Only in Myrtle Beach!

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Myrtle Beach, SC -
Myrtle Beach is a fun, lively, bustling beach town during the summer season, with millions of visitors choosing to spend their vacations on the Grand Strand year after year. Families, golf groups, students, seniors, snow birds and even international travelers choose Myrtle Beach! In the spring and fall, shaggers unite on the beach for one last dance! Why Myrtle Beach? Well, whether you just want to have fun, lie on the beach, play a game of golf…get married or DANCE…it all happens on the beach…Myrtle Beach!

If golf isn’t your thing…and believe it or not, there are those who decide to play something else…say, in the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean perhaps? The white sandy beaches and rolling surf of the Atlantic attract visitors by the thousands…

Myrtle Beach is considered one of the nation's top family vacation destinations, welcoming vacationers of all ages with a variety of activities and entertainment venues to suit every generation. Visitors who've been returning here for decades have noticed that the face of Myrtle Beach continually changes from year to year, as new attractions, water parks, amusement parks, entertainment complexes, theme parks, world-class concert venues, golf courses, shopping centers, outlet malls, live music theaters, new oceanfront condominiums and luxury resorts are built, expanded, or renovated.

This intriguing area is also widely known as one of the top golf vacation destinations in the United States, now boasting over 100 courses along the Grand Strand, including signature courses from some of the top pro golfers and course designers in the world. The warm southern climate makes it easy to enjoy a game of golf just about any time of the year and if you don’t have a favorite course, just play the field and enjoy the many different and beautiful courses in the area. Here’s a swing through just a couple of Myrtle Beach’s finest:

Diamond Back opened in 1999...the Russell Breeden design was the first course in the Myrtle Beach area to use Jensen ultra dwarf greens!

Crow Creek was built on a 500 acre homestead and designed by Rick Robbins, a former design associate of the Jack Nicklaus design company.

Ocean Ridge Plantation boasts 3 outstanding golf courses with a fourth on the way. Tiger’s Eye, Panther’s Run and Lion’s Paw are all situated at the northern end of the 60 mile stretch of coast known as the Grand Strand, just a short journey up Hwy 17 and well worth it!

Wild Wing Plantation boasts 4 great courses at one location-Avocet, Falcon, Hummingbird and Wood Stork each offer challenging golf with excellent conditioning all year round. Hummingbird, a personal favorite of many, is a traditional links layout with typical Carolina wetlands thrown in to test ability. At 6,853 yards, it is more of a shot makers course where positional play is more important than length.

Barefoot Resort features 4 courses by four high profile designers, Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, Davis Love III and Greg Norman. Pet Dye and Tom Fazio are recognized as being probably the top two golf designers worldwide. Greg Norman has fast developed a reputation as a quality course designer and Davis Love has arrived on the course scene with a bang!

Tru Blue is a dramatic golf course and for most people, it is just a matter of enjoying the experience and limiting the damage! If you like your golf challenging then Tru Blue is for you…the promotional literature states…”What lies between heaven and hell?”

Caledonia Golf and Fish Club is one of the most awarded courses in the area and it’s easy to see why…from the antebellum style clubhouse overlooking a lake to the avenue of live oaks, you know you have arrived somewhere special. Caledonia was once the site of an old rice plantation.

Prestwick Country Club…its quiet elegance belies its position close to the center of the action at the southern end of Myrtle Beach. With its largely wooded setting, the course is reminiscent of other more famous Dye designs at Harbor Town in Hilton Head and the TPC at Sawgrass.

If golf isn’t your thing…and believe it or not, there are those who decide to play something else…say, in the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean perhaps? The white sandy beaches and rolling surf of the Atlantic attract visitors by the thousands in search of every type of outdoor activity. Beach Volleyball and Frisbee are all-time favorites but many beach goers like to get their exercise by running early in the morning along the shoreline. Myrtle Beach is equally famous for its rivers and backcountry, as every good kayaker will attest!

Kayaking is the perfect way to spend a day or even an evening on the Black River. The Back River is the ancient road of colonial commerce that served plantations since the 1700’s. The clear “black” water ebbs and flows calmly through wilderness cypress and tupelo swamps and spreads through creeks to the hidden ponds of the 1300 acre Black River Nature Preserve owned by the nature conservancy. Eventually the river joins with waters of the Sampit, Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers to form Winyah Bay, the third largest estuarine system on the East Coast of North America.

