Hatteras Island is a week on NC-12, ocean on one side and Pamlico Sound on the other, and at Buxton the Cape Hatteras lighthouse's black-and-white spiral holds the dune line. Sand tracks leave the pavement at the off-road ramps and run to the surf. Frisco and Hatteras village continue south along that ribbon toward the ferry.
You drive the beach from those ramps, along the wet sand on the ocean side. A paid off-road vehicle permit is required on Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Buy a 10-day or annual permit online before you leave the pavement.
On the drive south toward Hatteras Island, stop at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge for the boardwalk over the ponds, where waterfowl sit in view from the highway pull-offs.
Oregon Inlet Campground is the first Park Service overnight as you drive south on NC-12, open all year, with electric at some sites. Cape Point and Frisco are farther down Hatteras Island and close from late November to early April. In hurricane season NC-12 floods and closes on short notice.
Book the campground first. The van is the second booking. Reservations at Oregon Inlet and Frisco open 6 months ahead, and every seashore campground caps total vehicle length at 40 feet. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan bunk, look at RVs for rent on the Outer Banks.
Ocracoke Island
The vehicle ferry from Hatteras throws a wake that widens across Pamlico Sound, water on both sides of the deck as Ocracoke comes up. Narrow lanes run down to a small harbor, and National Park Service ponies graze behind the fence on the sound side of the island.
The crossing is first-come, first-served. Stay at Ocracoke Campground if you sleep on the island. It is open all year.
Cape Lookout National Seashore is farther south and is North Carolina's.
Wild horses north of Corolla
North of Duck, the pavement in Corolla ends and the four-wheel-drive track continues on sand through dune scrub. Wild horses graze loose along that beach. You do not need a permit to drive it. A campervan does not belong on that sand, so take a tour or switch to a four-wheel-drive for the day.
Jockey's Ridge, Wright Brothers, and Roanoke Island
You climb the pale dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park and look over Roanoke Sound from Nags Head. At Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, the First Flight Boulder and Flight Line mark the December 17, 1903 takeoff and landing spots.
Walk the wooded earthworks at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on the northern end of Roanoke Island, a few miles north of Manteo. Kitty Hawk is on that same stretch of towns, and these stops are day parking only.
If the trip continues north, Virginia Beach and Norfolk take the next nights.