Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach's proximity to the ocean gives it a moderate climate tempered by the sea breeze – making it a year-round option for travellers. Temperatures generally reach their highest during July (27 C monthly average) and lowest during January (7 C monthly average). The humid subtropical climate provides less extreme temperatures than the rest of the state and allows for a long summer.

The region does experience summer thunderstorms and has occasionally experienced severe weather patterns in the past during the hurricane season (June to November), but direct contact with a hurricane or tropical cyclone is rare. Winters are mild and when snow arrives, it's only as a topic of brief conversation.

Myrtle Beach is considered the number one golf destination in the United States, but those who have visited the 'Grand Strand' know that is also a premier vacation destination. With its beautiful beaches and countless attractions, everyone can find something to keep them occupied.

Myrtle Beach's Grand Strand consists of a string of small communities that stretches from Little River on the North Carolina border to Georgetown. Its 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) of coastline have wide, sandy beaches for swimming, sunbathing and building sand castles; waters full of fish for pier or deep sea fishing and waves for surfing. For the fishing and boating enthusiast, the Intercoastal Waterway meanders through Myrtle Beach and offers even more opportunities for a day on the water.

Little River
What better way to be introduced to Myrtle Beach than through Little River. As you enter South Carolina from North Carolina, this small village greets you with bright skies, beautiful flowers that bloom all year, sparkling ocean and majestic oak trees. Shops, restaurants, golf courses and retirement communities have sprung up in the last ten years, but Little River has managed to maintain a less hectic pace than the rest of Myrtle Beach.

Little River's biggest event is the annual Blue Crab Festival. Held in May on the weekend after Mother's Day, many visitors return for the fresh crab and other seafood, a juried art show, arts and crafts of all descriptions, face painting for the children, boat rides, and live entertainment.

North Myrtle Beach
North Myrtle Beach consists of the four communities of Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive, Crescent Beach and Windy Hill where Barefoot Landing has become a popular shopping, eating, and entertainment spot.

Crossing the expansive bridge over the Intercoastal Waterway from Little River to North Myrtle Beach is an experience in itself. Steal a quick view of the houses, boats, marinas and bridges for miles in either direction — if you're not driving, that is.

In Cherry Grove, you'll find one of the most popular destinations of both residents and visitors alike, the Cherry Grove Fishing Pier. The pier extends 985 feet into the ocean and has a 2-tier viewing deck with a dynamic view of North Myrtle Beach. The pier attracts the casual and 'serious' angler, and residents and visitors alike.

The other three communities in North Myrtle Beach are not as large or as developed as Cherry Grove, but they also have beautiful beaches and plenty of accommodations. North Myrtle Beach's population has mushroomed since 1990; consequently, so have the development and the traffic. From late April through early September, allow plenty of time to get down Route 17, the main thoroughfare from Little River all the way to Charlestown.

Beach and Boogie Music is king at the Beach Clubs like Fat Harold's Beach Club in Ocean Drive. This thumping, rhythmic music will have you dancing in your seat, if you're not up doing the "Shag," the official dance of South Carolina. Notoriously described as "the jitterbug on Valium," the Shag is fun to watch and even more fun to try.

Arcadian Shores
On your way from North Myrtle Beach to Myrtle Beach, Arcadian Shores offers a coastal retreat. This neighborhood is famed for its excellent resorts and is closed to Restaurant Row, making it the ideal home base for any vacation. For golf enthusiasts, the Arcadian Shores Golf Club is the perfect place to challenge yourself on a course designed by famed architect Rees Jones.

Myrtle Beach, the City
Once you visit Myrtle Beach and see the overwhelming number of hotels, motels, condominiums, restaurants and attractions, you will find it hard to believe that most of the development took place since the late 1950s. Getting to Myrtle Beach is easy thanks to the modern and efficient Myrtle Beach Airport. Once you get there, though, finding your way around can be tricky until you get the hang of the system used to number the roads. The roads are very crowded, but the city managers are dealing with the congestion by adding new roads. Veteran's Highway (Route 22) helps you avoid a large part of Route 17. Route 501, the other main highway, swings off of Route 17 to the west and leads to many of the popular golf courses.

Myrtle Beach has its own baseball team, the Pelicans, a Class A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The games are held at TicketReturn.com Field, a relatively small stadium from which you can clearly see all the action on the field. Silly games and contests held in between innings and Splash, the mascot, make going to the games a fun time for all ages.