This beautiful, yet fragile ecosystem is known for the variety of its wildlife and some of the most magnificent cypress trees you’re likely to find anywhere! Ducks, beavers and otters swim playfully alongside spider lilies while owls and swamp canaries roost in the trees. Deer, wild turkey and wood storks dart here and there on the banks of the river. With an abundance of Nature preserves, salt marshes, creeks and canals, a kayak or canoe lets you glide quietly through the wonder and beauty of the marshlands as a welcomed participant in nature.

This kind of natural beauty, both on the shore and in the backcountry inspires love on a daily basis, including the ultimate expression of love...a wedding! It isn’t unusual for bride and groom to have met during a summer vacation on the beach and then decide to honor that special place with their wedding. One thing’s for sure, Myrtle Beach is always filled with happy memories! But before you decide to say, “I do,” in Myrtle Beach, you first must decide whether you want a beach wedding or a more traditional chapel ceremony. Keep in mind, you’ll save a lot of money on shoes if you decide to get married on the beach…but whether you decide to go barefoot in the sand or have a lavish church ceremony with friends and family witnessing, or anything in between, you can do it all in Myrtle Beach.

Welllllll, love is grand and all and many people have said, “that’s all there is,” but they’re obviously forgetting about one of life’s guiltiest pleasures…eating, dining…chowing down! No matter what you call it, eating is yet another very unique aspect of this area-the sheer number of excellent restaurants and choices of cuisine available is staggering. Even if locals ate out every day, every meal, they wouldn't be able to try them all -- the local Chamber of Commerce claims there are over 1700 full-service restaurants along the Grand Strand. Even though there’s plenty of fresh seafood, not to mention those wonderful blue crabs so perfect for dipping in butter, you just can’t spend all your time eating! The good news is there are plenty of exciting attractions in and around the beach and that spells F-U-N all day and all night long! In fact, you'll have trouble finding the time to do just a fraction of the fun things in this area during a one-week or two-week vacation.

Myrtle Beach is rapidly becoming the entertainment center of the East and is already referred to by many as "the Branson of the South". With the recent addition of several live musical theaters featuring variety shows, country music and performances featuring numerous celebrity artists, visitors are treated to a wide variety of family entertainment. The Palace Theatre with their uniquely entertaining Le Grande Cirque, supergroup, Alabama (who started their career in Myrtle Beach), The Dixie Stampede, House of Blues, The Carolina Opry, Fantasy Harbour and Broadway at the Beach all call Myrtle Beach their home.

In addition to the variety of theaters, visitors also enjoy the many water parks, miniature golf courses, amusement parks and attractions such as Ghosts and Legends that the area has to offer. The Grand Strand also attracts guests who enjoy the many fishing piers and charter fishing fleets. At night, you don't have to look far to find numerous nightclubs (including under 21 dance clubs) where you can dance and listen to live and recorded music. The Shag (South Carolina's state dance) began in Myrtle Beach and each year thousands of people visit the area to enjoy the SOS (Society of Stranders) reunion in the Spring and Fall.

Yes, everybody’s heard about the SHAG, haven’t you? And who wouldn’t love a dance that has stood the test of time with its own devoted followers who refuse to acknowledge the passage of time? In 2005, Beach Music and its many devotees celebrated an unbelievable and totally happy Sixtieth birthday!

`Beach music first emerged on one juke box at the beach in 1945 and began spreading rapidly to `jump joints' along the boardwalk, then to other saloons and restaurants along the East Coast. Millions of Southeasterners have been exposed to it in many places, had a good time with it and eventually felt compelled to organize a Society of Stranders. Founded in 1980, the Society of Stranders (SOS) is simply an organization that enjoys, upholds, and perpetuates the traditions of beach and shag music, and shag dancing.

SOS is now famous or infamous if you will, for its two yearly adult parties (the Spring Safari and the Fall Migration) in North Myrtle Beach. People go to these events to have fun, enjoy the beach, see old friends, and to make new ones. It started as a small reunion of friends, but today the events are attended by 12,000+ members…and growing all the time! Both yearly SOS parties are ten days in length, and encompass the majority of the local lounges within walking distance. The 2006 Spring Safari is now history but the Fall migration is coming up, September 15-24th-and this is one those “not to be missed” kind of events, so plan ahead! Shagging is far more than a dance; it’s a lifestyle that sums up everything that’s good about Myrtle Beach…golf, sun and fun, kayaking…a wedding or eating fresh crab with your fingers. Young or old, it’s a comfortable groove you’ll find…only at the beach!