The Grand Strand is, well, grand! Sixty miles of sensational wide, sandy beaches. And enough shells, starfish, sand dollars, and shark teeth to delight serious beachcombers. Let’s look at the numbers: in those 60 miles, you find 14 communities, 11 beaches, 157,000 rooms, and 2,000 restaurants. Then there are the tourists. I always say 21 million people can’t be wrong!

What Makes the Grand Strand “Sun”sational?

According to Southern Living readers, who cast votes to choose the 15 Best Beaches in The South, North Myrtle Beach at the top of the Grand Strand, is smack in the middle of that list. In 1968, a group of municipalities combined. North Myrtle Beach was born from  Windy Hill Beach, Ocean Drive Beach, Crescent Beach, and Cherry Grove Beach. Since its creation, it has attracted visitors who love the nine miles of uncrowded beaches, the pier, and the fact that Destination North Myrtle Beach describes itself this way, “we’re different—and that’s okay!”

The towns banded together for mutual benefit but maintained their individuality. Street signs have the original town name underneath the street name, making it easy to tell what section you are in, like Main Street, Ocean Drive, or 11th Avenue North, Cherry Grove.

Also, in the 2024 USA Today Reader’s Choice 10 Best Beaches in South Carolina, readers selected their top choices in the Palmetto State. More than half of those beaches (seven!) are scattered along the Grand Strand. The Grand Strand winners are listed in winning order here:

• No. 8:  Myrtle Beach
• No. 7:  Surfside Beach
• No. 6:  Cherry Grove Beach (NMB)
• No. 5:  Huntington Beach State Park (Murrells Inlet)
• No. 4:  Litchfield Beach
• No. 2:  North Myrtle Beach
• No. 1:  Pawleys Island

Lots of those votes come from locals, too. We all love living here and describe our beaches a bit differently from the cookie-cutter descriptions you read in travel brochures. Sure, those descriptions are accurate, but they also leave out many things that make “our beach” unique.

Grand Strand Beaches

Here is a local’s view of the beaches, starting at the North Carolina state line and moving South along the Grand Strand. I’m sure you will find whatever you’re looking for in a beach here.

North Myrtle Beach (4 small beach towns)

Lumped together, most people have simply called the area “North Myrtle Beach” for the last 50-plus years. However, the small towns that created NMB are distinctly different. North Myrtle Beach is a tight-knit community of people who are proud to be part of something big, like NMB and the Grand Strand, but are still fiercely proud of their individuality.

Since 2000, the area has been growing like a vine—a grapevine, that is. NMB is home to La Belle Amie Vineyards, Twelve 33 Distillery, and the Crooked Hammock Brewery, giving visitors a wide range of beverage choices.

North Myrtle Beach has more than 50 public parking locations, giving convenient, easy access to the public. At night and during the off-season, many of those locations offer free parking.

Cherry Grove Beach

Cherry Grove Beach is a point of land that juts into the blue Atlantic and may be best known for its incredible wooden pier. Hurricane Ian neatly removed the middle, but repairs have been completed, and the historic Cherry Grove Pier is open again. The pier extends 985 feet out into the Atlantic, and its claim to fame is that it is the best fishing spot on the Carolina coastline. More than one fishing record has been set from that pier, including the world’s largest tiger shark.

In 1964, Charlotte, NC stonemason Walter Maxwell spent five hours cranking the fishing reel more than 2,000 times to land the tiger shark. Friends had to pour water on the reel to prevent overheating. When the almost 14-foot-long fish was weighed a day later, it tipped the scale at 1,780 pounds. It set the International Game Fish Association World Record. When caught, estimates of weight were close to 2,000 pounds.

There are also nine miles of shoreline, with silky-smooth sand and refreshing salty water to cool you off. Call a charming beach cottage home for your visit, and walk more than you drive. A benefit of walking to Snooky’s Oceanfront Restaurant is working up an appetite for the scrumptious fresh seafood and raw bar. The benefit of the return trip is walking off the calories so you are ready for another delicious meal tomorrow!

