HGTV’s Battle on the Beach Is Coming to the Grand Strand — Here’s Everything You Need to Know

Season 5 of the hit HGTV renovation competition was filmed right here on the South Carolina coast — and it premieres June 1, 2026.

The Grand Strand Steps Into the Spotlight

There is a particular kind of morning that belongs exclusively to the South Carolina coast. The air is already thick and warm before the sun clears the dunes, the pelicans are working the shallows, and the beach houses along the Atlantic sit quiet and salt-bleached in the early light, their porches holding the promise of whatever the day decides to bring. It is the kind of morning that has drawn vacationers to the Grand Strand for generations — and now, it is the kind of morning that a national television crew spent weeks filming in Garden City, South Carolina.

HGTV’s hit renovation competition series Battle on the Beach returns for its fifth season — and this time, the show has set up camp squarely on the Grand Strand. Production crews arrived in Garden City Beach in March 2026 and spent weeks transforming three oceanfront vacation properties into the most ambitious renovation challenge in the show’s history. The result will debut on national television on June 1, 2026, and put this beloved stretch of the South Carolina coast in front of millions of viewers at once.

For those of us who have always known that this part of the Carolina coast is something special, there is a certain satisfaction in watching the rest of the country find out. And for anyone planning a visit — to Cherry Grove Beach, to Ocean Drive, to Crescent Beach or Windy Hill, or to Garden City itself — the timing could not be better. The Grand Strand is having its moment, and it has earned every frame of it.

What Is Battle on the Beach?

Battle on the Beach is not your standard home makeover show, and that distinction matters. Where most renovation programming ends with a teary reveal and a finished living room, this series is organized around something more practical and more ruthless: short-term rental performance. The homes don’t just have to look good. They have to earn. The team whose finished property commands the highest peak-season nightly rental rate wins the grand prize — a cash payout of at least $50,000 — which means every design decision carries the weight of actual economics. A beautiful kitchen that kills the flow of a vacation rental layout is not just an aesthetic problem; it is a competitive disadvantage.

The format made an impression. The previous season of the show attracted 15.5 million viewers across linear and streaming — numbers that speak to a particular appetite in the viewing public for renovation competition that feels tethered to real-world stakes rather than pure spectacle. Season 5 arrives with that audience already in place, and with a location that is going to make every frame of it feel like a vacation.

Season 5: The Cast, the Stakes, and the Challenges

This season brings together three of HGTV’s most recognizable names as mentors, each guiding a two-person renovation team through seven weeks and a $100,000 budget. Sarah Baeumler of Rock the Block, Mika Kleinschmidt of 100 Day Dream Home, and Ty Pennington of Rock the Block are each mentoring one two-person team of promising renovators as they vie to transform lackluster beachfront vacation properties — the biggest homes in Battle on the Beach history — into waterfront escapes.

The three competing teams bring their own dynamics to the floor. Married couple Steven and Angelina Jacobs of Waterbury, Connecticut; husband-wife team Josiah and Anna Julian of Baltimore, Maryland; and mother-daughter duo Michelle Mueller and Sydney Lorence of Lincoln, Nebraska arrive with different skill sets, different design instincts, and presumably different theories about what a Grand Strand vacation renter actually wants. That last question — design for the guest, not the camera — is where this kind of competition lives or dies.

Serving as judges are Tristyn and Kamohai Kalama, the husband-and-wife renovation duo from HGTV’s Renovation Aloha, who evaluate each week’s transformed space on the only metric that ultimately matters: rental value improvement. Their role turns the weekly reveal into a business test, not just a design reveal, because the teams are building for rental value as well as style. Each week, the winning team faces a choice that sharpens the competition considerably — pocket $3,000 immediately, or roll the dice and add $6,000 to the final grand prize pool. It is the kind of decision that tells you a lot about how a team is reading its own chances.

