Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. A full week is the fullest sensible version of the 6-day plan : the same beach, Boardwalk, Broadway at the Beach, Brookgreen Gardens, golf, water-park, and boat-trip spine, with a full day trip added on top and unstructured beach time built back in rather than more attractions crammed into the week.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Six days keeps the same 5-day spine of beach, the Boardwalk, Broadway at the Beach, Brookgreen Gardens, and golf, then adds a water-park day and an on-water excursion, still one outing per day. Add a full day trip to Charleston or Wilmington by moving up to the 7-day plan .

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Five days keeps the same 4-day spine of beach, the Boardwalk, Broadway at the Beach, and Brookgreen Gardens, then adds a golf or mini-golf day and North Myrtle Beach, and slows the whole trip down further so no single day carries more than one outing.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Four days is the same long-weekend spine as the 3-day plan , just with room to breathe: the same Boardwalk, Broadway at the Beach, and Brookgreen Gardens days, plus a genuinely slow fourth day rather than a rushed morning before departure.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Three days is the long-weekend sweet spot for Myrtle Beach: enough time for the beach to be the actual point of the trip, plus one attraction day and one nature-and-food day, without stacking more than one outing into any single day.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Two days is a real Myrtle Beach visit if you keep it simple: beach and pool time on both days, the Boardwalk one evening, and exactly one headline attraction, not a checklist of them. If that’s too tight, the 3-day and 4-day plans add a Brookgreen Gardens half-day and a Murrells Inlet seafood dinner on top of this same spine.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. 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.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. A handful of practical points make the difference between a smooth Myrtle Beach trip and a frustrating one. Bring a car The Grand Strand runs about 60 miles of car-oriented sprawl, from Little River near the North Carolina line down to Georgetown, and it’s genuinely too spread out to walk between towns.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. The Grand Strand runs about 60 miles, so where you base yourself shapes your whole trip. Here’s how the areas break down, north to south. Boardwalk / core Myrtle Beach The most walkable base, close to the SkyWheel, the Boardwalk, and Broadway at the Beach, with the highest density of hotels and condo towers.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Most of Myrtle Beach’s nature is concentrated about 18 miles south, near Murrells Inlet, where a cluster of parks and gardens makes for a full nature-focused day away from the boardwalk. Brookgreen Gardens America’s foremost sculpture garden pairs its grounds with the Lowcountry Zoo, included in the roughly $25 admission and good for 7 consecutive days.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Myrtle Beach is a beach destination first, and it’s honest to say so: this isn’t a hiking hub, and no one should plan a trip here around trail mileage. That said, two parks cover the real walking-in-nature options if you want a break from sand between your toes.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Most first-time visitors never leave the Boardwalk core. These nine spots are a short drive away and worth the detour. 1. Cherry Grove Pier North Myrtle Beach’s Cherry Grove Pier is quieter than the Boardwalk’s fishing spots, a good pick if you want ocean views without the crowds around the SkyWheel.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. A handful of dates anchor the Myrtle Beach calendar and are worth planning a trip around, or avoiding, depending on how you like your crowds. Here’s what’s confirmed for 2026, plus how the rest of the year’s live entertainment works.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Seafood drives the menu along the Grand Strand, and one small stretch of boardwalk is where you can actually name names. The Murrells Inlet MarshWalk Murrells Inlet calls itself the Seafood Capital of South Carolina, and the MarshWalk, a half-mile boardwalk over the marsh about 18 miles south of central Myrtle Beach, is where that claim holds up.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Myrtle Beach rewards a slow pace better than a packed checklist: pick one of these per day and let the beach fill the rest. Here are 12 things to do along the Grand Strand, from the free and simple to the full-day trips.

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use. Myrtle Beach anchors the Grand Strand, about 60 miles of continuous beach running from the North Carolina line south to Georgetown, a string of separate beach towns rather than one walkable downtown. It genuinely fills anywhere from a long weekend to a full week, but the honest way to plan it is as a beach vacation, not a sightseeing march: beach and pool time as the daily spine, with one outing or attraction layered on top per day at most.