Myrtle Beach: 4-Day Itinerary

Four days is where the “resort week” pacing really starts to pay off: this plan takes the 3-day itinerary whole and adds a genuinely slow fourth day built around beach time and an evening of mini golf, nothing stacked on top. Longer stays keep extending the same spine: see the 5-day , 6-day and 7-day versions. Background on the destination sits in the Myrtle Beach guide .

Book these before you go

Day 1: Arrival and the Boardwalk

Drive in if you can, this is overwhelmingly a drive-to market (Spirit exited MYR in May 2026, don’t count on it). Check in and get straight to the beach. Know the flag system before you swim: green calm, yellow caution, single red don’t swim, double red closed, blue for marine life, rip currents are the actual hazard here, not sharks. From Memorial Day through Labor Day only circular umbrellas 7.5 ft or smaller are allowed, and alcohol and glass are banned on the beach everywhere on the Strand, year-round.

Evening is the Boardwalk & Promenade, 1.2 free miles, a 2010 rebuild after Hurricane Hazel destroyed the original in 1954. Ride the SkyWheel (around $21 adult, $17 child) for a dusk view of the whole Strand.

Day 2: Broadway at the Beach and Murrells Inlet

Beach in the morning, Broadway at the Beach in the afternoon, a separate 350-acre district about two blocks off the Boardwalk. Ripley’s Aquarium (around $43 adult, $27 kid) or WonderWorks (around $43) is the headline stop. Dinner is Murrells Inlet’s MarshWalk, about 20 minutes south: Dead Dog Saloon, Drunken Jack’s, Wahoo’s, Bovine’s, the Wicked Tuna, the Claw House are the names actually there. Expect roughly 11.5% added to the check inside city limits, about 10.5% just outside it.

Day 3: Brookgreen Gardens and a live show

Brookgreen Gardens and Huntington Beach State Park, about 18 miles south in Murrells Inlet, get a full morning here. Brookgreen (around $25, ticket valid 7 consecutive days) pairs the country’s largest outdoor sculpture collection with the Lowcountry Zoo, included in admission. Huntington Beach State Park (around $8), across US-17, adds Atalaya Castle and serious birding. These are separate parks from each other and from Myrtle Beach State Park in town (around $5), don’t conflate them.

Beach in the late afternoon, then a live show at night: Carolina Opry, Alabama Theatre at Barefoot Landing, Legends in Concert, or Pirates Voyage (a Dolly Parton production also running in Tennessee and Florida, not exclusive here).

Day 4: A slow morning and mini golf

This is the day that separates a four-day trip from a three-day one, and the point is to do less, not more. Sleep in, spend the whole morning and early afternoon on the beach with no plan, and save the day’s one outing for the evening: mini golf. With 50+ courses on the Strand, Myrtle Beach earns its “Mini Golf Capital of the World” reputation honestly. Hawaiian Rumble, with its 40-foot erupting volcano, and Mount Atlanticus, a five-story course, are the two worth picking between.

Day Focus What it actually costs (USD, pre-tax)
1 Beach, Boardwalk, SkyWheel SkyWheel around $21 adult / $17 child
2 Beach, Broadway at the Beach, Murrells Inlet dinner Aquarium around $43 / $27 kid; dinner plus ~11.5% city tax
3 Brookgreen Gardens, Huntington Beach SP, a live show Brookgreen around $25; Huntington SP around $8
4 Beach all day, mini golf in the evening Mini golf pricing varies by course, modest either way

Is four days the right length for Myrtle Beach?

For a lot of families, yes, it’s arguably the sweet spot: enough time for the beach, the Boardwalk, Brookgreen Gardens, a live show and a genuinely unhurried day, without the trip stretching so long that you feel obligated to add golf, a water park, or a day trip just to fill time. If you do want any of those, the 5-day and longer itineraries add them one at a time rather than all at once.

One concrete tip: book that live show before you fly or drive down, not after you arrive, weekend performances in July and August routinely sell close to capacity.