Myrtle Beach has just about any kind of entertainment you can think of, such as The Carolina Opry, Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, Hard Rock Café, Ripley's Aquarium, water parks, nightclubs and shopping galore. There are also many annual festivals that bring visitors back year after year. As they say, "If you're bored in Myrtle Beach, it's your own fault."

The Southern Grand Strand
This southern part of the Grand Strand moves at a more leisurely pace than its northern counterpart, but is equally diverse.

Surfside Beach is directly below Myrtle Beach; consequently, some of the congestion is spilling over to this community. It is being forced to build new municipal buildings as its population swells. Like its neighbor to the south, Garden City, it is fighting to maintain its pristine beaches by not allowing high rise condominiums and hotels. Garden City is still more residential than commercial. It is a popular spot for surf fishing and family outings to the beach.

The residents of the small fishing village of Murrells Inlet preserve its heritage by continuing to fish in its many creeks and waterways. If you want fresh seafood, be sure to visit this self-proclaimed Seafood Capital of South Carolina. It is also the home of the lovely, serene Brookgreen Gardens. With over 6000 acres (2428.1 hectares) of sculpture and botanical gardens, it is a must see.

To get to Georgetown, continue traveling down Route 17 through Litchfield Beach and Pawley's Island. It has a relatively small population and is a well-kept secret, so it's a pleasure to leisurely walk the historic streets past the antebellum buildings.

Known as the golf capital of the United States, Myrtle Beach has over 100 golf courses of varying difficulty in the area. Golf is not the only thing to do, though. There are hundreds of other attractions for people of all ages.

Miniature Golf
Let the 'serious' golfers hack away. If you just want to have fun and relax, there are over 25 miniature golf places in the area. Some of the more exciting are Adventure Falls Golf, Hawaiian Rumble Golf and Jurassic Golf in Myrtle Beach and Mayday Golf in North Myrtle Beach. Each has its own surprises in the form of waterfalls, mountains and monsters that spew steam and grumble and roar.

Shopping
For golf and tennis equipment and clothes, PGA TOUR Superstore in North Myrtle Beach is legendary.

Shoppers need not fret; there are a zillion strip malls and beach stores where you can find anything and everything from the essential to the quirky. The Coastal Grand Mall and the Myrtle Beach Mall have all the high street and big-brand names under one roof.

Plan to spend an entire day each at Barefoot Landing and Broadway at the Beach. Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach has over 110 specialty shops, 13 factory direct stores, 12 restaurants, carousel rides, a waterway cruise, and entertainment at the Alabama Theatre. Broadway at the Beach in the heart of Myrtle Beach covers 350 acres (141.63 hectares) and has over 100 shops, 20 restaurants, 10 attractions, pedal boat rentals, Ripley's Aquarium, and several nightspots.

Sports and Fitness
If you don't want to abandon your fitness regimen while you visit Myrtle Beach, there is a Gold's Gym and a World Gym. Little River Swim & Fitness Club in Little River offers visitor packages.

Bowling enthusiasts have Little River Lanes, the 710 North Myrtle Beach, the Surfside Bowling and Billiard Center, and Myrtle Beach Bowl to choose from. The Myrtle Beach Pelicans baseball team, Class A affiliates of the Atlanta Braves, play at the TicketReturn.com Field in Myrtle Beach. There are no bad seats and the games are a lot of fun for the whole family.

The most popular outdoor activity in Myrtle beach is without a doubt, golf. Each course offers its own challenges for golfers of every level of skill. The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, Pawleys Island, and Tidewater Golf Club, North Myrtle Beach are a few of the top ranked options.

Sun and Surf
Myrtle Beach has 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) of coastline from Little River down to Georgetown, most of it beautiful sandy beaches. Water sports include swimming, snorkeling, diving, boating, fishing and even surfing. There are dozen of marinas where you can rent boats and personal water craft of all descriptions, or take a scenic cruise on the ocean or on the Waccamaw or Pee Dee Rivers.

Snakes, Alligators and Sharks, Oh My!
You don't need to be a child to experience Alligator Adventure at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach. The 15 acres of boardwalk let you walk above and through the natural habitats of over 1000 alligators, crocodiles, and tortoises. On the way, you'll see exotic birds and the reptile house, the Serpentarium.

The Myrtle Beach State Park has various programs during the year and a nature center with live snakes, turtles and marine animals, and a wildlife habitat with a butterfly garden, bird feeders and birdhouses. Huntington Beach Sate Park in Murrells Inlet offers daily programs on birds, alligators, snakes, whales, dolphins, salt marshes, beachcombing and crabbing.

