Things to Do in Southern Shores, NC
Southern Shores isn't built around a commercial strip of attractions, and this page doesn't pretend otherwise. The town has zero public beach accesses, no hotels or motels, and is described even by its own history page as predominantly residential, a genuinely quiet neighbor sitting between two busier towns. What it does have is real: an extensive maritime forest with its own walking path, a soundside canal system built for paddling and boating, a distinctive natural swamp inside one of its own neighborhoods, five resident/renter-only beach-access points, and two pieces of real local history worth knowing even though neither is a staffed visitor attraction. This page sticks to what's actually confirmed rather than inventing shops, tours, or businesses that aren't grounded in the research behind this site.
An Extensive Maritime Forest with a Walking Path Along NC-12
Southern Shores has an extensive maritime forest of live oaks, cedar, yaupon, and wax myrtle, the same coastal woodland that gives much of the Outer Banks its inland character away from the dunes. A walking path runs through it paralleling NC-12, giving residents and visitors a shaded, tree-covered route that's a genuine alternative to walking the highway shoulder.
The forest isn't a fenced-off park with its own visitor center; it's a real, confirmed natural feature woven into the town's interior rather than a staffed attraction, so treat it as a walking and nature-viewing amenity rather than a formal park with posted hours.
The Chicahauk Neighborhood's Cypress Swamp
Chicahauk is a distinct 140-acre neighborhood developed as its own entity in the mid-1970s, with its own homeowners association (the Chicahauk Property Owners Association, or CPOA) rather than town management. Its standout natural feature is the Cypress Swamp, a genuine wetland pocket inside the neighborhood that's unusual to find embedded in a residential subdivision rather than set aside as a separate preserve.
The CPOA privately manages beach parking, parks, and sports courts for the neighborhood, including Chicahauk Trail, one of the town's five confirmed beach-access points. As with the town's other homeowner associations, this is private neighborhood infrastructure, not a town-run amenity open to the general public.
Five Beach-Access Points — Resident and Renter Only
Southern Shores has zero public beach accesses, a genuinely different fact from many neighboring Outer Banks towns and worth stating plainly rather than glossing over. The town's five confirmed beach-access points, Chicahauk Trail, Hillcrest Drive, 142 Ocean Boulevard, Dogwood Trail, and Ocean View Loop, are restricted to residents and renters, with seasonal lifeguards and parking that requires a town permit or a rental-company decal rather than open street parking.
That access model fits the town's broader character: no four-wheel-drive beach driving like Carova or northern Corolla, no public beach parking lot like some neighboring towns, just resident- and renter-controlled access points serving a town that's built primarily around homes rather than day-trip tourism.
The Soundside Canal System: Kayaking, Paddleboarding, and Boating
The early 1960s brought soundside canal and lagoon development to Southern Shores, creating roughly six miles of navigable waterways cut into the town's interior. That canal system gives waterfront homeowners, and visitors staying nearby, direct water access on the calmer sound side of town, well suited to kayaking, paddleboarding, and small-boat access without dealing with ocean surf.
It's a genuinely different kind of water recreation than the oceanfront, more sheltered and residential in character, and it reflects how much of Southern Shores' interior was shaped by mid-century canal development rather than being left as untouched forest or built up commercially.
For Shopping and Dining: Duck and Kitty Hawk Are Next Door
Because Southern Shores is genuinely quiet and predominantly residential, with no hotels or motels within town limits, it isn't the place to look for a built-out shopping or dining district of its own. Honestly, the practical nearby options are Duck's Waterfront Shops immediately to the north, a real commercial cluster of restaurants, retail, and galleries, and the town of Kitty Hawk immediately to the south, which has its own more built-out commercial strip along US-158.
Kitty Hawk is also home to Kitty Hawk Woods Coastal Reserve, an NC DEQ-managed site that's ecologically contiguous with Southern Shores' own maritime forest but administratively a separate, distinct property located within Kitty Hawk's town limits, not Southern Shores'. The two forests read as one continuous woodland on the ground; only the property line and the managing agency actually differ.
Points of Historical Interest: The Lifesaving Station Site and Frank Stick's Flat-Top Houses
Before Southern Shores existed as a resort or a town, the U.S. Life-Saving Service established the Paul Gamiels Hill Lifesaving Station in 1878 near what's now the Hillcrest Drive beach access. It was rebuilt in 1909, used by the Coast Guard through World War II, then abandoned and burned in the early 1960s. Nothing visitor-facing stands there today, but the site itself is a genuine, confirmed piece of pre-resort maritime history worth knowing if you're interested in the area's past.
For anyone interested in architecture rather than shipwreck history, Frank Stick's Flat-Top houses are the town's most distinctive built landmark: flat roofs, local sand-and-cement-block walls, and deep overhangs, built pre-air-conditioning through the 1950s and 60s and once described as "a glorified form of camping." As of a November 2023 tribute, five surviving Flat Tops carry official Historic Landmark designation, out of at least 30 examples an architect spent seven years documenting before many were lost to demolition. These are private homes, not museums, so any viewing should be limited to driving or walking past respectfully from the public right-of-way.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. The maritime forest's species mix (live oaks, cedar, yaupon, wax myrtle) and its walking path paralleling NC-12, along with its ecological contiguity with (but administrative separation from) the NC DEQ-managed Kitty Hawk Woods Coastal Reserve to the south, are confirmed via direct research. Chicahauk's 140-acre mid-1970s development, its own homeowners association (CPOA), and the Cypress Swamp are confirmed via a 1980 federal Southern Shores Land Use Plan document. The town's zero public beach accesses and its five resident/renter-only access points (Chicahauk Trail, Hillcrest Drive, 142 Ocean Boulevard, Dogwood Trail, and Ocean View Loop), each with seasonal lifeguards and permit- or decal-based parking, are directly confirmed. The soundside canal system (roughly six miles of navigable waterways, developed in the early 1960s) is confirmed via the same 1980 land-use-plan document. The Paul Gamiels Hill Lifesaving Station (established 1878 near Hillcrest Drive, rebuilt 1909, abandoned and burned in the early 1960s) is confirmed via cross-referenced sourcing. Frank Stick's Flat-Top house architecture, and the confirmation that five surviving examples carry Historic Landmark designation as of a November 2023 Outer Banks Voice tribute (out of at least 30 examples documented by an architect over seven years before demolition claimed many), are confirmed via that tribute. Southern Shores is described as predominantly residential with no hotels or motels within town limits, per the town's own history page and cross-referenced sources; whether the town restricts short-term rentals more strictly than its neighbors could not be confirmed via any ordinance, permit cap, or news record despite repeated searching, and should not be assumed. Flat-Top houses and the lifesaving station site are private property or unmarked historic ground, not staffed attractions; view respectfully from public rights-of-way. Nothing on this page is legal, safety, or insurance advice.