North Carolina beach suggestions
 

My husband and I would like a week at a "not crowded" beach with decent restaurants. Would like to keep costs down, but must have beachfront and decent beach. We do not need tourist attractions. Just want to relax in comfort this summer!

Somewhere around Wilmington would be your best bet in my opinion. Unfortunately, in many cases, fine dining & beachfront don't necessarily go together.
http://ncbrunswick.com/
http://www.wilmington-nc.com/

Actually Amelia Island, FL. was the first place that came to my mind.

It's been a very long time since I've been there but my DW and I spent most of our honeymoon in the Morehead City-Atlantic Beach area. We did drive down through Wilmington to see the battleship North Carolina. We also checked out Myrtle Beach before heading back. Not much in the way of fine dining restaurants in the area at that time. There is only 1 restaurant on Okrakoke Island. You can check to see if there is anything that interests you in the Manteo-Kill Devil Hills area.

We do the outter Banks Every year my whole family now for the past 25 years, we are from Pennsylvania and LOVE, LOVE It!! We go the extra distance and stay in Hatteras Village which is the last place on the island before having to take the Ferry across. There is maybe 50 people on the beach on a crowded day, my kids love it, it is very relaxing, you can leave your stuff there all day and no one bothers it. The houses on the beach are awsome and cheap !! They do have a couple of resturants, and Avon where the town is really built up is about 40 min away if you wanted to take the drive, but we never do, we shop when we get there and plant our buts in the sand with drinks and relax the whole entire time !! You should really check it out !!

You don't say where you are coming from, but I think the SC beaches offer more for what you want. Tell us where you are coming from.
The beaches SOUTH of Wrightsville (wilmington), "maybe". I would go to Litchfield (I know, one note!!) or even Surfside, and enjoy the best eating on the coast.

and by south of Wrightsville I mean Kure, etc. Then on down to below MB.

Thanks so much for the suggestions. We are from Ohio and have vacationed the past 7 years in Surfside SC and really did like it. Just looking for something a little less crowded and maybe an hour or two closer. Fine dinning is not that important, just need something other than the run of the mill fast food chains.

Well, since you know Surfside, just go a 10 miles south to Litchfield by the Sea. It is about as uncrowded a beach as I've seen. And the food in Murrell's Inlet and Pawley's cannot be rivalled on the coast. Coming from Ohio, the SC beaches are just a bit "closer" also.

Originally from Ohio, may family has been visiting Holden Beach, NC for nearly 50 years. It is likely what you seek. Please see the link I provided earlier. W/nearly the entire trip (@ least in NC) now being 4 lanes (via the new 74 in NC) the trip is quicker now, than even what is was 5 years ago.

Ocean Isles Beach! quiet beautiful beach town

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ocean Isle. Quiet beach TOWN (1 grocery,beach shop,pier, couple of rentals, CROWDED beach, two restaurants.

yes gretchen.....i love it too...you are actually helping me on a different post...I had asked about "beach vacation in NC" (northern NC beaches)

P.S. we stay at the winds resort. love it!

But my post is for THIS poster who wants a quiet uncrowded beach with good restaurants. I wouldn't stay anywhere but ocean front at Ocean Isle.
Since you know it now, you may be interested to know that it used to be serviced by a drawbridge. and there were only 2 rows of houses, with a very few scattered on a FEW canals. But there was the same general store, the Pier, and putt putt on the square. When I saw it 2 years ago for the first time in maybe 30 years it was a shock. And a sorrow.
We had to take our umbrellas out IN FRONT OR OUR house by 7AM to get our places set. But the house was great, and it was fun. I was glad to get back to our Litchfield place which was being repaired.

Spent a few summer vacations as a kid in the 70s on Ocean Isle. I agree it's shocking how built out it is now. I had no idea they could fit that many houses on that island. While there is little commercial development, I would never consider it a quiet beach. For quiet, look at Oak Island nearby.

Oak Island is even built up now. I vote for the Outer Banks. Hatteras would be a good choice for quite beaches.

"But my post is for THIS poster who wants a quiet uncrowded beach with good restaurants"

Gretchen's "suggestions" for sgriffin on his NORTHERN NC BEACHES post:

"There is Wrightsville, Kure Beach, Atlantic Beach around Wilmington. Holden Beach. All have their devotees.
I'd drive another hour and a half and go to Litchfield/Pawley's, just south of MB and have relatively uncrowded beaches and the best selection of restaurants on the coast very close by."

And that post was for sgriffin looking for suggestions in Northern NC?

Quiet depends on where you are coming from....I live on Long Island, NY and go to Jones Beach during the summer, so anyone who knows that beach would consider OIB a quiet beach & not crowded..

Thanks rego!

Rego, I do realize that my preferences are for SC beaches and also gave the time it would take to get from NC beaches to them. My sister lived on LI, and I agree that Jones Beach is a different standard to judge by. I also spent a summer on Long Island at Oak Beach long years ago and it was a delightful quiet beach THEN.
I was only suggesting that there really ARE quiet beaches still available, believe it or not, and not like Jones Beach.

Brian, that whole island was/is owned by one family, hence the reason they controlled the lack of development of any fast food--or almost any other commercial ventures. They fly in on their private jet every now and then!! Just amazing.

I would add that another way to judge a beach is by its width. The beaches near Wrightsville are are steeper--and therefore the surfing is better if that is of interest. The beaches further down the coast are wider and less sloping. At low tide, there is a LOT of beach. At high tide, not so much. Ocean Isle did have a HUGE renourishment and it is still on going to restore the beach. It does make for very sharp sand. I don't know about Holden and Oak--I know Holden was washing badly a number of years ago.

I have been going to Topsail Island for over forty years, since I was eight. I love the place and if I thought I could make a decent living there I would move immediately. Very uncrowded; one traffic light on the island. Lots of space to roam. Some of the better restaurants were sold off during the great real estate run-up of 2004-2007 but there are still a few decent places to eat on the island. Wilmington is only half an hour away.

Gretchen your preference of SC beaches is not a problem, but what you offered to Sgriffin is just ridiculous and also inaccurate. For one, Atlantic Beach is about a hundred miles north of Wilmington and second of all, you have not mentioned one beach North of Wrightsville. Litchfield is nice, but you need to be fair and not so blatantly bias. You only mention other beaches that promote your beach and you seem to be avoiding making any comparisons of Litchfield Beach with the Outer Banks. Seriously, you are going to justify naming Southern NC beaches to sgriffin AFTER he had mentioned he has been to Ocean Isle?

Geez, I apologize, What is the beach that is just south of Kure. I thought it was Atlantic. I don't know anything about the Outer Banks so why would I offer ANYthing about that. Why don't you offer something about OBX.
I have been to the beaches at Wilmington and OIB, NMB,MB, and then south. I am not making up their mind for them. I am fine with people going wherever, but if people don't know how close the SC beaches are to NC , then a little education about the geography may be helpful.
I have NO reason to promote anywhere monetarily, and actually, more traffic isn't what we want. It's just very pretty. have you been?
AND once again, I will point out that I was answering the ORIGINAL POSTER, not griffin who interjected OIB. There seem to be two topics going on.

The least crowded of the Brunswick string is Holden, then Sunset. All of those islands had erosion problems due to dredging by the Army Corp of Engineers started back in the 70's (I believe), against the advice of the residents of those islands, Mr. Holden especially. Those islands are particularly at risk as they face South, not East. That has since been drastically curtailed. At one point, in my youth (pre-dredging) you could literally walk between islands @ low tide (but you couldn't make it back). That also destroyed a lot of oyster beds, sand dollar & other habitat that lay essentially between those islands. If you can still find it, this book is an excellent little history lesson re: one of my favorite islands - http://www.holden-beach.com/Content/book.asp

YES, at OIB it is a bit disorienting to look out AT the ocean at sunrise (should be due east, you think) and see the sun coming up to your exact LEFT. (If I have this exactly backward, forgive me--but I saw it when we were there last!!)
Sunset has its new bridge. It's a nice beach.
The dredging/renourishment has its prices to be paid if and when a big storm/hurricane/nor'easter hits. Where they filled those inlets for the developers, Mother Nature will reclaim her land and take it ALL back.