On the morning after Myrtle Beach City Council voted, the ocean off North Myrtle Beach looked the way it usually does in late September, a low, easy roll of green water folding onto the sand, a few boards bobbing past the break, and a handful of early walkers with coffee cups watching the surfers wait for a set that might or might not come. That patience is part of surfing on the Grand Strand. The waves here arrive on the Atlantic’s schedule, not ours, and anyone who has spent a week hoping for a good swell knows the feeling of checking the water from the balcony every hour.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2026, the city took a large step toward changing that equation. Council approved an incentive agreement for a Wavegarden surf park on the corner of the US 17 Bypass and 21st Avenue North, right beside Broadway at the Beach, a project now reported at $170 million. If it is built on schedule, surfers will be able to catch a machine-made wave in the middle of Myrtle Beach by the summer of 2030.

We first wrote about the idea earlier this month in our look at the surf park planned near Broadway at the Beach, and our news desk followed the council’s first reading of the agreement. This piece picks up where those left off, with what the final approval actually requires, how the numbers have shifted, and, because 2030 is a long way off, where you can paddle out on real Atlantic swell this week.

What City Council Approved

The vote approved an incentive agreement between the City of Myrtle Beach and WGMB, short for Wavegarden Myrtle Beach, the development group behind the project. According to WMBF and WPDE, the partners in that group are Highgate, South Street Partners, Twin Point Capital and W.M. Jordan. The agreement lets the city contribute up to $20 million toward the project, but it is structured so that the city pays nothing up front and the money only flows after the park is at least 80 percent complete.

That approval is an important milestone, though not the last one. WMBF reported that Horry County still has to approve a Multi-County Business Park designation for the site, which is a separate step from the city vote. It is worth keeping that in mind when you read headlines that make the park sound like a done deal. The city has said yes to its part of the arrangement, and the rest of the process still has to play out.

If the figures sound different from what you read a few weeks ago, you are not imagining it. When we first covered the proposal on September 12, the project was being described at roughly $150 million. Coverage of the final vote puts the total at $170 million, with at least $125 million of that required to come from private investment. Big developments tend to grow and shift as plans are refined, so treat every number here as the current reported figure rather than the final word.

What Is Planned on 21st Avenue North

The centerpiece is a surf lagoon of about 5.5 acres built with Wavegarden technology, the same family of wave-making systems used at inland surf parks elsewhere in the world. Around the lagoon, the plan calls for a 150-room hotel and, according to WMBF, more than 20,000 square feet of food and beverage space, along with retail and a sports tourism component. In other words, it is being pitched less as a single attraction and more as a small resort district built around the wave.

The location matters as much as the lagoon. The corner of the US 17 Bypass and 21st Avenue North sits right next to Broadway at the Beach, which already draws crowds for its shops, restaurants and attractions around the lake. A surf park there would add a new reason to spend an afternoon in that part of town, and it would give families who already make the drive down from North Myrtle Beach for an evening at Broadway one more thing to fold into the day.

One point worth clearing up, because it comes up in conversation around town, is that this project is the Wavegarden proposal from WGMB. It should not be confused with earlier surf park ideas or other brand names that have floated around the Grand Strand over the years. When you see news about the Myrtle Beach surf park from here forward, the Wavegarden plan beside Broadway at the Beach is the one moving through city and county approvals.

How the Incentive Deal Works

For anyone who follows local development, the structure of this agreement is the most interesting part of the story. Rather than handing over money at the start, the city’s contribution of up to $20 million is tied to progress on the ground. WPDE reported that the park must also operate for at least five years, and that the developer would owe repayment if the park fails, closes or is sold. Those guardrails are meant to protect the city if the project stalls halfway through or changes hands soon after opening.

The projections attached to the deal are large. Reported estimates call for about 364,000 visitors a year, with $58.1 million spent at the park each year and another $12.7 million spent elsewhere in the area. WPDE added projections of 44,800 hotel room-nights and roughly $3.2 million a year in revenue for the city. Projections are just that, of course, and the real test will come once the lagoon is full and the first sessions are booked.

Why a Wave Pool Appeals to a Beach Town

It can seem odd at first that a beach town with the whole Atlantic on its doorstep would want a man-made wave. The answer is consistency. The Atlantic here is often gentle, which is lovely for families and for long swims, but it means surfers can go days without a rideable wave, especially in the calm stretches of summer. A lagoon can deliver the same wave again and again, sized for a first-timer in the morning and a strong intermediate in the afternoon, and that kind of reliability is what supporters hope will draw visitors in every season.

The Timeline, From Groundbreaking to 2030

According to WPDE, the agreement requires construction to begin by September 1, 2027, and targets an opening date of July 1, 2030. That gives the development team about a year to finish county approvals, final design and financing before shovels go into the ground, and then roughly three years to build the lagoon, hotel and surrounding space.

For vacation planning, the honest takeaway is that this is a project to watch rather than one to plan around yet. Families who book a beach week for 2027, 2028 or 2029 will likely see construction fencing near Broadway at the Beach instead of surfers. We will keep following the county vote and the construction start, and we will update our coverage as dates firm up, but any family hoping to ride the lagoon should confirm the opening before building a trip around it.

What a Surf Park Could Mean for Grand Strand Visitors

If the park opens as described, it will change the rhythm of a Grand Strand vacation in small but real ways. A rainy-day plan might turn into a surf session. A group of teenagers who have spent a week watching surfers from the shore at Crescent Beach could take a lesson on a predictable wave and then carry that confidence back into the ocean. Adults who surfed years ago might finally have a place to shake off the rust without fighting a crowded lineup.

It could also add to the long list of things to do in Myrtle Beach that do not depend on the weather or the tides. Broadway at the Beach is already one of the easiest places to spend an evening, and a surf lagoon next door would give the area a daytime draw with a very different energy from the shops and restaurants. For North Myrtle Beach visitors, it would be a reasonable drive south, the kind of outing you plan once or twice a week before heading back to the quiet end of the Strand.

How to Surf the Real Ocean Near North Myrtle Beach Now

Until 2030, the only waves on offer are the ones the Atlantic sends. That is not a bad thing. Surfing the ocean off North Myrtle Beach is a sociable, low-key affair, with a friendly lineup on most mornings and plenty of room to learn. The key is going with local knowledge, and the shops and schools below are a good place to get it.

Surf Shops and Lessons Close to Your Rental

Bert’s Surf Shop, at 806 21st Avenue South in North Myrtle Beach, is a familiar name in the Crescent Beach area and a natural first stop for wax, rentals and advice on where the waves are breaking. You can reach the shop at (843) 272-7458. Farther south, Ron Jon Surf Shop sits at Barefoot Landing, 4810 Highway 17 South, a convenient place to pick up gear while you are already out for dinner or a stroll along the waterfront.

For instruction, Kokopelli Surf Camp offers lessons and camps and can be reached at (843) 340-9565. The camp also runs kayak and paddleboard tours, which makes it a good option for mixed groups where not everyone wants to surf. Native Surf Lessons works out of the Cherry Grove area and offers lessons year-round, which is useful if your trip falls in the shoulder seasons when some summer programs wind down. Schedules, prices and minimum ages vary, so call ahead and confirm before you go.

Reading the Water and the Seasons

Surf on the Grand Strand depends on weather systems well offshore, so the best waves tend to arrive on their own schedule rather than any calendar. Rather than trusting a rule of thumb, check a surf forecast the evening before, then stop by or call a shop in the morning to ask where it is breaking. The folks behind the counter know which stretches are working on a given tide and which are flat. It also pays to check the city’s current beach rules on surfing areas and seasons before you paddle out, since those can change from year to year.

If you want to see the local surf community at its most lively, the Carolina Cup Surf Fest is a good introduction, and our story about discovering surfing, paddleboarding and kayaking in North Myrtle Beach is a warm, beginner-friendly primer for families trying it for the first time.

Planning a Surf-Minded Beach Week

A surf-focused week in North Myrtle Beach works best when you stay close to the water and keep the mornings open. Many surfers like to go early, and being able to walk down to the sand with a board under your arm makes it easy to check conditions before breakfast. Stretches like Ocean Drive, with its easy access to shops and restaurants, and Windy Hill, with its calmer, residential feel, both give you a quick path from the front door to the water.

Groups that travel with boards, wetsuits and beach carts appreciate room to spread out. Beach houses give families space for boards and gear, and our oceanfront home rentals in North Myrtle Beach put you steps from the sand, while oceanfront condos put you a short elevator ride from the beach, which is handy when you want to paddle out, come back for lunch and go out again when the tide turns. Either way, you can spend the week learning on real ocean waves and keep an eye on the surf park’s progress for a future trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Make North Myrtle Beach Your Surf Base

The wave machine is still a few years away, but the Atlantic is right outside the door, and a week in North Myrtle Beach is a fine way to learn it. Stay close to the sand, take a lesson, talk to the shops about where it is breaking, and plan a visit to Broadway at the Beach to see how the surf park is coming along.

Sources: WMBF (September 2026), WPDE (September 2026), and Thomas Beach Vacations coverage from September 2026. Project figures, dates and approvals are subject to change, and surf shop hours and lesson schedules vary by season, so confirm details directly before you go.

There is a particular kind of restaurant that a beach trip calls for on about the third evening, once the novelty of cooking in the rental has worn off and nobody wants anything that requires a reservation made weeks ago. It needs to hold a group without a long wait, it needs to work for the person who wants a dozen oysters and the eleven-year-old who wants fried chicken, and ideally it is outside and near water. Big Fish, which opened at Broadway at the Beach on September 18, 2026, was built to be exactly that restaurant.

