For those in their 50s and older: The Seniors Center is on 21st, which intersects with Ocean Boulevard. (This is very close to Broadway at the Beach and Sheraton Plantation timeshare.) It is a 10-year-old nice brick building, but they have outgrown it.…Read More

For those in their 50s and older:

The Seniors Center is on 21st, which intersects with Ocean Boulevard. (This is very close to Broadway at the Beach and Sheraton Plantation timeshare.) It is a 10-year-old nice brick building, but they have outgrown it. They are currently having a building fund campaign (2004) to build a much-needed addition and a larger parking lot area. An annual membership is less than $20. They have about 7,000 members! The age requirement is either 50 or 55. For golfers, there is an additional membership, which gets you discounts at several different golf courses and the savings quickly offset the membership fee-only one person in a foursome needs to be a member to get the discounts at the golf courses. They put out a monthly newsletter. For an additional $2, they will send you the newsletter at home if you are not a local so you can stay current on the happenings. Their activities include dance classes, bingo, cards, a newly formed Singles group (YES!) with over-50 members (which starts in just a few months), monthly dances, field trips, some art classes, trips to nearby gambling boats, meals, and more. For any senior singles, reading this–some of the activities so far for the singles group include parasailing, deep-sea fishing, a gambling boat visit, a picnic, and meeting for happy hour on Friday nights. They meet every week on Mondays also.

During the day, hang out at the beach, collect seashells, jump the waves, or just relax by the pool, but by night, watch out because the city comes alive! First check out Broadway at the Beach. Here you have restaurants of every color, shopping to your…Read More

During the day, hang out at the beach, collect seashells, jump the waves, or just relax by the pool, but by night, watch out because the city comes alive!

First check out Broadway at the Beach. Here you have restaurants of every color, shopping to your heart’s desire, an aquarium for the kids, and then when the sun goes down, check out the nightlife in the many different bars, pubs, and nightclubs. You will have different choices of music from rock to oldies and then cool off with a daiquiri at the outdoor daiquiri bar.

If live entertainment is more your style, there are many places to chose from, including Alabama Theatre, House of Blues, and many more. Live entertainment is not to be missed.

Then if you want dining, all you have to do is decide what you want to eat? Seafood? Fast food? Local flavor? Hard Rock? Nascar Cafe? So many options, so little time.

Myrtle Beach is fun for all ages because there is so much to do and so much not to do. If you want to relax, then by all means relax, but if you want action, then action it is!

And don’t miss the Pavilion -- it's been around for ages. You have an amusement park that is across the street from the beach and there are shops up and down the road. Bars and nightclubs are abundant.

We spent a morning exploring North and South Myrtle Beach to get our bearings. We did a little shopping at the (South) Myrtle Beach Pavilion. That afternoon we spent at Broadway at the Beach, a shopping complex surrounding a manmade lake. It’s huge, but there…Read More

We spent a morning exploring North and South Myrtle Beach to get our bearings. We did a little shopping at the (South) Myrtle Beach Pavilion.

That afternoon we spent at Broadway at the Beach, a shopping complex surrounding a manmade lake. It’s huge, but there are lots of places to sit and wait for others in your group. You can take a gondola ride for $12. There are free boat rides that will take you from one end of the complex to the next, and there are many bridges you can use to cross the lake. They even have fish-food dispensers so that you can feed the many fish in the lake. There are also quite a few restaurants in the complex, including Plant Hollywood, Joe’s Crab Shack, Hard Rock Café, The Key West Grill, and many more. There’s also the Ripley’s Aquarium, a must-see for children and adults alike! You could literally spend all day here. We broke it up into two afternoons.

We tried to see BB King at the House of Blues, but even though we got there 2 hours before the show to buy tickets, the line was wrapped around the building. This particular concert we found out was general admission and standing-room only. This would have been helpful to know in advance, but could not be determined from the website. Standing the whole time was not an option for some in our group.

There’s the Palace Theatre, where we saw Spirit of the Dance. We went there one other evening for Dean Martin’s Variety Show with celebrity impersonators. This show was held in one of The Palace’s smaller theatres, which was set up like a lounge with small tables and a bar so that you could have drinks during the show. For the older ones in our group, they really enjoyed this.

On Sunday, we had afternoon tea at The Cypress Inn in Conway, SC, about 20 minutes away from our resort in Myrtle Beach. The Cypress Inn is a quaint, local bed-and-breakfast off a small waterway. The owners are very warm and welcoming. We had to prepay for the tea and one-act play, and they had our names on a list when we arrived. After tea, a local playwright presented a one-act murder/mystery/comedy play titled: Murder In The Tea Room. It was quite funny and a perfect ending to the tea.

