The ideal four-day plan for exploring North Carolina's Inner Banks is shown here.

The majority of people are familiar with North Carolina's Outer Banks: It is known for its dune-rippled beaches and candy-cane-striped lighthouses, and it is also where the Wright brothers' well-known flight was accomplished. A section of the state located between I-95 to the east and the Outer Banks to the west is known as the Inner Banks.

This region, a hidden treasure on the East Coast, is best explored by water, so on a recent long weekend in November, my family set off on a four-day, 130-mile excursion using a kayak, sailboat, catamaran, and, occasionally, a car when aquatic transportation was simply not feasible.

First day: Washington
 

We spent the night at Elmwood 1820, a luxurious bed and breakfast with five bedrooms in a small community named "Little Washington," before setting sail. We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, sweet potato pancakes with pecans, and fluffy biscuits in the morning on the large veranda. After refueling, we borrowed kayaks from Inner Banks Outfitters and paddled through a network of wetlands where turtles lazed on logs and herons snuck up on minnows.

I struck up a conversation with the proprietor, Liane Harsh, as we were returning the kayaks. She argued that we must view Washington from a river, or rivers since the town is where the Pamlico River meets the Tar River. We were pleased to indulge her because she also wanted to show off her new boat. Harsh's cell phone buzzed as we passed a little island that is said to have once been home to a brothel in her trim Boston Whaler. She said, "Hello, Mom." Her mother, who resides in an apartment near the lake, saw her go by and enquired about the person on the boat. Around here, everyone is familiar with everything, remarked Harsh.

The Hackney, a restaurant and gin distillery founded in 2019 by Susanne Hackney Sanders, was where we ended the day. We finished with a tiny glass of 1000 Piers gin, which is prepared with a combination of 21 local botanicals, after savoring chef Jamie Davis' sweet potato soup (made with potatoes from nearby Southside Farms and topped with a pair of fried oysters), shrimp and grits, and pan-seared red drum fish.

Day 2: from Oriental to Beaufort via Swansboro
 

The following morning, we left for Oriental, North Carolina's self-proclaimed "Sailing Capital," and hopped on a 34-foot Catalina sailboat captained by Alexis Edwards of Bow to Stern Boating. She skittered about the boat at the age of 23, a third-generation sailor. Edwards said that the Neuse was a sailing secret as we spent the day cruising the wide stretch of the river, which was called for the Neusiok tribe. People often call and complain that a river will be too tiny for them to sail. It's six miles across, she remarked, spreading her arms widely. From here, sailors can get to the ocean. (I noticed dolphins playing off the bow.)

We made a midday break in Swansboro, one of the Inner Banks' picturesque seaside communities. Fish and chips for lunch later, we were back on the lake at Hammocks Beach State Park, this time with captain Daryl Marsh on a 23-foot Bay Rider Skiff. Before reaching Bear Island, we took peaceful channels in our gliding motion. With the water still warm for November, we drove up to the beach and jumped off. The four-mile barrier island had all to itself, save for a few fishermen and a few oystercatcher birds flying overhead. My daughter squeezed my hand as we all looked out at the sloping dunes, which loggerhead sea turtles use as a secretive nesting location.

After the day, we made a pit stop at Beaufort, which shares its name with the more well-known South Carolina town. We grabbed some Carolina crab cakes and Darn Fine Gumbo at Beaufort Grocery Co., a low-key restaurant that has been impressing locals for three decades. It turns out that the name is not a misnomer.

Third day: Beaufort

Around the Inner Banks, upscale accommodations are a bit of an exception. However, the brand-new Beaufort Hotel in North Carolina is a pleasant addition with its blue and white decor, buoy netting on the pendant lights, and porthole-style mirrors. Additionally, it offers tranquil water views and is located directly on Taylor Creek in the Rachel Carson Reserve (Carson wrote her first book, "Under the Sea Wind," in Beaufort).

We traveled to Shackleford Banks, a group of uninhabited barrier islands, in the morning via ferry, where we hunted for sand dollars and saw wild horses who are thought to be decedents of shipwrecked Spanish Mustangs from the 16th century.

Wrightsville Beach on Day Four
 

As it flows in and out of coastal estuaries with the tide, the Atlantic Ocean is constantly a presence in the Inner Banks region, even when it is not visible. We started to feel its pull, so we made our way to Wilmington's thriving college town of Wrightsville Beach. With its surf shops and retro-chic hotels, like the recently renovated midcentury Blockade Runner where we stayed, Wrightsville has the sense of a little Miami Beach.

We walked along the beach in the morning before going to The Workshop, a cafe and fossil jewelry store owned by diving divers. Our daughter liked looking at the ancient teeth of megalodons, the Pliocene-era sharks that once glided through North Carolina's seas, while my husband and I sipped cold brew. (For all of us, a cafe serving smoothies and fossils was a first.) Nevertheless, as with so many other times in the Inner Banks, we were back on the water in no time, surfing the choppy Atlantic on the eastern end of Wrightsville Beach and stand-up paddling into the Masonboro Island Reserve, where the only company we had was a meandering white ibis and hushed grasses.

The phrase "The Inner Banks" may seem a touch overly ambitious in marketing, but the location captures the imagination. Even after returning from our trip, on occasion as I dozed asleep, my bed would gently move, as if I were still being carried by lapping waves.