Time Your Visit Around the Deck

The deck is the reason to come, and it is worth planning around rather than leaving to chance. It runs 5,000 square feet, it sits over Lake Broadway, and critically it is covered — which on this coast is the difference between a pleasant evening outside and a scramble indoors when the four o’clock storm rolls through in July.

The best seats are the ones facing the water, and the best time to have them is the hour before sunset, when the light comes off the lake and the heat has finally let go. That is also, predictably, when everybody else wants them. If your group is flexible, arriving closer to the 11 a.m. opening or in the lull between lunch and the dinner rush gives you a much better shot at the rail.

There is a stage out there too, so if live music is what you want, the deck is where the evening happens rather than something you go looking for afterward.

The Oyster Bar Has Its Own Seats

Tucked apart from the main bar is a 26-seat oyster bar, and the fact that it has dedicated seating rather than being a corner of the kitchen tells you something about how seriously the raw program is being taken. A shucker working in front of you is a different experience from a tray that arrives already opened.

If you are two people rather than eight, this is the better seat in the house. You end up talking to whoever is working, you learn what came in that day, and you skip the wait for a table entirely.

What the Menu Costs

The food is seafood-forward without being precious about it, and the prices span a wider range than the size of the place might suggest. At the approachable end, fish and chips runs $18.50 and a half bird of the Southern-style fried chicken is $16. At the other, a Lowcountry boil is $36 and a Maine roll comes in at $31.

That spread is genuinely useful for a family or a mixed group, because it means one table can hold a $16 order and a $36 order without anybody feeling like they are being watched. The fried chicken is the detail worth flagging for anyone travelling with a child who has firm opinions about seafood.

One caveat: those are opening prices, and menus move. Treat them as a guide to the range rather than a promise.

Happy Hour and the Game

Happy hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. every day, which lines up neatly with the walk back from the beach and the window before dinner proper.

The bar seats 70 and has a wall of screens above it — reporting on the opening counted 22 televisions there, and the restaurant lists 30 across the whole space. In practice that means this is a viable place to watch a game in the fall without sacrificing the rest of the evening, which is not true of most waterfront seafood restaurants.

Hours, and Getting There From North Myrtle Beach

Doors open daily at 11 a.m. Sunday through Thursday the kitchen runs to 9 p.m. with the restaurant open until 10, and Friday and Saturday those move to 10 and 11. The address is 1321 Celebrity Circle, in the building that was Liberty Brewery & Grill for about 25 years, and the phone number is 843-984-3564.

From most North Myrtle Beach rentals the drive is roughly 25 to 35 minutes down U.S. 17, traffic depending. Worth knowing before a late dinner: SCDOT is doing overnight intersection work on U.S. 17 between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. through June 2027, so the drive home after a Friday night on the deck may take longer than the drive down.

Broadway at the Beach parking is free, but it fills on summer evenings and on weekends year-round. Arriving before the dinner rush saves you the far lot and the walk that comes with it.

Making a Night of It

Since you have driven down anyway, Broadway at the Beach is built for the idea that dinner is one part of an evening rather than the whole of it. Walking the lake after eating is the easiest version of that, and the newer additions to the property have leaned toward venues with entertainment attached.

If you want to know what else is on while you are in town, our calendar of events tracks concerts, festivals and seasonal shows across the Grand Strand. And for the background on the opening itself — the size, the build, the operator and the building’s history — we covered it in our report on Big Fish opening.

Still sorting out where to stay? Our oceanfront homes and oceanfront condos put you up the coast with an easy run down to Broadway whenever the mood strikes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Bigfishmb.com, the restaurant’s own site, for hours, phone number, menu items and prices, the oyster bar, the entertainment deck and television count. The Myrtle Beach Sun News, via Yahoo and NewsBreak syndication, September 18, 2026, for the opening date, address, square footage, deck size, 70-seat bar and 26-seat oyster bar. What Now Charleston, April 2026, for the Liberty Brewery & Grill history. MyHorryNews.com, September 17, 2026, for the U.S. 17 overnight construction schedule. Prices and hours were accurate at opening and are subject to change.

Myrtle Beach Surf Park at Broadway at the Beach: What the $150 Million Wave Lagoon Means for Your Grand Strand Vacation

Twenty-first Avenue North has been waiting a long time for its next act. The Palace Theatre came down in 2017, and for most of the years since, the corner where the U.S. 17 Bypass meets Broadway at the Beach has been a place drivers pass on the way to somewhere else. The lake still glitters behind it. The Ferris wheel at Pavilion Park still turns in the evening. The lot itself just sat there, holding its breath.

On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, Myrtle Beach City Council gave that corner a reason to exhale. Council approved the first reading of an ordinance supporting a $150 million surf park and hospitality development on the old Palace Theatre site, backed by up to $20 million in city incentives. The plan calls for a man-made surf lagoon of nearly six acres, a hotel of at least 150 rooms, and roughly 20,000 square feet of restaurants, shops and tourism space.

Anyone who has followed Grand Strand news for a few years will raise an eyebrow here, and fairly so. Myrtle Beach has been promised a surf park before. This version comes with a new site, new money, a new structure for the public funding, and a target opening date of March 1, 2030. It also still has to clear a second vote.

Here is what council actually approved, how the deal is built, what else passed that night, and what it all means for a family planning a beach week on this coast, whether that week happens next month or the summer the waves finally switch on.

What City Council Approved on September 8

The headline item was the first reading of an ordinance for the surf park and hospitality project, with an incentive package capped at $20 million. News13 (WBTW) reported the approval the following morning. The Horry Independent and MyrtleBeachSC News both reported the vote as 6-1, with Councilwoman Jackie Hatley casting the lone no vote over concerns about putting public money toward a project on privately owned land.

Mayor Mark Kruea framed the package as a significant investment with the potential for strong returns. His central point, as reported by News13 and WPDE, was about risk: if the project never gets built, the city has no money on the line. He also described tourism as the lifeblood of the local economy, which in a city that runs on hotel stays and restaurant tickets is less a slogan than a line item.

Council also passed a resolution supporting the project and asking that it be included in an existing multi-county business park. In South Carolina, that designation is the legal vehicle that allows the kind of special source revenue credits and bonds the city is proposing to use.

Inside the Plan: Lagoon, Hotel and Shops

The site is the former Palace Theatre property at 21st Avenue North and the U.S. 17 Bypass, part of a roughly 28-acre tract on the Broadway at the Beach campus that the Myrtle Beach Planning Commission voted unanimously to rezone in January 2026. The Myrtle Beach Convention Center sits just across the way on Oak Street, which puts the surf park inside the densest tourism grid in the city.

The centerpiece is the lagoon. News13 described it as nearly six acres; the Horry Independent, WPDE and WavePoolMag put it at 5.5 acres. Earlier reporting in The Post and Courier described a lagoon holding about 7 million gallons of water, built to produce up to 1,000 waves an hour across a range from gentle one-foot rollers for beginners to seven-foot breaks for experienced surfers.

Around the water, the incentive agreement sets minimums rather than a finished site plan. The developer must deliver at least 20,000 square feet of food, beverage and retail space, additional hospitality space, and a hotel with no fewer than 150 rooms. Earlier concept descriptions of the project also mentioned surf cabins, pools, a lazy river and a beach area, but those details were not spelled out in the September ordinance coverage, so treat them as possibilities rather than promises.

The Project at a Glance

How the $20 Million Incentive Works

The structure of the money is the part of this story that separates it from the last surf park chapter. The city is not writing a check up front. According to reporting from the Horry Independent and MyrtleBeachSC News, the incentive would take the form of either a special source revenue credit, which reduces the project’s property tax bill over time, or a special source revenue bond. Either way, nothing is disbursed until construction reaches roughly 80% completion. By that point, the developers are expected to have put somewhere around $120 million to $125 million of their own capital into the ground.

The city’s case rests on a third-party economic impact study. That study projects roughly 364,000 visitors a year, about $50 million in on-site spending, around $12.5 million in additional spending off-site at local restaurants, shops and attractions, and annual tax revenue of about $3.2 million for Myrtle Beach, $2.6 million for Horry County and $9 million for the state.¹ City officials projected they would recover the $20 million in about six years.

Not everyone accepts those numbers at face value. MyrtleBeachSC News raised several questions worth knowing about: the company receiving the incentive had not been publicly named at first reading, the revenue projections may count tax credits in ways that overstate the benefit, clawback terms for underperformance had not been spelled out, and it remains unclear how much of the abated revenue would otherwise have reached Horry County Schools. Those are the kinds of details a second reading usually clarifies.

A Surf Park Ten Years in the Making

The idea of a Myrtle Beach wave park goes back roughly a decade, to an earlier concept along Robert M. Grissom Parkway that stalled during the pandemic. The version most locals remember arrived in 2022, when City Council voted 6-2 to sell 21.6 acres to developer American Surf Parks for $4.5 million, with the city keeping a buyback option. News13 covered the final approval of that project, then pegged at $80 million.

Financing proved harder than the renderings. By the fall of 2023 the developer’s leadership acknowledged difficulty lining up capital, and council granted a series of extensions in exchange for nonrefundable deposits of $150,000. In November 2024, the developer walked away from the original land deal and announced the park would move to Broadway at the Beach instead, with a hoped-for 2027 opening.

