Experience the best of Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach lies on the Grand Strand, a roughly 100-kilometre stretch of sandy coast in north-eastern South Carolina. The beach is wide and gently sloping, backed by hotels, a pier and a boardwalk with an observation wheel at the oceanfront. Broadway at the Beach, a lakeside entertainment district, and amusement rides add to the seaside scene.

South of the city, Myrtle Beach State Park has a pier and a maritime forest, and Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet is a sculpture garden set in the grounds of old rice plantations. Huntington Beach State Park has a Moorish-style castle, Atalaya, beside the marsh. Pawleys Island and Georgetown, with its old harbour, lie farther south, and golf courses by the dozen spread across the Strand.

Shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, fried flounder with hushpuppies and winter oyster roasts are the Southern seafood tastes here. The beach season runs from May to September, and the mild winters are quiet, with sweet tea and boiled peanuts at roadside stalls.