Lucy M.
Yelp
This review is for their services and not the retail store.
You can't come to OBX and not see Kitty Hawk Kites being advertised everywhere. They have offices in various locations along the coast, so no matter where you are you can go on a tour or rent equipment. Their customer service was absolutely incredible, my trip was last minute and after combing through their online listings and deciding to book things the day of on multiple occasions, each time I called some friendly and patient customer service provider would work out all the details with me. They would answer my questions, make recommendations, and tell me what tours would be best and were available based on my current location on the coast to maximize activities and minimize driving time. They will seriously cut down on the research and leg work you have to do - so few companies deliver that type of service anymore!
That said, some of the tours seemed a little more hyped up when compared to the actual experience. BUT - many of these tours are nature dependent, so take that for what it is. You can't make the wildlife come out, but a little more indication of just how much wildlife you can expect to interact with on average would have been appreciated.
The best experience I had was the wild horse tour in Corolla. Not only do you get to see wild horses on the beach, but you get to learn a lot about a the very unique town of Corolla, with its gorgeous beach houses hidden among sand dunes, only accessible with a 4x4 vehicle. The horses are calm and you might even get to take pictures standing a safe distance from them. I thought this experience most accurately matched the description out of all the tours.
I also went on a swamp kayaking tour that advertised alligators and some other large animal (something big enough that I reacted with skepticism on the phone, but was assured yes, they do appear). I've done swamp tours in New Orleans where there are gators and hogs and huge spiders around every turn, but we only saw one baby gator here, and it was when we were getting our kayaks set up to go in the water. Still a good time, but I had different expectations.
The last activity I booked was for a sunset fishing tour, and they have many different kinds of fishing tours. This was my first time fishing, which was part of the appeal. The tour provided me with a fishing pole and bait, and went over the basics of how to use both. And if you get tired of holding the pole, you can even rest it on the side of the boat. So it's all geared towards beginners, and lasts only a few hours, so I think it's unrealistic to expect to catch fish. I don't know if more fish come out during different times of day, or different areas, but the very few people who did catch fish had to throw them back because they were too small. It's a fun experience, but when booking on the phone that wasn't really conveyed. So hey, catching a fish is probably not as easy as just showing up, which I guess is why you see people heading out early and spending all day in a boat to do it.
Overall Kitty Hawk is a great service I plan on using again. If you want to try something you've never done before at a reasonable price just to get a feel for it, this is definitely a great way to do it. It also helps you avoid renting equipment or traveling with a lot of equipment if that's a concern. It essentially makes all the great activities OBX offers accessible to everyone, and for that reason alone I strongly recommend it!
