Creating Cherished Memories on a Myrtle Beach Vacation
Our family has traveled to Myrtle Beach twice in the last five years and both times it was an amazing and incredible experience. One our children will never forget. Myrtle Beach is such a fun, vibrant, beautiful city with so many family friendly activities. You could stay for months on end and never run out of things to do.
Here are my top five recommendations for what to do while on a Myrtle Beach vacation.
1) Go to the Beach!
Who doesn’t love a warm, relaxing day in the sun with their toes in the sand, listening to their favorite tunes and watching the waves roll in and out before you? Going to the beach is an absolute MUST on a Myrtle Beach vacation. I know it’s one of my favorite places to be in the world!
So when you are in Myrtle Beach, I strongly suggest you study the weather, pick the best, hottest couple of days of your trip and make sure to allot for some beach time. We have three kids ages 14, 7 and 2 and they ALL loved the beach. Whether it be making elaborate sand castles with deep moats and multi-level towers, running into the water and splashing in the waves, or simply digging in the sand with a shovel and filling buckets everyone loves our beach days.
Beach Tips:
- Don’t forget your beach blanket! On this most recent trip my husband actually brought a couple fold up chairs to sit in at the beach and it was absolutely delightful. In the past, however, we’ve used a simple, folded up beach blanket and it works just as well.
- Remember sand toys. All the little ones really need are a couple good, solid buckets and a couple large, good quality shovels. They will have much more fun with the large shovels vs those little, tiny ones that typically come in the $5 Walmart sand toy pack.
- Remember refreshments! We brought a cooler with us to the beach each day and filled it with sandwiches, snacks, beer and water, so everyone could stay refreshed for the duration.
- Don’t forget sunscreen. Even on cloudy days you can get burnt easier than you realize.
2) Go On a Barefoot Queen Dinner Cruise
On the last night of our most recent week long trip to Myrtle Beach, my husband and I enjoyed the Barefoot Queen Dinner Cruise and it was a blast! Not only did we get to listen to live music by the very talented and funny musician, but we also got to relax and enjoy beautiful views for the two hours of the trip along the inter-coastal waterway.
We got to sit on the upper deck, which is where the live music is located and so that was a bonus treat for my husband, who was celebrating his birthday on the cruise. They also served a nice meal and had flowers and linens on the tables. It was a very lovely treat for the two of us to relax and enjoy some wine and a meal together, while listening to great music. There is a full service bar on the boat as well.
3) Play Mini Golf
Both times we’ve been to Myrtle Beach, we’ve always had a great time playing some mini golf.
This most recent time we actually went to a really cool mini golf course called Mutiny Bay Miniature Golf. Every thirty minutes at Mutiny Bay they actually do a pirate show that is pretty fun and the kids got a kick out of it. When the pirate show wasn’t going on, the course plays great pirate themed music and has several great elements including a gorgeous waterfall and some tricky holes.
One of the neatest things about Mutiny Bay is they actually, for a small fee, provided a plastic putter for our two year old son, so he could get a chance to try and hit the ball at each hole as well. He naturally got a hole in one at every hole he played of course.
My husband and my teenage son are the two most competitive players when it comes to mini golf. They had a great time taking turns putting two or three at each hole, but my son won by one point in the end! It was tons of fun.
I’d strongly recommend you watch the weather for this activity as well. We went on a day that was a bit chilly and overcast, but it worked great for the mini golf experience. Just make sure to dress according to the weather. If you are really into mini golfing I noticed that multiple courses offered an all day option – where you could do multiple courses or the same course multiple times for one set fee.
4) Learn Some Myrtle Beach History And Go On A Scavenger
If you want to learn more about the history of Myrtle Beach and dive into some of the cool stories of the downtown area and it’s beginnings, I strongly suggest you do a scavenger hunt.
We found ours on Groupon for a great discounted price, but there are many options with various sites and apps that you can download. The entire scavenger hunt was conducted right on our smartphone. I would highly recommend having two phones, however, one for pictures and the other for directions. My phone was the one with the app open and the prompts on where to go next, my husband’s phone was what we used for the best walking directions on how to get there.
If you have anyone under five I strongly recommend bringing a stroller for this activity and for the younger children you may want to search for specifically younger aged themed scavenger hunts. We chose a standard “explorer” themed walk and my teenage son enjoyed it the most out of all of the kids. We did learn some really cool things about the history of downtown Myrtle Beach.
5) Joe’s Bar & Grill
Ok, so this place has to be one of the coolest local food joints in the Myrtle Beach area. They have delicious food, great happy hour specials, and an awesome outdoor bar/patio area with a wood burning fireplace. My husband and I were lucky enough to get to sit right in front of it! It was the perfect place for a date night or just an afternoon enjoying cocktails and some appetizers. We stumbled upon it by simply looking for a local restaurant that was close to our hotel, but we were thoroughly impressed.
The best part about our overall experience at Joe’s Bar and Grill was the service. They had people clearing our plates, other people bringing us fresh drinks and appetizers, other people stoking and adding wood to the fire. I mean it was really quite something. If you go there I strongly recommend the Scallops en Bacon Brochette as they were amaaazing! I couldn’t have asked for a better date location to spend just a couple hours relaxing with my husband.
So there you have it, my top five recommendations for what to do on a Myrtle Beach vacation.
There’s also tons of other cool stuff from Broadway at the Beach, which is a place I want to visit on our next trip there, to the multiple seafood buffet options (the one that our musician on the dinner cruise recommended most was Captain Benjamin’s Calabash Seafood Buffet, but we ran out of time to stop there), but these are my top five favorite activities/places to go in Myrtle Beach.
Our family has had the privilege of being travel club members since 2013 and have taken many fantastic trips over the years. This most recent time we stayed at Club Wyndham Westwinds in North Myrtle Beach. I loved it, it was such a quiet, laid back resort. The beach had hardly any people on it and the resort was never all that busy. It was just perfect.
The last time we went on a Myrtle Beach vacation was five years ago, we stayed in a two bedroom at Club Wyndham Ocean Boulevard, which is a much larger and busier resort. The size of the two bedroom unit at Ocean Boulevard is considerably bigger than the size of the two bedroom at Westwinds, but you also have a lot more people enjoying the pools, beach, etc. while you are there.
Our Choice to Join the Royale Travel Club
The best thing about this travel club membership is the memories and experiences I get to have with my children as they grow up. Memories and experiences we will never forget. Thanks to this club we have gotten to travel with our family all over the country at very affordable rates. We typically stay in two bedroom condos with full kitchens and a dining table that seats at least six. It’s perfect for all five of us. We save so much money on meals and also the kids have plenty of space to sprawl out.
The travel club is not only great for condo stays, however, it can be used for luxury villa rentals, hotel stays, and much more. I have tons of stories I could tell about how I’ve used the club to book not just family trips, but girls nights, and staycation getaways. You name it. But I’ll save those stories for another time.
Bottom line, if you’re looking for a fantastic family friendly place to take a small or large family that is also fairly budgetary I strongly recommend a Myrtle Beach vacation in South Carolina. It’s one of my favorite places and I hope it will become one of yours as well.
Happy travels!