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  North Strand Little River North Myrtle Beach Myrtle Beach South Strand |
The Grand Strand is named so for a reason: The wide strand accommodates people of every type at various activities including swimming, sunbathing, sea-shelling, volleyball playing, Sea-Dooing, fishing, parasailing, boating and more. The communities are first and foremost beach oriented. All the houses and buildings are designed for optimum views of the water. One street inland, Myrtle Beach goes beyond sand in your shoes and provides restaurants, shopping, golf and many other diversions. In recent years, the Grand Strand has been spotlighted in Southern Living magazine's Reader's Choice Awards as the second most popular beach, after Destin, Florida. BYWAYS magazine, a publication of the National Motor Coach Network, ranked Myrtle Beach as the favorite destination of motor coach carriers and tour operators. Good Morning America has televised part of its shows here, as was a QVC (television shopping network) telecast. The accolades keep pouring in, matching the expectatons of more than 12 million visitors every year. The Grand Strand directly and indirectly generates near $5 billion annually, about one-third of South Carolina's total revenues from travel and tourism. More than 15 percent of all visitors to the beach are senior citizens. And many of those visitors retire here; it's not only cheaper than Florida, but the area also has a much lower crime rate than some larger Florida cities. Stretching far beyond just the city limits of Myrtle Beach, the Grand Strand reaches from the North Carolina border, beachcombing southward more than 60 miles to the historic, oak-lined avenues of Georgetown, where five rivers meet to form Winyah Bay. This 60-mile stretch includes the latest high-tech amusements to more than 100 golf courses to world-class entertainment theaters and superstars to family beaches to almost-untouched beach wilderness. Amazingly, one can drift just slightly off the beaten path and find salt marshes, classic Spanish moss, hammocks, ghost tales and historic legends that make The Disney Channel seem dull. So you've got plenty to do. Visit the world-famous Pavilion and ride every ride. Smell the salt water dancing with the scents of fresh cotton candy and mustard-coated corn dogs. Sift your toes into the sand as the surf laps at your ankles. Take a marsh cruise, go deep-sea fishing or windsurf. Fall asleep in the sun. Swim and sail and dine and dance. Play a few rounds of golf. Hob-knob with country music stars, or just relax and enjoy what the poet called "God's Country."
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Continue to North Strand | ||
Most
people think of the Grand Strand as the coast of South Carolina; technically The Strand is
an island with a 60-mile oceanfront and three roads connecting it to the mainland (four,
if you count U.S. Highway 17 connections in both the North and South strands.) Surrounded
on the north and the west by the Intracoastal Waterway, the
east by the Atlantic Ocean and the south by Winyah Bay, the Grand Strand can be basically
shut off from the outside motoring world by closing four bridges. 