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FeedA tale of two beaches
Myrtle Beach is full of family-friendly fun.
Courtesy Myrtle Beach Area CVB
For a lot of people, it’s just not a vacation without plenty of sun, sand and surf. And according to AAA Ohio, the top two vacation destinations for Central Ohio drivers are beaches in South Carolina—Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head, to be exact.
Whether you visit one of these oceanside cities every year or you’re making your first trip, there are certain things you won’t want to miss. Here’s a look at 10 hot spots at each location, with an emphasis on family-friendly outings in Myrtle Beach (think Ferris wheels, water parks and pirates) and grown-up fun in Hilton Head (including jazz clubs, tapas bars and stand-up paddleboarding). Just pack a swimsuit and get ready to hit the road.
HILTON HEAD FOR GROWN-UPS
By Justin Paprocki
Hilton Head Island is known primarily as a place for a family getaway, with plenty of beach space to let the kids run wild for a few days. But family fun is only part of what makes the island popular. Look in the right spots and a grown-up Hilton Head reveals itself. Read on for a few ideas on how to enjoy the island as an adult.
Hear world-class music at the Jazz Corner
A local favorite for the past 12 years, this cozy jazz club has live music every night of the week. Its reputation has been growing beyond the island: Last year, Downbeat magazine named it one of the “150 great jazz rooms” worldwide. Jazz legends Bucky Pizzarelli, George Shearing and Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton and Branford) have played here. As an added bonus, the club also is a well-respected restaurant; the Carolina bison burger is a favorite. thejazzcorner.com
Root for the Buckeyes at Mangiamo
Hilton Head is otherwise known as the southernmost tip of Ohio. The island always has been a magnet for Ohio tourists, and sure enough, you’ll see them at Mangiamo, cheering on the Buckeyes. The pizza place shows Ohio State football games on big-screen televisions and blares the fight song for each touchdown. You’ll feel right at home. hhipizza.com
Take a Food Network tour
The South has become a hot spot in the culinary world lately, and Hilton Head has its share of celebrity. Robert Irvine, host of Food Network shows “Restaurant: Impossible” and “Dinner: Impossible,” calls the island home. He has opened two restaurants in the area: Robert Irvine’s eat! and Robert Irvine’s nosh. (Gotta give it to him—he knows how to brand.) Orchid Paulmeier was a recent contestant on “Food Network Star,” and the personable chef can be found most days at her barbecue restaurant, One Hot Mama’s. For an even bigger star, head an hour south to Savannah to visit Paula Deen’s The Lady and Sons. The buffet is not to be missed. eathhi.com, robertirvinesnosh.com, onehotmamas.com, ladyandsons.com
Kayak the marshes
Escape the hustle and bustle of tourist season in a kayak. Outside Hilton Head and other companies offer guided kayak tours of the marsh just off the island—great for peaceful exercise or critter-watching. Don’t be alarmed if an egret swoops in or a dolphin crests nearby. For a greater challenge, try stand-up paddleboarding, the latest watersport craze to hit the island. outsidehiltonhead.com
Get some Gullah grub
Gullah culture derives from freed slaves whose descendants still call the Lowcountry home. One way they preserve their culture is through food, and a couple of restaurants offer their own takes on the tradition. Dye’s Gullah Fixins serves up collard greens, country fried chicken, mac and cheese, shrimp and grits, cornbread and plenty of seafood. And native islander David Young opened Roastfish and Cornbread in 2009, with an emphasis on locally grown or caught ingredients. His specialty is the sweet potato, as in sweet potato fries, sweet potato cornbread, sweet potato cheesecake. . . . His cookbook, Burnin’ Down South, lists 15 different recipes for sweet potatoes. dyesgullahfixins.com, roastfishandcornbread.com
Roast oysters
Hilton Head is a destination for seafood lovers, but the best place to really get to know your meal is at an oyster roast. Bushels of the steamed mollusks are poured out on tables and hungry shuckers pry open the shells to get at the meat inside. It’s good, messy fun. Restaurants such as Remy’s hold them monthly in the fall and winter. The Rotary Club of Bluffton’s annual Oyster Roast in January is held along the May River, just steps from where the oysters were raked from the banks. remysbarandgrill.com, blufftonrotary.org
Take in a festival
Hilton Head loves a good festival. Nearly every weekend in the spring and fall, a festival comes along celebrating everything from chili to the arts. The Hilton Head Island Wine and Food Festival in March features hundreds of different types of vino. Car lovers across the country unite at the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival and Concours d’Elegance in November. And though the
Spend an afternoon on Daufuskie Island
