North Topsail vs Surf City vs Topsail Beach: which end of the island?

Topsail Island is 26 miles long with three towns on it, and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake first timers make. We are Amy and Greg, we have hosted families on the north end since 2013, and we are not going to pretend to be neutral. Here is how the three ends actually compare.

Surf City: the busy middle

Surf City is the island's downtown, and it has the crowds to prove it. The pier, the t-shirt shops, the mini golf, and most of the day trip traffic from the mainland all land here. Public beach accesses every few blocks mean the sand fills up by mid morning in season, and you will circle for parking with everyone else. The beaches are narrower, the traffic on the bridge and along the main road is a fact of summer life, and the ocean in front of the pier is where the surfers and the jet skis go. If your idea of a beach week is walking to tacos and back through a crowd, it will do. If your idea is quiet, it will not.

Topsail Beach: the far south tip

The south end is small and residential with a soda fountain and a nice old fashioned feel, and it is the longest drive on the island from anywhere. From the Surf City bridge you creep the entire length of the island on one two lane road, which matters twice a day with a car full of groceries and kids. Beach access is mostly shared street ends, so the sand in front of you is rarely just yours, and there is no sandbar to speak of to calm the surf for little swimmers.

North Topsail Beach: the quiet, peaceful end

The north end is where the island stops trying to be a town and goes back to being a beach. No commercial strip, no boardwalk, no pier crowds, and along our stretch of New River Inlet Road, almost no public beach access at all. The people on the sand behind your house are the people staying in the houses. In the middle of July you can walk a quarter mile and count the umbrellas on one hand.

Then there is the sandbar. A bar sits 30 to 40 feet off our beach and knocks the surf down before it reaches the shore, so little kids can play in ankle deep water while the teenagers ride the waves just past it. Late in the day the tide leaves warm, shallow tidal pools between the bar and the beach that toddlers claim as their own. That single feature is the reason so many of our families come back every summer.

Add wide beaches, dunes instead of houses stacked on the sand, sea turtles nesting in front of the house, dark enough skies to see the Milky Way, and a sunrise you watch from your own deck with coffee, and you have the week most people picture when they say "the beach." It is also the easiest end to reach from the north: the Highway 210 bridge drops you straight into North Topsail without ever touching Surf City traffic.

What you give up on the north end

You will drive ten minutes to dinner instead of walking, and you will stock the kitchen on the way in. That is the whole list. Sneads Ferry seafood and the restaurants at St. Regis are minutes away, and our guides cover where we actually eat.

The scorecard

• Quiet beach: North Topsail, by a wide margin.
• Safe swimming for kids: North Topsail, because of the sandbar and the tidal pools.
• Room to spread out: North Topsail. Wide sand, no public access crowds.
• Dogs: North Topsail. Long empty leash walks, and our beach houses welcome them.
• Getting here from Raleigh, Richmond, or the north: North Topsail, straight off the 210 bridge.
• Walking to a t-shirt shop: Surf City. We are happy to give that one up.

Our four beach houses and three condos are all on the north end because that is where our own family wanted to be. If your ideal week is more porch than boardwalk, you already know your answer.