Myrtle Beach: 7-Day Itinerary
Seven days is a genuine resort week, and this plan takes the 6-day itinerary whole and adds a seventh day out of town, a full day trip to Charleston or Wilmington, without touching the pacing of the six days underneath it. This is the longest version of this family; for shorter trips, work back through the 2-day through 6-day itineraries instead. Background on the destination sits in the Myrtle Beach guide .
Book these before you go
- A Myrtle Beach dolphin or on-water excursion : limited capacity, good-weather afternoons fill first.
- Myrtle Beach golf tee times : stay-and-play packages sell out prime slots weeks ahead.
- Myrtle Beach hotel rooms and condos : a full week in peak season needs the earliest booking of any length on this list.
Day 1: Arrival and the Boardwalk
Drive in if you can (Spirit exited MYR in May 2026). Check in, beach for the afternoon. Learn the flag system: green calm, yellow caution, single red don’t swim, double red closed, blue for marine life. 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, a 2010 rebuild, plus the SkyWheel (around $21 adult, $17 child) at dusk.
Day 2: Broadway at the Beach and Murrells Inlet
Beach in the morning, Broadway at the Beach in the afternoon, a separate district about two blocks off the Boardwalk. Ripley’s Aquarium (around $43 adult, $27 kid) or WonderWorks (around $43) is the headline stop. Dinner on Murrells Inlet’s MarshWalk: Dead Dog Saloon, Drunken Jack’s, Wahoo’s, Bovine’s, the Wicked Tuna, the Claw House. Expect roughly 11.5% added to the check inside city limits.
Day 3: Brookgreen Gardens and a live show
A full morning at Brookgreen Gardens and Huntington Beach State Park, about 18 miles south. Brookgreen (around $25, ticket valid 7 consecutive days) pairs the sculpture collection with the Lowcountry Zoo, included in admission. Huntington Beach State Park (around $8) adds Atalaya Castle and birding, separate from Myrtle Beach State Park in town (around $5). Beach in the afternoon, a live show at night: Carolina Opry, Alabama Theatre, Legends in Concert, or Pirates Voyage (a Dolly Parton production, also in Tennessee and Florida).
Day 4: A slow morning and mini golf
Sleep in, beach all morning and early afternoon, no plan. Save the one outing for the evening: mini golf, 50+ courses on the Strand, Hawaiian Rumble’s erupting volcano or Mount Atlanticus’s five-story course.
Day 5: Golf and North Myrtle Beach
Golf in the morning if you play, 80-90 courses along “the Golf Coast,” not the “100+” figure that gets repeated. Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, The Dunes Club (host of the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic) and TPC Myrtle Beach lead the list. In the afternoon, North Myrtle Beach and Barefoot Landing, home of the Alabama Theatre. North Myrtle’s Ocean Drive is the birthplace of the Shag, South Carolina’s official state dance since 1984, the dance, not the “beach music” genre it’s danced to.
Day 6: Water park and a dolphin or on-water excursion
Morning at a water park, Splashes at Family Kingdom or Myrtle Waves (around $50 general admission). Family Kingdom’s Swamp Fox wooden coaster has run since 1966, and 2026 is the park’s 60th anniversary, with a new single-rail coaster opening summer 2026. In the afternoon, a dolphin-watching or Intracoastal Waterway boat excursion, prices vary by operator, check current listings before you plan around a figure.
Day 7: A day trip to Charleston or Wilmington
This is the one day of the whole week that leaves the Strand entirely, and it’s worth doing once you’ve had six days of beach already. Charleston is about 95 miles, roughly 2 hours each way, and deserves the trip, though a single day only scratches its historic district, don’t expect to see everything. Wilmington, North Carolina, is closer, about 74 miles, roughly 1.5 hours, and pairs a walkable riverwalk with a Wrightsville Beach detour if you’d rather stay closer to the coast than go inland to a bigger city.
Either way, leave early and come back late, this only works as a full day, not a half day squeezed around beach time. Skip both and swap in a slower final beach day instead if a long car day isn’t what you want to end the trip on, nothing about this plan requires the day trip.
| 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 |
| 5 | Golf (or beach), North Myrtle Beach, Barefoot Landing | Golf priced by stay-and-play package |
| 6 | Water park, dolphin or on-water excursion | Myrtle Waves around $50 GA; excursion price varies |
| 7 | Day trip to Charleston (~2h) or Wilmington (~1.5h) | Fuel and any Charleston attraction tickets, no fixed figure |
Does a full week of Myrtle Beach get boring?
Not if you keep to one outing a day, which is the whole design of this plan. Seven days covers the beach, the Boardwalk, Brookgreen Gardens, a live show, mini golf, a round of golf, a water park, a dolphin excursion and a full day trip, and it still leaves five full mornings and most evenings unstructured on the sand. The mistake that makes a week feel long is stacking attractions like a city break; this plan deliberately doesn’t.
One concrete tip: book the Charleston or Wilmington day and any remaining show or excursion tickets before you leave home, a full week in peak season is the hardest length on this list to book last-minute.