Daufuskie Island is only a mile from Hilton Head, but it feels like a world apart. The largely rural island is accessible only by boat. Take a ferry, rent a golf cart and spend an afternoon visiting the island’s untouched beaches and artisan workshops. Marshside Mama’s is a good place to kick back, eat fresh seafood and jam to live music. Be sure to swing by the old schoolhouse where author Pat Conroy taught a class that later would be the inspiration for his novel The Water Is Wide. marshsidemas.com
Enjoy a show
For its relatively small size, Hilton Head has a surprisingly vibrant arts scene. The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina brings in talent from New York City for large-scale musicals ranging from Cabaret to Hello, Dolly! The South Carolina Repertory Company performs lesser-known plays in a black-box theater and presents a new playwrights festival in August. artshhi.com, hiltonheadtheatre.com
See the cool side of Hilton Head
Most of the hip on Hilton Head is of the artificial kind, but a few restaurants flirt with the cutting edge. WiseGuys is a tapas bar featuring an inventive menu with options such as sushi tacos and chicken and waffles. Former WiseGuys chef Russell Keane is now at Daniel’s Restaurant & Lounge, where he experiments to come up with such delights as lobster corn dogs. Try these places if you’re looking to have cocktails with a subdued, younger crowd. wiseguyshhi.com, danielshhi.com.
Justin Paprocki is a staff writer for The Island Packet, which covers Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
MYRTLE BEACH FOR KIDS
By Jeff McCallister
With 60 miles of smooth, white-sand beaches and plenty of affordable lodging, Myrtle Beach and the South Carolina Grand Strand are an ideal destination for families. But as any seasoned beachgoer knows, the fun shouldn’t stop at the shoreline: Even the most ocean-loving kids can get bored with hour upon hour of playing in the waves and searching for sharks’ teeth.
With that in mind, entrepreneurial folks in the area offer just about any activity a kid could imagine. As Kimberly Miles, spokeswoman for the Myrtle Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, puts it, “The beach isn’t the only thing that’s great about the Grand Strand.”
“The Myrtle Beach area offers a budget-friendly destination with families in mind,” she says. “From live entertainment to amusement parks to historical and cultural attractions, there is truly something for everyone.”
Boardwalk
Stretching between the fishing piers at 14th and Second avenues is the Oceanfront Boardwalk and Promenade, a 1.2-mile path that meanders through serene oceanfront parkland on its southern end and a raised wooden deck that blends into the dune landscape to the north. Situated in between is a high-intensity, carnival-like setting of arcades, souvenir stands and oceanfront cafes—most of them kid-friendly, including Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar, which serves items from its kids’ menu in Frisbees instead of plates. Above it all stands SkyWheel, the tallest Ferris wheel in the eastern U.S., with 42 climate-controlled gondolas that climb 200 feet above the beach. When its neon lights go on at night, it’s visible for miles around. cityofmyrtlebeach.com/boardwalk.html, dirtydonsmyrtlebeach.com, themyrtlebeachskywheel.com
Broadway at the Beach
Broadway at the Beach is a unique shopping and entertainment venue nestled along 23-acre Lake Broadway. The setting is an attraction unto itself, but there also are dozens of spots to keep kids entertained while the grown-ups do some shopping. Highlights include Ripley’s Aquarium, featuring a 750,000-gallon shark tank that surrounds visitors as they walk underneath; several rides from the former Pavilion Amusement Park, including a Herschell-Spillman Carousel that dates back to 1912 and features a menagerie of animals including frogs, roosters and dragons, and WonderWorks, an “amusement park for the mind” housed in a building that looks like an upside-down museum that was uprooted by some sort of natural disaster. Visitors to WonderWorks can experience hurricane-force winds, fly fighter jets in flight simulators and lie on a bed of nails. broadwayatthebeach.com, myrtlebeach.ripleyaquariums.com, wonderworksonline.com
State park
The oceanfront at Myrtle Beach is smooth and pristine—and often quite crowded during peak summer months. But Myrtle Beach State Park offers a mile of beach that is less crowded, a better seashell-hunting ground and not as commercialized. Its pier offers some of the best fishing around at a very reasonable price. The state park also has kid-friendly activities such as nature programs, an education center, playgrounds and horseback riding, with campsites available for the truly adventurous. southcarolinaparks.com/ myrtlebeach
Mini golf
Myrtle Beach is a well-known golf destination for grown-ups, with more than 100 courses in the immediate vicinity. But the Grand Strand also claims to be the “Miniature Golf Capital of the World.” It boasts more than 50 putt-putt courses with themes ranging from pirate ships and volcanoes to jungle animals and dinosaurs.
