Manteo sits on Roanoke Island, where England first tried to settle North America and where 117 colonists vanished in the 1580s. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site preserves that ground, and in summer The Lost Colony tells the story as an outdoor symphonic drama at the Waterside Theatre. Nearby, the Freedmen's Colony Monument marks the Civil War refuge that sheltered roughly 3,500 people who had escaped slavery. Roanoke Island Festival Park, home of the Elizabeth II, puts you on board a representative 16th-century sailing ship.

The Elizabethan Gardens sit beside Fort Raleigh and bloom year round. The North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island keeps more than 200 species across seven galleries, with touch pools and dive shows that make it an easy call on a rainy afternoon. Island Farm is a living history farm built around an 1847 farmhouse, with animals and demonstrations. And if you want room to breathe, the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge runs to 164,000 acres just across the bridge, home to black bears and red wolves.

Downtown Manteo is small and made for walking. Work your way along the waterfront to the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse at the end of the boardwalk, one of the most photographed spots on the island. In season there is a Downtown Market on the waterfront on weekends, with local produce, baked goods and crafts. For a longer stretch of the legs, the Marshall and Gussie Collins Walkway runs two miles through woodland and marsh.

End the day at Firetender, inside the restored Hotel Manteo at 814 N Highway 64/264. We are the home of the Weeping Radish Taproom, which means you are drinking beer from North Carolina's first microbrewery in the town where it opened in 1986. Order a flight and work through all four, then pair it with a stone-oven pizza or a double smash burger. Dinner is served Tuesday through Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m. Call (252) 262-6112.