Where Is Netflix’s “Outer Banks” Filmed?

If you’re a fan of Netflix’s Outer Banks, then you’re probably already planning a trip to check out the real OBX to pretend to live like your favorite Pogues (same). However, if you’re looking to visit the homes of characters like Sarah or John B., then you might be surprised to know that you won’t be able to find them anywhere near the real Outer Banks. But that shouldn’t stop you from finding that iconic marsh where the Pogues take their boats out for some fun.

Here’s everything you need to know about where Netflix’s Outer Banks is filmed. You know, in case you want to plan a road trip with your besties, make a ~vibey~ playlist and let your Instagram followers know you’re #P4L — that’s Pogues 4 Life.

Is the Outer Banks a real place?

Believe it or not, the OBX is 100 percent real. It’s a group of islands located right off of North Carolina that are a pretty popular destination for surfing and beach-going. Outer Banks showrunners Jonas and Josh Pate grew up in North Carolina, so some of the show may be taken from their own experiences visiting the islands.

Can I visit Kildare Island?

While the show takes place between two sections of Kildare Island, The Cut and Figure Eight, these are not real places in OBX. According to the Wilmington Star News, a local North Carolina newspaper, Kildare Island is “a hat tip to the real town of Kill Devil Hills in Dare County on the Outer Banks.”

Meanwhile, The Cut is “a reference to Snow’s Cut, the man-made waterway completed in 1929 that effectively turned Carolina Beach into a barrier island.” Although Kildare Island isn’t real, surprisingly, Figure Eight is. However, in real life, it’s actually its own island instead of being a part of Kildare Island on the show.

“Figure Eight is a wealthy island off Northern New Hanover County that features an eye-popping array of million-dollar-plus homes,” according to Wilmington Star News.

Where is Outer Banks filmed?

If you visit the Outer Banks, you’ll have a hard time trying to find some of the iconic locations from the show. That’s because the show was filmed in Charleston, South Carolina. According to the Wilmington Star News, the show moved filming there due to “anti-LGBTQ legislation dating back to 2016’s House Bill 2.”

“When we wrote [Outer Banks], it was 100 percent Wilmington in our heads,” co-creator Jonas Pate told the Wilmington Star News (Wilmington, North Carolina is about six hours away from Outer Banks, btw). “We wanted to film it here. But Netflix made the right decision to insist on inclusivity and we completely agree with them.”

Since the show is set on a fictional island, Jonas says they’re able to freely film wherever they want. “We were lucky because we weren’t trying to recreate Duck or anything,” he explained. “It was a fictional town and island on the Outer Banks, so we could really create whatever visual landscape we wanted. Charleston is beautiful, but it is a rapidly growing city, so we had to cherry-pick pieces of it. Take these narrow snapshots and piece them together to create this fictional world of ours.”

Where were seasons 2 and 3 of Outer Banks filmed?

For season 2, some of the characters on OBX made their way to the Bahamas, which was actually Barbados in real life. Outer Banks’ set decorator, Missy Ricker, and production designer, Daniel Novotny, spoke to House Beautiful about the show’s new location.

“Two of our writers, Josh Pate and Shannon Burke, actually hired a local location scout in Barbados to find the location, and they saw the house and fell in love with it!” Missy told House Beautiful.

Off-screen, The Camerons’ vacation house in the Bahamas is known as the Cove Spring House in Barbados. According to the Cove Spring House website, there are luxury suites that can accommodate up to 20 guests with seven large bedrooms and a guest house with three large suites. There are no explicit details about the pricing, but we guess that it costs a pretty penny since celebs like Elton John, Simon Cowell, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also stayed in the waterfront mansion.

In season 3, we return to Poguelandia in IRL Barbados — specifically Bathsheba Beach, according to Netflix’s Tudum. The long stretch of beach sits on the east coast of Barbados, situated alongside one of the main fishing villages of the island.

Where can I find some iconic spots from the show?

Spots like Pitt Street and The Wreck, the restaurant where Kie works throughout the series, are real and located in the Old Village Historic District in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The beach is a 5-minute drive away, and Charleston Harbor isn’t that far off. There, you can find Morris lighthouse, the iconic landmark from the show.

You can also check out Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant — a.k.a the boardwalk and boat launch on OBX. And while Sarah’s house isn’t quite in the OBX, you can visit it at Lowndes Grove, a waterfront wedding and events venue in Charleston.

No matter where you’re headed, you can live like a Pogue for a day (of course, minus the dangers and plot twists that come with their treasure hunt).

Tamara Fuentes is the current Entertainment Editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers TV, movies, books, celebrities, and more. She can often be found in front of a screen fangirling about something new. Before joining Cosmopolitan, she was the entertainment editor over at Seventeen. She is also a member of the Television Critics Association and the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Sam is an assistant editor at Seventeen, covering pop culture, celebrity news, health, and beauty. When she isn’t draping her cheeks in blush, you can probably find her live-tweeting awards shows or making SwiftToks.