Corolla Attractions
The main attraction in Corolla is oceanfront—miles and miles of Corolla beaches that are lined with fabulous vacation rental homes. You’ll find plenty of other things to do here including lots of shops and restaurants, fishing adventures and other water sports.
The Whalehead Club and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse are the two major visitor attractions in the area. Everyone loves climbing the lighthouse, and people return year after year to see the unique architecture at the historic club. The newest attraction at Currituck Heritage Park is the Center for Wildlife Education.
Just north of the lighthouse is old Corolla village. Here you’ll find old homes, quaint shops and friendly folk in an atmosphere that is very different from the rest of the beach.
Just when you think you’re getting somewhere, the paved road ends abruptly at the beach. You can keep going, however, driving on the beach into what the locals call the “four-wheel drive area,” up to Penny’s Hill, Swan Beach and Carova Beach, where there are a ton of rental homes and a few full-time residents, including wild horses. About 10 miles up the beach, there’s a gate blocking you from entering the state of Virginia. This is the ending point of Currituck’s Outer Banks. You have to turn around and go back the way you came.
Ten Great Things to do in Corolla
- Go scouting for wild horses. Corolla is famous for them, and local guides can help you find them.
- Climb the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and see Corolla from a new perspective.
- Drive to the Virginia line – on the beach, that is – with four-wheel drive.
- Take a surfing lesson. Try it! Ask about lessons at the local surf shops.
- Treat yourself to a massage; vacations are supposed to be an escape.
- Try a new way of getting around Corolla by renting a Segway! They’re fun and relatively easy to get the hang of.
- Take to the waterways in a kayak and discover an entire other side of Corolla’s nature.
- Give the thrill-seekers in your party a chance to test their go-cart skills around a curving course! Zoom, zoom!
- Wet a line – cruise the sound in a skiff or stand ankle-deep in the surf and hope the big one doesn’t get away.
- Tour the Whalehead Club and marvel that the most stunning architecture in the area was once called a “hunt club.”
- 107 Austin Street, Corolla Light Town Center
- Corolla
- (252) 453-0877
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- 1159 Austin Street, Corolla Light Town Center
- Corolla
- (252) 453-6141
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- 1066 Ocean Trail, Inn at Corolla Light, N.C. Highway 12
- Corolla
- 1070 Ocean Trail, Whalehead Bay Shoppes
- Corolla
- (252) 453-6899
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- 1126 Schoolhouse Lane, The Wild Horse Museum/Heritage Park/Corolla Light Town Center
- Corolla
- (252) 453-8002
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- 1126 Schoolhouse Lane, Corolla Schoolhouse, Corolla Town Center
- Corolla
- (252) 453-8002
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- 793 Sunset Boulevard, TimBuck II Shopping Village
- Corolla
- (252) 453-2592
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- TimBuck II Shopping Village
- Corolla
- (252) 453-3797
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- 1100 Club Road, Currituck Heritage Park
- Corolla
- (252) 453-9040
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- 1101 Corolla Village Road, Currituck Heritage Park
- Corolla
- 1150 Ocean Trail
- Corolla
- (252) 453-4484
- North of Corolla
- Corolla
- Soundside, End of N.C. Highway 12, north of Corolla
- Corolla
- 1101 Corolla Village Road, Currituck Heritage Park
- Corolla
- (252) 453-4939
- 794 Sunset Boulevard, TimBuck II Shopping Village
- Corolla
- (252) 453-0008
- 785 Sunset Boulevard, TimBuck II Shopping Village
- Corolla
- (252) 453-2383, (252) 453-8967
- 1100 Club Road, Currituck Heritage Park, N.C. Highway 12
- Corolla
- (252) 453-0221
- 790 Ocean Trail, TimBuck II Shopping Village
- Corolla
- (252) 453-3132
- 1129 Corolla Village Road, Corolla Village behind the Lighthouse Garden Shop
- Corolla
Back Country Wild Horse Safari
Scott Trabue’s Wild Horse Safari is a unique off-road eco-adventure that will deliver you and your family directly to the wild Spanish Mustangs that have thrived on the northern Outer Banks for nearly 500 years. Your naturalist guide will carry you by 4WD Suburban through 30 miles of beaches, dune and back country sand lanes to discover Outer Banks wildlife. Shore life including pelicans, dolphins and osprey are almost always present. You will hear stories about the Ghost Fleet and Outer Banks maritime history and learn about the mysterious petrified forest. Back Country Outfitters has exclusive access to the Spanish Mustang Reserve, giving you a chance to see these regal wild horses while your tour guide explains their Spanish Colonial heritage and the local preservation efforts. Reservations are required.
