Flying to Oracoke at Outer Banks?

mcdewey

mcdewey

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Mike
Hi Folks,

Looks like I might get to my bucket list of flying to and staying at Oracoke in the next few weeks.

For those familiar with the area, I've got a few questions:

1. What's your favorite place(s) to stay when there? Do they give rides to/from the airport?
2. What's your favorite place(s) to eat and visit when there?
3. Any notes about flying into there? Do they have tie-downs?

We like to hike lots don't need to find lots of attractions. I could walk the beach all day long.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Mike
 
Coming down the outer banks most airports are on 122.9. Informally, pilots use that to announce position as "Beach Traffic" with direction N/S, altitude and position relative to the beach. Starts from about Kitty Hawk down to Morehead City. Common reporting reference points I've heard are First Flight, Manteo, Oregon Inlet, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke and Cape Lookout or some distance from those points.

I don't know about hotels giving rides, but call and ask. Howard's Pub monitors the CTAF and will give you a ride to the restaurant if you eat there so that would get you at least into town.. The entire village is walkable and it's a short distance from the airport. I don't believe there are tie downs, but I also vaguely remember that they just repaved.

*corrected frequency.
 
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bflynn said:
Come down the outer banks most airports are on 122.8. Informally, pilots use that to announce position as "Beach Traffic" with direction N/S, altitude and position relative to the beach. Starts from about Kitty Hawk down to Morehead City. Common reporting reference points I've heard are First Flight, Manteo, Oregon Inlet, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke and Cape Lookout or some distance from those points.

I don't know about hotels giving rides, but call and ask. Howard's Pub monitors the CTAF and will give you a ride to the restaurant if you eat there so that would get you at least into town.. The entire village is walkable and it's a short distance from the airport. I don't believe there are tie downs, but I also vaguely remember that they just repaved.
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122.9 is the CTAF for beach traffic, HSE, and W95
 
mcdewey said:
Hi Folks,

Looks like I might get to my bucket list of flying to and staying at Oracoke in the next few weeks.

For those familiar with the area, I've got a few questions:

1. What's your favorite place(s) to stay when there? Do they give rides to/from the airport?
2. What's your favorite place(s) to eat and visit when there?
3. Any notes about flying into there? Do they have tie-downs?

We like to hike lots don't need to find lots of attractions. I could walk the beach all day long.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Mike
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1. we have a place next to Billy Mitchell in Frisco, so it's been a while since I've stayed overnight in Ocracoke. I've heard good things about Ocracoke Harbor Inn.

2. Pilots like Howard's because they'll give you a lift from the airstrip. That said, While serviceable, they're not the best restaurant in town. For lunch I like SmackNalleys-- a cool outdoor bar/grill on the water. For dinner, Jason's is a good dinner choice, and Dajios just reopened, and has always been great. Eduardos is the place to go for tacos, it's just trailer with picnic tables...ideal setup for Covid.

3. they do have tie downs, and the state keeps them in reasonably good shape. Show up and tie down.
 
mcdewey said:
1. What's your favorite place(s) to stay when there? Do they give rides to/from the airport?
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I stayed at a condo on Silver Lake and on very short notice at a motel called 'Blackbeards Inn Lodge'. The condo was nice, the motel was ok for pretty much being the last place in town. The motel sent out their maintenance man to fetch us and as on every island, while there may not be an official taxicab, there is a guy named 'Juan'
'Javier' who will drive you wherever you need to go for a 10.

2. What's your favorite place(s) to eat and visit when there?
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Restaurants come and go. I remember a place called 'back porch' that was good.

3. Any notes about flying into there? Do they have tie-downs?
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Bring tiedown ropes. The ones at the beach airports are 'suspect' due to the constant UV exposure.

As for flying:
- Keep your head on a swivel around the upper part of the outer-banks, its much quieter once you are past first flight.
- Be comfortable with crosswinds.

We like to hike lots don't need to find lots of attractions. I could walk the beach all day long.
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The beach is some ways from town in Ocracoke. A good distance to take a bicycle which may or may not be available through wherever you are staying.
 
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weilke said:
I stayed at a condo on Silver Lake and on very short notice at a motel called 'Blackbeards Inn'. The condo was nice, the motel was ok for pretty much being the last place in town. The motel sent out their maintenance man to fetch us and as on every island, while there may not be an official taxicab, there is a guy named 'Juan' who will drive you wherever you need to go for a 10.
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Are you thinking of Javier? I think his card is in the airport building. I also posted his info on ForeFlight user comments for W95.
 
