A Myrtle Beach Vacation to cherish

Myrtle Beach is the home of the South Carolina Myrtle Beach Pelicans and the Carolina Opry and the pretty and very popular Convention Center. This is a very family oriented city and it features over a 1000 restaurants, over 100 golf courses and over 60 miles of soft, wide and wonderful beaches.

Myrtle beach is a top vacation spot for over 100 years and it boasts of plenty of premium shopping outlets and many ultra fine luxury department stores. With over 14 million folk visiting the Myrtle Beach area yearly, it is not really any wonder that this area is one of the more premier family vacation location for people all over the world.

The Broadway at the Beach – is a beautiful area that features over 350 acres of dining, shopping nightlife and hotels . You should stop in at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville for a quick lunch or drink as you shop in great stores like Brook Street candy, and M.R. Ducks.

And when the sun sets here Broadway at the Beach really does come alive. The Celebrity square mixes many clubs in a single place. There is everything here – from country music, to electronica music and can be found in 4 adjacent rooms. And for the shopping essentials you have the Tanger Outlet Malls – the place to find cheap bargains.
There is the Adidas store, several Gap stores, Kenneth Cole, Land’s End – all these can be discovered at Tanger with their two convenient locations in the Myrtle Beach area.

Now for more fun – Myrtle Beach is sometimes known as the golf capital of the world

You can experience a few of the world’s most challenging golfing courses – many of which are designed to defend the natural habitat and the native wildlife of the area. With courses like these – for all experience range of golfers – Myrtle Beach offers a year-long weather for golf with great golf courses and greens that are made by internationally famous architects like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Robert Trent Jones, and Greg Norman.

Family fun is the focus of Myrtle Beach with an abundance of activities that are designed to keep everyone interested during a Myrtle Beach vacation. There is the Ripley’s Aquarium, some Children’s Museum, several miniature golf grounds, and even a NASCAR raceway, all minutes away from your vacation hotel.

Brookgreen Gardens Murrells Inlet - Myrlte Beach

Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet is another great place – a short drive south from Myrtle Beach. Here you can discover the quintessence of the low country as you pass through historical marshlands and many other unincorporated areas. Murrell’s Inlet offers tourists many recreational pursuits in a lovely inlet setting and this includes deep sea fishing charters, individual ship rentals, scuba swimming, boat tours, parasailing, kayaking and jet skiing. There are two very popular annual events and they are the Fourth of July Ship Parade and the Blessing of the Inlet. The Mire Walk is a marsh-front setting and it offers spectacular views and wildlife.

Pawley’s Island is the southern most part of The Grand Strand and is often known as the oldest summer resorts on the east coast.

PawleyIsland - Myrtle Beach

Pawley’s Island continues to be renowned for its shoeless, untroubled, relaxed life-style, which includes crabbing in the opposite streams, fishing, the stories of spooks, the rope hammocks and the untouched, unsophisticated, casual, pleasant stretch of wide beach and sand dunes. A vast array of local eateries and specialist shops are splattered throughout . Be certain to check out Pawley’s Island Hammocks and the Crab Cake lady shop.

When selecting your next holiday spot, don’t hesitate to plan a Myrtle Beach Vacation.

Myrtle Beach Vacation Spots – more than just a beach

Myrtle Beach has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but a Myrtle Beach Vacation does not only mean lounging on a beach – there is so much to do for you and your family.

Medieval Times at Myrtle Beach

Mytle Beach Vacations - Mediveal Times

While you are on your South Carolina Vacation – you must make it a point to visit Medieval Times  at Myrtle Beach – This place will take you back in time to a different era. One’s vacation in Myrtle Beach is not complete until one visits this spectacular entertainment show which happens live and has some of the most amazing special effects you will see and some real competitions. For more than 25 years Medieval Times and the nine castles that it operates all over the world has entertained people with their Hollywood style presentations. They have very authentic medieval tournaments – this place will take you back to the 11th century.

Mytle Beach Mediveal Times Jousting

With your colorful coat of arms, you will sit in one of the many areas of their massive arena. And you can enjoy the four-meal course that is for royalty – and you will be implored to cheer for the knight that is wearing your coat of arms fighting for you. Before the main event, you can enjoy some beautiful stallions that are displayed and  some of the other smaller shows that are staged before the evening’s joust.

