Rebecca Engel
Myrtle Beach has never once tried to be subtle. Sixty miles of sand with a boardwalk running down the middle of it, a Ferris wheel you can see from half the beach, more mini golf courses than any town has a reason to own, and a pancake house on what feels like every other corner. It’s loud and it’s unapologetic about it, which is exactly why families keep coming back year after year.
But the strip isn’t the whole story. Twenty minutes south there are salt marshes, sculpture gardens, and a crumbling castle in the dunes that almost nobody plans for. So here are 15 of the best things to do in Myrtle Beach, mixing the boardwalk classics everyone comes for with the quieter stuff just down the road. Pick a few from each list and the trip stops feeling like one long traffic jam on Ocean Boulevard.
1. Walk the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and Promenade
The boardwalk runs a little over a mile along the oceanfront between the 14th Avenue Pier and the 2nd Avenue Pier, and it’s about as close as this town gets to a main street. Arcades, funnel cake, oceanfront bars, and somebody’s ring toss game going all day long.
It’s really three stretches that each feel different. The north end near the piers stays quieter, the middle is the loud arcade and souvenir shop run, and the south end around the SkyWheel holds most of the restaurants and live music.
Walk it once in daylight and once after dark, because they’re two different places. Summer brings free concerts and Wednesday night fireworks at Plyler Park, and you’ll find parking far easier a few blocks inland than anywhere along the oceanfront.
2. Ride the SkyWheel at Dusk
At just under 200 feet, the SkyWheel is the landmark you’ll spot from most of the beach. The gondolas are enclosed glass and air conditioned, which matters more than you’d think in July, and a ride is three slow rotations that run about ten minutes.
Time it for dusk if you can. You get the beach in daylight on the way up and the whole strand lit up by the last time around, which is the version worth paying for.
After dark the wheel itself becomes the show, running an LED light display you can see from a mile down the sand. It sits right on the boardwalk, so it pairs easily with dinner nearby.
3. Spend an Evening at Broadway at the Beach
Broadway at the Beach is 350 acres built around a lake a couple of miles inland, and it’s the answer to every rainy afternoon of your trip. Parking and entry are both free, so you only pay for whatever you decide to walk into.
Inside there’s Ripley’s Aquarium, the upside down WonderWorks building, a wax museum, a big movie theater, mini golf, and something like 20 restaurants. The whole complex is built for wandering, with paths looping around the water.
Give it an evening rather than a full day. Everything lights up after dark, the lake reflects it all back, and the crowds thin out compared to the middle of the afternoon.
4. Hit the Quiet Sand at Myrtle Beach State Park
This is one of South Carolina’s original state parks, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 1930s, and it holds the best stretch of calm sand inside the city limits. There’s a small per person entry fee and it’s worth every cent on a busy weekend.
Along with the beach there’s a fishing pier, a nature center with tanks of local sea life, and a short trail through maritime forest that’s some of the last of its kind left on the Grand Strand.
The campground sits right behind the dunes and books out close to a year ahead for summer weekends. If you want something with more room to spread out, there are plenty of luxury RV resorts in South Carolina within easy reach of the beach.
5. Eat Your Way Down the Murrells Inlet MarshWalk
Murrells Inlet sits about 20 minutes south, and the MarshWalk is a half mile of boardwalk running over the salt marsh with restaurants strung along it. Wicked Tuna, Drunken Jack’s, Dead Dog Saloon, and Bovine’s all back right up to the water.
Come at sunset. The marsh turns gold, the boats come back through the creek, and most of the decks have live music going by then. It’s the one night of the trip that feels genuinely Lowcountry rather than beach town.
Locals will tell you this is the best seafood on the Grand Strand, and they’ve got a strong case. Tables fill fast in summer, so put your name in early and walk the boardwalk while you wait.
6. Wander Through Brookgreen Gardens
Brookgreen is 9,000 acres of gardens holding the largest collection of American figurative sculpture anywhere, plus a small zoo of native Lowcountry animals. It’s about half an hour south of the boardwalk and feels like a different state entirely.
Archer Huntington and his wife Anna, a sculptor herself, founded it in 1931 on the grounds of four former rice plantations. The live oaks, the reflecting pools, and the sculpture set among them make it the most beautiful place in the area by a wide margin.
Tickets are good for seven straight days, so you can break it into two shorter visits. If you’re here in December, Nights of a Thousand Candles fills the gardens with candlelight and is worth planning a winter trip around on its own. It’s easily one of the best things to do in Myrtle Beach that has nothing to do with sand.
7. Get Face to Face With Sharks at Ripley’s Aquarium
Sitting inside Broadway at the Beach, Ripley’s is the strongest indoor option in town when the weather turns. The centerpiece is a 340 foot moving walkway that carries you through an underwater tunnel while sharks, rays, and sea turtles pass overhead.
There are touch tanks with rays and horseshoe crabs, a jellyfish gallery that kids tend to stall out in front of, and a few scheduled shows through the day.
Book a timed slot online and take either the first hour or the last couple. Midday in summer means shuffling through that tunnel shoulder to shoulder, which takes the magic out of it.
