Start from 25 curated places around Beaufort, NC, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
The Rhumbar
A converted historic boathouse at the end of Front Street — the longtime Front Street Grill at Stillwater, now rebranded The Rhumbar — serving coastal fare with a Caribbean lean and rum cocktails like the signature Painkiller. The dining room and waterfront bar look straight across Taylor's Creek to Carrot Island, so you can watch wild ponies graze while you eat. Every seat feels like a window seat.
Aqua Restaurant
Beaufort's original tapas spot, tucked in an alley off Front Street, where the whole point is ordering too much and sharing everything. The menu swings between local seafood and global flavors — ceviche sits next to lamb chops — and the wine list runs 80-plus bottles. The room is small and candlelit; locals pack it on weekends.
Trails & outdoors
Elliot Coues Trail
The signature trail at Fort Macon State Park, a 3.3-mile loop through maritime forest, salt marsh, and coastal dunes with multiple boardwalks and a sound-side canopied section. The variety packed into a short trail is what makes it: you move from open dune views to a cathedral of live oaks in under a mile. AllTrails rates it 4.7 with 1,600-plus reviews for a reason.
Fort Macon Beach Trail
A 2.5-mile easy beach walk along the Atlantic-facing shore of Fort Macon State Park, with the old Civil War fort at one end and open sea for the full length. It's more of a beach ramble than a technical hike, but the fort ruins give it a destination. Good for families who want to combine history with a beach day without committing to a full trail.
Things to do
Island Ferry Adventures
The simplest way to reach Carrot Island, Bird Shoal, and Sand Dollar Island — a small passenger ferry departing from the Front Street dock every 30 minutes in season. The real draw is the combination of shell hunting, wild horse sightings, and safe swimming beaches with no cars. Staff know where the horses are roaming and will adjust the drop point accordingly.
Lookout Cruises
Catamaran tours out of the Front Street docks running dolphin-spotting cruises, Cape Lookout trips, and sunset sails. The boat is spacious enough that you don't feel stacked on top of each other, and the crew makes the experience — they know where the dolphins are working and read the inlet well. The sunset cruise is the most popular and most worth booking ahead.
Landmarks & sights
North Carolina Maritime Museum
The best free stop in Beaufort, with artifacts recovered from the Queen Anne's Revenge — Blackbeard's flagship wrecked off the coast in 1718 — displayed alongside exhibits on the state's commercial fishing heritage and coastal ecology. It reads faster than you'd expect but rewards slowing down. Cross the street after for the Harvey Smith Watercraft Center where you can watch wooden boats being built.
Old Burying Ground
A colonial cemetery a block off Front Street dating to around 1731, where captains, soldiers, and early settlers are buried under Spanish moss-draped oaks. The carved stones and weathered epitaphs tell the actual history of the town in a way no museum can. People come for history in the day and ghost tours run through in the evenings.