That 2027 date came and went on paper long before shovels could move. In January 2026 the Planning Commission approved rezoning for the 28-acre Broadway at the Beach site, and in September the incentive package reached council. MyrtleBeachSC News and WavePoolMag both identified the current development team as a joint venture of Twin Point Capital, Highgate and South Street Partners, working with Burroughs & Chapin, the longtime owner of Broadway at the Beach. The Horry Independent reported that the city referred to the effort as Project WGMB and that the company’s name would be made public at second reading.

Wavegarden and the Virginia Beach Comparison

The wave technology named in The Post and Courier‘s January 2026 coverage is Wavegarden, the Spanish company whose Cove system produces waves on a timed cycle across multiple skill zones. The earlier American Surf Parks plan also leaned on Wavegarden, according to WavePoolMag.

The closest real-world reference point sits about six hours up the coast. Atlantic Park in Virginia Beach opened on August 16, 2025, as the first Wavegarden Cove in the United States, tucked into the oceanfront’s ViBe Creative District between 18th and 20th Streets. Sessions there run from whitewater and knee-high beginner waves up through head-high and barreling waves for experts, and lessons are available at every level. That tiered approach is the model most likely to shape a Myrtle Beach version: a place where a ten-year-old can stand up for the first time in the morning and a competitive surfer can train in the afternoon.

The comparison also cuts the other way. MyrtleBeachSC News pointed out that Atlantic Park’s reported attendance, around 90,000 visitors, sits well below the 364,000 projected for Myrtle Beach, and suggested the two figures may be measured differently. It is a fair question for anyone reading the projections, and one the developer will likely be asked to answer as the project moves forward.

What It Means for Broadway at the Beach

Broadway at the Beach is already the busiest entertainment campus on the Grand Strand, and the surf park would plug into its north side. Walk the lake loop today and you pass Ripley’s Aquarium, with its sharks and penguins, the upside-down facade of WonderWorks, the rides at Pavilion Park, the twin putting courses at PopStroke, and the Hollywood Wax Museum Entertainment Center. Dinner options run from Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville and Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen on the water to Joe’s Crab Shack, Hard Rock Cafe, Wahlburgers and Dave & Buster’s.

The surf crowd has a foothold there already too. Ron Jon Surf Shop keeps a store at Broadway at the Beach, along with a second location at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach. A wave lagoon a short walk away would turn a souvenir stop into an outfitting stop.

For visitors, the practical takeaway is that the surf park is designed as an all-day, all-weather-season anchor rather than a one-hour attraction. A family could plausibly surf in the morning, eat lunch on the lake, and spend the afternoon at the aquarium without moving the car. For the city, the argument is that those same guests spill out to restaurants and attractions across the Grand Strand, which is where the projected $12.5 million in off-site spending comes from.

The Rest of the Agenda: Fire Station, Transit Hub and Golf Carts

A New Fire Station 1 and a Coast RTA Transit Center

Council also approved the first reading of an ordinance to annex and rezone four undeveloped parcels near Executive Avenue and Robert M. Grissom Parkway that currently fall under Horry County jurisdiction. The rezoning would let the city build a new Fire Station 1 to replace the current station on Mr. Joe White Avenue, along with a Coast RTA transit center and operations facility.

Some questions came up about road access to the planned emergency and transit sites. Kenneth May, the city’s planning and zoning director, told council that access details would become clearer once plans are submitted, and that the current intention is not to connect the transit facility to Mr. Joe White Avenue. Like the surf park, the annexation needs a second reading.

More Golf Cart Parking on the North End

The item most likely to affect vacationers this year is a change to the golf cart parking ordinance. Myrtle Beach has nearly 3,000 active golf cart permits but only a few hundred designated parking spaces along the north end. The amendment clears the way to designate more, including some at street ends, potentially pushing capacity past 500 spaces between 34th and 82nd Avenue North.

The trade-off is stricter placement. After residents raised traffic safety and congestion concerns, the amendment requires golf carts and other small vehicles to park only where signage specifically designates it. During public comment, a resident from 82nd Avenue asked the city to step up enforcement, describing carts parked within a few feet of a stop sign even though city code prohibits parking within 30 feet of one. Mayor Kruea said he would look into it. If you rent a cart for a Myrtle Beach trip, read the signs before you leave it at a street end.

What Happens Next

Both the surf park ordinance and the annexation must pass a second reading before they take effect. That second vote is also when, according to the Horry Independent, the company receiving the incentive is expected to be formally named. Beyond council, earlier reporting in The Post and Courier noted that progress depends on debt financing, entitlements, permits, third-party agreements and construction itself.

The target opening is March 1, 2030. That date is a planning milestone, not a ticket-sale date, and this project’s history is a good reason to hold it loosely. The difference this time is that the city’s money is tied to construction progress, so the public side of the deal only moves when the private side has already built most of the park.

Project details, dates and figures reflect reporting as of mid-September 2026 and may change as the ordinance moves through second reading. Confirm current status with the City of Myrtle Beach before planning around the surf park.

Where to Surf the Grand Strand While You Wait

The Atlantic has been making waves here for free the whole time, and the best of them arrive in the fall. Visit Myrtle Beach notes that autumn tends to bring the strongest swells for experienced surfers, while beginners can find manageable surf most of the year. The water stays warm well into October, and the crowds are gone.

In North Myrtle Beach, the summer surfing restrictions lifted after Labor Day. From mid-May through Labor Day, surfing and skimboarding between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. are limited to designated zones, including the stretch from Hog Inlet to 5th Avenue North in Cherry Grove Beach. Two rules hold all year: surfers must wear a leash, and nobody surfs within 300 feet of a pier, including Cherry Grove Pier. Our guide to beach rules after Labor Day and our North Myrtle Beach beach laws overview lay out the details city by city.

For boards, wax and advice, Village Surf Shoppe has been part of the local surf scene since 1969 and runs lessons and summer camps, while Surf City Surf Shop rents boards and posts live conditions online. First-timers can book instruction with outfits like Native Surf Lessons, which teaches year-round in the North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach areas, as well as Jack’s Surf Lessons and Kokopelli Surf Camp. Down in Myrtle Beach, Springmaid Pier is known for catching more swell than neighboring beaches, and Myrtle Beach State Park tends to offer gentler, less crowded water.

Surf Park Days, North Myrtle Beach Nights

When the lagoon does open, the smartest way to experience it may be from a home base a few miles up the road. Broadway at the Beach is an easy drive from North Myrtle Beach via U.S. 17, close enough for a day of waves and aquarium tanks, far enough to come home to a quieter stretch of sand where the loudest thing at night is the surf.

Each of the four North Myrtle Beach sections has its own personality. Cherry Grove has the pier, the marsh channels and the long, wide beach. Ocean Drive is the heart of shag dancing and Main Street nightlife. Crescent Beach is residential and relaxed, and Windy Hill sits closest to Myrtle Beach at the south end of town. Whether your group wants the space of oceanfront home rentals or the convenience of oceanfront condo rentals, the ocean is the view from the balcony every morning.

For the full list of what to fill the rest of the week with, from Broadway at the Beach to the piers, golf courses and festivals, start with our guide to things to do in Myrtle Beach.

Frequently Asked Questions

¹ Visitor, spending and revenue projections come from a third-party economic impact study cited by the City of Myrtle Beach, as reported by News13 (WBTW), WPDE, the Horry Independent and MyrtleBeachSC News in September 2026. News13 reported nearly 365,000 visitors and more than $3 million in annual city revenue; other outlets reported 364,000 visitors and $3.2 million. Projections are estimates, not guarantees.

Additional sources: The Post and Courier (January 2026), WavePoolMag, WFXB, Visit Myrtle Beach, American Surf Magazine and Broadway at the Beach.

Every seasoned Grand Strand vacationer keeps a rainy-day plan in their back pocket, and for a growing number of families, that plan has a name: the little theater tucked beside Dave & Buster’s at Broadway at the Beach, where the house lights dim, the music swells, and a man who has fooled Penn & Teller makes the impossible look easy from twenty feet away.

Magic has quietly become one of Myrtle Beach’s signature nights out. The anchor is Wonders Theatre, a multiple award-winning venue celebrating seven years as one of the area’s most distinctive live entertainment experiences — home to illusionist Charles Bach’s year-round flagship production, a rotating cast of seasonal spectaculars, and, every September, a gathering that turns Myrtle Beach into the magic capital of the Southeast for one long weekend.

Whether you’re planning a family show night, an adults-only evening of hypnotic mayhem, or timing your fall beach week to catch world-class magicians who rarely share a stage, here’s the complete local guide to magic shows in Myrtle Beach — and how to pair them with an oceanfront home base in North Myrtle Beach.

Wonders Theatre: 170 Seats, Zero Bad Ones

Big showrooms have their place on the Grand Strand, but magic works differently. Magic wants you close — close enough to watch a coin vanish from an open palm, close enough to swear the cards never left your sight. That’s the entire design philosophy behind Wonders Theatre, the intimate 170-seat venue at 1320 Celebrity Circle in the heart of Broadway at the Beach.

The room punches far above its size: professional lighting, sound, projection, and effects wrapped around a stage that no seat sits far from. Add luxurious seating and full air conditioning, and you have the Grand Strand’s best answer to a rained-out beach afternoon or a July day when the sand gets too hot by two o’clock. The theater runs both matinee and evening performances across its calendar, with family-friendly productions sharing the marquee with adults-only comedy — something for every configuration of vacation crew.