Crescent Beach

Crescent Beach is the smallest of the four towns that comprise NMB, but there is still plenty to see and do here. Visit the North Myrtle Beach Visitor Information Center and gather local resources to make the most of your beach days—or to plan your next visit! (You know you’ll be back!) You can’t stay away once you get Grand Strand sand in your shoes. *smile*

Crescent Beach is home to Lost Treasure Mini Golf, a recreated mining town complete with a mining train and two full-size golf courses. The J Bryan Floyd Community Center’s 20-acre park offers playgrounds with picnic shelters, basketball, soccer, baseball, and facilities for the newest craze – pickleball.

New Wave Watersports calls Crescent Beach home and offers water-centered activities like banana boating and parasailing!

Ocean Drive Beach

Ocean Drive (OD) Beach is famous for beach music and the shag (South Carolina’s State Dance.) Don’t know how to Shag? No problem; at Fat Harold’s Beach Club, Duck’s Dance Club, The Spanish Galleon, and the OD Beach Club, you can find lessons and dancers ready to give you pointers to get you shagging on the Strand.

All summer, Thursdays mean one thing in OD—Music on Main Street. Folks come to the horseshoe where Main Street ends at the ocean. They bring chairs, claim a spot early, then eat or stroll on the beach, and return to listen and sway to music until after dark.

Specialty shops, boutiques, cute consignment stores, delicious eateries, Greg Rowles’ Legacy Theatre, and dance clubs line Main Street. And Hoskin’s Restaurant was one of the first restaurants on the Grand Strand. They have been feeding the people in OD for 76 years and counting.

Windy Hill Beach

At the tip of North Myrtle Beach, you find Windy Hill. Some of the area’s top attractions are in this southern section of NMB. With the Atlantic to the east and the Intracoastal Waterway to the west, King’s Highway comes right through the middle, providing easy access to fun spots north or south of Windy Hill.

Barefoot Landing, a popular shopping and live entertainment spot with over 100 choices to peruse, is on the waterway. Several restaurants have fantastic views of mega-yachts making their way along from points as far north as Massachusetts to the southern end of the waterway in Texas.

Favorite attractions at Barefoot include Alabama Theatre, House of Blues, and Duplin Winery.

Atlantic Beach

Atlantic Beach is known as The Black Pearl and was founded in 1966 during the era of segregation. At a time when black Americans wanted to enjoy the Grand Strand and the Atlantic Ocean, only a few beaches in the United States were open to African Americans.

Atlantic Beach is small but proud. A mere four blocks by seven blocks, the town has a beautiful beach and deep roots in Gullah-Geechee culture. Today, Atlantic Beach is home to beach lovers of all races, and they celebrate their history with a Gullah Festival.

Its R&B and Beach Music history still has us dancing in the streets. Myrtle Beach venues hired famous performers like Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Otis Redding, and Ray Charles to entertain all-white audiences. Still, they could not eat or sleep there. After finishing Myrtle Beach gigs, they headed for Atlantic Beach and late-night performances. They also found a welcoming place to eat and spend the night.

Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach is the jewel in the Grand Strand crown. The family-friendly beach has restaurants, motels, shops, and entertainment venues. The boardwalk is almost a mile and a quarter long. Most people believe the town was named for the Crepe Myrtle trees that bloom all summer throughout the South. Nope. A woman suggested the name because native Wax Myrtle trees cover the area. Now you know!

This place is known simply as The Beach to locals and those who grew up coming to Myrtle Beach at every opportunity. Anywhere along the East Coast, if you said you were going to The Beach, everyone knew (without a doubt) you were headed to Myrtle Beach.

This action-filled town captured hearts, mine and many others, when we were mere babes. I include the ’Bama Boys in that statement. The cousins from Alabama came to The Beach to make their mark as Wild Country, a house band working for tips and serving beers. Their persistence paid off in 1980 when RCA offered the band a contract under their new name, Alabama. A tradition since 1944, The Bowery is still open seven days a week. Stop by—maybe the boys will be there too—they still consider it home.

