Buck Island sits at the northernmost whisper of North Carolina's Outer Banks, where four-wheel-drive becomes your passport and cell service becomes a memory. The beach unfolds in both directions without a single high-rise or beach umbrella rental stand—just dunes topped with waving grasses and the occasional wild horse descended from Spanish Colonial stock, grazing near the wrack line.
“One of the last Atlantic beaches in the U.S. where wild horses still outnumber beachgoers most days of the year.”
Credit: PexelsEnjoy the breathtaking beach view from a convertible on St John, U.S. Virgin Islands.
The sound side offers glassy paddling water fringed with marsh grass, while the ocean side delivers consistent but gentle surf that breaks over sandbars hundreds of feet from shore. Between the two, the island narrows to barely a quarter-mile, and you can watch sunrise over the Atlantic, then turn around for sunset over the sound without moving your towel more than a few hundred yards.
Timing matters less than tides here. Winter brings solitude and the clearest water; summer offers bath-warm swimming but requires an early arrival to claim your stretch of sand. Bring everything—water, shade, lunch—because the nearest store sits seven miles south, and your only neighbors will be piping plovers, the horses, and a handful of others who made the drive up the beach.
