OBX Bucket List

You can start planning a full year’s worth of bucket list “firsts” for you and yours to complete once you arrive on the Outer Banks. We enjoy the title of America’s First Beach, and rightfully so (the country’s first national seashore, the English’s first attempted settlement in the New World, man’s first powered flight, and more), so make your upcoming trip a vacation of firsts. You’ll be rewarded for stepping outside your comfort zone. 2019 promises adventures for doers and dreamers. Download our Bucket List or view the full list below.

1. Climb Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

2. Drive America’s First Beach, 4x4 or HWY 12

3. Visit the Wright Brother’s Memorial

4. Eat local seafood

5. Watch a Lost Colony performance

6. Reel in a fish

7. Go shelling or sea glass hunting

8. Catch a sunrise by the ocean

9. Pull up a crab pot or shrimping net

10. Play a round of golf or mini-golf

11. Go Ghost Crab hunting at night

12. Sample local Kill Devil Rum

13. Pitch a tent at one of our NPS campsites

14. Grab binoculars and birdwatch at Pea Island Wildlife Refuge

15. Watch an episode of Wicked Tuna: OBX

16. Try a new watersport

17. Visit N.E.S.T. sea turtle exhibit at Roanoke Island Aquarium or watch a nest hatch on the beach

18. Fly a kite

19. Make or buy beach art from funky beach finds or in a local studio

20. Read a novel (extra points if it’s about the OBX or from an OBX author)

21. Take your pet to the water

22. Tag along on a tour of the Alligator River and see a black bear

23. Hear Red Wolves howling

24. Set foot on the Elizabeth II ship replica at Roanoke Island Festival Park

25. Get an aerial view of the islands in an airplane, helicopter, or biplane

26. Spend a week in a vacation rental home

27. Awe at a sunset over the sound

28. Attend an apparatus Drill at Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station

29. Step back in time to a living history site at Island Farm

30. Get lost in the lush greenery at Elizabethan Gardens

31. Watch Nights in Rodanthe and look for the famous house

32. Take a selfie with three lighthouses: Roanoke Island, Bodie Island and Cape Hatteras

33. Hop on a ferry in Hatteras for the day

34. Enjoy a family style seafood boil

35. Sled or run down Jockey’s Ridge sand dunes

36. Learn about our 2,000+ shipwrecks at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum

37. Spend happy hour on a pier or a waterside restaurant

38. Shop boutique stores along Duck Boardwalk, Tanger Outlet Mall or other numerous shops

39. Hike or bike alongside the marshes

40. Relax with a facial or body massage

41. Recycle bottles, cans and bags to keep the beaches clean

42. Sample ALL flavors of fudge & salt-water taffy

43. Rent a jet ski or jet pack for a few hours

44. Ride a horse alongside the shore

45. Go phone free for one day

46. Visit Cape Point

47. Do yoga by the water

48. Attend a local event, music festival or artist showcase

49. Talk like a pirate

50. Build a sandcastle

51. Grill out

52. Make an OBX music playlist

53. Charter a sailboat

54. Explore a new town or village (we have 15)

55. Teach someone else a new skill (ex. how to fish, crab, tie a boat knot)

56. Chill out on a hammock

57. Take flight at the birthplace of aviation and sign up for Hang Gliding lessons

58. Brush up on all beach fire rules and host your own

59. Drive across the new bridge over Oregon Inlet

60. Become a keeper of heritage at Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center

OBX Bucket List

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