Holden Beach, North Carolina, consistently finds itself on lists of the nation's top beach towns, and for good reason. Located on a barrier island in the Atlantic, the town sports about 8 miles of quiet, sandy beaches best suited for family vacations. Within easy driving distance of the town, however, are plenty of activities to suit visitors on any budget.
The beach and the ocean are naturally the island's main attractions. Southern North Carolina has a generally mild climate, so visitors can stroll or jog the beach in comfort as early as April or as late as November, while summer provides a hot-but-not-too-hot backdrop for swimming, boating and other water sports. High temperatures during the summer months average in the mid- to upper 80s, according the National Weather Service.
Fishing is a major attraction of Holden Beach. Anglers will find good fishing points all around the island, but especially the old-time wooden Holden Beach Pier. Contact the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries for the useful, and free, booklet called, "The North Carolina Recreational Coastal Waters Guide for Sports Fishermen."
With its miles of sand, Holden Beach is a great place for kids of all ages to look for seashells. During the hatching season from May to October, visitors can also stay up late to see countless sea turtles emerge from the beaches---a sea turtle "boil," it's called.
If you have some small fry to entertain during a summer holiday in Holden Beach, Magic Mountain Water Slide & Ice Cream Parlor is a diversion that involves getting wet, but not wet with salt water. Other family-friendly activities around the island include Super Track Go Carts & Bumper Boats and a number of miniature golf venues and ice cream parlors.
On the last full weekend of April, the Days at the Docks Festival welcomes spring with food, arts and a bopple race. "A bopple is an apple boat that is assigned a number and dropped into the Intracoastal Waterway from atop the bridge by the mayor and commissioners," says the Insiders' Guide to North Carolina. "The bopples that pass the finish line first and second earn prizes for their owners."
On the last full weekend in October, the North Carolina Festival By the Sea comes to Holden Beach with live music, a parade on the causeway, sand sculpture contests and kids' activities. There are also footraces during the festival for all interested participants: 1K, 5K and 10K.
If shopping is important to your trip, be aware that most of the commercial establishments in the area are not on Holden Beach itself. The nearest town on the mainland, Shallotte, has a number of retail centers, including national chain stores, but even closer and more unique to the area are the small shops on the causeway that leads to the island.
Golfers will find courses of every description within an hour's drive or so of Holden Beach, more than 100 in all. Most of them are clustered around Wilmington, North Carolina, and especially Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which has 10 of the top 100 courses in the nation, according to Golf Digest magazine in 2007.
Those small cities are interesting destinations in their own right. Wilmington has an historic downtown, befitting its former place as one of the largest settlements from North Carolina's colonial days. Besides being a golf mecca, Myrtle Beach offers a wide array of water sports, shopping, nightlife and other kinds of entertainment.
