Trip report Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC

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toni
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Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:05 pm
Location: ny state of mind

Trip report Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC

Post by toni »

I’d posted a question last year asking for travel suggestions. We are just starting a long term “where do we want to retire” search and I listed different criteria. Several forumites kindly chimed in with suggestions.

We decided to make our first trip a Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC road trip. The names appealed to us and neither of us had been along that stretch of coast. I thought I’d share some photos. :)

We loved Beaufort, SC; the people were friendly, the food is good and the houses are dripping with old charm. It was very peaceful; we thought they had done a very nice job with the waterfront area. We stayed at the Cuthbert House Inn http://www.cuthberthouseinn.com/ which was a beautiful B/B and had excellent breakfasts.

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From Beaufort we drove up to Southport, NC and probably liked that just a little more than Beaufort, SC perhaps because it was a little more of a relaxed B/B. Southport has a lot more water traffic to watch, an equally nice waterfront with nice swings and a very small strip of beach. It’s more with the slow pace we prefer. Forumite Puddlejumper was very helpful; he’s recently opened a Café called the Bouncing Log http://www.bouncinglogcafe.com/ in the nearby town of Boiling Springs Lake. We had the pleasure of meeting him and eating there; if you’re ever in that area you need to make it a stop! He has a BIG picture of Ditleff Point and Rendezvous Bay on the wall and probably more importantly, the food is wonderful!!!

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We ended up adding a day on here, just because we enjoyed the small town so much. The weather wasn’t as good for these few days though; we drove over to Oak Island and it was pretty windy and rainy; couldn’t get out to the beach even :( We had hoped to take a ferry to Bald Head Island but didn’t get there either.

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We liked the community of Southport, the people at the Lois Jane B/B http://www.loisjanes.com/ were all lovely and helpful; stores were nice and we are definitely going to come back.

On to Beaufort, NC. The coastal drive along the way we saw a number of nice beaches, probably with more people than we are comfortable with though. Beaufort was having a pirate's invasion weekend. We stayed at the Beaufort Inn & Suites http://www.beaufort-inn.com/ which was nice to be by the water. Beaufort, NC was a hopping town due to the Pirates. There were a lot of people in character!

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We were starting to think this would be tough if we liked every town equally, but we did find that we preferred Southport and Beaufort, SC. It was fun for us (farmers!) driving back through to Charleston since we saw lots of farming going on, tobacco, cotton, okra, blueberries…..

It was a great trip. The heat wasn’t as bad as we feared so that was a huge plus. There were a number of things we didn’t get to do due to the weather and time so we will just have to make plans to return-thank you again to the forumites who gave me these suggestions!! :D
mindehankins
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Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:21 am
Location: Western NY State

Re: Trip report Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC

Post by mindehankins »

Beautiful pics! Just eyeballing the links, the Inn at Beaufort SC looks like the loveliest, most relaxing place - somehow, that view just draws me. Glad to hear you had a great trip, and can't wait to hear ALL the details over "lunch!"
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shoemak38
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Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:55 pm
Location: Southern New Hamphire

Re: Trip report Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC

Post by shoemak38 »

we are thinking about retiring in same area :D
AquaGirl
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Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:59 pm
Location: Fairfax, Virginia

Re: Trip report Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC

Post by AquaGirl »

Thank you for sharing your trip and pics. These areas are on our list to visit some time in the future. I really enjoyed reading about them.
Puddlejumper
Posts: 276
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:17 am
Location: Southport, NC was STJ

Re: Trip report Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC

Post by Puddlejumper »

Thanks for the kind comments Toni. It was great meeting a fellow Forumite in my small town.
Puddlejumper
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Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:17 am
Location: Southport, NC was STJ

Re: Trip report Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC

Post by Puddlejumper »

An interesting list of another '10 Best'. This one is The 10 Best Places To Retire In North Carolina. http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/north-ca ... retire-nc/
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