CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/24236
COASTAL ESCAPE T A romantic weekend is just a short drive away in Southport | By Rebekah Sanderlin Photo courtesy of Ted Banasik “Any town you can just putter around in is a good town for a romantic weekend.” -Karen Sphar he streets are lined with charming, gingerbread-style Victorian homes and inns, quirky boutiques and excellent restaurants. There are horse drawn carriage rides and an array of art galleries and antique stores. There are festivals nearly every month in a southern-gothic park where the live oak trees practically drip with Spanish moss. The hospitality is served up southern style in this waterfront town which can’t seem to decide if it wants to be coastal or colonial. But it isn’t Charleston or even Savannah. Not even close because, actually, Southport, NC is a lot closer, just a short and scenic two-hour drive from Fayetteville. Southport is close enough to Wilmington, via highway or the drive-on Fort Fisher ferry, that it is often eclipsed by the bigger city. It’s close enough to Myrtle Beach (a 45 minute drive) and Bald Head Island (a 20-minute ferry ride) that it gets passed by on the way to the famous vacation spot or the remote resort. It’s just five miles from Oak Island, so folks heading to the beach or wanting to fish are apt to not even venture into Southport, which sits at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. But for those who do, Southport makes a perfect romantic getaway. “Any town you can just putter around in is a good town for a romantic weekend,” said Karen Sphar, the executive vice president of the Southport Oak Island Area Chamber of Commerce. Sphar suggests that newcomers to Southport stop by the visitor’s center to pick up a self-guided walking tour brochure, which will introduce them to the town’s history and places of interest. After that, there’s shopping in the town’s gift and jewelry shops, a visit to the nearby Oak Island or Bald Head Island light houses and a stop in the North Carolina Maritime Museum, where they’ll find information about the city’s boating past and lots of colorful stories about pirates. 62 | Feb/March • 2011