Normally we schedule our vacations for around the beginning or middle of August. This year due to my oldest boys’ mandatory football camp, we moved it to the End of July. Unfortunately that’s still in peak season for east coast beaches. It gets a lot more expensive as a family of 6. If you want a hotel, many don’t accomodate for a family of 6 in one room. We’d have to get two rooms which jacks the price up. Of course it’s more expensive in peak season. If you want close to the beach you’ll pay for that too. Then you have to keep in mind you’ll have to feed everyone for the time you’re down there. Then add in souvenirs and attractions and it can get out of hand.
After searching many locations like Cedar Point, Ocean City, Rehoboth, Myrtle Beach, it became frustrating. It didn’t look like we were going to be able to book a place for all 6 of us for less than $1500. And that was just the room itself. So I wiped my board clean and started fresh. I started doing searches for things like beaches in Maryland, beaches in North Carolina, and that’s how I found this little gem called Topsail Island in North Carolina.
We were booking in May (which I know is a bad time to book for July but we had circumstances) so I was surprised to find a good handful of places available at a very reasonable price. We found a beach house that sleeps 7 for only $900 for the week a block from the beach. We found a beach house that sleeps 10 right on the beach for $1700. And we found the Sea Coast Suites two blocks from the beach that sleep 6 for under $900. Sea Coast Suites was ultimately what we chose. I found lots of good reviews on many reliable sites. In fact I had a hard time finding even one bad review of the place. The suites were very clean, the office staff was friendly, and it had a full kitchen which to me means saving even more money!
When I say it’s two blocks from the beach, it makes it sound pretty far away but it was a short walk to several public beach access areas and we still had beautiful views of the coast line and the sound behind us. Topsail Island itself is only 3 blocks wide so you’re really not far from the beach no matter where you stay.
This little beach town was so much cleaner and quieter than other beaches we’d been to. I felt like I could allow my 3 year old daughter to run around a little more and didn’t have to be breathing down her neck. The water was cleaner than other places we’d been. I’m not a fan of going to deep in the water but even just above my knees I could still see my feet and the ocean floor. I could see the little fish swimming around. There wasn’t tons of rental places on the beach or planes flying over head announcing the buffet deal of the day. Occasionally there was a Marine helicopter over heard which the kids loved.
About a 5 minute drive from Sea Coast Suites was the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. One of only a couple sea turtle hospitals on the east coast. Searching TripAdvisor many suggested getting there early when they open around noon. They said there’s a line but it moves quickly. TripAdvisor was right on target. It opened at 12:00 noon we got there at 12:15. There was already a line but it did move quickly because they took groups at a time. It was only $22 for all 6 of us to get in. The money goes to help the hospital carry on their work. They had educations station set up before you actually got into the bays to see the actual sea turtles. They taught us about the different kinds of sea turtles, the sea turtles body structure, and case studies of some of their patients. My kids were engaged almost the whole time.
There was a lot of good restaurant choices too. We ate at the Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar in Surf City (again only a couple minutes from our suites) and in the small plaza next to our suites was an amazing Carolina BBQ place called Surf City Barbecue. We got so much for the price we ended up taking some of it back to our suite to eat for another meal. They both had very reasonable pricesThere is also a Fractured Prune only a couple blocks from the suites. The only one in NC from what I understand.
There was also a beautiful park a few blocks from our suites called Soundside Park. There was a beautiful walk over the sound, a small play ground, benches along the sound to sit and watch the boats and the swing bridge in action, and a gazebo. There was a sign up while we were there that they had free community concerts on Friday. And of course, visiting the park was free.
We were only there for 5 days. There was so much more I wanted to do. Normally on our drive home we talk about what our favorite things were and where we’d like to go on our next vacation. It was unanimous, everyone said they didn’t want to go anywhere else, they want to go back to Topsail Island, NC on our next vacation.
Thank you for your great blog about Topsail. Glad you loved it!