The people mover in Ripley's Aquarium behind Broadway at the Beach carries you through a see-through tunnel while fish and sharks swim all around you. It also has the largest display of ray sharks on the East Coast, dive shows, marine education presentations, creatures from the Amazon rain forest, octopus, sea dragons, thousands of colorful fish, and rays and horseshoe crabs that you can touch.

Shows
Myrtle Beach is home to some very talented entertainers and some of the best shows you'll see this side of Las Vegas. Both The Carolina Opry and The Alabama Theatre have received numerous awards for their singing, dancing, and comedy variety shows. At Legends in Concert in Surfside Beach, you'll swear that you're really seeing and hearing the real Elvis and Michael Jackson, among others. Each show features at least five tribute artists. The House of Blues at Barefoot Landing hosts some of the biggest names in country, rock, blues, and soul entertainers. Examples are Blue Oyster Cult, The Neville Brothers and Bruce Hornsby, to name a few. Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament offers exciting dinner shows.

For the Thrill of It
When you or the kids get sick of sand in your sandwiches, head to one of the amusement or water parks. Family Kingdom Amusement Park has 30 rides and the largest all-wooden roller coast and Ferris Wheel in South Carolina, a carousel, a go-kart track, bumper cars and more. The Broadway Grand Prix Go-Kart Park in North Myrtle Beach is has go-kart tracks, mini golf, rock climbing and more.

With the price of admission, you can spend an entire day at Family Kingdom Water Park. Try the 185-foot water flume and one of four slides or relax as you drift down the Lazy River. This water park also has separate sections for young ones and toddlers. Myrtle Waves Water Park has 30 rides over 20 acres (8.09 hectares). Its unique Racin' River's speeding current tests your skill on a skimmer board.

When it comes to food, Myrtle Beach's tastes are fairly basic. You will find a variety of restaurants, but seafood and steak prevail.

Three things you'll come across repeatedly in South Carolina restaurants are grits, hush puppies and iced tea. Grits are made from corn ground to a thick, creamy consistency and are served with butter. You won't see grits very often at any meal other than breakfast. Hush puppies are small, deep-fried balls of cornmeal, reminiscent of plain donuts. They are served in a lot of the family-style, less expensive seafood restaurants as soon as you sit down at the table. Most restaurants serve 'bottomless glasses' of iced tea all year-round, but you need to specify sweet or unsweetened.

Seafood
Fresh shrimp, oysters, flounder and catfish caught from local waters are always available. One style of seafood you'll often see advertised is Calabash Seafood. Named for the small fishing village on the North-South Carolina border, the four fish are usually fried and inexpensive. Capt. Bennett's Calabash Seafood in Myrtle Beach on Restaurant Row and in three other locations is popular with families. Children ages 3-5 eat for USD2.95, and children under age three eat free. Its seafood buffet offers a huge variety of fish as well as beef and poultry. Kids under age 5 eat free. The Sea Captain's House Restaurant is another award-winning restaurant worth visiting. Open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it offers a wonderful variety of unique fish dishes as well as poultry, steak and pork. Enjoy a wonderful meal and a beautiful ocean vista at the same time. Steak
South Carolinians love their steak. Almost every restaurant serves steak even though it is advertised as seafood or other type of restaurant.

When you order one of the delicious, large steaks at the very popular Carolina Roadhouse Restaurant & Bar on King's Highway in Myrtle Beach, be sure to order a salad as well. The honey mustard-hot bacon house dressing is outstanding as are the croissants, which come with it.

The Yamato Steak House of Japan cooks your food right in front of you at your Hibachi table. It offers steak, seafood and chicken and Sushi bars.

Italian
There are quite a few Italian restaurants scattered up and down the Grand Strand. Chianti South Italian Restaurant in North Myrtle Beach has some of the best homemade pasta and an extensive award-winning wine list. Near Restaurant Row in the Galleria is Rossi's, a large Italian restaurant. Even though prices are in the average range, the food is excellent and the service superb. After dinner, you can listen to piano music in the Eighty-Eights piano bar until 2a.

Themed Restaurants
For a truly unique experience, be sure to try Medieval Times dinner and show combination. Be transported back to the 11th century at Medieval Times. This spectacular show features Andalusian Stallions, incredible horsemanship and jousting tournaments. Oh yes, and dinner is included.