Wildlife
Brookgreen Gardens may not be the first attraction visitors expect to see on a trip to the beach, but this 9,000-acre oasis of natural wonder is a must-see with the kids. A National Historic Landmark, Brookgreen includes a 35-acre sculpture garden with more than 1,400 works of American sculpture from the early 1800s to the present, as well as a history preserve that displays some of the culture of the enslaved Africans who sustained the giant rice plantations prevalent during the area’s early history. There’s also a wildlife reserve that’s the only
There also are more traditional zoos in the area, including Waccatee Zoo, a private preserve that’s home to more than 100 species, and Alligator Adventure, the largest reptile zoological display in the U.S., located in the Barefoot Landing section of North Myrtle Beach. brookgreen.org, waccateezoo.com, alligatoradventure.com
Baseball
Myrtle Beach is home to the Pelicans, the Class A minor-league affiliate of the Texas Rangers, and the team strives for family-friendly fun with promotions such as Kids Eat Free Mondays and Weiner Wednesdays, when fans can get Hebrew National hot dogs for a dollar. The best, though, is on Sundays, when families are invited down on the field for a pre-game catch. The Pelicans also have 17 fireworks dates and lots of other events planned throughout the season. web.minorleaguebaseball.com
Pirate adventures
Pirate Adventures in Murrells Inlet (a few miles south of Myrtle Beach proper) takes the idea of playing “pirate” well beyond the everyday dress-up the little ones play at home. After getting costumes, face-painting and tattoos, young pirates actually go out on a pirate ship for an hour-long cruise, following a treasure map, battling enemy pirates with water cannons, learning the rules of the sea and eventually finding (and taking their cut of) the lost sunken treasure. The outing may seem a bit pricey at $25, but coupons are ubiquitous, and it’s truly an adventure to remember. myrtlebeachpirates.com
Water parks
Several resort hotels have their own water parks for guests, but the area also has some breathtaking offerings with wet and wild twists and turns. Myrtle Waves was the first and is the largest of the group, with seven swervy slides and two lazy rivers. Wild Water & Wheels adds a go-cart track to the mix, and Family Kingdom is a smaller water park that also has a seaside amusement park with a log flume and roller coaster to amuse the kids. myrtlewaves.com, wild-water.com, familykingdomfun.com
Children’s museum
Granted, it might be difficult to go to the beach and not be outdoors, but in the event of stormy weather, the Children’s Museum of South Carolina offers education and fun with exhibits such as Discover South Carolina, where kids learn about snakes, shells and different animal habitats of the Palmetto State, and the Hurricane Simulator. Lunch is even part of the learning thanks to the Pizza Delivery Truck, where kids create, bake and eat their own pizza pies. cmsckids.org
Dinner shows
If the kids like seafood, it will be easy to find good places to eat, since there are Calabash-style restaurants on seemingly every corner. But if they like some entertainment with their meal, two popular destinations fit the bill. Dolly Parton’s Pirates Voyage brings to life the pirates that once sailed off the Carolina coast. (The show replaces the country entertainer’s wildly popular Dixie Stampede that ran for 19 years.) Meanwhile, Medieval Times is a two-hour jousting tournament with stunning displays of horsemanship, swordplay and falconry. Both places serve four-course meals to families looking for dinner and a show. piratesvoyage.com, medievaltimes.com/myrtlebeach.
Jeff McCallister is a freelance writer.
