My family is staying in a house in Nags Head during the first week of August. The house is off of Route 12 between East Mall and Driftwood. We are considering renting bicycles for the week. I'm hoping to use the bikes for shorter trips (to shops, for coffee, etc.) -- is this area bicycle friendly? In addition, I don' have a good sense of the geography around Nags Head, is it hilly, shaded? Any information would be appreciated.

You are at sea level and the entire bike path is completely flat for miles in Nags Head. Everything is flat in the Outer Banks not a hill in sight. What milepost is your location? No one goes by the street names, you need to tell us the milepost, then I can tell you what is nearby. Chances are you are in biking distance to the Outer Banks Mall on 159 (has a nice coffee house and also a donut shop for breakfast, and really great big discount bookstore and a Seamark grocery shopping store- they have a good seafood shop inside Seamark, it's our favorite for steamed shrimp and fresh fish close by; also Video Andy for DVDs and videos, etc.) There are little community shopping centers on Rt 12 like Surfside Plaza and others that have a few shops. Definitely rent the bikes. We always bring our bikes w/us for the whole family. You will love having bikes, it is a great way to get around Nags Head. The bike path is wonderful. You can go out to eat, shop, or just ride, ride, ride for miles. And it's safe- just tell the kids to watch out for people who are staying on the oceanfront and are backing out of their driveways.

p.s. NO SHADE. Bring hats and lots of heavy duty sunscreen (and a spray bottle to mist off with, and a towel for the sweat).

oops, that should be Rt 158, not 159.

Here are two sites discussing bicycling in the Outer Banks:
http://www.outerbanks.org/activities...outerbanks.asp
and http://www.outerbankschamber.com/vguide/bicycling.cfm

Thanks for the information. As best I can tell, the house we are renting is a little north of milepost 14. Thanks also for the links -- they havejust the information I was looking for.