One day we drove up to Calabash, NC, only 20 minutes from Myrtle Beach for the Hurricane Fleet’s Shrimping & Dolphin Adventure Cruise. It was great!! They took us out into the Atlantic Ocean, where we caught up with a working shrimp boat. While they explained to us how a shrimping operation works, we watched about three dolphin pods approach and start feeding from the nets of the boat, not to mention the tons of birds flying around the boat and fighting for food. Anything brought up in their nets that they cannot use they return to the sea. They bagged some things of interest and tossed it to our boat, and our guide displayed and explained what they were, things like sand dollars, stingrays and butterfly rays, starfish, etc. There was even a blue crab they caught with a fish on its claw. It was fishing also and was returned to the sea. It was very informative and great for kids and adults alike. After the tour, we were hungry for some of the local seafood, so we had dinner at one of the many local calabash restaurants, Captain Nance’s Calabash.

We also spent a day at Brookgreen Gardens, which is a sculpture garden. We went the day before thinking that we could see the gardens in a few hours. After we watched the introductory film about the gardens at the welcome center, we realized we needed a whole day. Our tickets to the gardens were good for 7 days. So we decided to come back the next day. It is really worth spending the whole day. The gardens are a combination of plantations, purchased later by an American sculptor and her husband and converted into the sculptor garden we see today. The garden is laid out in the shape of a butterfly. I cannot begin to describe all of the flowers and sculptures we saw. It’s a beautiful place full of flowers, sculptures, pools, and fountains. All of the sculptures were done by American artists. In addition to the gardens, there is a restaurant, a gift shop, and an animal reserve including bird aviaries and a rice field. There’s a boat tour of the waterway that was used to flood the rice fields. Our tour guide explained how the rice plantation would have been worked during the times of slavery. After spending the day in the gardens, we had dinner off of the water at Murrells Inlet, which is only minutes away. It was a day well spent.

We also did a day trip to Charleston, SC, which is about 2 hours from Myrtle Beach, to do some sightseeing and have dinner at The Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah Island. The hotel reminded me more of a resort than a hotel. It just opened in September of 2004. It is very beautiful and right on the beach.

While exploring North and South Myrtle Beach, we did spend a couple of hours at the beach with the full intention of coming back for a day. But, as you can see, there are so many other things to do that we never made it back. There is literally something to do for all ages.

For anyone going to the Myrtle Beach area to play golf, we found the most amazing deal on the Internet. The Grand Strand Golf Association has weekly, 3-month and yearly memberships available. These memberships include discounted golf rates at over 40 different courses…Read More

For anyone going to the Myrtle Beach area to play golf, we found the most amazing deal on the Internet. The Grand Strand Golf Association has weekly, 3-month and yearly memberships available. These memberships include discounted golf rates at over 40 different courses from Georgetown in the south up into just over the state line in North Carolina. The rates include green fees and your cart. To give an example of the rates – we played at Brick Landing at a rate of $28 per person. If we had booked this through Sheraton’s Broadway Plantation it would have been upwards of $70 per person. Even with some of the lesser-priced courses through Sheraton’s Broadway Plantation, we figured that our card was paid for with our first round of golf.

The rates are very reasonable - check out www.grandstrandgolfassociation.com

Weekly rates are $20 per person and a yearly card is $89 per couple. We had ordered the one-week card, but when we had done some more exchanges for November ‘03 and February ’04, we contacted them and they readily agreed to upgrade us to the yearly card for the differential in price.

Included with this card are discounts at a large golf store, Golf Dimensions, and some smaller stores as well.

There are some restaurant discounts and discounts for Brookgreen Gardens. All I can say is check their website, because we saved hundreds of dollars in just one week.

This trip for about three hours was an amazingly awesome tour. We go out in 14 passenger jeeps which are really fun! Hey, the whole trip is fun but it is also very exciting and interesting. We see more than you could ever imagine in…Read More

This trip for about three hours was an amazingly awesome tour. We go out in 14 passenger jeeps which are really fun! Hey, the whole trip is fun but it is also very exciting and interesting. We see more than you could ever imagine in one tour: alligators in their natural habitat, salt marsh ecosystem, a castle, a haunted graveyard which was beautiful with all the old moss and oak trees, the old rice plantation region and real rice fields, a barrier island with slave cabins and pirate areas—I could go on and on. The guide was so excellent. The whole tour was really, really good. Loved it.