Location is the quiet bonus. Broadway at the Beach surrounds the theater with restaurants, shops, and attractions, which turns a 90-minute show into the centerpiece of a full evening out — dinner before, a lakeside stroll after, and fireworks on the right summer nights.

Charles Bach Wonders! The Flagship Show

The resident production — Wonders! A Magical Experience — is the reason the theater exists, and the resume behind it explains the polish. International illusionist Charles Bach has carried his show to 55 countries, appeared on the hit television series Penn & Teller: Fool Us, and performed for years at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and at Hollywood’s legendary Magic Castle before planting his flag at Broadway at the Beach. In 2026, area readers voted him Best Magician in a Reader’s Choice poll.

The show itself runs roughly 90 minutes and plays like a Las Vegas production scaled to an intimate room: grand illusions performed live, beautiful costumes, choreographed dancers, giant puppets, colorful lighting, comedy, and steady audience participation that regularly pulls guests onstage and sends them back to their seats with souvenirs and stories. It’s built deliberately as a show for all ages — the kind of night where the eight-year-old and the grandparents leave equally convinced they’ve seen something impossible.

Performances run year-round in the evenings with matinee options in the schedule, making it an easy add to any beach week. Current showtimes and tickets are at wonderstickets.com.

Magic at the Beach: The Weekend the Magic World Comes to Town

Once a year, the theater stops being a venue and becomes a pilgrimage site. Magic at the Beach — South Carolina’s premiere magic convention — returns September 10 through 12, 2026, drawing magicians from across the globe for three days of shows, lectures, open-mic competitions, and a dealer room set up next door at Dave & Buster’s. The talent roster spans FISM and IBM award winners, America’s Got Talent veterans, Penn & Teller: Fool Us alumni, Magic Castle regulars, and headliners from the world’s major cruise lines.

Here’s what makes it matter for regular vacationers: three of the convention’s evening shows open to the public, and each releases exactly 50 public tickets. The rest of the 170-seat room belongs to the attending magicians — meaning the general public shares the theater with the toughest, most appreciative magic audience on earth. These lineups are assembled specifically for the convention rather than pulled from a touring production, so the odds of seeing these particular combinations of performers again are slim.

Public tickets go through the convention’s official site at magicatthebeach.org, and once the 50 seats for a given night are gone, that show is sold out. Our news coverage of Magic at the Beach 2026 has the full convention details, including registration options for practicing magicians and the special hotel rates arranged for attendees.

Beyond the Illusions: Hypnosis, Candlelight, and Comedy

The magic may headline the marquee, but Wonders Theatre programs like a full variety house. Once the family show wraps and the kids head back to the beach house, the theater flips to its late-night personality: the Comedy Hypnosis Hour, an adults-only show on select nights at 9:15 PM where willing volunteers from the audience become the stars. No two nights run the same, the results range from outrageous to unrepeatable, and the show has been packing the room for six years running. It’s strictly 18 and up — a made-to-order date night or group outing while the grandparents hold down babysitting duty.

The calendar rounds out with candlelight concerts that bathe the room in the glow of live multi-sensory musical performances, plus touring comedy and specialty acts — recent bookings have ranged from internet comedy sensation Vic DiBitetto to high-tech magician and America’s Got Talent semi-finalist Trigg Watson. Checking the current lineup before your trip is worth the two minutes; the schedule rarely sits still.

The Shows That Change With the Seasons

One of the smartest things about the Wonders Theatre calendar is that it refuses to stay the same show twice. Come in October and the family production gives way to Wicked Wonders, an immersive, spine-chilling magic experience built for the Halloween season and recommended for ages 13 and up — the rare Grand Strand fright night that trades jump scares for genuine astonishment. By the holidays, the room transforms again into the Wonders of Christmas Spectacular, wrapping the illusions in full seasonal production.

For repeat Grand Strand visitors, that rotation is the point: the family that catches the flagship show in June has a completely different night waiting on their October return. It slots neatly into the rhythm of a fall vacation in North Myrtle Beach, when the beach is still warm, the crowds have thinned, and the evening entertainment calendar hits its stride.

Making a Full Show Night of Broadway at the Beach

A Wonders Theatre ticket buys more than 90 minutes of magic — it buys the excuse for a full Broadway at the Beach evening. The entertainment complex wraps around Lake Broadway with restaurants for every table’s taste, and the theater’s spot next to Dave & Buster’s means the arcade-inclined half of your group has a built-in before-or-after plan. Arrive an hour early for dinner, wander the shops, catch the show, and let the kids burn off the post-show adrenaline along the boardwalk lights before the drive home.

From North Myrtle Beach, the trip runs 20 to 30 minutes down Highway 17 or the quicker Highway 31 bypass — an easy evening loop that leaves the whole beach day untouched. Pair it with the rest of the area’s after-dark options in our guide to things to do in Myrtle Beach, and keep an eye on the Myrtle Beach events calendar for what else lands during your week.

Where to Stay: Beach by Day, Magic by Night

The formula that works: days on the quiet sands of North Myrtle Beach, evenings wherever the entertainment calls. Each of the four beach sections makes a natural home base. Windy Hill sits closest to the Highway 31 on-ramp, making it the fastest launch point for Broadway at the Beach show nights, with Crescent Beach right behind it. Ocean Drive adds the Main Street beach music scene to your evening options, and Cherry Grove Beach delivers the quietest mornings on the northern end, fishing pier included.

Group size settles the rest. An oceanfront home rental gives multi-generational crews the space to split into show-goers and beach-sitters without anyone compromising, while an oceanfront condo suits couples and smaller families building their week around a show night or two. September deserves a special mention: Magic at the Beach lands in the shoulder-season sweet spot, when rental rates ease, crowds thin, and the ocean holds its summer warmth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Your Front-Row Week Starts at the Beach

Sources: Show, venue, and convention details reported by Wonders Theatre (wonderstickets.com), Magic at the Beach (magicatthebeach.org), and Visit Myrtle Beach, August 2026. Showtimes, lineups, age policies, and ticket availability are subject to change; confirm current details with the venue before purchasing.

There’s a certain kind of arithmetic every family does at the kitchen table in July. School starts soon. The summer went too fast. One more trip would be perfect — but the budget has opinions. Along most of the American coastline, that math gets ugly in a hurry. On the Grand Strand, it has always worked out a little differently, and now one of the country’s most trusted travel publications has put a number on it.

Travel + Leisure has ranked Myrtle Beach No. 8 on its list of the 10 Most Affordable Places to Travel in the U.S. this August — a national roundup of destinations where a round-trip flight and a night’s hotel stay average under $500. Myrtle Beach came in at $486, sharing the list with big names like Orlando, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Austin.

Look closer at the list and something stands out: among all ten destinations, Myrtle Beach is the only true beach town on the Atlantic. The others are cities — wonderful ones, many of them sweltering through triple-digit August heat — while the Grand Strand offers sixty miles of ocean, a breeze off the water, and the whole last-blast-of-summer package at a price that made a national value list.

Here’s what the recognition covers, what Travel + Leisure singled out, and how to turn that headline number into an even better real-world vacation.

The Ranking: No. 8 in America at $486

The list, published by Travel + Leisure in June 2026, wasn’t a matter of opinion — it was built on data. Working from Kayak flight and hotel searches conducted May 1–26, 2026, for travel throughout August, the publication identified the U.S. destinations where average round-trip airfare plus an average one-night hotel stay came in under $500. Kayak’s travel trends team noted that travelers can save up to nine percent on domestic flights by pushing their trip later in the season rather than fighting the peak-summer weeks — which is exactly the window this list captures.

Myrtle Beach’s $486 figure earned it the No. 8 spot nationally. The publication pointed to the destination’s mix of attractions, entertainment, dining, and accommodations — and specifically called out a destination-wide promotion that sweetens the deal further (more on that below).

For a beach destination to make a national affordability list during summer, when coastal prices traditionally peak, says something about how the Grand Strand is built: a deep supply of places to stay, an airport with nonstop service from more than 50 cities keeping fares competitive, and a tourism economy that has always treated value as a point of pride rather than a compromise.

The Full Top 10: Where Myrtle Beach Landed

Here’s the complete Travel + Leisure ranking, with each destination’s average combined cost for a round-trip flight and one-night hotel stay:

Read down that column of city skylines and desert heat, and the Grand Strand entry does its own quiet advertising. Fort Lauderdale is the only other place on the list where the ocean is part of the bargain — and even there, August means South Florida’s rainy season. On the Carolina coast, August means warm water, long evenings, and summer refusing to end just yet.

What Travel + Leisure Highlighted

Beyond the price tag, the publication painted a picture longtime visitors will recognize instantly: long August days spent hopping between the boardwalk, the arcades, the mini-golf courses, and the beach bars, with the waterfront entertainment districts anchoring the evenings.

Two of those anchor districts got named specifically. Broadway at the Beach, the sprawling complex around Lake Broadway in Myrtle Beach, needs little introduction — dining, shopping, nightlife, and attractions in one walkable loop. The second one sits right here in North Myrtle Beach: Barefoot Landing, the waterfront district along the Intracoastal Waterway in the Windy Hill section, where boardwalk-style shopping and restaurants share the property with the House of Blues and Alabama Theatre. For guests staying on the north end of the Strand, national-magazine-worthy entertainment is a five-minute hop from the beach chair.

