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Spot: Buxton Lighthouse, NC
Places to stay
The Outer Banks are camper/RV/surf fishing heaven for a good chunk of the southeast, so there are good places to camp, public and private, all the way along:
Oregon Inlet Campground = (800) 365-CAMP)
North Beach Campground = (252) = 987-2378)
Cape Hatteras KOA Campground = (252) 987-2307
In Buxton here's a campground next to the Lighthouse (www.americanparks.com/parklist/nccape.htm)
Around Frisco there is the Cape Point Campground = (800) 365-CAMP)
Frisco Woods Campground = (252) 995-5208
Cape Woods Campground is highly recommended = (252) 995-5850).
If you drove out in your convertible Bentley and can’t camp, there are lots of nice hotels, bed and breakfasts, cabins and other accommodation way out on the edge of the world.
For many years, a couple generations of East Coast surfers have come to Buxton for the East Coast Surfing Championships and they have stayed at The Surf Motel, which is actually owned and operated by the ESA. So they are most likely the most surf tolerant.
For many years, a couple generations of East Coast surfers have come to Buxton for the East Coast Surfing Championships and they have stayed at The Surf Motel, which is actually owned and operated by the ESA. So they are most likely the most surf tolerant.
The Cape Hatteras Motel has a nice website, and the rooms are nice, too.
If you can see the Lighthouse from the Lighthouse View Oceanfront Lodging, you can also see the surf, so maybe this is the go.
Food
Lisa’s Pizza in Rodanthe. Tell them Zach Weisberg sent you and the girls are treating him AOK on the west coast. But the pay ain’t so great.
The OBX (as locals call it) is seafood heaven and the Mad Crabber in Avon will make you want to run home and slap your grandma
Parking, access and directions
From Virginia Beach, get yourself onto the Caratoke Highway/NC-168 and go south for 43 miles. Take US-158 E/Wright Memorial Bridge for 19 miles. Turn left at East Grayeagle Street. Turn right at NC-12/S Virginia Dare Trail, then turn left on NC-12 and drive for almost 50 miles, and there you are.
Driving is allowed on some Outer Banks beaches, but not all of them. The www.outerbanksbeachguide.com website has good information that keeps up to date with rules that seem to change like the sandbars they are protecting. Click here to go directly to the latest rules for driving on the beach.
When visiting don't pull up late at night and set up a campsite in the dunes nearby as the Park Ranger will surely find you in the am and write you a ticket for $110. Don't let your dog off a leash either, that fine is $75.
Surf Shops
Fox Watersports in Buxton = (252) 995-4372
In the Eye Surf Shop in Buxton = (252) 995-5682
Wave Riding Vehicles in Kitty Hawk = (252) 261-7952
Whalebone Surf Shop in Nag’s Head = (252) 441-6747
Rodanthe Surf Shop in Rodanthe = (252) 987-2412
Natural Art Surf Shop = (252) 995 - 5682
Ocean Roots = (252) 995-3369
Hatteras Wind and Surf = (252) 995-6275
Attractions
If Hatteras is Mecca to surfers, it is Medinah to surf fishermen. Just as the Outer Banks get swell from Noreasters from the north and hurricanes from the south and west, so to do the Gulf Stream and other currents bring a regular Sponge Bob Squarepants parade of fish life right close to shore, and a few miles out to sea: dorado, blue marlin, bluefish, bass, king mackerel and tuna, not to mention sharks.
Bring a sturdy surf-fishing rod and you will never have to take your feet out of the ocean from sunrise to sunset.
And if you want to get serious air, try hang-gliding at Jockey’s Ridge and get a little taste of the Wright Brothers. So easy, a four-year-old can do it.
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