It is more than I could have ever expected. I would recommend it to absolutely anyone. It is easy too if you have any kids or problems getting around. I want to go back again too. Have fun in Myrtle Beach it is a great area! Great restaurants too like the China Buffet and Giant Crab.Close

We dove with Coastal Scuba during Easter Vacation, and were disappointed and scared by the time we left. The rental equipment wasn't ready when we got there, and you had to fend for yourself in making sure you had everything. The ship was clearly not…Read More

We dove with Coastal Scuba during Easter Vacation, and were disappointed and scared by the time we left. The rental equipment wasn't ready when we got there, and you had to fend for yourself in making sure you had everything. The ship was clearly not maintained, and two of the three staff members acted like we weren't even there. They didn't set up the equipment, acted put out that we asked them to look over what we'd set up (this is the first dive operator we've ever went on that didn't have the equipment ready and you're the one who checks it). The only helpful crew member even helped people into the water, so it took forever. The other two just sat and chatted. The line they had going down to the wreck was right under the boat, which was dangerous due to the rough water. A few fellow divers said they were almost knocked out. Out of the twelve people diving that day, only three went in for the second dive... that is telling. I would not dive in Myrtle Beach or find another operator that works in your interest, not one that takes your money and has a "good luck" attitude. Close

There are several tourist centers and booths in the area where you can buy tickets to attractions or get discounts and coupons. This is also where you can get involved in timeshare presentations if you are interested. There are many presentations in the area where…Read More

There are several tourist centers and booths in the area where you can buy tickets to attractions or get discounts and coupons. This is also where you can get involved in timeshare presentations if you are interested. There are many presentations in the area where they give free or discounted tickets to the events and/or cash. I found the South Beach presentation most impressive. The sales people were much friendlier and the quality of the property compared to the cost of other timeshares I had visited was much superior. This property is owned by hometown boys, who are also in the real estate business and have donated land to the town for the library, art museum, and state park. They also own several of the amusement venues in town. Close

Broadway at the Beach offers something for everybody: the young, the old, and everyone in between. There are many diverse dining experiences: Hard Rock Cafe, All Star Café, and many more unique solo operations. The All Star Café was fun for us…Read More

Broadway at the Beach offers something for everybody: the young, the old, and everyone in between.

There are many diverse dining experiences: Hard Rock Cafe, All Star Café, and many more unique solo operations.

The All Star Café was fun for us as we love sports. The place is filled with all sorts of sports memorabilia, games, trivia, and TVs with your favorite game on. The food was similar to many of these sorts of chain establishments, but it was good nonetheless.

Broadway at the Beach offers ample shopping to suit most anyone’s tastes.

Other attractions include Ripley’s Aquarium and the Nascar Go-cart Speedway.

The Ripley Aquarium is one of the best aquariums that I have ever seen. In addition to the great displays and a huge aquarium, which surrounds you as you walk under/through it, there are many "hands on" exhibits, and even chances to learn. A few hours spent at Ripley’s is well worth the price of admission of $20 per person.

The Nascar go-cart racing and arcade is fun for the whole family. It gives a chance to finally settle, once and for all, who is the best, fastest, and lightest driver. Watch out if you try the slick track as fishtailing and swerving are the name of the game, and it's very easy to lose control.

After hours, the nightlife comes alive at Broadway at the Beach, or so I’m told.

To view what is available and make some plans before you go, I'd suggest spending some time online on their site. Click on this link to begin your exploration Broadway at the Beach.

For you seafood lovers, you will want to check out one of many Calabash Seafood Buffets. Many of them feature more than a hundred different items to choose from. We chose Crabby Mike’s. It was very good and had so many items, it was…Read More

For you seafood lovers, you will want to check out one of many Calabash Seafood Buffets. Many of them feature more than a hundred different items to choose from.

We chose Crabby Mike’s. It was very good and had so many items, it was almost impossible to try them all--but I did my best. You had better be sure everyone in your party really and truly likes seafood to make the experience worth the $25+ price of admission.

Other fun and good stops to eat for us were: All Star Café, California Pizza, and, of course, Krispy Kreme doughnuts for dessert. For the Krispy Kremes, be sure to wait until the sign in the window flashes "Hot Now!"; then rush in and watch the doughnuts coming off the production line, served hot to the touch. They are guaranteed to melt in your mouth. Even for the fitness-conscious folks out there--go ahead, have one. They're great!

Here's a link to some other dining options: Dining in Myrtle Beach.

If you love the beach (sunsets and sunrises), bargains, bogeys, and blues -- then you'll love Myrtle Beach. You'll love Barefoot Landing, with upscale factory outlet stores, broadwalk shops, waterfront dining, and great entertainment. Show up for live theater, from down-home country and comedy to…Read More

If you love the beach (sunsets and sunrises), bargains, bogeys, and blues -- then you'll love Myrtle Beach. You'll love Barefoot Landing, with upscale factory outlet stores, broadwalk shops, waterfront dining, and great entertainment. Show up for live theater, from down-home country and comedy to the latest Off-Broadway tours. Make a splash with sprawling water parks and waterfront amuesement parts. Play golf at world-class courses. And enjoy a night on the town at the world-famous House of Blues, All-Star Cafe, Hard Rock Cafe, and more.Close