Tourism Guide
Myrtle Beach Tourism Guide
Myrtle Beach is the big, busy end of the Grand Strand — 60 miles of beach, 14 communities, a boardwalk, a wheel, dinner shows, and more than 80 golf courses. It is the market most visitors mean when they say they are going to the South Carolina coast, and it is the reason this guide exists: Sunset Beach, where our home sits, is the quiet end of the same coastline, a short drive up the coast. Spend your days here — the boardwalk, the shows, the golf, the seafood — then come back to quiet at night. These are the beaches, attractions, shows, courses, and restaurants we recommend.
Sights & activities
Start at the boardwalk, then pick your speed. The main strip is all energy — rides, arcades, shops — and the state parks and gardens below are the exhale. One coastline, two very different days, and you pick which one each day is.
Myrtle Beach Boardwalk — A 1.2-mile oceanfront promenade in downtown Myrtle Beach, running between the 2nd Avenue Pier and the 14th Avenue Pier, lined with amusement rides, arcades, shops, restaurants, and bars. Walk it end to end once, then decide which stretch you want to come back to.
SkyWheel Myrtle Beach — The oceanfront observation wheel at the center of the boardwalk, at 1110 N Ocean Blvd, with 42 climate-controlled, fully enclosed gondolas looking out over the Atlantic and the boardwalk. Ride it near sunset, when the view is at its best.
Myrtle Beach State Park — The quieter alternative to the main strip: a coastal state park at 4401 S Kings Hwy with a mile-long beach, maritime forest, nature trails, cabins and campsites, and a 758-foot fishing pier. Good for beach time without the boardwalk crowds.
Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach — An 85,000-square-foot aquarium at Broadway at the Beach, 1110 Celebrity Cir, with thousands of marine animals, a moving glidepath through the shark tank, a stingray touch area, a Penguin Playhouse, and hourly dive shows. The pick on this list when the beach isn’t cooperating — and kids don’t need bad weather as an excuse.
Family Kingdom Amusement Park — Myrtle Beach’s oceanfront amusement park, operating since 1966, at 300 4th Ave S, with more than 35 rides including the wooden Swamp Fox coaster, the Log Flume, bumper cars, and kiddie rides, plus an adjacent water park. Entry itself is free; rides are by ticket or all-day wristband.
WonderWorks Myrtle Beach — An upside-down “amusement park for the mind” at Broadway at the Beach, 1313 Celebrity Cir, with more than 100 hands-on exhibits across science zones, plus laser tag, an indoor ropes course, and an outdoor zipline and ropes course. Best for curious kids and bad-weather days.
Broadway at the Beach — A 350-acre open-air shopping, dining, and entertainment complex built around 23-acre Lake Broadway at 1325 Celebrity Cir, with 100+ specialty shops, 20+ restaurants, and attractions including Ripley’s Aquarium and WonderWorks, in themed districts. Go when you want crowds, shops, and choices all in one place.
Barefoot Landing — A waterfront shopping, dining, and entertainment village on the Intracoastal Waterway in North Myrtle Beach, along Hwy 17 S, with a 27-acre lake, 50+ shops, and many restaurants, plus the Alabama Theatre. Dog-friendly, and a natural pairing with a North Myrtle Beach day.
Brookgreen Gardens — A 9,100-acre former plantation estate turned sculpture garden and wildlife preserve in the Murrells Inlet area, about 17 miles south of Myrtle Beach, with moss-draped oaks, hundreds of sculptures, a simulated swamp with alligators and otters, and enclosed bird aviaries. The slow, beautiful counterweight to the strip.
Huntington Beach State Park — A 2,500-acre coastal preserve in Murrells Inlet, at 16148 Ocean Hwy, with three miles of uncrowded beach, salt marsh, freshwater lagoon, and maritime forest, 300+ documented bird species, and Atalaya, the Moorish-style castle winter home of Anna Hyatt Huntington and a National Historic Landmark.