The article also gave nods to Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach as the classic cool-off-indoors move for families, The Carolina Opry for its dinner-show tradition, and the area’s steadily expanding dining scene — from seafood shacks and Southern staples to newer arrivals like Ole Smoky Distillery. It’s a fair snapshot of a destination where the entertainment inventory runs deeper than any single trip can cover; our full guide to things to do in Myrtle Beach picks up where the magazine left off.

Make More Myrtle Moments: The Deal Behind the Ranking

One detail in the Travel + Leisure write-up deserves its own spotlight: the publication specifically credited Visit Myrtle Beach’s “Make More Myrtle Moments” promotion as a reason August is one of the best times to score a Grand Strand beach deal. The destination-wide campaign bundles offers like extra free nights at participating hotels and resorts across the 60-mile coastline, giving late-summer travelers more vacation for the same budget.

That’s destination marketing doing exactly what it’s supposed to do — and it’s worth pausing on why a national magazine mention like this matters. Third-party recognition from a publication travelers already trust carries a weight no advertisement can buy. When Travel + Leisure tells its readers the Grand Strand delivers value, it reinforces what has always been one of this coast’s strongest competitive advantages, and it reaches travelers at the precise moment they’re weighing where their late-summer dollars go furthest.

For the area’s hotels, restaurants, attractions, and small businesses, that visibility ripples outward all season long. For you, the traveler, it’s simpler: the deals are real, they’re publicized, and August is when they stack up.

Why August Is the Grand Strand’s Best-Kept Value Secret

Locals have known this rhythm for years. The Fourth of July crest passes, the back-to-school calendars start thinning the crowds week by week, and the beach itself doesn’t get the memo — the ocean is at its warmest of the entire year, the days are still long, and the evening air finally softens. By mid-August, you can walk a stretch of Cherry Grove sand at nine in the morning and count the other footprints.

Meanwhile, the economics tilt in the traveler’s favor. Airfares ease as the peak-summer scramble fades — and with Myrtle Beach International connecting nonstop to more than 50 cities, there’s healthy competition keeping those fares honest. Accommodation rates follow the same slope, promotions like Make More Myrtle Moments kick in, and restaurants that required patience in July welcome you right in come August.

Then there’s the calendar. Late summer on the Grand Strand stays busy with live music, fireworks nights, and festival season warming up — the Myrtle Beach events calendar is the place to see what’s on during your week. The destination that Travel + Leisure priced at $486 doesn’t act like a bargain when you’re standing in it.

How to Stretch That Value Even Further

The magazine’s math was built on flights and hotel nights — the standard yardstick for a national comparison. But here’s where a little local knowledge improves on a national headline: for families and groups, a vacation rental often rewrites that equation entirely.

Think about what the hotel model costs a family of six for a week: multiple rooms, every breakfast and lunch out, and everyone living out of suitcases. Now put that same family in an oceanfront rental in North Myrtle Beach. One shared home instead of two or three hotel rooms. A full kitchen that turns breakfast into a $12 grocery run instead of a $70 restaurant tab. A washer and dryer that let everyone pack half as much. Beach chairs and boogie boards already in the garage. Multiply those savings across seven days, and the per-person, per-night cost of a beach week frequently undercuts the hotel route — while delivering more space, more privacy, and the ocean outside the window.

Where you land along the coast shapes the trip, too. Cherry Grove Beach brings the fishing pier and calm, family-friendly channels at the north end. Ocean Drive puts Main Street’s shag clubs and beach-music history within walking distance. Crescent Beach offers wide, quiet sand in the middle of it all, and Windy Hill sits closest to Barefoot Landing — the very district Travel + Leisure name-checked — and the quickest run down to the Myrtle Beach attractions.

An affordable destination, in its most affordable month, with the lodging strategy that stretches a budget furthest. That’s not settling for less vacation. That’s simply doing the kitchen-table math better than everyone else.

Frequently Asked Questions

Book the Beach That Made the List

Travel + Leisure just told the whole country what Grand Strand regulars have known for generations: this coast delivers a real beach vacation at a price that makes sense. The smartest way to claim it is with a home base that stretches every dollar. Thomas Beach Vacations offers oceanfront home rentals where the whole family shares one roof, one kitchen, and one unbeatable view, along with oceanfront condos sized right for couples and smaller crews — across all four North Myrtle Beach sections, with August availability and some of the season’s friendliest rates. Browse availability at www.northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or call our local team at (843) 273-3001 — and squeeze one more week of summer out of the most affordable stretch of beach in America.

Sources: Travel + Leisure, “10 Most Affordable Places to Travel in the U.S. This August” (June 2026, based on Kayak search data); Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce / Visit Myrtle Beach.

Every so often, the rest of the country gets a glimpse of what Grand Strand locals wake up to every morning. Sometimes it’s a postcard shot in a magazine spread. Sometimes it’s a puzzle board on a game show. And on the afternoon of June 9, it was Kelly Clarkson’s studio audience watching the SkyWheel turn against a Carolina-blue sky — sixty miles of coastline compressed into a few minutes of national daytime television.

Myrtle Beach landed a coveted feature on The Kelly Clarkson Show this summer, courtesy of nationally recognized travel expert Emily Kaufman — better known to millions of viewers as The Travel Mom. The segment, which aired June 9 as the finale of her South Carolina coastal road trip series, spotlighted the destination’s family-friendly attractions, oceanfront atmosphere, and famous affordability to an audience of potential travelers from coast to coast.

And Kaufman didn’t just talk about the beach — she brought it into the studio. After wrapping her road trip on the Grand Strand, she surprised two lucky audience members with a $10,000 Myrtle Beach getaway, courtesy of the segment’s sponsor, Take 5. Somewhere out there, two very happy families are packing beach bags right now.

Here’s what the feature covered, why placements like this one keep the Grand Strand in the national spotlight, and how to see everything the cameras captured for yourself — with a quieter home base just up the coast.

What Aired on June 9: The Travel Mom’s South Carolina Road Trip

The Myrtle Beach feature came as the closing chapter of a South Carolina coastal road trip series Kaufman produced for the show — a journey that wound its way along the Palmetto State’s shoreline before finishing where so many family road trips do: on the Grand Strand. The format suited the destination perfectly. Myrtle Beach has always been, at heart, a road trip town — the place families from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and half of the eastern seaboard have been steering toward for generations, coolers packed and radio on.

Visit Myrtle Beach, the area’s destination marketing organization, supported the production with coordination, local logistics, and video assets that helped bring the region to life on screen — the kind of behind-the-scenes teamwork that turns a few minutes of airtime into a genuine showcase.

The studio moment sealed it. Kaufman returned from the road to Kelly Clarkson’s stage and handed two audience members a $10,000 Myrtle Beach vacation, turning a travel segment into the kind of feel-good giveaway daytime television does best — and putting the words “Myrtle Beach” on the lips of everyone watching at home.

Who Is The Travel Mom?

If you’ve watched morning or daytime television at any point in the last three decades, you’ve likely met Emily Kaufman. A pioneer of the family travel beat, she has spent roughly thirty years helping households plan accessible, affordable, memorable vacations — appearing regularly on Good Morning America, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CBS Mornings, and CNN, and currently serving as the travel correspondent for The Kelly Clarkson Show.

That résumé matters for a simple reason: trust. When The Travel Mom tells a national audience that a destination delivers for families — real value, real variety, something for the grandparents and the toddlers alike — travelers listen. It’s third-party validation from one of the most familiar voices in family travel, and Myrtle Beach earned the nod.

Her verdict echoed what generations of returning visitors already know. The Grand Strand’s combination of wide public beaches, attraction-packed entertainment districts, and vacation costs that don’t require a second mortgage has kept it among America’s most visited beach destinations year after year.

What the Feature Showcased

The segment leaned into the icons — the places that define the Myrtle Beach skyline and fill a family’s first-day itinerary.

The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk

The 1.2-mile oceanfront promenade is the destination’s front porch — a stroll past arcades, souvenir shops, ice cream windows, and the sound of waves that never quite leaves the background. It’s the Myrtle Beach that lives in family photo albums, and it photographs just as well for television.

The SkyWheel

Rising nearly 200 feet above the Boardwalk, the SkyWheel is the coast’s unmistakable landmark — climate-controlled glass gondolas turning slowly over the Atlantic, with views that stretch up and down the Strand. When a TV producer needs one shot that says “Myrtle Beach,” this is the one they reach for.

Broadway at the Beach

The sprawling entertainment complex around Lake Broadway packs dining, shopping, nightlife, and attractions into one walkable district — the rare place where a family of four with four different opinions can all get their way in a single evening.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach

Anchoring Broadway at the Beach, Ripley’s Aquarium sends visitors along a moving glidepath through an underwater tunnel while sharks and rays sail overhead — reliably the moment when even the teenagers put their phones down. It’s a staple of rainy-day plans and hot-afternoon escapes alike, and a natural pick for a family-focused travel feature.

Beyond the marquee names, the segment captured the thing that’s harder to put in a listicle: the oceanfront atmosphere itself. The wide sand, the pier silhouettes, the particular gold of a Grand Strand evening — the reasons people don’t just visit once.

A Big Year for Myrtle Beach on National Television

The Kelly Clarkson Show feature didn’t arrive in a vacuum. Just a month earlier, Wheel of Fortune devoted an entire week of programming to the destination — Myrtle Beach Family Week, which aired May 4–8, 2026, with family teams competing for prizes that included Myrtle Beach trips, plus a companion sweepstakes that sent five winning families on five-night Grand Strand vacations.

