Myrtle Beach: The Best Things to Do
Myrtle Beach has enough packed into 60 miles of coast that the trick isn’t finding things to do, it’s not overdoing it. Beach and pool are the daily spine; treat everything below as one layered-on outing per day, not a checklist to clear in a weekend.
Beach and Boardwalk
The beach itself is the main event, and it’s free every day you’re here. In the evenings, walk the Boardwalk & Promenade, 1.2 miles running from the 2nd Ave Pier toward 14th Ave N. It’s a 2010 rebuild, not a historic original, Hurricane Hazel destroyed the first one in 1954. The SkyWheel anchors the north end, an enclosed, climate-controlled wheel around 187 to 200 feet tall, roughly $21 adult and $17 child, prices move so check the current rate. Apache Pier, the longest wooden pier on the East Coast at 1,206 feet, is the quieter fishing alternative if the SkyWheel line is long.
Family Attractions
Broadway at the Beach is a separate 350-acre district about two blocks off the Boardwalk, a common mix-up. Ripley’s Aquarium (around $43 adult, $27 kid) and WonderWorks, the upside-down building (also around $43), anchor it, with the Hollywood Wax Museum and Legends in Concert rounding things out. Family Kingdom, right on the oceanfront, is free to walk into and then pay-per-ride or a roughly $45 wristband; the Swamp Fox wooden coaster has run since 1966, and 2026 marks the park’s 60th anniversary with a new single-rail coaster opening that summer. Splashes water park sits on-site, and Myrtle Waves, the bigger water park nearby, runs around $50 general admission.
Golf, Real and Mini
The Grand Strand carries 80 to 90 courses (the exact count moves), enough to earn “the Golf Coast,” not the “Golf Capital of the World” title, that one belongs to mini golf. Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, The Dunes Club, host of the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic, and TPC Myrtle Beach lead the real-golf list, and stay-and-play packages are how most visiting golfers book. For mini golf, 50-plus courses back up the “Mini Golf Capital of the World” claim; Hawaiian Rumble’s erupting volcano and Mount Atlanticus’s five-story course are the two worth an evening.
Nature and a Slower Pace
Brookgreen Gardens, about 18 miles south in Murrells Inlet, pairs America’s foremost sculpture garden with the Lowcountry Zoo, included in the roughly $25 admission, and the ticket stays valid for 7 consecutive days. Across US-17, Huntington Beach State Park adds Atalaya Castle, a 1930s Moorish winter home, plus serious birding, 300-plus species recorded, for around $8. These are two separate parks with separate gates, don’t confuse this one with Myrtle Beach State Park back in town.
Evenings
Dinner on the Murrells Inlet MarshWalk earns the “Seafood Capital of South Carolina” tag honestly; see the where-to-eat guide for the restaurant names actually on the boardwalk. Afterward, a live show, Carolina Opry, Alabama Theatre, or Pirates Voyage, a Dolly Parton production also running in Tennessee and Florida, sets up a night out. North Myrtle Beach’s Ocean Drive is the birthplace of the Shag, South Carolina’s official state dance since 1984; the dance and “beach music,” the genre it’s danced to, aren’t the same thing.
Pace all of this against how many days you actually have; the itineraries lay out which of the above fits a 2-day trip versus a full week.