The North Carolina beaches provide a variety of family-friendly activities that can give your teens a sense of independence while also staying active. From outdoor activities to air-conditioned, indoor activities, there are plenty of teen-friendly exertions to keep your teen entertained.
Beaches
Going to the beach is one of the best parts of a vacation at the coast! Parents can lay out in the sun and read while their teens can swim in the ocean, sunbathe, and toss a football around. Wrightsville's Beach is home to a number of seasonal lifeguarded beaches, hot surf spots, and everything in between. Its beautiful crystal blue water makes it the perfect location for the ultimate family vacation.
Carolina Beach is also the perfect location for teens to hang out. Of course, your teen can do all the traditional beach activities such as swimming, sunbathing, or just tossing a ball around. They will enjoy a stroll along the boardwalk! Carolina beach has a vintage seaside boardwalk that is perfect for some old-fashioned seaside fun. There is also a perfect spot for your teen to take sunset pictures from the Carolina Beach Pier.
Parasailing
Parasailing is one of the most exciting and unique experiences to do on the water. Wrightsville Parasailing Company in Wrightsville Beach offers the best 15-minute flights. Their flights are much longer than the industry standard of 8 minutes. You will head out to sea with Captain Jay in command and when it’s time to take off, you will take off from the back of the boat. When your time in the sky is up, you will safely land on the back of the boat. The best part (aside from the incredible view)? You don’t even have to get wet!
Safety is super important. Anyone under 110 lbs. must fly tandem with another person. The weight of a single parasailer must not be lower than 45 lbs. and the maximum weight is 275 lbs. Weather conditions are closely monitored to make sure the conditions are safe for parasailing.
Ropes Course
Ropes Courses are perfectly exciting yet challenging family-friendly aerial adventures. Just 20 miles west of Wilmington, North Carolina is Cape Fearless Extreme. Cape Fearless has a wide variety of aerial adventure courses in different difficulties and lengths for you to choose from. Each of these courses is determined by colors. Green is the easiest and Black is the hardest. These courses contain a mixture of obstacles and challenges ranging from zip-lines, Tarzan Swings, Hanging Nets, swinging surprises, wobbly bridges, and much more.
If you plan on taking this adventure with your teens, plan to spend 4 hours of your day here. However, the two easier courses, green and blue, can be cut in half which will take about two hours to complete.
Family Fun Park
Jungle Rapids Family Fun Park is the perfect place for your teen to hang out! There are two sides to this park, a water park, and a dry park. The water park is filled with so many activities! There are 2 body water slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, The Sidewinder, The Super Bowl, The Rapid Racer, and Volcano Mountain. The water park is the perfect place to go if you are looking to take a break from the beach.
The dry park is the perfect place to visit if the weather isn’t quite right for a beach day. Embrace the chaos of the Spin Zone bumper cars! Where not only is bumping accepted but it is also encouraged. Sail up into the sky with the Sky Tower. Raise over 40 feet into the air and then you drop down to the fun park below. Test your racing skill on the Go-Karts. Race your teens on the quarter-mile track filled with treacherous turns, banking hairpins, and overpasses. Lastly, your teen can test their strength and endurance on the rock-climbing wall. This challenging wall is nearly 30 feet tall and had various levels of difficulty.
Indoor Trampoline Park
Jump the day away at Flip N Fly, the largest trampoline park in Wilmington, North Carolina is guaranteed to wear your teen out! There are a variety of epic activities to do in one place. They can just jump in the Freestyle Court where nothing is off-limits or put their ninja skills to the test on the Professional Ninja Course. If your teen wants to show off their stunts, they can check out the high-end air track or practice their Olympic skills on the Olympic trampolines. And for those competitive types, there is a trapeze, aerial silks and Lyra, dunk hoops, and dodgeball. There are so many things to do, your teen will not get bored for a long time!
Movies
This is the perfect rainy-day activity! Catch the latest movies at Pointe 14 Movie Theatre in Wilmington, North Carolina. This theatre features 4K Laser PDX, Dolby Atmos sound, sensory-friendly shows, high-back club seats and so much more.
Also in Wilmington is the Regal Mayfaire IMAX theatre. Not only do they have an IMAX theatre that shows the latest releases, but they also have a 3D theatre as well.
Golf
If your teen is a golfer, Wilmington Municipal Golf Course might be a fun activity for them! This golf course was designed by Donald Ross in 1926. He wanted to provide the public with a quality, championship 18-hole golf course. Tee times can be reserved online up to one week in advance. You and your teen can choose to play the complete 18-holes or half the course of 9-holes. Carts can be rented but the renter must be at least 18 years old to use the carts.
Ice Cream
Turn your teen into a little kid with some of the best local ice cream shops! Boombalattis has a wide variety of unique ice cream flavors like Coffee, Cookies and Cream, or Banana Pudding. They also have classic flavors such as vanilla and chocolate. Their ice cream is made with milk from NC grass-fed dairy cows and they don’t use any artificial flavors or colors. The best part of this ice cream shop? If you love it so much, you can order it straight to your door!
There is also Squigley’s Shoppes, Southeastern North Carolina’s most famous ice cream parlor. This pink and white parlor has been around for over 25 years. Here, you can create your own ice cream flavor! They have a variety of delicious fruits, candies, and baked goods that can be combined with their vanilla ice cream base to create something just for you.
Surf Lessons
If your teen loves to swim and the ocean, and a bit of an adrenaline rush, signing them up for surf lessons might be a good idea! If you plan on staying in Wrightsville Beach, we recommend Indo Jax Surf School. They offer private 1:1 surfing lessons. Their highly trained and skilled surf instructors are available to help any age and any skill level.
Surf School Inc. is perfect if you plan on staying in Carolina Beach. They offer a weekly 10-hour Surf Camp where campers can learn the safety of the ocean and of course, how to surf. All equipment is provided by the school so you just have to bring a towel and some sunscreen.
Plan your Next Family Getaway and Book your Vacation Rental Today!
Bryant Real Estate has the perfect vacation rentals for you and your teen. Enjoy comfortable amenities in all our homes with the best-dedicated team. From small cottages to large homes, we have the perfect amount of space for your entire family.