The excitement of all this will rise as you feast on a four course meal while you enjoying the fight for the title of champion – so you can honor your knight.

Fishing on your Myrtle Beach Vacation

Myrtle Beach Starfish

Going fishing on a Myrtle Beach Vacation is very fun and it be done either off-shore or on-shore, just depends on what is more convenient for you. The channels and the creeks that go into Atlantic Ocean are mostly salt water based and hence Myrtle Beach is popular for saltwater fishing – not as much for freshwater fishing.

For this fishing trip, you will need a pyramid shaped weight to keep your rig based on the  bottom with a very different type of bait and tackle and since this salt water we are talking about here you must remember to rinse your reel with the fresh water every time it is used to prevent damage. The common kinds of fishes you can expect to catch here are  flounder, pompano, whiting, spot, bluefish and the channel bass- there are plenty of catches here because of the surf and because of the beach is accessible throughout the year.

Fishing on your Myrtle Beach Vacation

The months of the fall season is usually a good time for fishing since it is less humid and is considered. You will see that deep-sea fishing at the Myrtle Beach area is a thrilling experience and a great adventure. You should know that some of the biggest and most well known fish catches can be traced to Myrtle Beach area – it is not surprising as the fishing is so great here.

Fishing on your Myrtle Beach vacation can be an enjoyable experience.

Visit Myrtle Beach Parks on your South Carolina Vacation

You can enjoy a great family picnic in some of the most scenic parks and recreational facilities on your Myrtle Beach Vacation. There are beautiful parks where you can experience a relaxing bike ride or enjoy some action packed horseback riding along the numerous nature trails and bike trails.

Hard Rock Park, Myrtle Beach

You can also find several baseball fields and tennis courts in most of these parks and there are recreational facilities were you can enjoy a game with your family and your friends. For the children there are Myrtle Beach parks like Hill Street Park that offer playgrounds and other activities.

For those sports fans, the J. Bryan Ford Recreation Center has four soccer and baseball and softball fields, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, roller hockey rink, four tennis courts and more. There are many parks that allow you to set up your tent and enjoy a great camping experience. There is plenty to do while on vacation in Myrtle Beach – other than just lounging around on it’s beautiful beaches.

Go Shopping at Myrtle Beach

You might feel your stay is too short once you get a chance to see the wide variety of shopping options available at Myrtle Beach. From shopping malls to factory outlets and even flea markets, Myrtle Beach is full of interesting places to purchase anything you can imagine. Delight in beautiful store windows and visit quaint shops along the miles and miles of boardwalk shopping that awaits avid shoppers. Or, you can go treasure hunting at one of Myrtle Beach’s fascinating flea markets.

Shopping venues in North, South and Centr

Myrtle Beach Shopping

al Myrtle Beach can also be enjoyed when barefoot. And , you certainly can’t miss the endless streets of Grand Strand shopping communities like Little River, Windy Hill, Crescent Beach, Ocean Drive and Murells Inlet. There’s a special store that’s waiting for you in each of these small towns along the sixty-mile stretch of sandy beaches. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the non-shoppers; they’ll have plenty to do on the beach, golf courses or excellent amusement parks that can be found on Myrtle Beach.

These are some of the best know shopping places in Myrtle Beach area:

The toughest courses in Myrtle Beach

When you want to choose a course to play in Myrtle Beach – It is like finding a needle in a haystack: there many possibilities but no certainty. Well, that is until now!!

There are some people who only go for the golf courses in the top 100 list or some well known architects while still many others are drawn to the many bargain and cheap courses. But then there are those who are tough and brave and they always want to test themselves and push the envelope. Right here you will find some of the toughest golf courses in Myrtle Beach.

1. Barefoot Golf Resort (Dye Course)

7,400 yards, par 72;  Fees: $110-$180
843-390-3200, barefootgolf.com
Golf Architect: Pete Dye

This is a mean mean track – right on the Grand Strand and it comes from the great Marquis de Sod, Pete Dye himself. It is playable only if you rein in that ego of yours and if you choose the right tees, the only question is, can you?

This is a brutal course, with a Kilimanjaro like slope of 149. And if the scattering of bunkers don’t get you, then you can expect to face the rugged quartet of par 3s and this includes the two of the toughest holes here: the 227-yard 15th and the even more challenging – the 195-yard 6th.