Beach Jeeps of Corolla
Beach Jeeps of Corolla is a great way to see the northern beaches of Corolla and the area’s famous wild horses. The Jeep Safari is a self-guided tour that follows a preplanned route. You’ll see wild Spanish horses, Penny’s Hill, Swan Beach and the canals of Carova Beach. On North Swan Beach you’ll see the Wash Woods Lifesaving Station. In addition to the wild horses, you may see deer, red fox and dolphins. Tours last two-and-a-half hours and are a great way to explore the secluded northern beaches and see local wildlife in their natural habitat.
Bob’s Corolla Wild Horse Tours
Bob White and his trained staff have been offering tours for a long time in this area and have a great reputation for being entertaining and informative. Bob’s tours last two hours and incorporate quite a bit of local history to complement the sightseeing. At the beginning, your guide will take you past the Whalehead Club and lighthouse and through Corolla Village, showering you with some interesting lore. Then it’s up to the four-wheel-drive area, where you’ll see the horses grazing in their natural habitat. Bob’s tours are mostly given in their new open-top vehicles — one of a kind experience! — and they can accommodate large groups. Call for details and reservations. All tours have a money back guarantee if you don’t see the horses.
Corolla Jeep Rentals and Tours — Guided Tours
Corolla Jeep Rentals and Tours offers guided tours of the off-road area, including their own private 400-acre Hunt Club. Guided tours are two hours long and conducted in comfy 15 passenger vans or Suburbans. You can also rent a soft-top Jeep and take off on a self-guided tour with the aid of the navigation systems provided in the Jeeps. These tours last two-and-a-half hours and the navigation system sends you on a course where wild horses are usually spotted. You’ll see beautiful, remote beaches and wildlife. Corolla Jeeps is one of the few that is open year round, and they say they can pretty much find horses for you every day.
Corolla Wild Horse Fund and Seventh Annual Wild Horse Days of the Outer Banks
The Seventh Annual Wild Horse Days of the Outer Banks is a three-day festival scheduled for July 6-8. On the 6th and 8th, activities take place at the Wild Horse Museum in the Schoolhouse in Old Corolla Village. On the 7th, they are at the Corolla Light Town Center and Currituck Heritage Park. Each day there are lots of activities for the kids, interactive educational displays, live entertainment, games, pony rides, a petting zoo, adoptable dogs and cats, great food, vendors and a chance to interact with a gentled wild Spanish mustang. Keep your fingers crossed as this year they are working hard to get the Budweiser Clydesdales. In addition, they will have daily horse shows featuring Colonial Spanish Mustangs as well as other breeds.
The purpose of the event is to educate the community and raise awareness about the need to permanently protect the wild horses as well as to raise funds to support their caregivers, the nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund. The Fund protects, preserves and manages the historic herd of Colonial Spanish Mustangs that roams the 7,550 acres of beaches, maritime forests, marshes and open pasture north of Corolla. Currently there are about 100 horses in the herd, and there are always gentled horses available for adoption.
Corolla Wild Horse Museum
Housed within the restored schoolhouse of Corolla Village, the museum shares the wonderful history and legacy of the Colonial Spanish Mustangs. Descendents of Spanish Mustangs brought to our island nearly 500 years ago, they are a hardy and majestic breed that is teetering on the brink of extinction.. At the museum the whole family can learn more with interactive, hands-on activities, photography and historical information.
