Hatteras Ferry Terminal — Local services in Hatteras Island

Hard to find info online and we were not able to spend the full day working our way to Okracoke on the ferry. However we did chat for about 10 minutes with the extra friendly queue attendant who gave us excellent info. Here is what you need to know:

(1) the Hatteras-Okracoke ferry is free but no reservations are taken. (2) ferries start at 5am and people start to queue for that one around 4am. (3) The first ferries are the least crowded. As the day goes on you will most likely need to wait for quite some time for a ferry. We arrived at 12:30 and were advised we "might get on the 3pm ferry." (We didn't have time for that.) (4) there are a few shops and a snack bar at the marina on the Hatteras side. If you leave your vehicle you may be skipped as people tend to bail and the queue is tightened. Attendants will move cars behind you to in front of you if you leave your vehicle, and you may miss a ferry if enough people bail. (5) there are no shops or services on the Okracoke side other than a few vending machines. Okracoke town is 20 minutes on the other side of the island. You will likely wait coming back to Hatteras the same way, except there is nothing to do but wait. Plan accordingly! (6) the crossing is 1 hour. So if you plan to cross in the middle of the day you should plan to spend 3-4 hours crossing each way since there is a 2-3 hour wait. Mornings wait times are apparently shorter. Be careful at the end of the day so you don't get stranded! Bring food, water and something to keep yourself entertained. (7) if you really just want to ride the ferry, it is possible to park and walk on with no wait. It is free but note there are no taxis or transportation on the Okracoke side, nor are there any services other than vending machines. You can walk around and explore nature in the local area, or just get back on the ferry and ride back.

We will plan ahead and go early in the morning next time. Instead, this time we got an ORV permit and drove on the beach (4x4 required) around Hatteras at the queue attendant's recommendation. That was a really fun alternative...

It was a two hour wait to get on and another two hours to get back on the ferry so overall 4 hours spent waiting to board the ferry. Locals from Ocracoke get first priority and have a separate line to wait in, so when you see a new line of cars skipping your line don’t get bent out of shape, they live there. The actual trip once you are on the ferry is about 70 minutes each way. So be prepared to get to the ferry VERY early, and expect 6 hours of your time will be spent either waiting or traveling on the ferry. Positives. The ferry is free. The staff on the ferry is friendly. There are numerous little shops next to the ferry so when you are waiting you can pop out of your car and get some quick food and check out the shops. The ride is smooth and the ferry we were on had a little air conditioned inside section, a deck with benches you could sit on to enjoy the view, and two bathrooms. Ocracoke island itself is really just shopping. It’s a long road with lots of little shops. Howard’s pub is a good place to visit for food and the first building you see on the island on your right hand side. The inside is decorated with license plates from all over the country.

Overall, if shopping and touristy shops isn’t your thing, skip the trip. Although it was still a fun day we found by the end of it we wished we’d spent that day...

It was very unique experience. We had nice passenger seat on the boat that wasn't on other boat.

However, the system was very confusing. The staffs at ticket were nice and explained well but we had to waste 1 hour to figure out what's going on.

There are 2 ways to go to Ocracoke island.

Leave your car at Hatteras ferry terminal and take passenger ferry that cost $15/person. This has only 4 departure times a day, you need to check their website and can be reserved. But this will bring you straight to the city(left side of island).

Drive your car and take car ferry. It's free and has ferries almost every 30 mins. But it will drop you off on the right side of the island that will take another 30mins to get to the city. The biggest problem was only 20-30 cars can go each turns but almost +100 cars were waiting. We didn't know how many cars can go each time and how long it will take, so waited there about an hour and decided to come back next morning. And that was a good decision.

Overall it was a good experience at Hatteras ferry terminal (Ocracoke wasn't good tho. We waited 2 hours and saw 6 cars cut through but staffs let them go first and couldn't explain why they could cut the line). I would give 5 star if the parking staff could explain how long it will take before you...