North Carolina Beach Cottages Sit Empty as New Yorkers Stay Home

[Purveyor]

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- The remoteness of North Carolina's barrier islands is part of their allure for families seeking a quiet beach vacation away from the crowd.

It's also why many people aren't making the trip this year. They can't afford the gasoline to get there.

``It's getting too expensive,'' said Paula Gale, 51, who has rented her house in Topsail Beach for only one week, even after cutting the rate to $895 from $1,015. ``As a general rule, every other license plate we see in the summer is from New York, New Jersey, Ohio or Pennsylvania.''

Beaches from Oak Island to Cape Hatteras are bracing for the first drop in visitors in six years as Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer vacation season. Even tourists who fly to Raleigh-Durham International Airport face at least a 2 1/2-hour drive to the Atlantic Ocean coast. It's 5 hours to some parts of the Outer Banks, the northern stretch of barrier islands.

``Wherever you come from, you have to drive a long way,'' said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte. ``Gas prices are likely to be a problem all through the summer.''

MORE: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a4JboGbvjwwk&refer=us

[supernova]

1. Lots of rentals on craigslist for us homies

:D

But I'm probably staying put becuase I don't have anyone to go on vacation with. :P

Edit: The other problem is that "cottages" got successively bigger and swankier, and more $$$ over the years. "Cottage" used to mean a one or two bedroom +/- a sleeper sofa. Maybe a tv, maybe not.

Now, it means that it has a gourmet kitchen, sleeps 10-12 and usually has a pool too. :crazy: And you can pay through the nose too.

Edit2: You can tell how NY-centric that article is too. They totally omit that we get a lot of Canadians who don't want to drive all the way to FL too. And I guess they'll stay home too this summer.

[arcadian]

10. The "cottages" up around Corolla

look like Mcmansions.

[lame54]

2. Sounds like a solution to the NC homeless problem

[CottonBear]

3. I changed my weekend plans. I'll be driving an hour each way instead of 3 1/2 hours each way.

Gas prices are so high here in Georgia. I get 34 MPG on average but money is tight and I don't have a dime to waste.

[Purveyor]

5. I live about 60 miles from the Detroit area and our local campgrounds are booked

with reservations from the metro area. Usually the Detroit people head to upper michigan and folks from Ohio and Indiana filled our local parks.

The resort business in upper michigan are really sweating right now as it doesn't look good for them.

Our lower michigan gas price is now at $4.00.

Ourselves, the Memorial Day weekend is always spent planting our 'victory gardens' and a family BBQ.

[mrcheerful]

7. Don't feel alone I'm making a move june 3rd

from Grand Rapids to Saginaw and thankfully the things I did to the van will get me there using 1/2 a tank of gas or less. The real problem will be getting up to Marquette and back, it takes about 4 fill ups round trip, but then I fill up when gas gauge gets close to the 1/4 mark. SO has to make the trip for visitation so once we get to the camp grounds the van sits until we leave. It really sucks that it was bad the last time we made the trip when gas was $2.98 last year, the only good news is we can sleep in the van at a camp ground for around $75. Round trip will cost a total of $315, so its not that bad, just can't afford to do anything while we are up there.

[CottonBear]

8. Planting a victory garden and having a BBQ sounds like a wonderful way to spend Memorial day!!

I'll be spending the weekend on a friend's family cattlke farm in a beautiful part of rural Northeast Georgia. I'm going to go fishing in the lake on the farm and enjoy the country life!

Have a great weekend! :)

[liberal N proud]

4. Sounds like I 95 might be drivable again

If I could only afford the trip.

[marions ghost]

6. not surprising

A lot of people IN North Carolina can't afford beach trips now so people from further away might be really squeezed.

It's a shame when people who work really hard can't pay for a summer vacation. :(

I know a delivery driver with 3 kids who supplements his income with yard work. He told his yard customers he'd have to go up $10 because it was costing him $10 more to get there and mow, and he said several customers decided not to pay it. This guy said he's going to start canning food like his Mom used to do. People are really hurting. If gas goes up any more, we'll be having large numbers of people going without food to pay for gas. This guy is not quite 40. He said he never imagined this kind of
financial stress. For many, this is a depression.

[Lorien]

9. Our family used to spend summers at a cottage on Topsail Island

It was very quiet then-because it was during the 70s and another gas crisis. However, we had small Toyotas back then. Most families today drive SUVs, so I can see why getting there would be a bigger problem now then it was then.

[SidDithers]

11. We just spent a week on Oak Island...

driving down from Toronto. Gas here is $1.25 / litre = $4.75 / gallon, so we were actually happy to be paying $3.50-$3.60 to fill up during the week.

That's the first year that I've vacationed there, tho, so I don't know if the beaches were any emptier than other years.

Was a great trip. Loved all the real Eastern Carolina pulled pork :)

Sid

[mnhtnbb]

12. Oh, goody. I live in Chapel Hill and maybe we can get a deal at the beach this summer!