Family and Children
The Spring House Family Restaurant in North Myrtle Beach and Murrells Inlet serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is inexpensive and has a large children's menu.

Upscale
Myrtle Beach is a very informal place. You very rarely need to dress up in more than shorts or slacks and a t-shirt or golf shirt. That doesn't mean, though, that there are not some nice upscale restaurants where you can experience very fine dining. Examples are The Brentwood Restaurant and The Parson's Table in North Myrtle Beach, Greg Norman's Australian Grille at Barefoot Landing, and Thoroughbred's in Restaurant Row. Each is expensive, but the unique menus and elegant décors are worthy of a special occasion.

Other For the sports enthusiast, try the Overtime Sports Café in North Myrtle Beach. They have a general menu and TV screens everywhere so that you can watch more than one sport at a time. It tends to be loud as whooping and hollering fans route for their favorite teams.

The Horst Gasthaus is one of two German restaurants in Myrtle Beach. Enjoy authentic German food and join the sing-along—when your mouth isn't full, that is.

Myrtle Beach's history is a story of persisting, starting over and reinventing. Due to the ecological make-up and relative remoteness from early settlements in Charlestown and inland, it took a while for its founders to realize that the ocean, frequent blue skies, beautiful flowers and shrubs and unusual birds would attract vacationers.

Chicora
Myrtle Beach's first inhabitants were the American Indian Waccamaw and Winyah tribes. 'Waccamaw' and 'Chicora' (meaning 'the Land') are names still in use today as the area settlers respectfully tried to preserve the rich Indian heritage. An Indian burial site on Waites Island near Little River, and the remains of an Indian village on Wachesaw Plantation near Murrells Inlet have been preserved.

The Spanish explorer Lucas Vasques de Allyon was the first non-Indian to try to settle in the area in 1526. Within a year, though, the entire settlement died from disease. The English Arrive
In the late 1600s, the English were more successful. They began trading with the Indians north of Charles Town (later, Charleston). Eventually, the English established settlements in what are now Horry (location of Myrtle Beach) and Georgetown counties. The main street of Myrtle Beach, King's Highway, became the primary overland route between seaports in northern states and Charleston and Savannah, Ga.

Prince George Parish (now Georgetown) was established in 1730. In the late 1700s, an agricultural economy emerged as rice plantations flourished because of the many marshes and rivers in the area. Indigo and tobacco crops were prosperous as well. Many Americans are surprised to learn about how profitable and important rice was to the Southern economy. You can learn more about it by visiting the Rice Museum in Georgetown from March through November. Legends and Lumber
Further north, the famous pirate Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach was busy bullying the waters off the coast of the Grand Strand until his death in 1718. Legend has it that another infamous pirate, Captain Kidd, buried some treasure near Murrells Inlet. Another legend is that of Murrells Inlet's most famous inhabitant, Alice Belin Flagg (1833-1849). It is said that she will appear if you walk around her Pawley's Island grave backwards 13 times.

In the 1820s, Henry Buck moved from Maine and established the first sawmill and the beginnings of the next phase of the area's history. He soon became Horry County's richest citizen by establishing the area as a primary producer of pine timber, tar and turpentine products.

After the Civil War, Franklin G. Burroughs, a young man native to the area, teamed up with Benjamin Collins to form the Burroughs & Collins Company. The two young entrepreneurs expanded their operations from turpentine and mercantile stores to timber, farm credit, riverboats and farming. Burroughs had enough foresight to see Myrtle Beach as a seaside resort, and he and Collins built the first railroad between the beaches and the western part of Horry County.

By 1907, 'New Town,' as Myrtle Beach was known, finally became a popular vacation destination. A contest was held to give the area an official name. Addie Burroughs, the widow of Franklin G. Burroughs, proposed the name 'Myrtle Beach' for the large Wax Myrtle Shrubs with red, purple or white flowers that resemble crinkled crepe paper. Myrtle Beach Finds its Niche
Catering to the wealthy, a group of businessmen built the Arcady resort in 1920. The resort included the area's first golf course, Pine Lakes International Country Club, and the lavish Ocean Forest Hotel. Once again, though, Myrtle Beach's economy was thwarted, this time by the Great Depression. Arcady was dissolved, and the Ocean Forest Hotel was razed.

