The Outer Banks is a world unto itself, made of islands linked to the rest of civilization only by a few bridges and ferries. This fact lends a separatist character to the Outer Banks, with residents who are proud to have escaped the trappings of the mainland and vacationers who come here to put aside the city life. Days go by in the indescribable realm of "island time," becoming more surreal the farther south you go.

Cultural traditions and norms seem to fall by the wayside once one has crossed over onto one of the islands. Suddenly, it's perfectly acceptable to go barefoot all day, to wear your bathing suit to the grocery store, to get buried up to your neck in sand, to spend hours on the porch staring at the water, to stop to watch the sun set.

The area is a chain of several islands-Roanoke, Colington, Bodie, Hatteras, and Ocracoke-stretching more than 100 miles along eastern North Carolina. Bodie Island, the largest landmass of the Outer Banks, encompassing the land from the north side of Oregon Inlet through Carova, is technically no longer an island. Physically, it's connected to Virginia and is therefore a peninsula. However, since the state border is closed to land crossings, Bodie is, in many minds, an island.

Some people also consider the islands south of Ocracoke Island, from Cape Lookout and through Bogue Banks, part of the Outer Banks. But for the purposes of this book, the Outer Banks extend from the Virginia line through Ocracoke. If you'd like information on the beaches south of Ocracoke, the best spots in the area are revealed in Insiders' Guide to North Carolina's Central Coast and New Bern and Insiders' Guide to North Carolina's Southern Coast and Wilmington.

Bodie, Hatteras, and Ocracoke Islands are barrier islands, separated from the mainland by a system of wide, shallow sounds. The barrier islands are reefs of sand protecting the mainland from the ravages of the Atlantic Ocean. What keeps the barrier islands from washing away in the face of all that power is their ability to shift and move, to go with the flow of nature. On the other hand, vegetation plays a huge part in the stabilization of the islands, making them fit for human occupation.

The Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds system that separates the Outer Banks from the mainland is the second largest estuary in the United States, second only to the Chesapeake Bay. These sounds have 3,000 square miles of surface water and 30,000 square miles of watershed. The system consists of seven sounds-Albemarle, Pamlico, Currituck, Croatan, Roanoke, Bogue, and Core. These individual sounds are fed by inlets, cuts of water that slice through the skinny islands from the ocean, and by five major rivers. The Albemarle-Pamlico system is one of the most biologically productive estuaries in the United States, supporting a huge variety of wildlife, fish, shellfish, and plants.

Three North Carolina counties lay claim to these barrier islands-Currituck, Dare, and Hyde. Dare is the largest county, with 391 square miles of land, 509 square miles of water, and more than 32,500 residents. Dare County stretches from north of Duck to the tip of Hatteras Island, including Roanoke Island and a mass of mainland. Currituck County encompasses 255 square miles of land, most of it on the mainland and a small portion of barrier island from north of Duck to the Virginia border. Currituck County has a population of more than 19,000. Hyde County's Outer Banks portion is Ocracoke Island, a 9-square-mile island with around 760 residents.

The 34,000 or so year-round residents of the Outer Banks host more than seven million visitors a year. Due to bridges and air travel, the Outer Banks islands are now more easily accessible than ever. This has led to rapid development, along with a dramatic increase in the availability of goods and services. Residents have all the accoutrements needed for a comfortable way of life, including a thriving economy with low unemployment, affordable housing, retail stores offering almost everything, an abundance of restaurants, arts and entertainment, medical care, and recreational opportunities. With all this, however, no one will deny that the pulse of life on these barrier islands is still set by wind and water. The weather and the natural world play intimate and demanding roles in the lives of barrier island residents.

Much of what keeps the Outer Banks so special is the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which encompasses more than 75 miles of rugged, undeveloped beaches, dunes, marshes, and flatlands. With commercial and residential development continually increasing on the barrier islands, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore-the first national seashore in the nation-is treasured and appreciated more than ever. Three national wildlife refuges further protect portions of the Outer Banks from development.

Whether it's the sunrise, the sunset, or what goes on between, the Outer Banks offers the most extraordinary of what island life has to offer. "The sunsets here are the prettiest I have ever seen," Orville Wright wrote to his sister in 1900. "The clouds light up with all colors, in the background, with deep clouds of various shapes fringed with gold before. The moon rises in much the same style, and lights up the pile of sand almost like day." We have more than just good looks and personality, though: We have history. We have drama. We have lots of good stories to tell.

In this chapter we offer overviews of the areas that make up the Outer Banks, taking you on a north-to-south tour of Corolla and Currituck beaches, Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Colington Island, Nags Head, Roanoke Island, Hatteras Island, and Ocracoke Island.