Here are some special events for the summer:
Paint your own wild Colonial Spanish Mustang! The Corolla Wild Horse Fund sponsors horse painting for kids every Tuesday and Thursday, from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Hours are 11 to 2. Paint, brushes and smocks are provided, and kids of all ages can join in the fun. Artists can choose from large wooden horses attached to trees that stay up all week for passersby to admire or wooden horse cut-outs to go and paint later. A $6 donation is accepted for large horses and a $4 donation for the ornament-sized cutouts. Artists who can’t stay to paint or who arrived too late can purchase kits complete with paint to take home. All proceeds benefit the wild horses.
On Wednesdays, weather permitting, a gentled Colonial Spanish Mustang will visit the Schoolhouse from 11 to 2. Corolla Wild Horse Fund staff and trained volunteers will provide interesting information about the history of wild horses and how visitors to the Outer Banks can help to save this dying breed. Petting is encouraged!
On Fridays at their new second location in Corolla Town Center — pony rides! Ride a gentled Colonial Spanish Mustang around the ring while raising awareness and funds to help this critically endangered breed. Look for the rearing copper Mustang as a landmark.
Dolphin Watch Gallery
This is an interesting gallery with a soothing atmosphere, perfect for calming overloaded senses after a day of shopping. This gallery features original fine art from pottery, jewelry, carvings and etchings to stained glass, mosaics and metal works. Inquire about the custom stained-glass and mosaics work done by local artists. Look for the popular Danish-designed jewelry by Pandora. They have beautiful, original watercolor and oil paintings, and custom framing is available. Dolphin Watch Gallery is open year round.
The Mystic Jewel
The Mystic Jewel sells top quality, irresistibly unique jewelry made of sterling silver, crystal beads and semi-precious stones, including a good selection of Larimar. The owners are skilled jewelers and retailers who pride themselves on service and the fact that they hand-pick each handcrafted piece that graces their store. They honor the mystical powers of gemstones and the way they can help in shaping our bodies, minds and spirits.
Whalehead Club
The Whalehead Club is a historic house museum on the northern Outer Banks. The grand residence, dressed in bold yellow and striking copper, stands on a vast green lawn bordering the Currituck Sound. At first sight of the more than 21,000-square-foot Art Nouveau home, so out of place in the Outer Banks landscape, it’s immediately apparent that it has an intriguing past and a fascinating story to tell.
Once you’ve had time to gaze over the lush green live oaks and take in the beauty of the home’s exterior, step inside and take a jaunt back in time to an era reminiscent of prohibition and fights for women’s rights. Shortly after being wed, the original owners, Edward Collings Knight Jr. and Marie-Louise LeBel Knight, purchased a 4 ½-mile tract of land running from ocean to sound. While taking residence in the Lighthouse Hunt Club, they embarked on a building project that would take three years to complete. Just as visitors to our area today take pleasure in the opportunity to get away from it all, so did the Knights. While they kept a grand permanent residence near Newport, Rhode Island, the “cottage” at Corolla Island was their winter retreat. After a chilly day spent in the blinds hunting waterfowl, they could relax in the library by a roaring fire while partaking in a game, reading, listening to music or simply enjoying the gorgeous views from the room’s window-lined walls. Peeking into the library and spying the custom-made 1903 Steinway piano, you can just imagine Mrs. Knight sitting down to play a few melodies for her guests. Later, they would be treated to a marvelous duck dinner prepared for them by their beloved cook, Miss Rose, who was one of about a dozen servants who traveled to and from Corolla Island each year with the Knights.
