The Local's Guide to a Week on Hatteras Island

Most people who visit the Outer Banks stay in Nags Head or Kill Devil Hills, drive south once to see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and leave thinking they’ve seen it. They haven’t. Hatteras Island — the long, narrow stretch of barrier island that runs from Rodanthe down to Hatteras Village — is a different place entirely. Less commercial, more wind-swept, and shaped almost entirely by the National Seashore that surrounds it.

Getting there is part of it. Once you cross the Marc Basnight Bridge at Oregon Inlet, the development thins out and you’re driving through open seashore. The road runs between the Atlantic on one side and the Pamlico Sound on the other, and for long stretches there’s nothing between you and the water in either direction. It’s the kind of drive that tells you you’ve arrived somewhere.

The island has seven small villages. Avon is roughly in the middle and serves as the informal hub — it has the best grocery store (the Avon Supermarket, not glamorous but well-stocked), most of the restaurants, and the Canadian Hole, a stretch of beach off the highway where the windsurfing and kiteboarding community has gathered for decades. On any afternoon with decent wind you’ll see kites stacked against the sky. You don’t have to participate to enjoy watching it.

Buxton, a few miles south, is where the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stands. At 198 feet it’s the tallest brick lighthouse in the country, and you can climb it from mid-spring through fall. The walk to the top is 257 steps and worth every one — on a clear day you can see the Diamond Shoals stretching into the Atlantic, the shallow underwater ridges that have sunk more than 600 ships over the centuries. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras Village tells that story well, and admission is free.

The sound side of the island is underrated. Most visitors point themselves at the ocean and never look west, but the Pamlico Sound is one of the largest estuaries on the East Coast — shallow, calm, and spectacular at sunset. Soundfront properties here have private docks where you can launch a kayak in the morning, watch the water turn orange in the evening, and hear nothing but wind the rest of the time. The fishing off a private dock or boat ramp at dawn is a different experience from fighting for space at the public pier.

For a full week, the rhythm works like this: mornings at the ocean, afternoons on the sound or exploring, evenings at the lighthouse towns. One day, take the free ferry from Hatteras Village across to Ocracoke Island — it’s a 40-minute crossing and Ocracoke is quieter and stranger, with wild ponies and a village that time has mostly left alone. Go back the same day or stay the night if your schedule allows.

Hatteras Island doesn’t have much in the way of restaurants by beach-town standards, which is either a drawback or the point depending on what you’re looking for. The Fish House Grill in Avon is reliable for fresh catch. Oceana’s Bistro has a better wine list than you’d expect for the location. Mostly you’re cooking what you caught or what you picked up at the Avon market, and that’s fine — it’s that kind of trip.

Good Host Co has two properties on Hatteras Island: a soundfront cottage in Avon with a private dock, boat ramp, and kayaks, and an oceanfront cottage in Salvo with private beach access through the National Seashore dunes. Both are available for weekly stays through the summer at goodhostco.com.