10/10 Excellent
Patrick M.
14 Aug 2018
Nice house -- great location and layout. Fun!
We stayed for a week and found the home very comfortable for two families of 5 and a dog (that's 4 adults, 6 kids, and 2 dogs!). The layout of the home in particular was perfect for this sort of group with half for one family and the other half for the other family. The shared common room is open, with great views of the beach. The home sits just above the dunes, which I really like as it makes the ocean feel just a little bit closer. The air conditioning was good, and the WiFi/internet connection stood up well under the heavy usage of our entire group. The kitchen was dated but usable, and stocked well with respect to pots/pans/dishes/cookware (with the exception of kid-friendly cups!). The furniture was comfortable and the beds were fine. The televisions were no good -- we tried to use the main one and failed. But we had brought enough screens to make this a non-issue when combined with good internet.
My favorite part of the home had to be the deck. It wraps completely around the house, with plenty of sitting areas. The front (street-side) deck has a picnic table on a screened-in section that we made good use of. The rear (beach-side) is wonderfully wide and has plenty of rocking chairs and a small high table and chairs. In addition, there is a wonderful outdoor shower that is tough to beat!
This was our first time on TopSail Island -- having spent many (20?) years going to various OBX homes we decided we really wanted to bring our dogs this time. It was a fantastic decision for us as TopSail really is perfect. The beach was wonderful, with a perfect little sandbar outside that broke the waves and made for fun small-wave swimming for the little 'uns while letting the olders have fun on the larger breakers beyond the sandbar. In addition, since TopSail is so sea-turtle friendly, everyone keeps their beach-side porch lights off, meaning the beach is very dark at night. We were there on a week without moon and couldn't believe how dark it was. We could pick out the milky way! We enjoyed hunting crabs and watching a gorgeous lightning storm from the deck. The beach highlight for me was definitely swimming with the Noctiluca -- unbelievable!
We also enjoyed some time at the sound (easy walk) as well as at the inlet (slightly longer walk, easy bike ride). I *loved* dinner out at Surf City BBQ with fresh hush puppies and banana pudding dessert!
