<p>OBX has been on my short list of vacation spots to try. Can anyone recommend a specific (semi)oceanfront house that sleeps 6 at which they’ve had a great experience–well maintained, clean, beautiful views, family neighborhood, conveniently located? If so, please do PM me.</p>
<p>Well, it depends on whether you’re a beach person or not. </p>
<p>A beach person (that would be me and DH) likes to pack a cooler, sand chairs, a good book,lunch/snacks and a beach umbrella (must have) and head to the beach with the plan of spending most of the day there swimming,walking reading,snacking until late afternoon when we pack up to shower and get ready for great seafood for dinner. That’s a beach person’s perfect day.
For a beach person, good access to the beach is tantamount. Everything else is secondary. We have rented places that should have been condemned just to be as close to the beach as possible.</p>
<p>A semi -beach person likes to go to the beach with minimal baggage in tow. They enjoy walking on the beach,sunning/ swimming and people watching but grow bored with these activities after a couple of hours and need a change of scenery/action.
A semi-beach person likes the beach but it’s not a total commitment so accommodations really close to water are not top priority.</p>
<p>The almost non-beach person likes the atmosphere of the beach, enjoys walking on the beach and people watching but are generally not fans of ocean swimming esp. if the hotel/condo has a pool. The almost non crowd has different agendas for their vacation that don’t include wasting an inordinate amt. of their trip roasting by the Atlantic when there are so many shops, attractions,restaurants to explore.</p>
<p>The beach person wants to be as close as possible to the beach given whatever financial constraints figure into the deal.</p>
<p>The semi-beach guy is happy to stay “between the highways” (beach road and bypass). Cost is less and meets his needs for getting his beach fix whenever he feels like meandering down there for a short visit.</p>
<p>The almost non-beach person would be satisfied to stay between the highways or on the sound side in a really nice house that is a better deal than ocean front shacks. Beach is accessible but since the plan is to do lots of other activities that don’t necessarily include hours on the beach w/ a truckload of stuff to haul back and forth,the further away from water locale works fine. </p>
<p>So which kind of accommodations would best fit your beach “style”?
I like houses best. The sound house sounds really nice and and in a good location but getting to the beach (if that’s a priority) might be a journey/pain in the neck. </p>
<p>For me the closer to the water, the better but it’s not a necessity to have a great time on the OBX. </p>
<p>Google craigslist-outer banks for some ideas or check out vrbo.com</p>
<p>worrywart,usually if you rent through a beach realty company,you’ll find the cottage to be clean and well kept. If there is a prob. they come out and rectify it. We have used Sun Realty in the past and been satisfied. [Outer</a> Banks Vacation Rentals | Homes & Beach Cottages](<a href=“http://www.sunrealtync.com/]Outer”>http://www.sunrealtync.com/)</p>
<p>Worry wart - there are lots of property management places that I’m looking at … the one named above, these have also come up Nags Head Realty, Carolina Designs… Twiddy, Beach Realty, Kitty Dunes, Sun Realty, Brindley Beach, Corolla Classics . . Beach Realty.</p>
<p>What I have figured out - you can be Sound Side or Ocean side. </p>
<p>Look for oceanfront rentals, and then look at the pictures. A lot of the homes have dunes to cross in all areas of the outer banks. Looking at the pictures will let you know if you’re truly right on the ocean or not. </p>
<p>One of the few places that offers a lot of homes directly on the ocean is Rodanthe. not that other areas don’t, Rodanthe looks to be the closest to the ocean.</p>
<p>Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills are two of the busiest places on the Outer Banks–lots of restaurants and lots to do. </p>
<p>It does look like July and August are booking up - so I wouldn’t wait too long if you want water front.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. I’ve been browsing for hours!</p>
<p>And thank you PackMom … that makes sense.</p>
<p>Rodanthe is really secluded. Nothing to do there except fish and hang out on the beach. It’s a long ride down hwy.12 Ever see the movie “Nights in Rodanthe” with Richard Gere?
It was actually filmed in Rodanthe and other OBX locales. </p>
<p>Kitty Hawk,Kill Devil Hills,Nags Head and South Nags Head are all lined with ocean front houses. Some houses are so close that water comes up to the deck steps at high tide! Some have collapsed in recent years from hurricane storm surge. There are stretches of the beach road second row houses (across the street from the ocean) that have unobstructed beach views because the houses that used to be oceanfront fell in or were condemned because of storm damage.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. I’ll take a look at these realty sites. Just a bit apprehensive after renting a house in Dewey Beach, DE, from Long & Forster that looked nice in the photos but was absolutely filty-- stained bed linens, mold-covered shower… gives me the shudders just remembering it. The realty did NOTHING to rectify it.</p>
<p>MaterMia, your pm box is full. Clean it out so I can send you a pm:)</p>
<p>Arghhhh! Cleaning - cleaning, all the time cleaning! ha</p>
<p>[Outer</a> Banks Vacation Rentals | Nags Head Vacation Rentals | Ocean’s 22 | 8 Bedroom Oceanfront House](<a href=“http://www.villagerealtyobx.com/OuterBanks/VacationRentals/NagsHead/Details/Oceans22/]Outer”>http://www.villagerealtyobx.com/OuterBanks/VacationRentals/NagsHead/Details/Oceans22/)</p>
<p>that is the place we used to stay at when we went. much bigger then what you are looking for though… 8 bedrooms, sleeps 22 people… lovely!</p>
<p>Oh my gosh. …I’d just pulled a book entitled Journeys of a Lifetime off of the dusty part of the bookshelf. DH gave it to me for Christmas in preparation for our upcoming empty nest - in 18 months. I was considering the option of taking this route in mid July/early August. Is it too late to try and put this into place? Sounds like everything may already be booked. Ah well, if so, then it will have to be in the off season in 18 months…</p>
<p>dietz199…there are so many rentals down there. I can’t imagine that it would be too late to find something for this summer.</p>
<p>There are certainly rentals still open. It does appear the summer is starting to book up. Some of it will depend on what you want, how many rooms, beach or not, etc. I found what appears to be a lovely house with terrific views not on the beach - that I’d be happy to share if you PM me. I think it could sleep six, but it was a two bedroom and reasonable.</p>