While visiting this colorful North Carolina Beach, cast your worries aside and let your spirit be the guide! There are some absolute must-dos for you and your family and friends to experience.
This timeless beach town appeals to the tastes of multi-generational travelers with its incredible hiking/biking trails, a vintage beachside boardwalk filled with shops, restaurants, watering holes, live music venues, amusement rides, and arcades, first-class shore and pier fishing, and more!
Carolina Beach State Park
This popular park that runs along the coast features 8.5 miles of hiking along 9 trails (2 wheelchairs accessible), 1 mile of biking, with the options of tent adventure in our secluded campsites or in a cabin that sleeps up to 6 people. Several ecosystems are present in this park. Between the dunes, there are dense shrub swamps (called pocosins), marshes, ponds, and boggy soils that carnivorous plants thrive in. One, in particular, that is native to this area and a well-known park attraction is the Venus flytrap. Venus flytraps are native only within 60 to 70 miles of Wilmington. Carolina Beach State Park is also a great place for bird-watching. Rangers hold regularly scheduled educational hikes and programs, and ALL trails are dog friendly! This great park is one more reason to visit the area and stay in one of our Carolina Beach vacation rentals!
Carolina Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park
This vintage beachside boardwalk is a local hotspot and tourist favorite. There are strips of shops, restaurants, homemade fudge from The Fudge Boat, ice cream and shopping at Celtic Creamery and gift shop, locally famous homemade donuts from Brit’s Donuts, dive bars and watering holes, indoor and outdoor live music venues, amusement rides, an arcade and more! Some of our Carolina Beach vacation rentals are within walking distance to this one-of-a-kind boardwalk. There’s so much excitement to choose from, but best of all it’s right on the beach!
Freeman Park Recreation Area
If you’re a beach lover that enjoys camping, bonfires, and owning a 4WD vehicle, this is your happy place! This is one of the few areas along the shoreline that remains completely undeveloped and a perfect place to drive your truck down for the day and even camp out overnight if you want to. This area on the very North End of the beach is very popular amongst locals, but tourists also love to take advantage of it during the summertime. As crowded as it may get, you can almost always find a spot to park.
Fishing Charters, Pier Fishing and Shore Fishing
Whether you’re an offshore fisherman, love the thrill of a tournament, or just enjoy throwing a line over the pier or standing on the shore, we’ve got some of the best fishing in the Carolinas. The three unique bodies of water in the region- the Cape Fear River, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Atlantic Ocean all work together to attract abundant varieties of good-eating, fun to catch fish species. Be sure to contact one of our local charter businesses or rent poles and gear from one of the piers!
Surf School, Paddleboard and Kayak, bike rentals etc!
Professional surfer Tony Silvagni, a Carolina Beach local, owns one of the best surf schools in the area and offers lessons, along with paddleboard, canoe, and kayak rentals, beach chairs, umbrellas, and more! There are also bike rentals, jet ski rentals, pontoon boat rentals, and paddle boats on the lake at Carolina Beach. The lake also has a great bike path around it that is part of the Greenway Bike Trail. You can find Farmer’s Markets, live music, fireworks, and movies on the lawn during the summer months. Pleasure Island Rentals, Paddle NC, Island Girl Outdoors, and CB surf shop are just a few local businesses that have great customer service and are deeply loved and supported by the community!
Fort Fisher Recreation Center and Aquarium
Fort Fisher has a little something for everyone. From 4 wheeling to surf fishing, astronomy lessons, tree identification hikes, kite workshops, and more. These are only a few of the adventures Fort Fisher has to offer. Loggerhead Sea turtles and other rare marine species nests along this sandy shoreline. These habitats are well respected and protected by local volunteers and organizations. Fort Fisher played a major part in the Civil War and kept North Carolina’s port of Wilmington open to blockade-runners supplying necessary goods to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
Fort Fisher is also well known for its aquarium. Explore aquatic environments from freshwater streams and swamps to coastline habitats, coral reefs, and the open ocean. Come eye to eye with a sea turtle, watch sharks glide with stingrays and eels, and even explore our touch pond with its horseshoe crabs and sea stars. This aquarium not only has marine life but a special butterfly habitat filled with some of the most beautiful and unique of the species. There is also a new exhibit featuring a family of furry Asian otters to observe!
Plan Your Stay
Now that you’ve done all of the things on Carolina Beach, it’s time to get serious about the next big thing you need to know: finding a home you can crash in. There are so many reasons to visit the area and stay in one of our Carolina Beach vacation rentals!
Mike Chappel Park and the Island Greenway
This 10-acre park has something for everyone in the family! This park has 2 tennis courts (Pickle Ball nets available), 1 basketball court, playground equipment, a dog park, baseball and softball fields, a soccer field, and a skate ramp for skateboarders and trick bikers. The Island Greenway bike trail is a network of off-street trails that allows you to safely navigate around the island. It’s linked together with the designated bike and pedestrian routes and crosswalks. This one is high on the list of the best family friendly activities in Carolina Beach.
