Roanoke Island Festival Park

Outer Banks

Go on a swashbuckling adventure at this 25-acre park, telling the story of the first English settlement attempt in 1585. Visitors can climb aboard a 16th-century sailing boat named Elizabeth II, where costumed role-playing sailors will answer questions about the vessel. Meanwhile, a mock Native American town resembles what English explorers would have encountered when discovering these lands, and an early English site includes exhibits on the daily life of the soldiers and sailors who settled here.

At the site's Adventure Museum learn about 400 years of the area's history and dress your kids up in historic garb.