And everybody who comes to Myrtle Beach visits the Gay Dolphin Gift Cove at least once. The original 1946 gift shop was destroyed by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Rebuilding happened in stages, and the iconic tower was constructed in the 1960s. Today, in its 78th year, the Gay Dolphin is in the capable hands of the Plyler’s third generation.

Grand Strand and Myrtle Beach History

Around the turn of the last century, Myrtle Beach became a resort destination, with an airport added in 1939. By the 1940s, 5,000 acres became the Myrtle Beach Army Air Field and a combat training ground for thousands of airmen.

Today, the former base is a thriving community known as The Market Commons. The Trolley Tours company picks up customers in front of the theater and tours the area. Various tours are available: WWII and POW camps, Myrtle Beach history, Movies and Music, and Pirates and Ghosts. A day or two on a tour with Kathryn will give you a peek into local history and tall tales.

The area’s history includes the first golf course, Pine Lakes, which opened in 1927 and is lovingly called “The Granddaddy.” Few people know that back in 1954, this spot was the birthplace of a little magazine named Sports Illustrated. A group came to Pine Lakes for a retreat, and the talk turned to whether people would pay for a magazine with only sports content. The rest, as they say, is Myrtle Beach history.

Mom and Pop motels still dot the landscape of Ocean Boulevard, and “snowbirds” from up north flock to The Beach to escape miserable northern winter weather. Most arrive just after New Year’s Day and stay until Easter. Who can blame them?

Surfside Beach

Surfside Beach is known as “The Family Beach,” visitors enjoy the soft white sand and dozens of public access points. Surfside really is a family. If you move here without one, you’ll soon know half the town. The locals embrace newcomers, and no one is a stranger for long.

During colonial and antebellum days, a plantation called The Ark covered the ground that became Floral Beach, and today is the Town of Surfside Beach. Historical markers designate the plantation site and the cemetery on the plantation grounds.

Surfside Beach Pier was built in 1953, just in time to be destroyed by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Destroyed again by Hurricane Hugo, and all but destroyed by Hurricane Matthew, it has now been rebuilt. It is the first to be built entirely out of concrete on the South Carolina coast. A long-time favorite spot for anglers, it has just reopened. Restaurants will be open soon. The town is already celebrating with concerts on the pier. There is a Hula and Fire Dance show on Monday nights during the summer.

Surfside is becoming the home of festivals. There are free concerts in Memorial Park on Sunday afternoons all summer long. The town loves an excuse to throw a party. There is a BBQ Festival, and the night before the Everything BUT BBQ Festival. The town also sponsors a Family Festival, Halloween Rod Run Car Show, Surf Contests, Fourth of July and Christmas Golf Cart Parades, and an Easter Egg Hunt. In fact, there is even a Celebrate Surfside Beach Festival. Festival admission is free, and visitors will find vendors, food trucks, music, and fun.

Garden City

It’s hard to beat a day at the beach unless you start that day with yoga on the beach at Garden City. My yoga teacher, Hope Bray, tells new yogis, “You’ve found your place… you’ve found your family.” She’s right; you’ll feel right at home. As we finish yoga, the kid’s surfing class is just beginning in the summer months. It’s always fun to watch their progress.

Garden City in Horry County is frequently called Garden City Beach. The developed area of Garden City overlaps into Georgetown County, extending south until it ends at the waters of Murrells Inlet. The small beach community has plenty of oceanfront condos and beach houses, adding to visitors’ homey feeling when they visit.

The 668-foot-long Kingfisher Pier, destroyed by Hurricane Hugo, has been rebuilt and renamed The Pier at Garden City. In fact, Hugo destroyed more than 40% of Garden City’s beachfront structures. The rebuild provided an opportunity to add a shelter at the end to house a bar, short-order counter, and a stage for nightly live music during the season.

