The Silver Lake Hotel at Ocracoke

After years of staying here, first as a kid with my family and later as an adult, this visit will be my last at silver lake inn. I came back for the memories, but the tree work made it impossible to relax. They were cutting down beautiful cedars and feeding branches into a wood chipper the whole time, still going after 7 pm. It was so loud my husband and I couldn’t hear each other in the room. When I brought it up, the front desk girl was flippant and basically said the owner didn’t care how disruptive it was to guests. There was no one in the office to talk to, perhaps intentionally. I paid for a room where I could relax and couldn’t. If this is how the new owners run the place, I’d stay away. They seem focused on money and apparently are putting in a pool, rather than guests. I’d call ahead to check whether you can actually relax and sleep.

Everything was very clean, and our room had plenty of coffee and snacks. Silver Lake is in a great spot, so we could walk everywhere. We had an incredible time!

We were lucky with perfect weather, and having access to the dock across the street made sunset watching a treat. There was a coffee room for morning coffee on the porch, plus food trucks at different times during the week. A few maintenance issues still need attention after the hurricane, like much of the island, but the place was comfortable. It’s a beach motel made for salt and sand, and I had no complaints. Perfect flip-flop motel. We celebrated my birthday at our favorite island with my family and my best friend’s family, and the motel made the trip wonderful. Meredith’s warm welcome was contagious. We were greeted like family and shown around right away. Our pup made instant fur-ever friends and got plenty of love from people passing by. Benny, as we learned, was a salty dog at heart. It was a real treat.

Tori, the manager, was so helpful and accommodating. She even drove the golf cart to the store to get us ice. On our last day, she opened the seafood company across the street early so we could take fresh seafood home before catching our ferry. She works a second job there, too. It’s a great little place for a few nights. Our room was comfortable and had everything we needed.