North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island

If you want to see what animals you're sharing the water with when you're splashing around on the Outer Banks beaches, head to Roanoke to the North Carolina Aquarium. Its main feature is the Graveyard of the Atlantic exhibit. Models of remains of the USS Monitor make up the home for giant turtles and sharks in the 285,000-gallon tank. Throughout the rest of the aquarium, you'll find a variety of other marine critters, including alligators, otters, frogs, and plenty of fish. If the kids are itching for a hands-on experience, head to the Discovery Gallery, where they can touch animals like sea stars and stingrays.

There is an admission fee and a discounted price for kids age 12 and under. Still, some recent visitors say the aquarium is overpriced considering its small size. One TripAdvisor user says, "I ended up staying 1 hour which is pretty odd because normally I spend hours in museums, aquarium, zoos and so forth… but the place was so small." The aquarium sees the most crowds on rainy days and during the summer.