6 Best Day Trips from Myrtle Beach
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A car is essential for all of these, since none are reachable on Coast RTA transit. Here’s how the real options stack up.
1. Charleston, SC (~2 hours)
The marquee day trip from Myrtle Beach, but be honest with yourself about the drive: Charleston deserves its own multi-day trip, and a single day only scratches the historic district. Go if it’s your only shot at seeing it, but don’t expect to do it justice in one pass.
2. Wilmington, NC (~1.5 hours)
A solid full day: a riverwalk downtown plus an easy detour to Wrightsville Beach if you want ocean time that isn’t the Grand Strand. Less crowded than Charleston and a shorter drive, which makes it the better choice if you only have one day to spare.
3. Georgetown, SC (~35 miles, under an hour)
South Carolina’s third-oldest city is an easy half-day, and it stacks well with Murrells Inlet, Huntington Beach State Park, or Pawleys Island on the same southbound loop, so you’re not driving the route for just one stop.
4. Conway, SC (~15 miles, 25-30 minutes)
The closest real day trip on this list: a historic downtown and the Waccamaw Riverwalk make for an easy half-day if you want a change of pace without committing a full day away from the beach.
5. Calabash, NC (~22 miles, 20-30 minutes)
A short seafood pilgrimage to the town that gave Calabash-style seafood its name, lightly battered and flash-fried. If you’d rather not make the drive, Restaurant Row on Myrtle Beach’s north end serves the same style closer to home.
6. Brookgreen Gardens and Huntington Beach State Park (~18-20 miles south)
Close enough that it’s really a near-trip rather than a full day away, but it deserves its own half-to-full day: America’s foremost sculpture garden, the Lowcountry Zoo included in admission, Atalaya Castle, and some of the state’s best birding, all within a few minutes of each other.
Read more: see the full Myrtle Beach guide for how these fit around a beach-anchored week, or the 6-day itinerary for where a full day trip slots in.
One concrete tip: pick one day trip, not two, if you’re on a week-long visit. Stacking Charleston and Wilmington back to back turns a relaxed beach week into two exhausting driving days.