Huntington Beach State Park (Murrells Inlet)

Huntington Beach State Park is the least crowded stretch of sand in the Grand Strand. The Park has 2,500 acres ready for your exploration. You may walk for hours on this three-mile-long beach and not see another person. Go ahead—pretend it is your own private island—it is for today!

Walking and hiking trails are marked and make bird-watching and nature photography easy. There is also a nature center where you can learn more about the creatures living in the preserve. The Park also has a long boardwalk that provides a bird’s-eye view of the marsh. Look over the sides to spot oysters and hermit crabs scurrying about.

Atalaya, a Moorish-style castle, was the 30-room oceanfront winter home of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. Anna was a renowned sculptress, and if you’ve ever been by the entrance to Brookgreen Gardens (across the highway from the Park), you’ve seen one of her most famous works. Atalaya is a National Historic Landmark. The castle and grounds are filled with artists, craftspeople, and musicians each September. It is a four-day festival that you shouldn’t miss.

Litchfield Beach

People refer to Litchfield Beach simply as Litchfield. Litchfield is three miles north of South Carolina’s Pawleys Island. Ancient Live Oaks dripping with Spanish Moss fill the area. Boutiques, a brew-pub, and fine-dining restaurants will make you think you’re in refined Hilton Head.

Litchfield is named for a 1700s rice plantation that once operated in the area. This beach gives vacationers an experience opposite that of Myrtle Beach, a mere 30 miles up Highway 17. Myrtle Beach is action-packed and high-energy, while Litchfield is quiet and laid-back. It gives visitors an “another world” experience in the best way.

Pawleys Island

Pawleys Island is a small barrier island less than four miles in length and only one lot wide in many places. You must cross a salt marsh by the causeway to reach the island. Visitors say your blood pressure goes down when you cross the causeway. What a great health plan!

Pawleys Island is also a town on the island with the same name. The spot is known for its dunes, wide beaches, and surfing. Several 18th-century houses are in the Historic District, and two historic inns, Sea View and Pelican, are on the island.

You can go fishing, crabbing, beach combing, swimming, sunbathing, or kayaking. The creeks are another feature that pulls people back to the island. Many island rental beach houses have both creek and beach access. Island nightlife is also low-key, with dinner at a fine-dining establishment, a long walk on the beach, and ending the evening on a screened porch.

Town Administrator Ryan Fabbri states, “Pawleys Island is one of the last unspoiled beaches on the South Carolina coast…It’s a slower pace on Pawleys Island, which many tourists desire.”

Where to Eat Along the Grand Strand

All this fun-in-the-sun beach life is sure to work up an appetite. Fortunately, starving visitors will find over 2,000 restaurants in Myrtle Beach. There are more restaurants per capita than you see in Paris. You can visit a different restaurant every day, and even go around the world. There are restaurants serving food from A to Z, from Austrian dishes to Vietnamese Pho, and more than 20 other countries in between.

Murrells Inlet is known as the seafood capital of South Carolina, and no local would disagree with that description. But fresh local seafood is served at restaurants in all eleven beach towns and every other community. You can find everything from a Raw Bar to an All-You-Can-Eat Seafood buffet.

Many tasty spots are described in articles about the area, like 6 Spectacular International Restaurants and A Budget-Friendly Night Out at The Beach.

In 1946, the Gay Dolphin’s Justin Plyler envisioned the future Myrtle Beach as an affordable, family-friendly vacation destination that would be so much fun families would want to return year after year. Justin would be surprised to learn how much of a visionary he was. Twenty-one million people visit the Grand Strand every year and prove him right. Isn’t it time to plan a trip and make it twenty-one million and one?

Plan Your Next Road Trip

For more exciting stops before you get to the Grand Strand, try these locations! Plan a road trip from the Roanoke Valley through the neighboring mountain towns and Blue Ridge Parkway’s Rocky Knob AVA, to the beautiful  to beautiful Yadkin Valley Wineries in North Carolina, then on to the beach. Enjoy the best of both worlds–the mountains and the sea!