OBX by Air, Land, & Sea: 3 Ways to Take In the Outer Banks in a Day

Explore the Outer Banks through air, land, and sea tours, including sweeping views from above and a history-filled walk through town.

By Nicole Letts
Jun. 27, 2024
Category: Outdoor Enthusiast

On my latest—and first—visit to the Outer Banks, I realized something funny about the day’s itinerary. My travel companion and I had finished a deeply satisfying lunch at Carolina Bar-B-Que Company and were arriving at Dare County Regional Airport for the next stop. It was just after one o’clock, and I had already been out on an airboat, was getting ready to climb into a biplane, and still had a history tour planned for the evening. In the most literal sense, I was taking in the region by air, land, and sea.

That combination felt right for a place where air, land, and sea shape so much of the story. The Outer Banks is the coastal setting where English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was known to operate and hide. It is also where the Wright brothers achieved their first flight, and where three National Parks protect both history and today’s landscape. Even better, visitors can move along many of the same routes as the people who came before them.

Air

OBX Airplanes runs scheduled sightseeing flights in two different aircraft. The ​​Cessna Aircraft can carry up to three passengers, with tour lengths ranging from ten minutes to an hour. From the sky, passengers can spot well-known landmarks including the Wright Brothers’ Monument, Jockey’s Ridge, and Bodie Island Lighthouse.

For a more adventurous ride, choose the company’s Waco YMF-5C. Its open-air cockpit is snug, but the wind-in-your-face vantage point makes the experience memorable. The captain supplies protective headgear for your ears and adds helpful narration along the way. Short flights can be as quick as five minutes, while longer tours offer a fuller look at the area. With luck, Jenny Hawk, the owner of OBX Airplanes, may be piloting your tour. Her love of aviation comes through clearly as she identifies wildlife and, yes, shipwrecks from above.

Land

The area has plenty of museums, parks, lighthouses, and historic places to visit, but the Manteo Historic Walking Tour offers a distinctly local take on the town’s past and present. The tour is led by retired Police Chief Francis D'Ambra, who began guiding visitors twenty years ago.

D’Ambra is a dedicated history enthusiast, so his stories are rich with information, but they also draw on his own relationships and lived experiences in the community. He shares stories connected to local figures such as Andy Griffith, who lived in Manteo, and recalls celebrity run-ins with Richard Gere and Diane Lane, who stayed in town while filming Nights in Rodanthe. He also brings visitors into the stories of Virginia Dare and the lost colony of Roanoke. The lantern-lit walk highlights the many firsts tied to Manteo, though hearing those details requires joining the chief’s tour in person.

Sea

For an eco-focused trip across the Roanoke Sound, ride with Captain Jamie Moore of Outer Banks Adventures aboard his airboat. Captain Jamie steers the agile boat through the sound’s shallow water while pointing out wildlife and landmarks along the route. As the only certified tourist airboat on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, you can feel assured about a safe and enjoyable ride.

The two-hour outing includes multiple stops, with each one adding wildlife encounters or historic context about the region. Captain Jamie may jump into the water to retrieve creatures such as horseshoe crabs for a closer look, and he eagerly points riders toward dolphins and a variety of birds. His enthusiasm for the water is easy to understand: he has experience in boating as well as marine biology. He also supports local wildlife research and collects any trash he notices in the water—even while leading tours.

Author

Nicole Letts is a freelance journalist based in Atlanta whose reporting centers on the modern American South. Her work has appeared in leading magazines and digital outlets such as AAA Alabama, Architectural Digest, BBC Travel, Fodor’s Travel, Garden & Gun, Good Grit, Southern Living and many more. She is also the author of the new book, Unique Eats and Eateries of Alabama. Away from writing, she can often be found stitching cheeky needlepoint canvases or shopping local antique stores for her online business, Grandmillennial Shop.