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Photo by Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Outer Banks in May
good · a good time to go
The year in Outer Banks
Tap a month for its page
- JanJOuter Banks in January: ok
- FebFOuter Banks in February: ok
- MarMOuter Banks in March: good
- AprAOuter Banks in April: sweet spot
- MayMOuter Banks in May: good
- JunJOuter Banks in June: good, busy
- JulJOuter Banks in July: good, busy
- AugAOuter Banks in August: good, busy
- SepSOuter Banks in September: good, busy
- OctOOuter Banks in October: sweet spot
- NovNOuter Banks in November: good
- DecDOuter Banks in December: ok
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.
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Flights from
Flights
Your city is a guess from your time zone. Choose your city
Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
The numbers
| Daily high | 21°C |
|---|---|
| Nightly low | 18°C |
| Feels like, afternoon | 21°C |
| Rainy days, 1 mm or more | 7 · 100 mm |
| Humidity | 82% |
| Sunshine | 11.0 h/day |
| Daylight | 14.1 h/day |
| Beach and sea | 6 of 31 days dry and 23–35 °C; sea 18 °C, cold |
| Crowds | 68 / 100, higher is quieter |
Ten-year averages for this calendar month. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts it. The model these figures come from drizzles more than a rain gauge, the more so the warmer the month, so its days count from 2 mm, rising to 5 mm in the hottest.
Weather read at Nags Head: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
How busy it gets
Public holidays in May
Holidays crowd a place out; they count toward the crowd score above.
Outer Banks in pictures
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Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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SCMiller, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Hannah.mishin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What to pack
- A packable rain jacket for the 7 or so rainy days.
- Sun protection: about 11 hours of sunshine a day.
- Humidity averages 82%; breathable fabrics dry faster.
Each line is a threshold over the ten-year figures above, not advice from anywhere else.
Before you go
Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the United states dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. Everything for United States: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
On arrival in Outer Banks: the apps, paying, getting around, tipping and the emergency numbers.
May elsewhere
In May from
The other months at Outer Banks
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