Barefoot Golf Resort at Myrtle Beach

2. Rivers Edge Golf Club

7000 yards, par 72;
Fees: $89-$109
877-748-3718, river18.com

Architect: Arnold Palmer

It should come as no that the King’s gambling style which is of play translates into a multiple risk  - reward holes situation at this punishing layout.

The risks here are simply terrifying — and they are found everywhere — and can be seen by the impressive 74.7 rating and the exciting 149-slope for a course which stretches out barely to 7,000 yards.

Even  safe play is ripe with peril on most of holes and this is thanks to targets that are jabbed into the tidal marshes along the lovely Shallotte River. This thrill-packed course  is one of Myrtle Beach’s hardest three-shotters.

3. Pawleys Plantation
7,050 yards, par 72;
Fees: $79-$147
843-237-6200, pawleysplantation.com
Architect: Jack Nicklaus

This course was built more than 20 years ago at a time when the Golden Bear routinely put a ferocious growl factor into his designs – Pawleys will not scare anyone these days – not with its length at least. But look at the vast waste bunkers and the massive acres of marshland – and you can see that it still has bite left in it. The high, soft landing, accurate approaches are what make this a challenging trail.

The 145-yard, par-3 on the 13th and the 444-yard with the par-4 on the 16th,  share a very narrow double-green that is isolated just by salt marsh.

4. Dunes Golf & Beach Club
7,200 yards, par 72;
Fees: $95-$200;
843-449-5236, thedunesclub.net;
Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr.

This is a 60 year-old layout and offers some valuable lessons in knowing ones limitations.

Gary McCord once had won a Champions Tour event at 12-under-par but the only numbers you should pay attention to are the slope of 144 and the formidable course rating of 75.7.

For the middle handicappers, this is simply the golf equivalent of a roadside mugging, partly due to it’s collection of elevated and fiercely trapped greens and of course the card-wreckers like the lagoon laced, 430 yard, par-4 on 11th and the crushing 590 yard, par 5 on 13th, which curves around 110 degrees in the alligator infested Singleton Lake.

Dunes Golf Beach Club at Myrtle Beach

5. Grande Dunes (Resort Course)

7,620 yards, par 72;
Fees: $99- $209;
888-886-8877, grandedunes.com;
Architect: Roger Rulewich

This golf course has huge fairways and massive greens and they are guarded by some colossal bunkers and this gives an idea of the scale of the challenges at this course – it is the longest course in Myrtle Beach.

The difficulty comes in the fact that there is a profusion of clever water hazards which drown nearly every hole out here – especially at the 8th and 14th holes and also a pair of all carry par 3s which come in at more than 240 yards.

The ball retrievers that were invented for these holes feature 2 forced carries, and the par-5 at 17th hole is where water lurks for any shot that has been tugged even slightly towards the left. On the optimistic side there are six sets of tees that allow you to limit your pain.

Grand Dunes Golf Course At Myrtle Beach

If you still haven’t had enough, there are some more tough courses and mind you, they pack a mean punch.

Legends (Moorland)
6,799 yards, par 72;
Fees: $58-$124
800-299-6187, legendsgolf.com

The Panther’s Run at Ocean Ridge Plantation
7,090 yards, par 72;
Fees: $54-$93
800-233-1801, big-cats.com

St. James Plantation (Players Club)
6,947 yards, par 72;
Green fees: $80-$100; 800-281-6626,
theclubsatstjames.com

Tidewater Golf Club
7,078 yards, par 72;
Green fees: $109-$209
843-249-3829, tidewatergolf.com

True Blue
7,062 yards, par 72;
Green fees: $92-$159
843-235-0900, truebluegolf.com

Myrtle Beach Vacation Rentals for your South Carolina Vacation

Some more Myrtle Beach vacation tips and tricks

And some more about the warm hospitality at Myrtle Beach Vacation Rental

Another video for a great rental

Carolina Beach Today: Ho Ho Ho…The Big 2010 Snow

Year long fun at your North Myrtle Beach Vacation

Festivals and Activities in North Myrtle Beach for your Vacation

Events in North Myrtle Beach - 2010 Calendar

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