Ocean Isle Beach Vacation

We recently took a trip to Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina with Blake's family, and it was a wonderful time spent with family and friends! We were so excited to be on vacation since we haven't really slowed down since our move to Charleston. Luckily for us, Blakes mom took care of planning the entire trip! I took some notes and wanted to write up a review on our vacation in case you decide the visit Ocean Isle Beach! 

We stayed at a newly renovated beach house within walking distance to the beach. We opted out of a golf cart rental and instead took advantage of a beach wagon and it was all hands on deck to get all of our gear down to the beach. The walk only took about 5 minutes. We had 11 people on vacation, and the house fit all of very comfortably. The house offers a huge sectional couch, and 4 bedrooms with 6 beds and 4 bathrooms. The kitchen in a decent size and provides everything you would need to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. It truly felt like home for the week! The room we stayed in had a queen sized bed, double dinks in the bathroom, a walk in closet, and a desk, which was a perfect place for me to get some work done, and do my makeup! 

Since I am from the beach, I tend to be picky about beaches. I look to see how clean a beach is, how updated the shops are, how many restaurants are around town, etc. While I really enjoyed the actual beach because it was very clean, we had one issue. The new beach tents, Shibumi Shade, are prohibited from the beach! Apparently it has something to do with the beach umbrella rentals. Rumor has it, the founder of the Shibumi Shade spoke with town council, but they haven't budged yet. SO, that was honestly pretty frustrating because we were spending hours at the beach and really wished we could've used the tent for shade. 

We decided to eat in most nights due to the amount of people we had, but we did venture out one night to Beck's Restaurant. It was delicious! Blake and I split the 'Captains Platter' which was filled with oysters, scallops, clams, deviled crab, shrimp, and French fries. you can't make a reservation, but you can call ahead to let them know you are coming, and they will put you on the list once you get there. A friend of mine who is often at the beach also recommended Oyster Rock and Boundary House. We waited about 45 minutes for our table at Beck's, which was perfect because it gave us time to venture across the street to a HUGE store called Callahan's of Calabash. 

This adorable gift shop had everything you could possibly image. We had no problem spending 45 minutes waiting for our table to be ready. It was a mix of cheesy beach nicknacks, beautiful house decor, clothing and shoes, cards and more! St. Nick Nacs is a year round Christmas shop attached to Callahan's. The store displays thousands of Christmas tree ornament and other Christmas decor. I buy an ornament on every vacation Blake and I go to with the hopes I can have a Christmas tree one day with just our destination decorations on it! 

One tradition I grew up doing on beach vacations is ghost crab hunting, and everyone wanted to do it! We had so much fun running around the beach in the dark with a few flashlights. We caught a lot of crabs too! Don't worry, we let them all go once we were done. 

Lastly, I want to share a coffee shop we stopped by on our way to the beach and on our way out. OIB Surf & Java serves delicious coffee while also offering a surf shop to shop in. The staff greeted us with smiles when we walked in, and made a delicious cup of Joe! I love supporting local coffee shops, and always try to find one while on vacation. 

I know this isn't a ton of information, but it is everything we did since we spent most of our time at the beach. Isn't that what you're supposed to do on a beach vacation? Have you been to Ocean Isle beach? Let me know what you liked about the beach in the comments!

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