Summer Fun in Garden City

We spent a lot of our time lounging around on the beach in front of our condo. The water was a perfect temperature for swimming, and there were plenty of good waves for body boarding. In the mornings, during breakfast, we often were able to watch large schools of fish and families of stingrays swimming about farther offshore. On one morning in particular, while videotaping a group of surfers, we caught a family of dolphins playing and jumping about.

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Atalaya Towers is an oceanfront condo located about a half a mile north of the Garden City Pier. Although it is a slightly older condo, the rooms are well-kept and spacious. Most of the rooms have three bedrooms and two full baths. All of the rooms are oceanfront and come with a private balcony, kitchen, and living room. The master bedroom and living room are both set off of the balcony. The kitchens come fully equipped and include a microwave, dishwasher, and wet bar. All of the rooms also have a washer and dryer, central air, and cable TV. On the bottom floor is a heated indoor swimming pool and hot tub. There is also another outdoor pool on the street side of the condo.

Atalaya Towers is a fairly tall building (15 floors if I remember correctly), so some of the rooms have great views of the beach. During high tide, you can almost step right off the back deck and into the ocean. The management personnel were attentive and always happy to provide us with directions or recommendations. We never had any maintenance problems, so I not really in any position to comment on the reliability of the condo's maintenance personnel.

You are pretty much self-sufficient when it comes to housekeeping. There won't be anyone coming in to your room to make the beds or tidy up. However, housekeeping does clean each room in between reservations, so you won't have to worry about walking into a dirty room. All in all, my family and I are very happy with Atalaya Towers and have stayed there several times. The beach in front of the condo is magnificent, the condos are reasonably priced and spacious, and the atmosphere is laid-back.

The Hard Rock Cafe in Myrtle Beach is definitely one of the better Hard Rock Cafes I have been to. It is located at the Broadway at the Beach shopping complex. You can't miss it, because it will be the only restaurant in the area shaped like an Egyptian pyramid. If you have never been to a Hard Rock Cafe before, I should note that it is a large restaurant chain dedicated to yesterday’s and today's rock-and-roll bands. Myrtle Beach's Hard Rock Cafe, like the rest of them, is adorned top-to-bottom with rock-and-roll memorabilia from The Beatles to Aerosmith to Green Day. There are lots of TVs located throughout the restaurant that keep the music videos coming. The waiters and waitresses are upbeat and friendly and always ready to snap a picture or two for you. One of the first things you will notice as you walk inside is a large and colorful stained-glass window depicting Egyptian hieroglyphics.

I wouldn't recommend The Hard Rock Cafe if you are looking for something a little different in terms of food. The food is fundamentally American (hamburgers, salads, chicken, etc.), and although it's good and comes in large portions, it’s nothing you will be bragging about two days later. When it comes to the Hard Rock Cafe, you are paying for the atmosphere and service. Moreover, if you are a collector like I am, you will want to visit the gift shop before you leave to pick up your official (and unique) Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt (about $20).

Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum is guaranteed to amaze the young and old alike. It is a museum that is bursting at the seams with unusual human and animal oddities. As you walk up to the entrance, you will encounter a huge marble ball on top of a thin layer of water (the ball has to weigh no less than 2 tons) that you can spin around easily using only your hands. That is only the beginning.

As you tour the museum, you can stand next to a life-size replica of the tallest man ever to live (8'11"). You will also see displays containing two-headed animals, shrunken human heads that are the size of baseballs, and medieval torture devices, among other things. Best of all, it’s all real.

If you haven't heard the story (or seen the TV show), it might be intriguing to know that Mr. Ripley was a man that proved that the truth really is stranger than fiction. In his day, Mr. Ripley traveled the world searching for unusual real-life human and environmental oddities. Ripley's Believe It Or Not museums (there are several that are located throughout the world) illustrate Mr. Ripley's discoveries in a hands-on environment. Although I wouldn't recommend taking small children to the museum, children ages 8 and up or so will have a blast viewing the various displays and messing around with all of the hands-on activities. Every time we have gone, there has been a long line of people waiting to get into the museum, but the experience is well worth the wait.