Brad Z said:
Are you thinking of Javier? I think his card is in the airport building. I also posted his info on ForeFlight user comments for W95.
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Yes. Javier, not Juan.
 
We've tent-camped at the campground just off the end of Billy Mitchell quite a few times, and the OBX are one of our most frequent destinations.. try to get there at least once or twice a year, but we cancelled our scheduled trip (on our anniversary) in June due to.. well... the world. VERY glad to hear things are picking back up, and can't wait to get back down. There's a place called "Pop's", a kind of dive (not as in scuba, but as in dive bar) seafood shack and bar, that is a lot of fun if you're pretty relaxed. It's north of Billy Mitchell, the wrong direction from Ocracoke, but it's more our speed. Ocracoke was nice, but we've only gone down there twice. For us, it's too much Martha's Vineyard and not enough Salvo. Have never flown there.. always drove from central NYS.. sometimes just overnight. We like it down there that much. Tortuga's Lie is our favorite hang when up in the Nags Head/Kitty Hawk area. I know.. this thread is about Ocracoke. My bad. Just got excited hearing about the OBX.
 
Brad Z said:
1. we have a place next to Billy Mitchell in Frisco, so it's been a while since I've stayed overnight in Ocracoke. I've heard good things about Ocracoke Harbor Inn.

2. Pilots like Howard's because they'll give you a lift from the airstrip. That said, While serviceable, they're not the best restaurant in town. For lunch I like SmackNalleys-- a cool outdoor bar/grill on the water. For dinner, Jason's is a good dinner choice, and Dajios just reopened, and has always been great. Eduardos is the place to go for tacos, it's just trailer with picnic tables...ideal setup for Covid.

3. they do have tie downs, and the state keeps them in reasonably good shape. Show up and tie down.
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The last hurricane flooded the cart at Howard's Pub. So, unless they replaced it recently, you will have to make the 10-15 minute walk into town.
 
We stayed at Ocracoke Harbor Inn last summer. They picked us up at the airport and dropped us back off at the end of our visit. Room was clean and comfortable standard motel type. Not much in the way of local "flavor" and on the edge of the town, but everything is walkable. They also rented golf carts and bikes (don't know what survived the storm).
 
Tons of VRBOs at the outer banks. Back in 2003 we stayed at a nice one that you could see the Wright Monument from. We got it because a buddy of mine was savvy enough to rent it in 2002 (returning renters get first dibs on the week they had before).
 
flyingron said:
Tons of VRBOs at the outer banks. Back in 2003 we stayed at a nice one that you could see the Wright Monument from. We got it because a buddy of mine was savvy enough to rent it in 2002 (returning renters get first dibs on the week they had before).
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Indeed they do (including yours truly), but for a small place for a couple of nights, AirBnB seems to cover that niche better.

That said, Both Vrbo and AirBnB have managed to perfect the the art of extracting a significant portion of the transaction in the form of commission and booking fees for serving as a lodging clearinghouse. Vrbo honed this skill after being bought out by Expedia (search forum for Jay Honeck's rants about them) and have bought out their competition to forum a monopoly.

The good news is the more savvy hosts have made it easy to google their property and book direct.

Whatever you do though, check their cancellation policies. Rental properties, hotels, etc., tend to have pilot unfriendly cancellation policies, particularly during the more popular times of the year. This applies to hotels too...it's hard to flip a last minute cancellation into a last minute booking when 99% of their guests travel 6+ hours to get to the island.
 
Many years ago, I stayed at a B&B called 'Thurston House Inn'. That was really well run and within walking distance of everything.
 
Make sure you land at First Flight while you're in the area...
weilke said:
As for flying:
- Keep your head on a swivel around the upper part of the outer-banks, its much quieter once you are past first flight.
- Be comfortable with crosswinds.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Whatever you do though, check their cancellation policies. Rental properties, hotels, etc., tend to have pilot unfriendly cancellation policies,
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Not just pilot unfriendly. We had everything cancel out on us when a hurricane hit the outer banks a few years back. Refunds were not easily forthcoming and neither was the #@&^@#$ travel insurance we took out. That's the last time I'll fall for that scam.
 
flyingron said:
Not just pilot unfriendly. We had everything cancel out on us when a hurricane hit the outer banks a few years back. Refunds were not easily forthcoming and neither was the #@&^@#$ travel insurance we took out. That's the last time I'll fall for that scam.
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For a little context, the NC Vacation Rental Act does not require owners to refund payment when a evacuation order is in effect if the owner (or agent) offers the renter the ability to purchase travel insurance that covers such events. The idea is that storms on the east coast are very predictable and insurable.