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Whalehead Club sat empty and abandoned for nearly 25 years until Currituck County bought the building with the intent of restoring it. Since 1999, the county has painstakingly restored the house to the way it looked when it was completed in 1925. The multimillion-dollar restoration began with the replacement of the copper roof. The exterior of the house and boathouse are again the original paint colors as are the interior walls. The interior has been completely restored, from the coffered ceilings down to the cork floors. Many of the original fixtures and details remain: The water lily motif carvings again stand out near the dining room ceiling, the duck head door handles are back in place, the Tiffany glass light fixtures shine again, the mahogany trim and woodwork has been refinished.
A team of researchers made the restoration accurate, and recent efforts have focused on finding as much of the original furnishings as possible. Mrs. Knight’s Steinway piano, Mr. Knight’s iron safe and portrait and some of the dining room furniture were some of the only original furnishings left in the house when the restoration began. Since then, many more of the original pieces have been returned. The dining room is furnished as it was originally, including Tiffany sconces and water lily shades.
In 2008, the kitchen was furnished back to the 1920s, including the original Frigidaire refrigerator. Visitors can stand in the room and see the old tools used to prepare meals for the large household and guests entertained by the Knights. It offers a real appreciation for the stark differences between performing routine kitchen tasks then and now. There is a Hoosier cabinet in the corner, and the original kitchen table is once again in the center of the room under a pot rack.
The Whalehead Club is open and offers tours year round Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Standard Audio Tours are self-guided and available any time during regular hours. If you’ve already taken an audio tour, then try one of the many specialty tours offered weekdays with advanced reservations. All new for the 2010 season is the Boathouse Tour. Recently restored, the Boathouse boasts an original generator as well as an exceptional exhibit including many hunting and maritime artifacts from the time period. Also new for this year is the updated Behind the Scenes Tour: Then & Now. See areas of the home and hear stories not previously included in this tour. And don’t forget the popular Moonlight Legend, Lore & Ghost Tour on Thursday evenings, May through September at dusk. Got kids? The Whalehead Club offers children’s activities too—Discovery Quest, a guided search and find, and Legend of the Kissing Swans: A Children’s Art Time. Or grab everyone and participate in the Family Scavenger Hunt.
Make sure to visit the Museum Shop at the Whalehead Club. It’s stocked with 1920s-inspired gifts and Whalehead Club souvenirs such as picture frames, jewelry and ornaments made from the original copper roof plus books, postcards, memorabilia and educational toys and games for kids.
The Whalehead Club sits on 39 acres of pristine soundfront property providing bike paths, a public boat ramp and areas for picnicking, fishing and crabbing, and is located at Currituck Heritage Park along with the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. The grounds of Currituck Heritage Park are perfect for a relaxing afternoon outdoors away from the beach and are available to rent for weddings and receptions as well as corporate events and family reunions.
CAMA Sound Boardwalk
This boardwalk cuts through a small portion of swamp forest and brackish marsh. The variety of flora and fauna you’ll see here is astounding. Sweet gum, red maples, black willows, live oaks and loblolly pines are intertwined with wild muscadine grapes, Virginia creeper and winged sumac. Shrubs like American holly, wax myrtles, yaupon and bayberry fill in the lowlands, while plants like swamp mallows, morning glory, ferns, honeysuckle and pennywort add texture and color to the landscape.
Toward the sound, tall reeds and cattails swish in the breeze. The boardwalk ends at a nice resting spot on Currituck Sound, an absolutely perfect place to watch the sunset. Animals you might see along the way include nutria, deer, raccoons, muskrats, red or gray fox, river otters, possums, turtles, snakes and a great variety of birds, including songbirds, wading birds, osprey, terns, killdeer, gulls and others, depending on the time of year.
Corolla Outback Adventures
Before there was a paved road from Duck to Corolla, the Bender family was offering guided tours to the beaches north of Corolla Village in 1962. Today’s guided tour with Corolla Outback Adventures is a 2.5-hour, 20-mile round trip on the beach toward False Cape State Park at the NC/VA border. The Wild Horse Conservation Area is on land donated by the Bender family for the protection of the herds and is well off the beaten path. Along the tour, experienced guides provide a wealth of information that includes history and colorful folklore. Different types of vehicles, some self driven, and special customized group tours are available to serve every need. Reservations are necessary.
