We are three middle aged couples planning a trip to Charlotte, NC this June (business reasons). We are making a vacation of it, spending a few days in Washington D.C., (Arlington, VA), then we planned to spend a couple of days at the beach before heading to Charlotte. We had planned on Virginia Beach---we had been there 30 years ago and enjoyed it. After searching this forum, I did not find that many people had anything positive to say about Virginia Beach. Any other suggestions? We want to stay right on the beach with oceanfront balconies. We cannot afford "top of the line resort" type places....unfortunately our budgets run more to Holiday Inn/Comfort Inn type places. We would love to rent a place for the three couples (which we have done before) but beach rentals seem to only be by the week and we would only be at the beach three nights. any help at all would be appreciated.

You should try Sandbridge Beach--20 minutes south of VA Beach. It is beautiful. Some places rent for partial weeks, esp. if it isn't the "high" season. The two main realtors are Sandbridge Realty and Siebert Realty. There are some condos at the very end of the settlement that are great.

We have also stayed for MANY years at Buxton, NC (famous for the Cape Hatteras Light House). It is a quiet, family beach. There is a Comfort Inn there, but it is not right on the beach. Check out web pages and see what you think. If you are looking for a house in Buxton, we have rented a large majority of them and may be able to give advice.

Consider Shell Island Resort or the Holiday Inn at Wrightsville Beach, NC. It is very near Wilmington which offers excellent shopping, dining and points of interest.

If you would prefer the Atlantic Beach area in NC, consider the Windjammer Inn. All units are oceanfront. Very near the marvelous town of Beaufort and reasonably close to Swansboro. Great dining options and a beautiful beach.

Personally, my wife and I enjoy staying in Virginia Beach. Yes, it's a tacky tourist trap in the summer but is beach itself is quite nice. Colonial Williamsburg is about an hour away and Six Flags is near by. There is also the U.S. Navy Base in Norfolk that has tours of some of the ships. For the money, I think it's a good choice.
By the way, my daughter lives in Charlotte......plan on a lot of quiet time. The first time I went to Charlotte I came to this site to find out what there is to do. I was told "Charlotte is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit here".

We like VaBeach. In the past 10 years, I have seen a steady improvement. There is a nice boardwalk and the beach is very nice. There are a lot of t-shirt shops and such. But there are also some very good restaurants in the area.
Nice hotels that we like are Marriott courtyard north, Marriott courtyard south and there is a new Hilton.
One warning, the weekend of June 8-10 is a Sand Soccer tournament. We play in this so I know it is packed, expensive and filled with kids of all ages playing soccer. You want to avoid this weekend. The same hotel will be 100 $ less another night and a lot quieter

Thanks for all the help! We have decided on Virginia Beach after all. I am glad to hear that it is nicer than I feared. I had done a search on this board and had not found much positive about Virginia Beach, although we had really enjoyed it a long long time ago. We looked into Sandridge Beach, but could find no rentals for partial weeks. Wilmington was too expensive and Atlantic Beach (which looked perfect) was simply too far out of our way. girlonthe go, the Marriott and Hilton are out of our price range, but we did find The Schooner Inn (which may be dreadful, but does have some good reviews on Tripadvisor) for $89.00 a night. Luckily, we will be going later in the month so we will not have to contend with the sand soccer issue! f64club, I did some research on Charlotte and could not find much to do either, which is why we decided to shorten our conventon stay a little. Thanks again for the help.

Glad you decided to give VB a try. I don't know the hotel/motel you mentioned. Don't remember seeing it. Hopefully, they have updated. There are some very old hotels there.
The Quality Inn used to be a Hilton years ago. We used to stay there. Then Hilton sold it and built a large hotel. When it was a Hilton, it was nice. I have also heard the Clarion is okay. I have not stayed there though.
Anyway, I hope you have a good trip.

Just wanted to let you know, f64club and girlonthego, that we were absolutely delighted with Virginia Beach. We did not actually find it "tacky" at all---we thought it was clean, wholesome, and a great beach. The hotel we stayed at, girlonthego, was on the very southern end of the boardwalk, so it was nice and quiet and peaceful. It was not a new hotel, but was very clean and had everything we needed. Thanks for your encouragement.

ttt
For some reason this did not go to the top?????

Glad you had a good time!! We have always enjoyed our stays in VA Beach. Our sand soccer tournament was a good weekend and we actually won our division. Go girls!! Anyway, glad to hear the schooner inn was okay. We wound up at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Oceanfront. It is north on the beach. It turned out to be cheaper and very nice.
Hope you will return again someday! Thanks for reporting back

Hey, congratulations on winning the division! Glad you had such a nice time. Yes, we will definitely return---we are actually trying to find a few days toward the end of this summer.