All of this is an easy day trip from our Sunset Beach home, which sleeps 11 — Sunset Beach house manual
Shows & entertainment
Myrtle Beach is a dinner-show town, and the shows are the evening plan, not an afterthought. Book ahead in summer: the big rooms fill up, and the Christmas shows run November through December.
Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show — A pirate-themed dinner theater at 8907 N Kings Hwy, where Crimson and Sapphire crews battle on land and on a 15-foot indoor lagoon, with acrobatics, animals, and a four-course feast. One of Myrtle Beach’s signature family dinner shows.
Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament — A castle dinner show at 2904 Fantasy Way: a four-course medieval feast eaten while knights compete in jousting, sword fights, and horsemanship, with Andalusian horses and a royal falconer. The show runs about two hours.
The Carolina Opry — Myrtle Beach’s first variety show, still a flagship, at 8901 N Kings Hwy: a two-hour mix of music, comedy, and dance with a large cast, plus a 60s–80s “Time Warp” show and a Christmas Special in November–December. It sits next door to Pirates Voyage.
Alabama Theatre — A large live variety theater of about 2,000 seats at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach, at 4750 Highway 17 S, known for its “ICONIC” music, dance, and comedy show February through October and “The South’s Grandest Christmas Show” in November–December, plus guest-artist concerts.
Golf
Myrtle Beach calls itself the Golf Capital of the World, with more than 80 courses along the Strand, and the history runs from Pine Lakes in 1927 to the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic at the Dunes Club. Three courses to start with — one private, one public classic, one piece of history.
The Dunes Golf & Beach Club — The Grand Strand’s prestige course: a Robert Trent Jones design opened in 1948, oceanfront, at 9000 N Ocean Blvd, host to national tournaments, famous for the par-5 13th “Waterloo” bending around Lake Singleton. Note that it is a private club, so visitor play is generally through golf packages or as a member’s guest — plan ahead rather than just showing up.
King’s North at Myrtle Beach National — An Arnold Palmer design in central Myrtle Beach, ranked among America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses, famous for risk-reward holes — above all the par-5 6th “The Gambler,” with an island fairway shortcut over water versus a safer route around the lake, plus the par-3 12th with “SC”-shaped bunkers.
Pine Lakes Country Club — “The Granddaddy” — Myrtle Beach’s first golf course, opened in 1927 as Ocean Forest Country Club, designed by Robert White, the first president of the PGA of America, less than a half-mile from the Atlantic. The history-first pick for a golf trip.
Where to eat & drink
This coast does seafood best, and the two institutions below are the places to start. For a whole evening rather than one restaurant, head to the MarshWalk in Murrells Inlet, the town billed as the Seafood Capital of South Carolina.
Sea Captain’s House — A landmark oceanfront seafood restaurant at 3002 N Ocean Blvd, in a 1930 beach cottage saved from demolition in 1962 and run as a restaurant for 60+ years. Known for shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, crab cakes, and seafood platters, served with Atlantic views.
The Original Benjamin’s Calabash Seafood — A Myrtle Beach institution since 1986, at 9593 N Kings Hwy, famous for its all-you-can-eat Calabash-style seafood buffet of 170+ items — snow crab legs, fried shrimp, oysters, scallops, and flounder, plus a carving station, pasta station, and in-house bakery — in nautical-themed dining rooms that double as a maritime collection.
Murrells Inlet MarshWalk — A half-mile waterfront boardwalk along the salt-marsh estuary in Murrells Inlet, lined with eight restaurants serving fresh local seafood, with live music and marsh views — pelicans, herons, palmetto, and marsh grass. Come for one restaurant or make an evening of it, walking the whole half-mile.
After dinner, our Sunset Beach home is the base to come back to — Sunset Beach house manual
Staying with us?
See the house manual for our Sunset Beach home — the quiet base near Myrtle Beach: