OBX Corolla vs Nags Head as a Base for Sight Seeing?
 

My husband and I are celebrating our anniversary and are visiting the Outer Banks for a weekend in mid-August. We are looking to do some sight-seeing; visit lighthouses, Wright Brothers Memorial, Jockey's Ridge, local shops, and eat at local restaurants, etc. I am wondering if Corolla or Nags Head would be a better base for us, being that we have limited time and are not just visiting to sit on the beach? I have found two potential rentals, one in each area. The Corolla rental was a better deal price wise but I don't want to be too far away from the main attractions. We will visit the beach but not to sit and spend the day there. Any advice is appreciated!!

If you want to be closer to those attractions you named then I would not go to Corolla.

Trust me, there are plenty of people who absolutely hate the whole Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills supposedly tacky tourist corridor as being overbuilt, overcrowded, over everything, too many "foreign-owned" Wings stores, blah, blah, blah.

Avoid traffic..stay over on the beach road when you go up and down.

We stayed at Kill Devil Hills and it is more centrally located. There are many restaurants nearby. The Wright Bros. museum was very nice. We took a wild horse ride in Corolla and it was great.

Meant wild horse tour. We didn't ride the horses. lol

Corolla's too far north for you. People go there to get away from the attractions you mentioned.

Thank you for your help! Nags Head sounds like the best bet. I appreciate the tips.

We stayed in Corolla in May several years ago. It was not the busy season as of yet, and it took forever to get to the main attractions on a tiny 2 lane road. Forget Corolla. Nice area but down too far. Also visit the lost colonies. A town over a bridge very quaint on the water.

If you are only going "for a weekend" in mid-August even though that is about the time when rental prices start to change (kids going back to school and the storm possibilities increase considerably) then I would <B>assume</B> you are talking about staying in a hotel/motel situation.

Again, for all the stuff you want to do you definitely need to base yourself around NH; there just isn't the variety of things up in the Corolla area, nor the number of places to stay.