We visited Oak Island in May 2025 as part of our May Carolinas loop.

In early May, my dad was wrapping up a late-winter hibernation in Southport, NC, so when planning our route down the North Carolina coast we looked for campgrounds in that area. A pleasant 2.5-hour drive south from Atlantic Beach later we pulled into our cute little campground in Oak Island, the larger town next to Southport.

Campground

Oak Island Campground is a sweet little campground about halfway between Southport’s waterfront and the Oak Island Pier. The campground was recently constructed, clean, and friendly, with full hookups and rentals on-site. We particularly enjoyed the elevated outdoor seating space in the common area. There’s a small airport directly behind the campground, but we didn’t mind the occasional plane noise. Oak Island Campground is a stop on the Southport Trolley, a convenient way to get to the commercial areas of Southport and Oak Island, plus the pier and beach, without having to worry about parking–a huge perk in the busy summer months.

Southport

Our first order of business upon setting up the Airstream was to drive 15 minutes to historic Southport. We spent an hour or so strolling along the waterfront and in and out of the shops in the charming little downtown district. We spotted a few nice-looking waterfront restaurants on the harbor, but we had dinner plans elsewhere.

Oak Island

Oak Island is a beachy, south-facing strip separated from the very bottom of North Carolina’s coast by the Intracoastal Waterway. We liked its mix of oceanside activities and commercial areas away from the waterfront; it felt like an actual town where people lived rather than just another beach resort community.

The focus for most Oak Island visitors, I assume, is the beach; we didn’t hang out there, but we did go for a run along Caswell Beach in the morning before taking off and it was lovely. The beach was very dog-friendly (at least on a May morning; here are the official dog-on-beach rules), and stretches from the Oak Island Pier east to Fort Caswell and the Oak Island Lighthouse.

Food

My dad made an earlybird reservation for us at their favorite restaurant, Salt 64, and despite being early on a Monday evening the place was rocking. The food was delish, the service was great, and the restaurant is just a six-minute drive from the campground.

We grabbed some cheap, quality produce and prepared goods to stock our kitchen at Angie’s Fresh Produce, a small market just a block or two from the campground.

Our plan for the morning post-beach run was to grab breakfast and coffee from Crossroads Gathering Place, a huge cafe full of small vendor booths on the way home from the beach, but we ended up skipping it.

Drink

J the beer guy identified two breweries in the area that we should check out: Carolina Crab Brewing in Southport, and Solar Brewing close to the campground in Oak Island. The beer at Carolina Crab was just ok, but we enjoyed it as a place to hang out with a computer listening to 90s music.

Solar Brewing was closed when we went by, despite both Google and the front door saying they should be open.

After dinner, we went down to the Oak Island waterfront for a nightcap with a side of sunset at Koko Cabana, right at the pier. It was an awesome spot, and the tacos that passed by looked delicious.

In the morning, we continued south along the coast to an entertaining stopover in Myrtle Beach.