Finally, after the Great Depression and World Wars I and II, Myrtle Beach's economy started to revolve exclusively around tourism, instead of agriculture. For about ten years, the beach tourism industry flourished. Hotels and cottages were built by the dozens. Vacationers flocked to the area in horse carriages and by train. Claude Dunnagan, a local reporter, dubbed Myrtle Beach as “the Grand Strand” in 1949, and the name stuck.

One More Time
It is no secret that South Carolina's entire coastline is susceptible to hurricanes. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel blew into the area with winds in excess of 150 miles per hour and wiped out cottages, shops, restaurants and hotels. Myrtle Beach's economy was devastated once more.

The resilience and hard work of the South Carolinians persisted, and Myrtle Beach was rebuilt once again. Taking a lesson from Arcady, the developers built golf courses on the former rice and tobacco plantations, as well as amusement parks, cottages, motels and hotels. The area's economy quickly boomed. The permanent population tripled in the 1970s, and even Hurricane Hugo in 1969 couldn't drown the growth and popularity of the Grand Strand.

Myrtle Beach continued to grow through the 1990s. Now, Myrtle Beach has more than 100 golf courses, 1800 restaurants, nearly a dozen live entertainment venues, and countless other attractions. It is South Carolina's number one tourism destination and has been reported by the Travel Industry of America (TIA) as second only to Orlando as the most popular summer destination in the US.

See Myrtle Beach and the area from land, air or sea. Whichever you prefer, there are at least a couple to choose from.

Land Be enveloped by a by-gone area of solitude and natural beauty as you meander through the beautiful botanical and sculpture gardens of Brookgreen Gardens. Sit and rest under one of the sprawling Spanish moss or weeping willow trees.

Opened to the public for almost 70 years, Brookgreen Gardens is a haven from the hectic pace of the beaches and other attractions of Myrtle Beach. Located on Route 17 in Murrells Inlet, it is part of a 1900-acre preserve that was once four rice plantations. New Yorkers Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington were so taken by the trees, the wildlife and the nature that they bought the former plantations with the intention of creating a place where Anna and other sculptors could showcase their creations surrounded by nature.

Three hundred acres of botanical and sculpture gardens as well as wildlife and historical exhibits are open to the public. The history of Brookgreen Gardens includes names such as 'Swamp Fox' Francis Marion, George Washington, the painter Washington Allston, Aaron Burr's daughter Theodosia Alston and Julia Peterkin, the Pulitzer Prize author.

You can also tour Atalaya, the Moorish-style winter home and studio of Anna Hyatt Huntington. Located across the street from Brookgreen Gardens in Huntington Beach State Park, the cost is free with admission to the park. During the summer, daily tours start at 2p.

For a nice change of pace, visit La Belle Amie Vineyard in Little River, the Grand Strand's only operating vineyard. The Bellamy family, who has owned the vineyard since the late 1800's, requests that you call ahead of time to arrange a tour. You can go at any time to sample wines and gourmet foods in the tasting room, visit the gift shop where you can purchase the wine and gourmet foods to accompany it, or sip a glass of wine while you rock on the front porch.

A surprising part of South Carolina's history is that the economy was once dependent on rice. At the Rice Museum in Georgetown, you can learn how about rice is grown and cultivated, how it became a staple of many cultures, and life on the South Carolina plantations.

Sea If you like boats and being on the water, Myrtle Beach is the place to visit. There are literally dozens of different tours on nearly every kind of vessel you can think of, including speedboat, canoe, kayak, tall ship, catamaran, mini-pontoon boats and bus-boat combination.

For a really unusual tour, take a Ghost Story trip on a summer evening.

Glide down either the Waccamaw or the Pee Dee River in your own electric mini-pontoon boat with the River Rats. These 'ratical' half-day, full day, overnight, or two-day trips are an adventure on two of South Carolina's blackest rivers. In addition to pointing out the ecology and creatures of the rivers, the tour guides will teach you to pan fish. Fishing rods and bait are provided for traditional fishing.

Air One of the only ways to see Myrtle Beach that doesn't include the ocean is in a hot air balloon. Awesome Balloon Flights, Inc., the only ballooning company in the area, will take you floating gently on the currents above Myrtle Beach and the surrounding countryside. The balloon does not go above the ocean for safety reasons.

For a less sedate but no less thrilling ride, try a sightseeing trip in an open cockpit biplane with Classic Air Venture Biplane Rides. Imagine you and a friend side-by-side in the cockpit of a 1940 WACO UPF0-7! Be sure to bring a camera so you can take a picture of the two of you dressed in leather flying jackets, helmets and goggles.