I've only been to Ocracoke Island once. It was on a vacation to Nags Head a long time ago and our family was looking for something to do since the surf on the beach was too rough. We took a 40-minute ferry to the island to an almost-quiet, deserted beach, and island. Just the way I can appreciate. A place without the McFrills. I like my beaches more on the quiet side, and this place was. Clear, calm waters allowing me to venture out a long way, soft sandy beaches, a quiet, sleepy little town, all on an island off the North Carolina coast. Another place to revisit.
I can understand not wanting your secret to get out if you like a place (or something else) that much. It's almost like loving a song that's not on the radio. On the one hand, you wonder why no one else seems to appreciate it, and on the other hand, you want it all to yourself. I have (and have had) a few places and songs like that.
Assateague Island is one; Back Bay and False Cape (attached to each other just north of the Virginia/NC state line, is another. You can actually walk (or drive with a permit) that stretch of beach all the way across the state line--something I want to do. I went quite a long way last year while burning my feet, but still fell a few miles short of the border.
I don't know how touristy or crowded the beach was in southern Spain when I was a teenager, but again, fond memories of the place, and of spending an afternoon playing basketball next to an open flame of paella cooking in a huge pot--the biggest I've seen. Good times.
I've been to other, more crowded and activity-filled beaches--Virginia Beach, Nags Head (as I mentioned), Myrtle Beach, Panama City (in Florida), and the one I don't remember in Key West, where I was born.
But the best ones are places where you can enjoy company--of close family and friends around you, or of your own among the waves, the salty scent, soft sand, a gentle-warm ocean breeze.
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