecting it to the mainland. For the bulk of the island, there are just two roads that run parallel to each other and the beach – First Street and Second Street – and some side streets that branch off of Second Street and run a few blocks to the Intracoastal Waterway. On the eastern part of the island, there is a series of canals built in between the streets that lead out to the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). As a result, most of the homes have some sort of water access – either ocean or canal.
We headed up after work/school on a Thursday and settled into the house that night. In the morning, we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise from our bedroom balcony. And dump trucks. We were also greeted by an endless parade of dump trucks barreling down the street starting before 7am every morning (even the weekend!). It was ridiculous. But on the plus side, it did ensure that we were awake for all those sunrises.
We entered the beach from the Goldsboro Street public beach access. A long elevated boardwalk took us up over the dunes, where turtles make their nests from May through October (we just missed it!). The beach was fairly wide where we were, although I walked all the way to the eastern end of the island one morning and there is significant erosion at that end of the island. The beach was flat near the dunes with a gentle slope as you got closer to the water (which was cold in October!).
We went in the fall so it is difficult to judge what it is like there in the summer. It was by no means crowded but there were more people on the beach than I would have expected in October. The town has some fairly strict beach rules, most importantly that no cabanas, canopies or tents are allowed. Only beach umbrellas are permitted. This was not a huge deal in the fall but might have more of an impact in the summer.
The water was cold so the kids didn’t go in for long (or the adults at all). But the weather was still nice and the kids were able to build sand castles, bury each other in the sand, play football, and throw the frisbee. It was exactly what I expected of a fall beach visit – perfect weather for fun on the beach but not in the water.
We also walked down to the pier one day. From a distance we could see that it was damaged but saw that there were still people fishing from it so part of it was still open. While in the summer (or at least a non-covid summer) this place is sure to be hopping with an arcade and grill and ice cream shop, in the fall it was just fishermen and people out taking a stroll. The $1 entrance fee goes towards maintaining the privately owned pier.
We found out that the damage to the pier was recent. Hurricane Isaias made landfall on Ocean Isle Beach as a Category 1 hurricane in August of this year and damaged the pier, as well as several other private boardwalks and beach access stairs along the beach. The 60+ year old pier will be rebuilt in the future, but for now the damaged section is roped off. The birds didn’t seem to mind having the end of the pier to themselves.
We enjoyed the walk along the pier, watching the fisherman, searching for sharks in the water (we didn’t spot any), and enjoying the views.
On our walk back home, we stopped and played mini-golf at River Country Mini Golf. Although the animal theme looked cute from a distance, the course itself was pretty uninspired. The theming wasn’t carried through to the holes, there were hardly any obstacles on the course itself, and some of the hole layouts repeated themselves. We always find mini-golf fun just because it is mini-golf, but we were disappointed in this course.
The big surprise of the trip though was how much we loved being on the canal. We weren’t specifically looking for a place in OIB so being on the canal certainly wasn’t on our radar and we just sort of stumbled upon this feature. But we are so glad that we did! It was a huge plus for the kids, especially during a fall trip where swimming in the ocean wasn’t a big draw. They fished, crabbed, kayaked, and stand-up paddle boarded to their hearts’ content while we were there. I actually think they would have been totally find skipping the beach and just hanging out in the pool and on the dock. It was such a pleasant surprise to us how much being on the canal added to our trip.
And while the sunrises were great, the sunsets were pretty amazing too. From both the beach and out across the canal, we had some pretty incredible views.
We really loved the house we stayed in – https://www.vrbo.com/401752. It was beautiful, well maintained, and the perfect size for our two families of 4. The amenities were great too, from the pool to the kayaks. The owner went above and beyond and was friendly and helpful through all phases of the booking and stay. The location was fantastic being on the canal and a block away from the beach. We would definitely stay at the Coconut Beach Club again and highly recommend it!
All in all, our trip to Ocean Isle Beach was exactly what we were looking for – a change of scenery and a relaxing long weekend. OIB is a quiet, slow-paced, family-friendly beach and town. It gives you easy access to both the beach and the intracoastal waterway, which in turn gives you access to a myriad of activities, even in the off-season. It’s tough to say how we would compare it in the summer to our normal beach destination of Hilton Head, but it definitely delivered on our fall visit.
