Rainy days during a beach vacation might seem like a letdown, but the Outer Banks offers plenty of fantastic indoor activities perfect for families. Beyond savoring delicious local cuisine at one of the many OBX restaurants or watching a movie at the theater, there are several other enjoyable options for you and your family to explore!
Treat yourself at the award-winning Sanderling Spa in Duck, the perfect destination for your physical and mental rejuvenation. Relax and enjoy views of the appropriately tranquil Currituck Sound, followed by a delicious lunch at the Sanderling’s Lifesaving Station.
Each of the themed escape rooms at OBXscape Rooms in Southern Shores provides an awesome adventure. Participants are figuratively locked in a room and must use its objects and other elements to solve a series of puzzles, discover clues, and make connections in order to find the way out. Escape rooms are an interactive and thrilling experience that require collaboration to complete the challenge.
Step into the action with state-of-the-art sports simulators at Turf’s Up OBX in Kitty Hawk! Perfect your golf swing, pitch a perfect inning, hone your penalty kick or unleash your inner quarterback when you select from 13 different hi-definition games!
Destination Fun in Kill Devil Hills offers exciting indoor activities for the entire family to enjoy rain or shine. With live-action laser tag, blacklight mini-golf, over 60 arcade games and an enclosed bounce house play area, everyone is sure to have a great time at Destination Fun!
Enjoy bowling, arcade games, and a fully-stocked cafe at OBX Bowling in Nags Head!
OBX Laser Tag & Arcade in Nags Head offers state-of-the-art laser tag games, arcade games, air hockey, and more!
Shop ‘til you drop at one of our favorite spots, SeaGreen Gallery, offering repurposed antiques, local art and nautical finds, jewelry, sea glass, crystals, shells, fossils, and recycled art, located on the Beach Road in Nags Head.
The North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island educates visitors on the state's many ecosystems and the animals inhabiting them. Featuring a 285,000-gallon exhibit housing the largest group of sharks in the state, you will also see alligators, turtles, fish and North American river otters. You can also visit the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation (STAR) Center to see the turtle patients and hear their recovery stories from the people who help them every day before they are released back into the wild!
Jumpmasters trampoline park on Roanoke Island offers open jump trampolines, a foam pit, an epic ninja obstacle course, and more.
For the adults - take a tour of the first "legal" distillery on the Outer Banks! Taste the award-winning Kill Devil Rum, see how it's made, have one of their specialty cocktails, and learn some interesting local lore at Outer Banks Distilling on Roanoke Island!
Named in honor of the thousands of shipwrecks that litter North Carolina’s coast, the newly-remodeled Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras (pictured above) is and is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the state’s coastal and shipwreck history. Shipwrecks associated with piracy, the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and World Wars I and II are the subject of changing exhibits. The museum has remnants of the earliest known shipwreck found in North Carolina waters, dating to 1650.