There’s a lovely bit of hometown poetry in that one: Wheel of Fortune’s own Vanna White grew up right here in North Myrtle Beach, and the giveaway invited viewers to come explore her hometown. For a game show watched by millions every weeknight, that’s a full week of the Grand Strand glowing on America’s living room screens.

Put the year’s placements side by side and the pattern is clear:

Two nationally syndicated shows, back to back, both choosing the same stretch of South Carolina coastline as their family-vacation shorthand. In a tourism marketplace where every beach town in America is competing for attention, that’s not luck — it’s a destination whose story keeps proving easy to tell.

Why National TV Coverage Matters for Your Vacation

It’s fair to ask what a talk show segment has to do with your beach week. More than you’d think, actually — and mostly in good ways.

National features introduce the destination to first-time travelers, sure. But they also work on everyone who’s been here before — the family that came in 2019 and keeps meaning to come back, the couple who honeymooned here and wonders if the kids would love it. A trusted voice like The Travel Mom saying “this place delivers” is often the nudge that turns someday into this summer. That awareness ripples outward to the hotels, attractions, restaurants, and small businesses that make up the Grand Strand’s tourism economy — the same ecosystem that keeps the area’s restaurant scene deep, its attractions fresh, and its calendar full.

For visitors, the practical takeaway is timing. Exposure like this tends to show up in demand, especially for summer and early fall. The families who watched that June 9 segment and started planning are booking now — which makes this a smart moment to lock in your own dates rather than waiting for the shoulder-season scramble. Our Myrtle Beach events calendar is a good place to pick your week; the full menu of things to do in Myrtle Beach will fill it.

Seeing the TV-Famous Spots from North Myrtle Beach

Here’s the local’s secret the cameras rarely linger on: you don’t have to stay in the middle of the spotlight to enjoy it. North Myrtle Beach sits about fifteen miles up the coast from the Boardwalk and SkyWheel — close enough for an easy evening outing, far enough that you come home to a quieter stretch of sand, a slower pace, and the kind of beach where your morning coffee comes with more pelicans than people.

Every one of the featured attractions is a straightforward drive down Highway 17 or the Highway 31 bypass. Spend an afternoon at Ripley’s Aquarium and Broadway at the Beach, ride the SkyWheel at dusk when the coast lights up beneath you, walk the Boardwalk with ice cream in hand — then point the car north and trade the bright lights for the sound of the surf outside your window.

Each of North Myrtle Beach’s four sections makes a fine base camp for it. Cherry Grove Beach offers its fishing pier and famously calm, family-friendly waters at the north end. Ocean Drive brings its own slice of television-worthy Americana — Main Street, the shag clubs, and beach music history (this is Vanna White’s hometown turf, after all). Crescent Beach and Windy Hill sit closest to the Myrtle Beach attractions, shaving minutes off the drive to Broadway at the Beach while keeping the wide, relaxed sand that defines the north end of the Strand.

Frequently Asked Questions

See What the Cameras Saw — Then Stay Where the Locals Would

Millions of viewers just discovered what you may already suspect: the Grand Strand delivers a family beach vacation that’s hard to beat. The next move is making it yours. Thomas Beach Vacations offers oceanfront home rentals with room for the whole crew and oceanfront condos perfect for smaller families — across all four North Myrtle Beach sections, each an easy drive from the Boardwalk, SkyWheel, and Broadway at the Beach, and each with the ocean waiting right outside your door. Browse availability at www.northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or call our local team at (843) 273-3001 — and turn the vacation everyone saw on TV into the one your family actually takes.

Sources: Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce / Visit Myrtle Beach announcement; The Kelly Clarkson Show (NBC, aired June 9, 2026); Wheel of Fortune Myrtle Beach Family Week official promotion (May 2026).

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — JUNE 24, 2026

BY THOMAS BEACH VACATIONS

From a cozy independent coffee café expanding into Forestbrook to a 40,000-square-foot moonshine and craft beer destination at Broadway at the Beach, a wave of new dining options is reshaping the Grand Strand heading into summer 2026 — and not all of them are chasing tourists.

The Grand Strand has never had a quiet offseason when it comes to restaurant openings, but the stretch from late 2025 into this summer has been particularly active. New concepts are arriving from Tennessee, from within the local restaurant community, and from corners of the coast that have long needed more options. The range is striking: a neighborhood coffee shop that knows its regulars by order, a distillery-brewery hybrid that required three years of planning, a kosher Mediterranean counter on Kings Highway, and a celebrity chef’s entertainment compound taking over a former department store. Each one tells a slightly different story about where the Grand Strand is headed.

What runs through nearly all of them is something local business owners have been noticing for a few years now: the market here is changing. More people are moving to the beach permanently. Year-round residents want year-round places to eat — not just seasonal seafood shacks that close in November. The tourist economy remains the backbone of the Strand, but it no longer tells the whole story.

Milk & Honey Coffee Café Grows Into Forestbrook

Milk & Honey Coffee Café began at 351 Hwy. 17 Business in Surfside Beach, where it built a loyal following on the strength of signature coffees, fresh-baked pastries, and what regulars describe as a genuinely unhurried morning atmosphere. Rebecca Dechir, who had been a regular at the original café before stepping in to take over its operation in November 2025, has now expanded the concept north into the Forestbrook area — a corridor that has seen significant residential growth over the past several years but had little in the way of an independent local coffee option.

Dechir describes the Forestbrook shop as something built around the neighborhood rather than around foot traffic. She recognizes her regulars by name, knows their orders before they reach the counter, and has started thinking ahead to what a third location might eventually look like — one built from the ground up as a fully dedicated gluten-free facility, a response to the growing prevalence of celiac disease and the cross-contamination concerns that come with it.

The shift she describes — away from the idea that coastal businesses survive only on tourist dollars — matches what is happening across much of the Grand Strand. January and February still dip. But the slow months are less dramatic than they used to be, and the shoulder season feels less like a cliff and more like a gradual step down. The locals keep coming.

Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Open at Broadway at the Beach

On the other end of the spectrum — deliberately, strategically, and at considerable scale — is Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co., which opened its doors at Broadway at the Beach in May 2026. The address is 1214 Celebrity Circle, and the venue is hard to miss: a 40,000-square-foot space that functions simultaneously as a working distillery, a craft brewery, a full-service restaurant, a live music venue, and a gathering place built around one of the largest screens in the Myrtle Beach area.

Both brands come out of Tennessee. Ole Smoky, founded in Gatlinburg in 2010 as the first federally licensed distillery in East Tennessee, is recognized as the leading producer of premium moonshine in the United States and the most visited distillery in the world. Yee-Haw Brewing Co., based out of a historic railroad depot in Johnson City, has grown quickly across the Southeast with locations in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Nashville, Knoxville, and Greenville, SC. The Myrtle Beach address is their first joint location outside of Tennessee.

The decision to land at Broadway at the Beach was deliberate. General Manager Chris Sobota has described the property as having the space and energy the concept required, and the brand has been transparent that it came here specifically to reach the tourism market — while building toward fall promotions and repeat local customers as a longer-term foundation. Guests can expect moonshine and whiskey flights alongside Yee-Haw craft beers, guided distillery tours, shareable food, and an outdoor beer garden with lake views. The design is family-friendly, the layout can accommodate private events and concerts, and the ambition is to become a fixture of the Myrtle Beach experience rather than just a season-opening novelty.

South Coast Beer Project Brings Carolina Forest Its First Brewery

At 5020 Carolina Forest Blvd., Chris Evans and Susan Heryadi of Coastal Concepts Hospitality have opened South Coast Beer Project — the first brewery to come to Carolina Forest, one of the fastest-growing residential corridors on the Grand Strand. Evans and Heryadi know the market well: they also operate three Grumpy Monk locations, Hop N Wich in Conway, and The Sneaky Beagle, which sits directly adjacent to the new brewery with a 1,000-foot walking path connecting the two properties across a retention pond.

The concept is built from the ground up — the first time the Coastal Concepts team has constructed a building rather than rehabilitating an existing one. The interior runs roughly 9,000 square feet with seating for 150 to 175; the outdoor space expands that capacity dramatically, with a beer garden that can hold upward of 250 guests. A fountain shaped like a giant beer mug pours continuously into a pool outside. An 18-foot outdoor screen is planned for movie nights. The décor leans coastal: palm trees rising through the floor, slat walls with greenery, painted surfboards, and enough natural light that the brewery side — visible through a glass wall from the dining room — reads as part of the atmosphere rather than a back-of-house operation.

Head brewer Brock Kurtzman, well known in local craft beer circles from his tenures at New South Brewing and Southern Hops Brewing Company, is guiding a lineup of house beers with names that lean into Carolinas identity: a blonde ale, a raspberry wheat, a mocha white stout named after Blackbeard’s ship Queen Anne’s Revenge, and an American brown called Board Meeting. The food program focuses on Detroit-style pizza and wings alongside sandwiches, salads, and full appetizers — all prepared in-house. Hours run 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For guests staying in North Myrtle Beach oceanfront homes or oceanfront condos along Ocean Drive or Crescent Beach, it’s a straightforward inland drive — the kind of evening outing that doesn’t require a reservation or a plan.

Guy Fieri’s Downtown Flavortown Opens at Myrtle Beach Mall

The most visible single opening of the season may be Guy Fieri’s Downtown Flavortown, which opened June 10, 2026, inside Myrtle Beach Mall at 10177 N. Kings Highway. Developed in partnership with FACE Amusement Group — the same company behind the flagship Downtown Flavortown in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee — the Myrtle Beach location takes what was a former anchor retail space and converts it into a 50,000-square-foot dining and entertainment operation unlike anything currently on the Grand Strand.

