Manteo Waterfront

The waterfront at Manteo sits along the harbor where sailboats, skiffs, and yachts belonging to visiting mariners and year-round locals tie up alongside tour companies offering rides out onto the water. Restaurants line the edge with outdoor seating overlooking the boats. The shops running through downtown range from bookstores to galleries to gift stores. It's the civic center of a town named for a Croatan man who crossed the Atlantic to London in 1584 and came back as the first American Indian to receive a title of English nobility — which is the kind of history this waterfront quietly keeps.