Camping
| Route 66 | Cities | Beaches |
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Camping |
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| Obviously, camping is the most economical way to spend a week or two on Hatteras Island. However, if you're coming in June, July or August, you need to consider this option carefully. Hatteras days often hit the high 90s and even 100. Insects, especially biting flies and mosquitoes, swarm in clouds every evening. And a sudden storm hits about once a week, with high wind and intense rain. Camping here is idyllic in Spring and Fall, but in Summer you need good netting, bug spray and a tolerance for heat and humidity. Despite these concerns, thousands of people camp here every Summer and many of them have been coming back to the same campground for decades. You'll need to reserve a campsite well ahead. Remember that modern "camping" also includes the "camping cabin" option. KOA and the Frisco Campground both offer these cabins. They have no kitchen or bathrooms, but they are a step up from tents, offering huge advantages vs. storms, bugs and heat. These cabins are at the Rodanthe KOA. The Frisco cabins are pictured further down the page. |  |
| Lodging | Camping | Motels | Bed & Breakfasts | Small Family Houses | Large Group Houses |
| If you want to camp, you still have to decide between sound and ocean. If you want the sound, we recommend Frisco Woods Campground. A typical site is shown at right. You have shade, a picnic table, electricity, and a great view of the water. These sites are far back from Route 12, so you hear no traffic noise. This is a popular campground with windsurfers, because the water in this picture is the famous Canadian Hole, the greatest windsurfing location in the world. It's also a mecca for kayakers, with Pamlico Sound being the best paddling water in North America. Camped here, you are protected from storms coming in off the ocean, and high dunes across Route 12 protect you from overwash. You are obviously vulnerable to storms moving from the mainland across the Sound, and surges have hit here directly. However, you will not be taken by surprise. If a storm of that magnitude is building, you'll have plenty of advance notice. Hot showers are nice. This is a great place for kite flying because the consistent breezes usually blow from the trees out toward the water. |  |
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If you want a primitive experience but feel too exposed in a tent, Frisco Woods offers these one and two room cabins. They have screens, electricity and air conditioning. They're set further back from the water than the tent sites, in a grove of trees, on somewhat higher ground. Another row of cabins is available up by Route 12 but we suggest you reserve far enough in advance to avoid those, with their highway noise. There's a dishwashing area, coin laundry, fish cleaning bench, solar heated swimming pool, grilles and picnic tables. The camp store is fairly large, with gas, camping supplies, food and the usual touristy gifts. If you rent windsurfing rigs, surfboards, kayaks, or other equipment, all the major outlets will deliver and pick up at Frisco Woods. 800-948-3942. www.outerbanks.com/friscowoods. |
If you want to camp on the ocean, we recommend the National Park Service's Frisco Campground. It's hidden back in the dunes away from Route 12, and most people drive by without noticing the entrance. It's the quietest and most secluded of all Outer Banks campgrounds. Trees and bushes provide privacy but not much shade. The campground is protected from the ocean by a high wall of dunes. There are 127 sites, but they have no hookups. Each site has a grille and picnic table. There are restrooms and drinking water, but the showers, while nice, are not heated. Pets are allowed if kept leashed. The beach here is beautiful and empty, since it is only accessible to campers. A breeze blows across the dunes from dusk to dawn. If you camp here, bring net shelters to cook in and relax outside your tent in, and make sure your tent has good netting with no tears. Otherwise, at sundown and sunrise, you'll be eaten alive. First come basis only; no reservations. Photo at right shows the group site. All other sites are smaller, hillier, and more private. 252-473-2111 |
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However, there is also the NPS Cape Point Campground, with fewer trees and lower dunes.This is similar to Frisco, with grilles, tables, water, restrooms, nice but unheated showers, bugs, leashed pets allowed, and first come first served with no reservations. But there are advantages to being here. First, you're a short walk from Cape Hatteras, the greatest surf fishing location in the world. Within only a few steps, you can cast into the Gulf Stream, the Labrador Current and the Shoals. Swimmers can revel in the 10 degree change from one side of the point to the other. Cape Point is Birdwatcher's Heaven, and you can walk along the beaches and find sea turtles and horseshoe crabs coming ashore to lay eggs, rare birds nesting in the dunes, and ghost crabs digging their burrows. The famous lighthouse and visitor center are a short walk from the campground. Artists and photographers can capture twisted trees, shifting dunes, wildlife, sunrises and waves. |
| If you want luxury camping, there's the KOA Resort at Rodanthe. They've got a hot tub, very large pool, store, cafe, cabins and free wifi. Showers, rest rooms, pool area and the whole facility is extremely clean. The campground is right on one of the island's finest beaches (pictured at the very top), and across the road from the Sound if you're into kayaking, wind surfing, kiteboarding or inshore fishing. There are four good restaurants within walking distance. There are no shade trees for relief from the afternoon heat, but presumably you'll be at the beach during that time. This is a huge campground and there's not much privacy between sites. We recommend calling several weeks ahead and specifying a campsite against the dunes, as this will provide a little privacy, be close to the beach, and put you as far as possible away from the noise from the road and pool area. The cabins are air conditioned. As at all KOA campgrounds, each site includes a picnic table, hookups and fire stand. You definitely need advance reservations here. This is obviousloy the most expensive of the campgrounds, but is still much less than a motel or house. 800-562-5268 |  |
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