Corolla Wild Horses
If you go to the northern reaches of the Currituck Outer Banks, beyond the paved road and into the wilder realms, you’ll likely encounter some of the free-roaming Corolla wild horses. They are descended from the horses of the Conquistadors, brought to the New World from Spain as well as Spanish breeding farms in the West Indies and South America. They were the best horses of that time – a mixture of Spanish Barb, Arabian and Andalusian blood that were the horses of kings and nobility. No other breed played a more important part in building America than the Colonial Spanish Mustang.
Prehistoric horses actually disappeared from North America during the Ice Age. By 8,000 BC the horse had migrated across the Bering Strait and no longer existed in North America until being reintroduced by the Spanish explorers in the late 1400s. Fortunately, the Spaniards kept meticulous ship’s logs. We know that Lucas Vasquez de Allyon sent an expedition to the Cape Fear area of North Carolina in 1521. Ship’s logs also document the Spaniards leaving their horses behind during an Indian uprising as well as numerous accounts of ships running aground and breaking apart with livestock swimming ashore and escaping.
There are about 100 horses freely roaming the 7,550 acres between the end of the paved road and the Virginia state line. Another 10 horses live on a 400-acre private island in the Currituck Sound.
The horses are quite healthy, as they have an adequate supply of naturally occurring fresh water to drink and plenty of grasses to munch on, like saltmeadow hay, witch grasses, cattails, American threesquare, spikerush, black needlerush, common reed grass, young cordgrass, sea oats and beach grass. When the horses eat anything that is not a part of their specialized wild diet, (apples carrots, lettuce, etc.) they are at risk for painful and often fatal colic. It is against the law to feed them.
The Corolla wild horses are recognized as a significant cultural and historical resource by the state of North Carolina. The herd is protected and monitored by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund Inc. of Corolla. To learn more about the horses, visit the Wild Horse Museum or their website. Remember, the horses are wild. It is also against the law to get within 50 feet of them (five car lengths), feed or bother them in any way. Please obey the Wild Horse Ordinance, help to protect the wild horses and admire them from a respectful distance.
Currituck Banks National Estuarine Research Reserve Access Trail
This beautiful boardwalk leads two-thirds of a mile from the road to the sound, traversing through maritime evergreen forest, swamp forest and brackish marsh. Along the way, you’ll see live oaks and loblolly pines, yaupon, holly, bayberry and wax myrtle, plus, closer to the water, sedges, cattails, black needle rush and giant cord grass. You may see signs of animals, like scat or tracks, or possibly the animals themselves. Birders love this boardwalk because it gives them the ability to go deep into several habitats without getting so mucky.
Along the boardwalk are a couple of places to rest and an information kiosk. In addition, there are six interpretive signs along the route that explain barrier island ecology. At the end, the boardwalk has bench seats that look out over a creek and the sound with the final informational panel. It’s serene, quiet and absolutely beautiful on the soundside.
Part of the North Carolina Estuarine Research Reserve, this 960-acre area is protected in its natural state for use as a natural laboratory. Much of the land in this area is protected. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the 4,000-acre Currituck Banks National Wildlife Refuge north of here for waterfowl, wading birds and shorebirds.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse
The red-brick Currituck Beach Lighthouse towers above the northern Outer Banks landscape in the historic Corolla Village. Visitors can climb the winding staircase, 214 steps in all, to the top of the lighthouse for a panoramic view of Currituck Sound, the Atlantic Ocean and the Currituck Outer Banks. Inside the lighthouse, at the base and on the first two landings, there are museum-quality lighthouse exhibits. On the way up or down, stop to learn about the history of coastal lighthouses, the Fresnel lens and the lighthouse keepers.