The problem is that I as owner cannot take out a travel insurance policy on the Renter's behalf. If I could I would; it's relatively cheap and storm evacuations are common (just about yearly for the past six years or so). Instead I let our guests know the deal, sign that they understand that if they don't purchase it they are self-insuring. Even still I get folks who swear they'll buy insurance, and then when a storm hits (like Isaias last month) I get a "will you give me my money back?" As much as I'd like to underwrite people's vacations, one week of rentals can represent 10% of the annual revenue. As an added bonus, COVID has brought on new element of unforeseen risk and I've had my share of cancellations early in the season, which I ended up refunding.

In the case of Ron's trip, I have no idea why the insurance coverage did not kick in. I can't speak for other owners, but my policy is that if it's a reasonable unforeseen situation that travel insurance doesn't cover, I'll work with the guest on rescheduling or refunding.
 
Apparently, since the evacuation order wasn't the "entire" week of rental they weaseled out of paying. Of course, while the property was technically accessible, the whole area was still a disaster area. This was Matthew back in 2016. We were able to get this off-season week swapped for a different one (still off-season in the spring). It's not the landlord's fault, but the insurance company was an outright scam. The insurance wasn't exactly cheap either.
 
flyingron said:
Apparently, since the evacuation order wasn't the "entire" week of rental they weaseled out of paying. Of course, while the property was technically accessible, the whole area was still a disaster area. This was Matthew back in 2016. We were able to get this off-season week swapped for a different one (still off-season in the spring). It's not the landlord's fault, but the insurance company was an outright scam. The insurance wasn't exactly cheap either.
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I think some of the travel insurance companies are run by the same people that sell home warranties.
 
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mcdewey said:
Hi Folks,

Looks like I might get to my bucket list of flying to and staying at Oracoke in the next few weeks.

For those familiar with the area, I've got a few questions:

1. What's your favorite place(s) to stay when there? Do they give rides to/from the airport?
2. What's your favorite place(s) to eat and visit when there?
3. Any notes about flying into there? Do they have tie-downs?

We like to hike lots don't need to find lots of attractions. I could walk the beach all day long.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Mike
Click to expand...

In Ocracoke now, this mornings pic of the harbor attached.

Stayed at a number of places, the Anchorage is a basic no-frills place, the 3rd and 4th floors have the best views and are a tad quieter. The Ocracoke Harbor Inn is more upscale and more $$. Blackbeard’s isn’t bad , but no view of the harbor. Most all will pick you up from the airport. If you want to rent a 4x4, there is a place that does that, Think his name is Kenyon(?), number on second photo, he will pick you up at airport. A fair number of places still re-constructing. Most restaurants are take out only or limited seating.

We always bring tiedowns and a cover.
 

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In Ocracoke now, this mornings pic of the harbor attached.

Stayed at a number of places, the Anchorage is a basic no-frills place, the 3rd and 4th floors have the best views and are a tad quieter. The Ocracoke Harbor Inn is more upscale and more $$. Blackbeard’s isn’t bad , but no view of the harbor. Most all will pick you up from the airport. If you want to rent a 4x4, there is a place that does that, Think his name is Kenyon(?), number on second photo, he will pick you up at airport. A fair number of places still re-constructing. Most restaurants are take out only or limited seating.

We always bring tiedowns and a cover.
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Thanks for the great information! Anything that you particularly enjoy doing while you're down there?
 
mcdewey said:
Yep, I've been to First Flight a couple times, but only for day trips.
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I dont believe you are allowed to tie down overnight. Cool little airport, and you can skip on paying the NPS use fee for the park ;-)

My wife still claims that she didn't know I was a pilot until about 5 years into our marriage. The fact that we got engaged on the steps of the Wright brothers memorial could have been a tip-off.
 
here ya go.....

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weilke said:
I dont believe you are allowed to tie down overnight. Cool little airport, and you can skip on paying the NPS use fee for the park ;-)
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From the NC Airport Guide for KFFA:

"No fuel available, Hours of Operation: Closed 30 Min. After Sunset Until 30 Min. Before Sunrise. Tie-Downs limited to 24 hrs., no more than 2 overnights per month"
 
mcdewey said:
From the NC Airport Guide for KFFA:

"No fuel available, Hours of Operation: Closed 30 Min. After Sunset Until 30 Min. Before Sunrise. Tie-Downs limited to 24 hrs., no more than 2 overnights per month"
Click to expand...

Ah, right. You can stay overnight but you can't park your citation for a week while you party at your 'cottage' in Nags Head.
 
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