A View from the Top: Shots and Thoughts from the 3rd Floor of the Inlet Inn

Enjoying the Inlet Inn’s view after a day on the water

While I cannot seem to recall the exact date, our first stay at the Inlet Inn only came sometime in the last five years. We weren’t avoiding the Inlet Inn, we just had so much fun staying at other spots.

Then the kids came along…all three of them (not all at once, which would have been infinitely more challenging, but over about 4 years).

We found out quickly that many hotels will not accommodate five people in a single room.

The Inlet Inn will.

That’s what prompted our first stay.

This is what prompted our many stays since:

The view with a cup of tea relaxing on the day bed in one of the Inlet Inn’s 3rd floor rooms

The Inlet Inn’s third floor rooms sleep five, with two queen sized beds and a day bed built in just below a series of three windows.

The day bed is a perfect spot to enjoy a leisurely morning with a cup of coffee or tea (or maybe a bloody mary or mimosa).

And then there’s the view.

Wild horses along Taylor’s Creek – as seen from the Inlet Inn

The view from the 3rd floor rooms is amazing.

You can see almost the entirety of the Rachel Carson Reserve.

You can also see over the Reserve to Shackleford Banks, Beaufort Inlet, Fort Macon, and out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Western edge of Shackleford Banks

Sunset from a 3rd floor room

We’re convinced that Beaufort has the best sunsets in North Carolina, and the Inlet Inn is one of the top places in town to enjoy one.

The view gets even better from the widow’s walk on the third floor.

Sunset from the widow’s walk

A widow’s walk is, according to Wikipedia:

a railed rooftop platform often with a small enclosed cupola frequently found on 19th-century North American coastal houses. A popular romantic myth holds that the platform was used to observe vessels at sea. The name is said to come from the wives of mariners, who would watch for their spouses’ return, often in vain as the ocean took the lives of the mariners, leaving the women widows. In other coastal communities, the platforms were called Captain’s Walk, as they topped the homes of the more successful captains; supposedly, ship owners and captains would use them to search the horizon for ships due in port.

The Inlet Inn’s widow’s walk may be the highest easily accessible spot in Beaufort, and the view is great!

Another sunset

Looking over to Shackleford from the widow’s walk

One of the coolest things about the widow’s walk – after the sunsets of course – is the view of Cape Lookout. You can actually see the lighthouse on clear days.

The Cape Lookout lighthouse from the Inlet Inn (a little dark from the zoom)