The 162-foot lighthouse was first lit on December 1, 1875. Onsite keepers, who lived in the surrounding buildings, operated the lighthouse until it was automated in 1939. With automation, the lighthouse no longer required a regular keeper. The lighthouse and its outbuildings fell into disrepair for 40 years until a nonprofit group called Outer Banks Conservationists (OBC) stepped in to save the lighthouse in the 1980s. OBC renovated the keepers’ buildings to re-create their past glories and restored the lighthouse to make it safe to climb. In July 2003, The U.S. Department of the Interior awarded OBC ownership of the lighthouse.
It costs only $7 to climb the lighthouse (cash or check only, please), and children ages 7 and younger climb for free. The lighthouse is open daily from Easter through Thanksgiving. Climbing hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays in the summer. During extreme weather, the lighthouse is closed to climbing.
The nearby Double Keepers’ House is not open to the public, but it makes for great photographs. You can go inside the small Keeper’s House, which was transformed into the Museum Shop and stocks everything lighthouse-related you could ever imagine. T-shirts, hats, books, postcards, blankets, taffy, ornaments, jewelry, magnets, figurines and more fill this former keeper’s residence.
Eclectic Treasures
As the name suggests, this eclectic little store is a treasure! Great for gifts or for yourself, this shop specializes in finding interesting pieces for those who truly appreciate artisan-crafted items. They have a personal relationship with all of their artists and crafters and can tell you about each and every item in the store. There’s a colorful display of pottery, blown glass and table items as well as sculptures, sea glass jewelry, kaleidoscopes, garden items and more.
Ocean Treasures/Wyland & Thomas Kinkade Art Gallery & Gift Shop
Have you ever seen a 7-foot-tall triple dolphin sculpture? That’s why this shop is called Ocean Treasures—they offer work from some of the most exacting sea life sculptors. This shop features Thomas Kinkade and Wyland artworks and gift items. You’ll find paintings, sculptures, clothing, children’s items, jewelry, music boxes and magnets and works from Dan Mackin and Guy Harvey.
Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education
The Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education in Corolla offers great educational programs all year long that focus on the theme of exploring coastal North Carolina’s natural history and heritage. The daily free programs teach participants about such topics as birding, sound ecology, ocean ecology, animal tracking, orienteering, sea turtles, fishing and much more. Advanced registration is required for all programs. They are happy to work with schools and groups; just contact the program coordinator to schedule your visit. Permanent exhibits focus on conservation, waterfowl and hunting heritage, natural history, local heritage, ecology and fishing. Highlights of the exhibits are an aquarium and real-life marsh exhibit. The 22,000-square-foot building houses an auditorium with a video program, an exhibit hall, classrooms and a gift shop. The location of the center is on the sound between the Whalehead Club and Currituck Beach Lighthouse. All are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. but are closed on Sundays year-round.
Tar Heel Trading Co.
Tar Heel Trading Co. has been bringing American handcrafts to the Outer Banks since 1979. Specialties include designer jewelry, wall sculpture and home and office décor. We especially like the puzzle boxes, kaleidoscopes and hand-painted wine glasses.
Village Garden
In the early days, the villagers raised their own food or caught it in the sea or shot it out of the sky. Everyone had a vegetable garden and fruit trees to provide fresh produce, and most everything was canned and preserved to save for the stark winter months. Because Corolla village was on the more-protected sound side of the island, the gardens and plants were shielded from the lethal salt-laden winds of the ocean side. And the area’s mild climate made for a long growing season. The Village Garden is a reminder of these old sustenance gardens and the types of plants they bore. Most all the seeds grown here, mainly those in the vegetable garden, were available to Corollans during the period from 1900 to 1920. Gardener Amy Crowe tries to grow mostly older and heirloom varieties, some of which are nearly extinct. Some of the plants you’ll find here include cardoon, feverfew, fennel, bachelor buttons, a purple chase tree, comfrey and older varieties of roses, like the 1840s China roses growing along the fence. The garden is a nice opportunity to rest in some calming green space. You can sit on the edges of the raised beds for a spell and enjoy nature at its finest.
