North Carolina has more than 300 miles of coast, and most families pick a beach by name recognition. We picked ours by standing on it. Here is how North Topsail Beach compares to the places you have probably heard of, with our bias stated up front: we live here.
Wrightsville Beach
Wrightsville is Wilmington's beach: beautiful, lively, and packed. Paid parking, metered lots that fill by nine, a crowded strand, and a bridge that backs up on summer weekends. It is a great beach for a day trip and a hard beach for a quiet week with kids. North Topsail is an hour north and a different world: your own walkway instead of a parking meter, and a beach you share with the houses on either side.
Emerald Isle and the Crystal Coast
Emerald Isle is a fine family beach and a fair comparison. It is bigger and busier than North Topsail, with more traffic, more public accesses, and a longer drive from Raleigh and points north. It also does not have our sandbar. If you want a quieter beach with calmer water for little swimmers and a shorter drive, the north end of Topsail wins.
The Outer Banks
The Outer Banks are wild and gorgeous, and they are also a long drive, a long ferry, or both, with a strong open ocean surf and steep drop offs that keep small children on the sand. The wind that makes the kites fly also blows the umbrellas over. North Topsail gives you dunes, dark skies, and nesting sea turtles, all at three hours less driving from most of the state, with a sandbar that makes the water gentle enough for a four year old.
Myrtle Beach and the busy south
If you want a boardwalk, a Ferris wheel, and a beach with 10,000 neighbors, Myrtle Beach is that. North Topsail is the quiet alternative. No high rises on the sand, no boardwalk, no lines. A beach house with a fire table and a walkway, and a phone that Amy or Greg answers.
Where North Topsail wins
- Quiet: almost no public beach access on our stretch, so the sand stays open even in July.
- Calm water for kids: the sandbar and afternoon tidal pools.
- Truly oceanfront homes: every one of ours has a walkway from the deck to the sand.
- The drive: about two hours from Raleigh, straight off the Highway 210 bridge, no ferry, no beach town gridlock.
- Dogs: welcome on the beach year round on a leash, and in all four of our beach houses.
Where it does not
If nightlife, a boardwalk, or walking to a dozen restaurants is the point of your trip, pick one of the others and enjoy it. If the point is the beach, come see ours.
Quick answers
Is North Topsail Beach quieter than Emerald Isle?
Yes. North Topsail has far less public beach access and no commercial strip, so its beaches stay noticeably less crowded than Emerald Isle in summer.
How far is North Topsail Beach from Raleigh?
About two hours by car, straight down to the Highway 210 bridge, with no ferry and no beach town traffic to sit through.
Is North Topsail Beach better than the Outer Banks for small children?
For small children, usually yes. The sandbar off North Topsail calms the surf, while Outer Banks beaches have stronger open ocean waves and steeper drop offs.
The quiet beach, with your own walkway
Four beach houses and three condos, all truly oceanfront, on the peaceful north end of Topsail Island.