8. See Atalaya Castle at Huntington Beach State Park
Right across the highway from Brookgreen, this park has three miles of undeveloped beach, a freshwater lagoon with alligators sunning themselves along the causeway, and Atalaya, the strangest building on the coast.
Atalaya was the Huntingtons’ winter home, built between 1931 and 1933 in a Moorish style with no formal blueprints, the design worked out on site as the walls went up. Thirty rooms wrap an open courtyard, and it stands mostly bare now, which somehow makes it better.
It’s also one of the finest birding spots on the East Coast, with more than 300 species recorded. Bring binoculars and walk the causeway at first light. It’s the kind of place that belongs on any list of East Coast hidden gems.
9. Play a Round on the Grand Strand
There are roughly 80 golf courses within an hour of Myrtle Beach, which is the whole reason this town has a busy spring and fall at all. It’s one of the great golf destinations in the country and it isn’t particularly close.
Caledonia Golf and Fish Club and True Blue down in Pawleys Island are the two most players rank first, and the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in town has hosted plenty of serious tournaments. Plenty of solid courses run far cheaper than those three.
Rates swing hard by season. Spring and fall are peak and priced like it, while midsummer and winter get you the same fairways for a fraction. If you’re playing more than twice, a stay and play package almost always beats booking rounds one at a time.
10. Take On a Course of Mini Golf
Myrtle Beach treats mini golf as a serious civic matter. There are around 50 courses along the strand, complete with volcanoes, shipwrecks, waterfalls, caves, and the occasional animatronic pirate.
Mount Atlanticus Minigolf Kingdom near the boardwalk is the cult favorite, a sprawling multi level maze of a course. Hawaiian Rumble up in North Myrtle Beach hosts a pro tournament every year and its volcano actually erupts on a timer.
Play after dinner once the heat breaks. It’s cheap, it’s air conditioned nowhere, and it’s still the thing kids talk about on the drive home.
11. Catch a Live Show
Big theater shows are a genuine institution here, and they’ve been running long enough to get good at it. The Carolina Opry has been going since 1986 with a variety show of country, bluegrass, comedy, and dance.
Pirates Voyage is the dinner show, staged around an indoor lagoon with sword fights, high dives, and a full meal you’re meant to eat without utensils. The Alabama Theatre at Barefoot Landing runs a big variety production, and Legends in Concert does tribute acts.
Buy ahead in summer, especially for the dinner shows, because they sell out on rainy days when everyone in town has the same idea at once.
12. Ride the Swamp Fox at Family Kingdom
Family Kingdom sits right on the oceanfront on South Ocean Boulevard and it’s an old fashioned seaside amusement park, not a modern theme park. That’s the appeal. The Swamp Fox, a wooden coaster from 1966, still rattles you around in a way newer rides don’t.
There are about 35 rides in all, including a log flume and a Ferris wheel that puts you out over the sand. You can pay per ride or buy a wristband, and the wristband is the obvious call with kids.
Splashes water park across the street runs under the same ownership, and combo tickets cover both. It’s an easy walk from the south end of the boardwalk.
13. Cast a Line Off Apache Pier
At roughly 1,200 feet, Apache Pier is the longest wooden pier on the East Coast, and the best part is that you don’t need your own fishing license to use it. The pier’s license covers everyone standing on it.
The shop at the entrance rents rods and sells bait, so you can turn up with nothing and be fishing in ten minutes. There’s a restaurant partway out for when the bites stop coming.
Even without a rod it’s worth the small walking fee. You’re a quarter mile out over the ocean watching pelicans work the water, and it’s the cheapest good view in town.
14. Shop and Eat at Barefoot Landing
Up in North Myrtle Beach, Barefoot Landing is about 100 shops and restaurants set on boardwalks over the Intracoastal Waterway. It’s the more relaxed cousin of the main strip, and the water views make the browsing tolerable even if you hate shopping.
Alligator Adventure sits on the property with a serious collection of crocodilians, the House of Blues brings in touring acts, and the Alabama Theatre is right there for a show afterward.
It’s about 20 minutes north of the boardwalk. Go late in the day, eat dinner on the water, then stay for whatever’s playing.
15. Look for Dolphins on a Harbor Cruise
Bottlenose dolphins live off this coast all year, and they’re common enough that most trips find them without much drama. Boats run out of Murrells Inlet and Little River, both an easy drive from the main strip.
Crazy Sister Marina in Murrells Inlet runs the classic slow dolphin watch, while the Sea Screamer is a big open speedboat that turns the trip into a ride of its own. Pick based on whether your group wants calm or wants wind.
Morning trips get the flattest water and the fewest crowded boats. It’s one of the best things to do in Myrtle Beach with kids, and it gets you off the sand for a couple of hours without anyone complaining.
Final Thoughts
The mistake most people make here is staying inside a five block radius of their hotel for the whole week. The boardwalk, the SkyWheel, and Broadway at the Beach are all worth your time, but they’re also what everybody else is doing at the same hour.
Give up one beach morning and drive south instead. Brookgreen, Atalaya, and the MarshWalk sit within a few miles of each other and make one of the better days you can put together on this coast.
Whichever things to do in Myrtle Beach you end up picking, book the shows and the tee times before you come, keep the driving to one direction a day, and save at least one evening for nothing but the sand. The beach is still the reason you’re here.
