South's Best Island

No.1 Outer Banks,North Carolina.

- Andrea Weigl

A VACATION on the Outer Banks, that 120-mile string of islands jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina, might best be described by what it is not. “It’s not boardwalks,” says Tim Cafferty, owner of Outer Banks Blue Real Estate Sales in Kitty Hawk. “It’s not neon-type entertainment.”

Laid-back beach towns dot State 12, which runs from the Virginia border to Ocracoke Island. These coastal communities call to families who return each summer, tumbling out onto the beach in the mornings to swim, collect seashells, and build sand castles until dinnertime.