The numbers are hard to ignore: seating for 400 in the restaurant, over 100 arcade games, duckpin bowling, a Freaky Tiki bar, private party rooms, and more than 60 televisions spread across the space. The menu leads with the dishes Fieri made famous through years of television — his Bacon Mac-N-Cheeseburger, Cajun Chicken Alfredo, and the World Famous Trash Can Nachos, where a literal pile of chips and toppings lands at the table. All food is scratch-made. The atmosphere is designed for families as much as adults, and the event infrastructure makes it a viable option for group gatherings that need both a meal and an activity under the same roof. FACE Amusement has positioned Downtown Flavortown as a year-round anchor for the Myrtle Beach Mall’s ongoing revitalization effort.

More New Openings Across the Strand

Beyond those four marquee openings, several other concepts have quietly joined the Grand Strand dining scene this season. In Surfside Beach, Hakaya Café has opened its doors, adding to the area’s dining options south of Myrtle Beach proper. In Myrtle Beach, Pita Bar Kosher is now open at the corner of 31st Avenue and Kings Highway — a notable addition for visitors observing kosher dietary practices, a food category the Strand has historically underserved. Not far down the highway, the Chocolate Bar and Grill has also opened, offering a different kind of dining occasion. And in the Cherry Grove area of North Myrtle Beach, The Grove House has arrived as a new dining option for residents and visitors at the northern end of the Strand — adding to a neighborhood that already includes long-standing local favorites like The Shack, Snooky’s Oceanfront Restaurant, and Duffy Street Seafood Shack. Guests staying near Windy Hill now have another option within easy reach as well.

Taken together, the summer 2026 class of Grand Strand restaurant openings reflects a market that is growing in both directions — expanding to serve a rising year-round resident population while simultaneously rolling out experiences ambitious enough to become destinations in their own right. The independent coffee shop in Forestbrook and the 40,000-square-foot moonshine hall at Broadway at the Beach are, in that sense, two answers to the same question: what does the Grand Strand want to eat next?

New Grand Strand Restaurant Openings at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co. Are Coming to Broadway at the Beach

There is a particular kind of excitement that settles over Myrtle Beach in the months before something genuinely new arrives. The buzz travels through the restaurants along Restaurant Row, through the conversations on the piers, through the group chats of locals who follow every construction permit and every ribbon-cutting rumor. The kind of buzz that says: this one is different. That is exactly the feeling surrounding the upcoming opening of Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co. at Broadway at the Beach — and it is a feeling well worth paying attention to.

Ole Smoky is not a brand that needs much of an introduction to anyone who has spent time in the Tennessee mountains. Since its founding in 2010, it became the first federally licensed distillery in Tennessee state history, and it has since grown into the leading producer of premium moonshine in the world. Yee-Haw Brewing Co. earned its own devoted following across the Southeast with award-winning craft beers that taste like they were brewed by people who actually love what they are doing. Together, the two brands have already proven the concept works — their joint Nashville location on 6th and Peabody has been drawing crowds and racking up reviews since it opened. Now, that same energy is coming to the South Carolina coast.

The Myrtle Beach location is slated to open in May 2026 inside Broadway at the Beach. At 30,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, it will be one of the most substantial new attractions to land on the Grand Strand in recent memory. For anyone planning a vacation to the area this spring or summer, this is the kind of addition that earns a permanent spot on the itinerary.

Tennessee Roots, Myrtle Beach Bound

Ole Smoky Distillery was born in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where it operates the beloved Holler location that has introduced millions of visitors to real Appalachian moonshine culture. Over the years the brand expanded — The Barrelhouse just across the street in Gatlinburg, The Barn in Pigeon Forge, and the flagship 6th & Peabody campus in Nashville. The moonshine has won fans worldwide, with varieties ranging from classic White Lightnin and apple pie to blue flame and peanut butter whiskey, the latter taking a Master medal at a major American Whiskey blind tasting competition.

Yee-Haw Brewing Co. grew up alongside Ole Smoky in Tennessee and now has taprooms in Johnson City, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Nashville, Knoxville, and Greenville, South Carolina. Myrtle Beach will mark Yee-Haw’s second South Carolina location and the first joint Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw venue outside the state entirely. The decision to come here was not accidental — Myrtle Beach draws millions of visitors each year, and Broadway at the Beach is consistently ranked as South Carolina’s number one travel destination. When Joe Baker, founder of both Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw, called Myrtle Beach the perfect place to share their traditions and craft, he was not speaking in marketing abstractions. The numbers back him up completely.

Construction on the property is being led by Monteith Construction, a locally based company, with LSP3 serving as the lead architect. The design incorporates waterfront views and draws on the heritage of both brands while reflecting the modern, high-energy spirit that defines the Myrtle Beach experience.

What to Expect Inside

The venue is designed around the idea of spending time, not just stopping in. At 30,000 square feet, the space has room to breathe — and room to linger. Multiple bars are spread across the property so there is never a long walk between you and your next drink. The indoor-outdoor beer garden opens up into fresh air, while patio seating overlooks the Broadway at the Beach lake, giving the whole place a relaxed, lakeside quality that feels distinctly unlike anything else in the area.

One of the anchors of the space — and one of the more talked-about details — is what Ole Smoky’s vice president of marketing Will Ensign described as one of the area’s biggest TV screens. It is the kind of detail that matters when you are watching a game, catching a live broadcast, or simply soaking in the atmosphere of a venue that knows how to hold a crowd. Tasting rooms give guests an up-close look at the craft behind the product, and guided tours walk visitors through the full distillery experience, from raw grain to the finished spirit in the glass.

The family-friendly vibe is intentional. This is a place designed to welcome everyone — the group of adults on a weekend trip, the family with kids in tow who want to explore a working distillery and sample a root beer flight, the couple looking for a lakeside patio with good music and shareable plates. Ole Smoky has made a point of building venues that feel welcoming rather than exclusive, and the Myrtle Beach location follows that same philosophy.

Moonshine, Craft Beer, and More

The drinks menu at the Ole Smoky side of the house reads like a tour through Tennessee’s most celebrated spirits. Moonshine flights let guests work their way through the full flavor range — the classic White Lightnin that tastes exactly like it sounds, the dessert sweetness of apple pie moonshine, the electric blue flame, and the seasonal and specialty varieties that Ole Smoky rotates through with the kind of frequency that gives regulars a reason to keep coming back. Whiskey offerings round out the spirits side, including the award-winning peanut butter whiskey that has earned its own devoted following.

On the Yee-Haw side, the brewery brings its lineup of well-crafted core beers alongside rotating seasonal offerings. Expect the Kolsch, IPA, and pilsner that anchored Yee-Haw’s reputation across Tennessee and South Carolina, along with the Vol Lager and whatever specialty the brewers have been working on. Yee-Haw’s approach has always been to let the local market shape the tap list, so the Myrtle Beach location will likely develop its own personality over time — one that reflects what Grand Strand visitors and locals actually want to drink on a warm evening by the water.

The food program is built around shareable plates designed for groups — the kind of menu that works equally well for a first round of drinks or a full evening out. Details on the full food offering have not yet been released, but the philosophy matches the rest of the venue: generous, relaxed, and built for sharing.

Events, Live Music, and Private Spaces

Ole Smoky’s Tennessee venues have built a reputation not just for their spirits, but for the atmosphere they create around live music and community events. The Myrtle Beach location carries that tradition forward. Dedicated event spaces and private rooms are built into the property’s design, sized and equipped to host everything from birthday parties and rehearsal dinners to festival programming and live concert nights.

Will Ensign’s vision for the venue is clear: a Myrtle Beach go-to destination for good times, great music, and fantastic drinks. For a stretch of coastline that already knows how to throw a party — from the shag dancing legacy of Ocean Drive to the annual festivals that bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Grand Strand — this kind of addition fits naturally into the existing entertainment culture rather than trying to reinvent it.

Groups looking for private event options in the Myrtle Beach area now have a genuinely distinctive choice — one that comes with a built-in story, a branded experience, and a setting that most people in the room have not seen before. That novelty factor, combined with Ole Smoky’s track record at similar venues, suggests the private event calendar will fill up quickly once the doors open.

Broadway at the Beach: Already a Grand Strand Institution

Broadway at the Beach stretches across 350 acres around a central lake off U.S. 17 Bypass in Myrtle Beach. It houses more than a hundred shops, restaurants, and attractions — everything from Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach and WonderWorks to steakhouses, seafood spots, and ice cream parlors that have been pulling in repeat visitors for decades. It is the kind of place where an afternoon can quietly become an evening without anyone noticing the time.

The Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw venue will occupy a lakefront position within the complex, adding a destination anchor that complements what Broadway at the Beach already does well. April Martin, Senior Vice President of Leasing and Design at Burroughs & Chapin — the real estate investment trust behind Broadway at the Beach — noted that the addition enhances the guest experience with unique craft beverages and lively events, calling it a fresh and vibrant spot for locals and visitors alike.

For anyone planning a day at Broadway, the Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw venue will be a natural anchor point — a place to start the evening, cap it off, or return to after a loop through the rest of the complex. The combination of waterfront seating, a working distillery, live entertainment potential, and a full bar program makes it the kind of stop that earns repeat visits on a single trip.

