Holden BeachEight-mile South Brunswick barrier island between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach — a 35-foot building cap, no high-rises, and one of National Geographic's family-beach picks

Holden Beach is the longest of the three South Brunswick Islands — eight miles of east-west-facing sand on a sub-tropical barrier between the Atlantic and the Intracoastal Waterway. The 35-foot building height cap keeps high-rises off the island; nearly every storefront sits on the mainland side of the swing bridge. Because the strand runs east to west, the sun appears to rise out of the ocean and set back into it during fall and winter — a quirk you won't get on Wrightsville or Myrtle Beach.

Our rentals run from oceanfront stilted homes on Ocean Boulevard West to canal-front houses with private docks on the ICW, four- and five-bedroom family classics walkable to The Point sandspit, dog-friendly Block Q rentals near the Family General Store, and quieter East End cottages backed up to the Turtle Watch nesting dunes.