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 .

Six days is close to a full resort week, and it’s where the water park and a real on-water excursion finally earn a slot. This plan takes the 5-day itinerary whole and adds a sixth day mixing rides, a water park and a dolphin or on-water outing. The 7-day itinerary extends this same spine with a full day trip. Background on the destination sits in the Myrtle Beach guide .

Five days is where golf and North Myrtle Beach earn a slot. This plan takes the 4-day itinerary whole and adds a fifth day built around a round of golf and Barefoot Landing, deliberately slowing the pace rather than cramming more in. Longer stays keep extending the same spine: see the 6-day and 7-day versions. Background on the destination sits in the Myrtle Beach guide . Book these before you go

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

Three days is the honest long-weekend version of this trip: beach every day as the spine, one real outing layered on top each afternoon or evening, never two. This plan takes the 2-day itinerary’s first two days and adds a third built around Brookgreen Gardens and a live show. Longer stays keep building the same way: see the 4-day , 5-day , 6-day and 7-day versions. Background on the destination sits in the Myrtle Beach guide .

Two days here means picking one headline attraction, not three. This plan puts beach time on both days, the Boardwalk and SkyWheel on the first evening, and Ripley’s Aquarium as the single big-ticket stop on day two. That’s the whole trip, and it’s enough. Longer stays build on this same spine: see the 3-day , 4-day , 5-day , 6-day and 7-day versions. Background on the destination sits in the Myrtle Beach guide .

Getting here and around Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) sits about 3 miles from the Boardwalk, served by Allegiant, Breeze, and Southwest running the most routes, plus Delta from Atlanta and American from DFW. Spirit exited MYR in May 2026, so don’t count on it showing up in a route search. Most visitors still drive in, Charlotte is about 3.5 hours, Atlanta 6 to 7.5 hours depending on traffic, DC roughly 7, mostly via I-95 and US-17, with the SC-31 Carolina Bays Parkway as the traffic-relief route running north-south in summer.

Oceanfront resort and condo towers dominate the Strand, and a lot of them book as either a hotel room or a vacation-rental condo, which is worth knowing before you assume “hotel” is your only option. Pick your area first, north to south, since the Grand Strand is 60 miles long and where you sleep determines how far you’ll drive every day. Boardwalk / core Myrtle Beach The highest-density area and the most walkable, close to the SkyWheel, the Boardwalk itself, and Broadway at the Beach.

None of these spots require special access, just the right time of day, and on a beach-facing coast that mostly means sunrise, not sunset. The Boardwalk at sunrise The Boardwalk & Promenade runs 1.2 free miles from the 2nd Ave Pier toward 14th Ave N, and it’s nearly empty at sunrise, a sharp contrast to its crowded evening self. Since the Atlantic side of South Carolina faces east, this is the sunrise coast, not the sunset one, so plan your early mornings around it rather than chasing a sunset that won’t happen over the water.

Beyond the sand, Myrtle Beach’s nature options cluster about 18 miles south, in and around Murrells Inlet, with two more spots closer to town for anyone who doesn’t want to make the drive. Brookgreen Gardens Brookgreen Gardens is America’s foremost sculpture garden, over 2,000 works set across a Lowcountry landscape of live oaks, ponds, and native plantings. The Lowcountry Zoo is included in the roughly $25 admission, not a separate add-on, and the ticket stays valid for 7 consecutive days, useful if you’d rather split a visit across two shorter trips than try to cover it all at once.

Set expectations first: Myrtle Beach is not a hiking destination, and nothing here is a mountain trail. What it does have is flat, walkable ground worth covering on foot, from a beachfront promenade to genuinely good birding trails, and that’s a fair trade for a beach vacation. The Boardwalk The simplest walk on the Strand is also the most central: the Boardwalk & Promenade runs 1.2 free miles from the 2nd Ave Pier toward 14th Ave N.

Myrtle Beach runs on one myth: that it has “over 100 golf courses.” The real count is 80-90 (counts vary, and the total shrank from a 2000s peak). That’s the pattern here generally: treat this as a beach vacation, not a sightseeing march, and you’ll have a good week. The Boardwalk is a 2010 rebuild, not a century-old original. The Pavilion amusement park you might remember closed in 2006. Broadway at the Beach isn’t the Boardwalk, it’s a separate district two blocks off it.

Most first-time visitors never leave the SkyWheel-to-Broadway corridor, which is fine, but it means a handful of genuinely good spots go quiet even in peak season. None of these are secret exactly, they just don’t make the standard checklist. Apache Pier While the SkyWheel line stretches around the block, Apache Pier stays low-key. At 1,206 feet, it’s the longest wooden pier on the East Coast, and it’s built for fishing rather than photos, which is exactly why it doesn’t draw the Boardwalk crowds.

Myrtle Beach’s event calendar runs on a few big anchors rather than a packed weekly schedule, and they’re worth planning a trip around rather than assuming you’ll stumble into something. Here’s what’s confirmed for 2026. Carolina Country Music Fest (CCMF) June 4-7, 2026. The Strand’s biggest music weekend, with a lineup that’s pulled names like Post Malone, Luke Bryan, and Blake Shelton. If you’re coming for this, book your room well ahead, hotel rates and availability tighten hard the closer you get to early June, and expect the Boardwalk area to be considerably busier than a normal early-summer week.

Myrtle Beach’s food identity is Calabash-style seafood: shrimp, oysters, and whatever else is running, lightly battered and flash-fried, served with hush puppies and slaw, often as an all-you-can-eat buffet. The name comes from Calabash, North Carolina, just over the state line, not a South Carolina town, so don’t expect it to be a local invention even though it’s everywhere on the Strand. Lowcountry staples She-crab soup is the other dish worth ordering on purpose, a cream-based soup named for female crabs, whose roe gives it its color and richness.

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.

You’ll need a car for every option here. The Grand Strand is 60 miles of car-oriented sprawl with no rail link out, so plan on driving whichever of these you pick, and budget the return trip into your day, not just the trip out. Day trip Distance / time Verdict Charleston, SC ~95mi / ~2h Doable, but it deserves its own trip; a single day only scratches the surface Georgetown, SC ~35mi / ~53min Easy; SC’s third-oldest city, stacks with Murrells Inlet, Huntington, and Pawleys on one southbound loop Wilmington, NC ~74mi / ~1.