About a Week
7 days · ~560 miles · from Norfolk
Two ferries, four lighthouses, one lost colony and the slow handoff from sound country to the Lowcountry's front porch.
This trip chains: Outer Banks & the Sound Country · Kings Highway & the Lowcountry
The Dismal Swamp Canal's haunted miles, Elizabeth City's harbor, Hertford's S-bridge — Edenton by afternoon for the courthouse green and the Harriet Jacobs walking story.
US 64 over the sounds to Roanoke Island: Fort Raleigh, the Elizabethan Gardens, the Mother Vine. Evening dune climb at Jockey's Ridge; The Lost Colony under the stars in season.
Kill Devil Hills' twelve seconds at opening, Bodie Island light, Pea Island birds, Chicamacomico's surfmen — Buxton by evening under the moved lighthouse.
Free boat to Ocracoke: Teach's Hole, the British Cemetery, brogue eavesdropping at the Fig Cake bake sale if you're lucky. Overnight on island — it empties beautifully at dusk.
The 2¼-hour Cedar Island ferry (reserved weeks ago, right?), Core Sound decoys on Harkers, Beaufort's pirate archaeology and rum-barrel grave. Shrimp burger at the Sanitary.
New Bern's Pepsi counter and Tryon Palace, then US 17 south — Wilmington riverwalk by evening; Britt's Donuts if it's summer and the fryer's on.
Calabash lunch where the style was named, one committed hour of Myrtle Beach mini-golf, Pawleys hammock browsing — end in Georgetown under the rice clock tower, pointed at Charleston.