Topsail Guide

Around Topsail, familiar places do not always stay in the background. Over the years, Topsail Beach, Topsail High School, The Sailfish, Burgaw’s courthouse square, Watha, Atkinson, and nearby Wilmington have all shown up in movies and TV shows – sometimes standing in for places that were supposed to be far from Pender County. Here are … Read more

If you drive U.S. 17 between Wilmington, Scotts Hill, Hampstead, Holly Ridge, Sneads Ferry, or Jacksonville, you do not need a traffic study to know the road feels different than it used to. The backups feel more common. School-day slowdowns feel heavier. Beach-season traffic feels less like a temporary inconvenience and more like part of … Read more

Updated Monday, 12:30 p.m. – A broad area of rain is moving across southeastern North Carolina this afternoon, with heavier pockets showing up west and southwest of the Topsail area and pushing toward the coast. For Hampstead, Surf City, Topsail Beach, North Topsail Beach, Sneads Ferry, and surrounding communities, the main window to watch is … Read more

Updated May 11, 2026: Topsail High School is heading into one of the busiest and most intense sports weeks of the school year. With baseball and softball already deep into the NCHSAA playoffs, girls soccer opening its postseason at home, lacrosse hosting Friday playoff games, and track athletes heading to Greensboro for state championships, this … Read more

Around Hampstead and Topsail, traffic has become its own local category of conversation. There are Facebook groups with thousands of members dedicated to traffic updates, road complaints, wreck alerts, and daily frustration across Hampstead, Sneads Ferry, Topsail, Onslow County, Wilmington, and Leland. Some posts are helpful. Some are just venting. But the volume of discussion … Read more

The Topsail area is growing fast, and a lot of local households are feeling both sides of that growth. More people, more visitors, more rentals, more restaurants, and more development can create opportunity. But higher housing costs, food costs, transportation costs, insurance, child care, and everyday bills also mean more residents are looking for realistic … Read more

Local Spotlight This series highlights local people and organizations helping move the Topsail area forward. That can mean protecting the coast, supporting families, improving quality of life, creating meaningful community events, or building something that makes this place better for residents, visitors, and local businesses. Ocean Fest made a pretty good case for this first … Read more

Topsail High School athletics has been stacking up reasons for people to pay attention. Not because every team is suddenly winning everything. That is not the point, and it would not be true. The more interesting story is that Topsail looks deeper than it did a few years ago. More programs are showing real momentum. … Read more