Ask a dozen people, and you’re liable to get a dozen different answers to this question.
In a tourist town like Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, people don’t usually think in the normal terms of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. They think in terms of Tourist Season and The Off-Season. However, Tourist Season and The Off-Season mean different things to different people.
The time most commonly referred to as peak tourist season on Pleasure Island (Carolina Beach and Kure Beach) is generally considered the period between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend—the last weekend in May through the first weekend in September. This is also referred to as peak tourist season.
Schools in North Carolina have traditionally started after Labor Day and wrapped up before Memorial Day. This allowed the tourist season to line up nicely with summer vacations. Note that most school districts now start a week or so earlier and end a week or so later, but the tradition still holds.
During this period, the population of Pleasure Island grows from around 9,000 year-round residents to an estimated 60,000 people.
Yowza! No wonder traffic gets so bad.
Memorial Day weekend isn’t the only start of the season though.
For many visitors, beach season begins when warm weekends arrive in mid-March. This is roughly around the Vernal Equinox (March 20), or first day of Spring. So, some folks consider the first weekend in the Spring to be the start of Tourist Season.
Easter weekend is another unofficial kickoff point. Easter can fall anywhere from March 22 to April 25. Some folks consider Easter weekend to be the start of Tourist Season. In fact, it’s often when Britt’s Donuts opens for the season and starts making its first donuts of the year.
Some longtime visitors simply mark May 1 as the beginning.
In the tourism industry, that stretch between mid-March and Memorial Day is often treated as a ramp-up period, but locals are more likely to describe it as, “before bridge traffic starts backing up”. As the peak tourist season of Memorial Day through Labor Day ramps up, traffic coming over the Snow’s Cut Bridge onto the island becomes more and more congested. During this stretch, crowds are lighter, making it a great time for locals to get out and enjoy the pleasures of the island.
Just as there are different opinions about when tourist season begins, there are different ideas about when it ends. As already mentioned, the peak tourist season ends Labor Day weekend. There is a stark difference in traffic and activity on the island after that weekend.
For some folks, Tourist Season winds down around the Autumnal Equinox in late September.
For others, it ends closer to Halloween.
Shortly after Halloween, the ocean water is usually too cold to enjoy without a wetsuit. Throughout October, you will see locals enjoying swimming, surfing, and other ocean activities.
Most locals will tell you the best season on Pleasure Island starts right after the tourists leave. That’s what the locals call “Local’s Summer“. The weather is nice, the water is warm, and most of the tourist attractions are still open so the locals can get out and enjoy them without the crowds.
It sounds like a simple question, but the answer isn’t quite as simple as it would seem.
On Pleasure Island, tourist season isn’t defined by a single date on the calendar. It begins whenever the island starts filling up—and ends whenever the locals finally get the beach back.