Broadway at the Beach is a large outdoor shopping complex located about 1.5 miles from the ocean. It is situated around a large lake and offers all kinds of shops, nightclubs, and restaurants, as well as a movie theater, aquarium, water park, and even a miniature golf course. Throughout the day, there are waterskiing and jet-skiing shows on the lake and a multitude of live entertainers throughout the complex. When we were there, we got to meet one of the original munchkins from the Wizard of Oz who happened to be in the area and was signing autographs. Every night around closing time, there is a large fireworks show that takes place over the lake. A lot of the shops were specialty stores, but there were a few brand-name shops such as The Gap, Harley Davidson, Victoria's Secret, and Big Dog's Sportswear. There are also quite a few bars and nightclubs. We stopped off at Margaritaville and Fat Tuesdays. Both serve excellent drinks but are a little pricey. The miniature golf course is fun and is pretty reasonably priced compared to the other courses throughout Myrtle Beach. It has a castle theme to it, with a dragon on top of the castle that blows fire out of its mouth at certain points throughout the day. The Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, and Joe's Crab Shack are just a few of the restaurants I can remember that are located right on the boardwalk.

I would suggest visiting Boardwalk at the Beach during the middle of the week, as Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are usually very busy. Some of the stores are fairly small, and it can get very crowded inside when there are a lot of people. The waits to get into some of the better-known restaurants are also a lot longer on the weekends. I would highly recommend Broadway at the Beach if you want to do a little shopping but are getting sick and tired of all the Wings and Eagles Beachware stores that seem to be around every corner in Myrtle Beach. There is no admission and, as long as the weather is nice, you can spend an entire day shopping, eating, and being entertained.

The actual beach in Garden City Beach is located just south of Surfside Beach and approximately 8 to 9 miles south of Myrtle Beach. Compared to the beaches in Myrtle Beach, Garden City Beach is much cleaner and a lot less crowded. We spent most of our time on the stretch of beach located between the Garden City Beach Pier and the Surfside Beach Pier. Unlike a lot of beaches in Florida, Garden City Beach (along with the other beaches in and near Myrtle Beach) does not allow any vehicles to drive around on the beach. Not only does this cut down on pollution and garbage, but you will also feel a lot better knowing that your children won't be accidentally run over by careless drivers. The water temperature during mid-July to mid-August is perfect; not too warm, not too cold. For the more adventurous types, there are plenty of great waves for surfing and body boarding. There is also a local marina where you can rent jet skis, but as they are in many tourist hot spots, they are quite expensive to rent. Even during high tides, there is plenty of beach left over for building sand castles and playing volleyball (you may have to bring your own net, however). There are lifeguard towers located every 1/4 mile or so along the beach that are manned from about 8am until dusk. I would not recommend swimming before 8am, given that there are no lifeguards on duty, and on several occasions, we saw quite a few families of stingrays from our balcony, swimming around near the shore, looking for breakfast. The stingrays always seemed to be gone, though, by the time we would hit the beach at around 9:30am. Throughout all of the trips we have made to Garden City Beach, we have never had a problem with strong undercurrents or rough waves. Thus, Garden City Beach is a perfect spot for young children and weak swimmers to have a great time. All things considered, Garden City Beach is a great beach to visit if you are bringing your family along and you want to avoid all of the hustle and bustle that is apparent everywhere in Myrtle Beach.

When the sun goes down in Garden City Beach, I would recommend heading over to the Garden City Beach Pier for live entertainment and drinks. It won't cost you a thing to access the pier or enter the bars, but some of the drinks can get pretty expensive, so be sure to bring a little extra cash if you plan on having more than a couple of drinks. If you enter the pier from Atlantic Avenue, you will have to walk through an ice cream parlor/arcade/gift shop to actually get to the ocean side of the pier. Keep the ice cream parlor and arcade in mind if you want a place to cool off during the day. The ice cream is pretty good, and although the arcade isn't as big as some of the ones across the street, it is usually a little less crowded. As you walk through the arcade/gift shop, you will come to a small bar in the back that has a patio and several TVs for catching sports games. However, if it is live entertainment you are looking for, then you need to walk to the bar at the end of the pier. There are live bands that play each night and love to get the crowd going. Arrive early if you want a good seat, though. The bar can get very crowded, and there usually are not enough tables and chairs to go around. If you need a break from all the noise, head back out to the pier. You will almost always find other couples enjoying the scenery and each others' company and fishermen hoping to reel in a big catch.