My Week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
I’m back!… and with my long-awaited travel blog post…
Going on a summer vacation has been a “tradition” of my family for a majority of my life. Regardless of what the beginning of the year had in store for us, we all knew that, come summer, we would get our much-needed reset in whatever place we chose to make our travel destination for that particular year.
It’s safe to say that this past year has been unexpected (and that’s an understatement), but as life seemingly shifted more towards normal, it was nice to be able to take a road trip back to one of my family’s favorite vacation destinations…and it could not have come at a more perfect time.
With that, here’s a recap of my week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
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We left early on Sunday, 2 A.M. early, and our first day was spent, for the most part, on the road. Following 12-hours of highway driving, with several stops for gas, coffee (a necessity for this trip), food, and simply to stretch our legs, we made it to our hotel in Myrtle Beach in the late afternoon. As always, we spent the remainder of this travel day setting up our room, exploring the grounds of the hotel, and, overall, re-familiarizing ourselves with our surroundings—it had been four years since we had been to Myrtle Beach, so it was interesting to see what had changed and what had stayed the same…We ended our night relatively early with a quiet dinner at an Italian Restaurant near the hotel.
After some much-needed sleep, we started our first full day with brunch by the pool, followed by a long walk on the beach. In my opinion, nothing is more relaxing than a walk on the shoreline, especially on a hot summer day—feet in the sand, sun on all sides, a cool ocean breeze—truly the definition of a beach vacation. We spent the remainder of our time out in the sun with a drink—a piña colada, for me—by the pool bar, and then headed up to our room for showers and to fix ourselves up for dinner at, what has become, our favorite vacation restaurant, Margaritaville.
With rain in the forecast, we chose to spend our second full day shopping at the outlets. Shopping is something that we always incorporate into our vacations, whether it be at an outlet mall, local stores, or souvenir shops, so the forecasted rain gave us the perfect excuse to shop early on in the trip. After stopping for coffee, we made our way over to the Highway 17 Tanger Outlets, where we spent the better part of our day. Despite the on-and-off showers throughout the day, the awnings and glass ceilings covering a large portion of the walkways between stores made it easier for us have our day without the rain getting in the way…With capacity restrictions, and resulting long lines to get into some stores, we did not have the chance to go into all of the stores we had wanted to look in. Even so, after browsing in ~at least~ two dozen stores, we called it a day for shopping and made our way over to Broadway at the Beach—the tourist hub in Myrtle Beach, filled with shopping, food, nightlife and activities—for dinner at Wahlburgers.
It rained again the following morning, so we decided to do our souvenir shopping first thing while we let the rain pass. After “skipping” around to several different souvenir shops on the main strip, we headed back to our hotel for lunch overlooking the pool and the ocean. With the weather having cleared up, we were able spend the rest of the afternoon walking on the beach. We then showered, fixed ourselves up, and headed over to Broadway at the Beach for our 7:00 dinner reservation at Hard Rock Café. The night ended with blizzards from Dairy Queen, a family favorite…especially on vacation.
The next day, Thursday, was pure sun, so we got an early start and made our way out to the pool before 9 A.M. We relaxed on lounge chairs and took occasional dips in the pool until the heat got the best of us, so at a little after twelve o’clock, we headed upstairs for a breezy lunch on the restaurant balcony, which overlooked the pool and the ocean. After cooling down, we spent the remainder of the daytime walking on the beach, and then headed back to our room around four o’clock to shower and get ready for our 7:00 dinner reservation at Toscana Italian Kitchen. Our night, once again, ended at Dairy Queen (& I think, by now, you can see just how much we love it).
The sun definitely got the best of us, me especially, on Thursday, so we chose to take a day off from the pool and beach and do some other activities on Friday. No surprise, we spent the morning back at the outlets, browsing through the stores that we didn’t have a chance to get to on Tuesday…and since we got to the outlets at the time that they opened, we didn’t have to wait on a single line for any store. We finished up at the outlets a little after noon, and then headed back to the hotel for lunch and a cold drink before going mini golfing. Myrtle Beach, no differently than any other beach town, is FILLED with Mini Golf, so it is a must, in my opinion, whenever you spend time near a beach. The place that we chose, Mt. Atlanticus, seemed a little daunting at first, as each hole had you climbing to a slightly higher elevation, but the breathtaking views of the coast at the eighteenth hole made the climb so worthwhile. After finishing our game of mini golf, we headed back to our hotel to get ourselves ready for our second dinner at Margaritaville—yes, we like the food and the atmosphere that much that we had to go a second time.
We spent our last day outside again, a majority of the time filled with an ~almost~ three mile walk on the beach. For some reason, the beach felt much calmer on this morning, so we continued to walk until our existing sunburns could not take the sun anymore. Our walk on the beach was followed by one last lunch at our favorite outdoor spot at the hotel. After a relaxing lunch, we went back to our room—a little on the earlier side—to prepare ourselves for our 3 A.M. leave the following morning, and then got ourselves ready for an early, quiet dinner at the hotel restaurant, with our table having views of both the pool and the ocean…a perfect way to end a perfect trip.
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This trip was nothing short of amazing. I always enjoy myself on family vacations, but the circumstances of the past year and a half seemingly made every little thing that we did or saw on this trip feel that much more exciting and freeing, I guess you could say. It definitely feels good to be home, but I also wouldn’t say no to another trip in the near future SO—
Here’s to the next adventure…
