Family-Friendly Vacation: Kure Beach, NC

Is anyone researching the effect of sand and saltwater on mental health? If not, they definitely should be! Our little family beach trip was just what I needed with all the stress and anxiety I’ve been dealing with this past year. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be prescribing myself another trip. If you’re looking for a great North Carolina beach destination read on to learn all about our Family-Friendly Vacation to Kure Beach, NC.

We’ve been traveling to Kure Beach for family trips for a while now. Just a few miles south of the more bustling Carolina Beach, the location is super convenient but has a great small-town feel. From Raleigh, it’s about a 2.5-hour trip (which is great when your mom is being a backseat driver…love you, Mom!).

Where To Stay

Remember how I said Kure Beach has that great small-town feel? One of the reasons why is because you won’t see any huge, corporate hotel chains along the beach. Most of the hotels in Kure Beach are small, family-owned operations. On this trip, we stayed at the Seven Seas Inn. While the inside of our room was a little outdated, everything was clean. I would note, however, that we stayed in a family suite (there were six of us and a toddler) and the second bedroom didn’t get a lot of airflow from the AC unit. Other than that we enjoyed the location (just a couple of blocks down from the main road and right on the beach) and the pool was a big hit with the kids.

In the past, we’ve also stayed at the Admiral’s Quarters with no complaints.

The other option is of course to rent a vacation house. You can search for available homes through Airbnb or vacation home rental sites like Carolina Beach Realty.

Where To Eat

We didn’t do a lot of dining out during this trip, but we did check out a couple of places. I always suggest looking up reviews, whether it’s for vacation or if you’re just looking for a new spot to check out in your hometown.

El Cazador

One restaurant we decided to dine at was El Cazador, a Mexican restaurant just a couple miles up the road in Carolina Beach. They were very busy when we arrived a little after 6:00 and we waited about an hour for a table. Not a bad thing in my book because 1). If a restaurant is busy then it must be good, and 2). We did have a large party. We enjoyed our meals and the service was great, so if you’re craving Mexican food during your stay, I would definitely recommend it.

Jack Mackerel’s Island Grill

The other place we dined at this trip was Jack Mackerel’s Island Grill. We’ve actually dined here before and the food is always pretty good. It’s also very conveniently located since it’s just one block up from Kure Beach Pier. They offer mostly seafood but there are some steaks and other dishes on the menu for anyone in your party that doesn’t enjoy seafood. I do want to note that, like many other places, travel destinations like Kure Beach are facing a labor shortage. Because of this, many restaurants like Jack Mackerel’s are offering a more limited menu or reducing their hours of operation.

We also ordered pizza on one night of our trip. We’ve done this in the past because it’s convenient after spending the day on the beach with the little ones. It was a little different this trip since no restaurants were offering delivery, either through the restaurant itself or through a third party like DoorDash. We assumed this, again, was due to the labor shortage. However, we were able to easily place an order from Domino’s for pickup.

One last thing I’ll mention, the Kure Beach Pier Shop also has an ice cream counter! We love grabbing a cup or a cone and enjoying it on the pier.

What To Do

Off the beach itself, there’s so much to do in and around Kure Beach!

I mentioned the Kure Beach Pier before, which is one of the main reasons we started vacationing there. You can find some great fishing off the pier, whether you enjoy fishing yourself or just want to observe. In past years, we’ve caught a lot of Croakers (a type of Drum) and sand sharks. My husband also once caught a Blue Crab! (Side note, we throw everything back.) We’ve also seen other fishermen reel in larger sharks.

Right in front of the pier is the Ocean Front Park and Pavilion where you can find events like the Kure Beach Market, concerts, and educational talks.

Visit the Aquarium

 A few miles down the road in Fort Fisher, you can find the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. It’s one of four aquariums in North Carolina. It isn’t a huge aquarium (if you want a full-day aquarium experience, I would actually recommend the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores towards the Outer Banks), but it’s great for small children. My niece loved looking at all the fish and especially enjoyed the large fish tank.

Head to the Boardwalk

A few miles up the main road you’ll also find the Carolina Beach Boardwalk. The Boardwalk is home to lots of souvenir shops, restaurants, nightlife, and amusement rides. It’s a lot of fun to explore though I will say that this year it felt like the amusement rides had been scaled back. For instance, there were only two rides for my three-year-old niece. Luckily, she didn’t mind and was perfectly happy to ride the same ride 5 times in a row. We assumed this was another side effect of the labor shortage and hope to see it back to normal next year.

Enjoy the Waterpark

The last activity I want to mention is the Jungle Rapids Family Fun Center in Wilmington (about 30 minutes from Kure Beach). There’s a lot to do here, including an arcade, laser tag, rock climbing, and more. However, the only part we enjoyed this trip was the water park. While not the biggest waterpark you’ll find in NC, we thought it was great. The park was clean, well maintained, and, best of all, not crowded! We arrived right at park opening time on a Thursday and stayed until early afternoon. During that period of time, only one slide had an actual wait, and that was probably about 10 minutes. We were also really impressed by the park’s design. They have a nice-sized splash area for the littlest ones right at the front with several little slides. Once you cross over into the main area, all the slides and the wave pool are encircled by the lazy river. In fact, several of the slides fed right into the river. This made it very easy to keep up with our entire party and keep an eye on the kids.

Want more travel recommendations? Check out my Disney vacation planning post, Asheville Travel Guide, and Beach Vacation Packing List!