What the Guidebooks are Missing: The Real Scoop on the Outer Banks
Assembled Notes and Random Musings from Five Years of Visiting
By: Elise Hendrick
Introduction
I have been going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for about five years now,and it is one of my favourite vacation destinations. Like many people, my family and I got as many guidebooks as possible and studied them with great vigour in an effort to find the best places to spend our vacation. With some minor exceptions, this has never worked out, because the guidebooks have a tendency to a tad bit overinclusive, and the restaurant sections in particular often tend to read more like paid advertisements rather than reviews. This has meant quite a few evenings over the years in which our principle source of amusement was trying to "interpret" the guidebook reviews to reflect our dining experience (more on deciphering guidebookese - which is as much a separate linguistic entity from standard English as the celebrated Ocracoke brogue -later on)
However, we've also hit upon quite a few nice finds- enjoyable activities and nice restaurants with good food, decent prices and friendly service.
This page is intended to serve two basic purposes 1) to entertain (i.e. provide an outlet for my more random neural firings) and 2) to help visitors get the most out of their time on the Outer Banks by sharing both the forgettable experiences and the memorable ones.
I hope you find this an enjoyable and informative site, and welcome your comments.
Elise Hendrick
[email protected]