Staying in North Myrtle Beach for the Trip

Broadway at the Beach sits comfortably within reach of North Myrtle Beach — close enough to make a day trip feel effortless, far enough that the two areas maintain their own distinct personalities. North Myrtle Beach, with its quieter neighborhoods, wide beaches, and deep-rooted shag dancing heritage, serves as the ideal home base for visitors who want to explore the full length of the Grand Strand without being in the thick of it every night.

The four beach communities of North Myrtle Beach each carry their own flavor. Cherry Grove Beach is known for its fishing pier and unhurried pace, while Ocean Drive carries the legacy of the shag and the kind of boardwalk character that never really goes out of style. Crescent Beach sits in the center of it all with a relaxed, residential feel, and Windy Hill offers a quieter southern end of the strip for those who want ocean views without the foot traffic.

Whether you are looking for a sprawling oceanfront home rental big enough to hold the whole family or a sleek oceanfront condo for a couple’s getaway, North Myrtle Beach puts you within easy reach of everything the Grand Strand has to offer — including whatever Ole Smoky and Yee-Haw Brewing decide to bring through those doors in May.

Frequently Asked Questions

Spring and summer on the Grand Strand are filling up fast, and an opening of this magnitude only adds to the reasons to make the trip. If you are thinking about planning a vacation around the North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach area — for the beach, the food, the music, and now a world-class distillery and brewery experience steps from the water — Thomas Beach Vacations has the properties to make it happen. Browse oceanfront homes and condos at northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or call the team directly at (866) 249-2100 to find your perfect spot on the South Carolina coast.

Slime Kitchen Opens at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach — A Chef’s Unexpected New Venture

Published March 31, 2026 · Thomas Beach Vacations

From Fine Dining to Slime Making — A Chef Changes Course

Michael Donovan had his eye on a kitchen. The award-winning chef had been scouting locations across the Myrtle Beach area for months, envisioning a restaurant of his own — the kind of place where he could finally call every shot, from the menu down to the music. Then he stumbled across a listing for a kitchen franchise, and the trajectory of his career took a hard, gloriously unexpected turn.

It was not the kind of kitchen he had ever worked in before. No walk-in coolers. No line cooks. No sizzling flattops or prep lists. This kitchen dealt in glitter, not garlic. It was Slime Kitchen — a California-based franchise where families create custom slime from scratch using KitchenAid mixers, colorful bases, and dozens of scents and textures.

Donovan had never heard of it. But his 10-year-old daughter had. She had seen Slime Kitchen all over TikTok and Instagram, and she made the case with the kind of conviction only a kid who really, truly wants something can deliver. After consulting with his wife, Maria, the couple decided to bring the franchise to Myrtle Beach — and not just anywhere in Myrtle Beach. They chose Broadway at the Beach, the sprawling 350-acre entertainment complex that draws upwards of 14 million visitors a year.

This is the first Slime Kitchen location in South Carolina, and it sits near Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach, one of the Grand Strand’s most visited family attractions. It is also a business that has become a true family affair — the Donovans’ daughter and 12-year-old son are fully invested in the operation.

What Is Slime Kitchen?

Slime Kitchen is a hands-on, interactive experience where guests create their own custom slime from scratch. Founded in the San Francisco Bay Area, the franchise has been spreading across the country with locations in California, Oregon, Kentucky, and Lake Tahoe. The Myrtle Beach location at Broadway at the Beach marks the brand’s first expansion into South Carolina.

The concept is simple but irresistible, especially for anyone who has ever watched a slime-making video and felt the pull to try it themselves. Guests walk in, choose from a variety of slime bases, then layer on scents, colors, glitter, and textures before mixing everything together on a real KitchenAid mixer. The result is a stretchy, perfectly squishy creation that goes home with the guest. All materials are food-safe and non-toxic — something Maria Donovan was particularly proud to point out.

If you have spent any amount of time around kids in the last five years, you already know the appeal. Slime content dominates social media platforms, and the tactile, sensory nature of slime-making has turned it into one of the most popular hands-on activities for children and families. Slime Kitchen takes that internet fascination and gives it a physical space — a place where you can actually get your hands into it.

The 10-Step Slime-Making Experience

Slime Kitchen structures each session around a guided 10-step process that walks guests through the creation of their own custom slime. It is part craft project, part science experiment, and part sensory adventure — and the whole thing unfolds at stations designed to make every step feel like a choice, not a chore.

Guests start by selecting their slime base from six different varieties. From there, they move through stations where they pick scents — everything from cotton candy to tropical fruit — and add color using dyes and pigments. The texture station is where things get creative: options include glitter in multiple sizes, foam beads, clay mix-ins, and specialty toppings that give each slime a completely unique look and feel.

Once everything is selected, guests use a KitchenAid mixer to combine the ingredients — a step that gives the whole process the feel of an actual kitchen. The finished slime is stretched, tested, and packed up to take home. Kids earn a diploma in slime culinary arts at the end, a small touch that adds to the experience. The entire session promotes sensory learning and creative expression, making it more than just a novelty activity.

Birthday Parties and Group Events

Beyond the walk-in slime-making sessions, Slime Kitchen offers birthday party packages that have already made the franchise a hit with families across its existing locations. The parties are hosted by dedicated staff members — referred to as Head Chefs — and include games, prizes, diplomas, and a special birthday slime cupcake for the guest of honor.

Two party tiers are available. The standard package includes one slime creation per guest, while the premium option allows each child to make two slimes from any of the six varieties. Parties typically run between one and two hours depending on the package selected. Group workshops are also available for school field trips, summer camps, and team-building events, making the Myrtle Beach location a versatile addition to the Grand Strand’s family entertainment scene.

Why Broadway at the Beach

The Donovans chose Broadway at the Beach because it was already a place their own family loved to visit. Located at 1325 Celebrity Circle in the heart of Myrtle Beach, the complex is South Carolina’s largest entertainment destination — more than 350 acres of shops, restaurants, attractions, and live entertainment venues surrounding the 23-acre Lake Broadway.

Slime Kitchen fits naturally into the mix of specialty shops and interactive attractions that define Broadway at the Beach. Families who visit Ripley’s Aquarium, WonderWorks, or the Hollywood Wax Museum now have another reason to extend their day at the complex. The location also benefits from Broadway’s free parking and its position as a stop on the Myrtle Beach Connector bus route.

For visitors staying in North Myrtle Beach who are looking for a rainy-day activity or an afternoon break from the beach, Slime Kitchen adds yet another option to the long list of reasons to make the drive south to Broadway. It pairs especially well with a visit to the aquarium or lunch at one of Broadway’s more than 20 restaurants.

Grand Opening — April 10, 2026

While Slime Kitchen has already opened its doors to guests, the official grand opening celebration is scheduled for April 10, 2026. The event will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony and is open to the public. The timing places the launch right at the front end of the spring tourism season along the Grand Strand — a smart play for a business that thrives on foot traffic and families in vacation mode.

Walk-ins are welcome at the Myrtle Beach location, and reservations are not required. However, weekends and holidays tend to see higher demand, so booking ahead through the Slime Kitchen website is recommended if you want to guarantee your spot.

More Family Activities Near Broadway at the Beach

One of the best things about a trip to Broadway at the Beach is that a single activity can easily turn into a full day. Slime Kitchen sits within walking distance of some of the most popular family attractions on the Grand Strand.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach remains the anchor attraction, with its 85,000 square feet of marine exhibits, the famous 330-foot Dangerous Reef moving walkway, a penguin playhouse, and interactive touch tanks. WonderWorks offers an upside-down adventure with over 100 hands-on science exhibits. The Pavilion Nostalgia Park brings classic amusement park rides to the complex, and the Hollywood Wax Museum lets families pose alongside lifelike celebrity figures. For older kids, Backstage Escape Games provides immersive puzzle-solving challenges.

Broadway at the Beach is also welcoming several new businesses in 2026, including Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Company, which will bring a distillery, brewery, beer garden, and tasting rooms to the complex. It is shaping up to be one of the most exciting years the entertainment district has seen in some time. For families visiting from Cherry Grove Beach, Ocean Drive, or Crescent Beach, a day trip to Broadway at the Beach is always worth the short drive.

Getting There from North Myrtle Beach

Broadway at the Beach is located at 1325 Celebrity Circle in Myrtle Beach, roughly 15 to 20 miles south of North Myrtle Beach depending on which beach section you are staying in. From Windy Hill, the drive is typically around 20 to 25 minutes. From Cherry Grove, plan on closer to 30 to 35 minutes depending on traffic.

The fastest route is typically Highway 31 (Carolina Bays Parkway) south to Robert Grissom Parkway, which leads directly into the Broadway at the Beach complex. Highway 17 is the more scenic coastal route and offers plenty of stops along the way if you want to break up the trip with shopping or lunch. Parking at Broadway at the Beach is free.

Plan Your Grand Strand Vacation

Slime Kitchen is just one more reason the Myrtle Beach area continues to add new experiences for families every season. Whether you are visiting for a long weekend or spending an entire week on the Grand Strand, staying in North Myrtle Beach puts you within easy reach of Broadway at the Beach and every major attraction in the area — while giving you a quieter, more relaxed beach experience when you head home at the end of the day.

Thomas Beach Vacations offers a wide selection of oceanfront homes and oceanfront condos across all four sections of North Myrtle Beach — Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive, Crescent Beach, and Windy Hill. Book your stay and start planning your family’s next Grand Strand adventure. Call us at (866) 249-2100 or visit northmyrtlebeachvacations.com to browse available properties.

Frequently Asked Questions