04/9/15

Spice up your Vacation Experience with a Personal Chef

PersonalChef

Hatteras Island vacationers can take their culinary experience to the next level by hiring a personal chef to prepare dinner in their vacation home! With meals ranging from indulgent 5-course feasts to themed Polynesian Luaus – the Hatteras Island personal chef experience allows guests to take a night off from cooking and take home new memories and a few new culinary skills.

Culinary Culture
Home to seven charming villages dotted along the pristine Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Hatteras Island sits 30 miles off the North Carolina coast, providing some of the best fishing in the East. Local restaurants serve everything from North Carolina Barbecue to freshly caught, straight from the docks seafood. It’s easy to see why culinary experts enjoy working on Hatteras Island.

Mouth-watering Traditions
One of the first personal chefs in the area, Outer Banks Personal Chef Lynn Flowers explains, “When I arrive at my client’s vacation house, it’s wonderful to be greeted with such enthusiasm. Everyone is SO excited to see me. I have clients for whom I have been cooking for 15 years. They treat me like family. They keep coming back to the Outer Banks for our gorgeous beaches and they hire me to cook and serve them up a most memorable meal. I have seen their kids grow up and new babies  be born.”

Busy work and home lives have guests looking for relaxing, enriching activities to add to their family vacation schedules. Some chef services even include cooking lessons, and if they don’t: “I really don’t do “cooking lessons” but when I am hosting personal chef events that’s exactly what it turns into! Everyone gathers around the bar while I cook and has a glass of wine. It becomes dinner and a show,” Gwen Hart of Enchanted Cuisine exclaims.

Book Early
It’s a trend that’s catching on. Many chefs who started booking summer dates in January are completely booked for some summer weeks by March. Jamie Pauls, owner of Café 111 explained  “I still get people who have just found out about Café 111 and are excited to hire us.” – he does his best to work them in but many of his prime summer weeks are already booked by the end of Spring.

Prime Location
Vacationers love the personal chef experience. The quality of the meal is equivalent to what you’d find in the finest regional restaurants and they have the opportunity to get to know and learn from some incredible local chefs. The open layouts and gourmet kitchens in many of Surf or Sound Realty’s vacation homes provide the ultimate setting. Plus, most restaurants can’t top the views from our oceanfront homes.


02/11/15

Exciting new ways to search for your vacation home

The process of finding the perfect Outer Banks vacation home has naturally evolved over the years. Instead of just bookmarking pages in a catalog, now you can walk through the house with an interactive floor plan, compare your favorite homes side-by side, and invite family members all over the country to leave comments and vote on their favorite houses while saving all of the information in your online account.

When redesigning the Surf or Sound website we thought long and hard about the best ways to help people discover the perfect vacation home for their family. We wanted to go beyond the typical web search and make finding a vacation home both exciting and intuitive. We had custom features built, like the ability to view the homes in your search result in a gallery-like grid or on a map with optional aerial overlay to get the best idea of the home’s exact location, interactive maps that let you find things to do and places to eat near homes you’re thinking of renting and a total cost calculator that lets you determine the total cost of your reservation and see the price per person or per bedroom with just one click!

Check out this video that takes you through the different ways of finding your home on our website:

 


05/4/12

Picture of the Week

It’s Fan Photo Friday!

Thank you to Charles B. Richardson for submitting this beautiful rainbow over Salvo on Hatteras Island accompanied by a very touching story. How could we choose another photo over this one?

“For a number of years our entire family has vacationed at OBX. The picture shown here is the first year after my Mother-in-Law Kathy passed away. She loved rainbows and our first day there we got a double rainbow. It showed us that even though she wasn’t with us that year, she really was.” – Charles B. Richardson


10/9/09

Two Surf or Sound Realty homes showcased in the 2009 Parade of Homes

The 17th Annual Outer Banks Parade of Homes kicked off on October 8th, and Surf or Sound Realty is delighted to announce that two of our premier rental homes are represented in this year’s tour: #683 Rising Sun and #684 Moonshine.

The Parade of Homes showcases the finest properties on the Outer Banks, and the Outer Banks Home Builders Association (OBHBA) is anticipating approximately 1,500 attendees. The event lasts until Sunday, October 11th, and all 29 homes participating, from Currituck to southern Hatteras Island, are open from 10am – 6pm on all four days. Continue reading


10/22/08

Surf or Sound vacation home takes the Parade of Homes crown

Surf or Sound Realty is delighted to announce that one of their premier rental homes, Hatteras Dream, has won the People’s Choice award at the Outer Banks Home Builders Association 2008 Parade of Homes, held October 9- October 12. Continue reading


09/5/08

Jim Cantore & The Weather Channel Stay with Surf or Sound Realty to wait for Tropical Storm Hanna

On Thursday afternoon, Jim Cantore along with his Weather Channel posse (camera crew and producers) came to Hatteras Island on The Outer Banks to report on Tropical Storm Hanna.
The crew stayed overnight at the lavish Hatteras Dream, a premier vacation rental home managed by Surf or Sound Realty, located in Hatteras across from the ferry docks. They set up their cameras on the beach in front of the house and reported from that location multiple times. Before checking into the home though, Jim Cantore graciously posed for a picture with some of the staff of Surf or Sound Realty at their office in Avon. Continue reading


08/20/08

The Guest of the Future

As we round out the first decade of the 21st century, many rental guests are opting for vacation homes that are at the forefront of technology, and can fit into their modern, everyday needs. Looking to bring your rental home up to speed? There are a few simple ways to make your home more conducive to the tastes of the contemporary guest, without breaking the budget in the process. Continue reading