The design challenges this season carry an extra layer of creativity. The teams will overhaul the dated digs while navigating unprecedented design challenges, including repurposing discarded roadside finds in their homes and swapping partners for the chance at additional prize money. Those kinds of curveballs are what separate a competition from a collaboration — and what keep viewers coming back week after week to see who holds up under pressure.

Over the course of seven episodes, the teams work through every major room — living areas, kitchens, dining rooms, primary suites, guest bedrooms, bathrooms, and exterior spaces — building a complete vacation rental product from the ground up. The homes this season are the largest the show has ever featured, which means there is nowhere to hide a budget miscalculation and no room to coast on a single standout room. The whole house has to work.

Season 5 at a Glance

Garden City, SC: The Community Behind the Camera

Garden City Beach sits near the southern end of the Grand Strand, tucked between Surfside Beach to the north and the mouth of Murrells Inlet to the south. It is not Myrtle Beach — it has never tried to be — and that is exactly the point. Garden City Beach is located along the Grand Strand in South Carolina, just south of Surfside Beach and north of Murrells Inlet. Where Myrtle Beach pulls with scale and spectacle, Garden City Beach draws with something quieter: a small-town coastal atmosphere that the families who return year after year describe as irreplaceable.

The inlet meets the ocean here, so the area is a hot spot for watersports, fishing, and crabbing. The developed beach extends south into Georgetown County, ending on a narrow peninsula at the inlet’s mouth — one of those particular South Carolina coastal geographies where the water seems to come from every direction at once, and the light off the Atlantic and the inlet creates something that is genuinely difficult to photograph and even more difficult to leave.

It is the kind of place that suits a renovation competition focused on vacation rental performance, because Garden City Beach is, at its core, a vacation rental community. The beach houses along the Atlantic have been hosting families for decades. The properties know what they are for. Putting three of them under renovation pressure — with real rental economics as the final judgment — is a premise that fits the place as naturally as the tide fits the inlet.

Beyond the beach itself, Garden City offers a cluster of local landmarks that visitors return to the way they return to old friends. Sam’s Corner, an iconic diner for many visitors to the Grand Strand, has been a staple in Garden City since 1976, serving up classic hot dogs, fries, patty melts, and more all-American food that tastes extra good at the beach. The Garden City Pavilion Arcade, situated right beside the pier, offers two floors of classic and modern arcade games. And for those who venture a few minutes south, the MarshWalk in Murrells Inlet delivers some of the best waterfront dining on the entire South Carolina coast.

The Pier at Garden City: Where It All Begins

The season’s opening challenge uses the Pier at Garden City as its starting gun — a fitting choice for anyone who knows what the pier means to this community. Originally built in the early 1950s and rebuilt several times after hurricanes, the Pier at Garden City stands today as one of the most beloved landmarks on South Carolina’s coast. It stretches approximately 668 feet into the Atlantic Ocean, with a covered shelter at the far end that becomes a live music venue on summer nights, the sound of the band competing pleasantly with the sound of the ocean underneath.

In the season premiere, the three competing teams race through Garden City following clues, with the pier as the finish line. The winning team gets first pick of its beach house and assigns the other two properties to the competitors — a small early edge that can shape the strategic calculus for the entire season. It is the kind of challenge that uses the landscape rather than ignoring it, and the Pier at Garden City is exactly the right landmark for that kind of stakes-setting moment.

Whether you’re a seasoned angler, a beach lover, a family on vacation, or a local looking for a serene place to unwind, the Garden City Pier offers something magical for everyone. Walking the pier is free. Fishing requires a modest daily pass — no South Carolina fishing license needed, which matters for out-of-state visitors. The café bar opens early and stays busy late. On summer evenings, there are live bands at both ends of the pier, and the dancing starts when the sun goes down over the marsh to the west and the stars come out over the Atlantic to the east.

Viewers watching the June 1 premiere will see that pier as a television backdrop. Visitors who make it down to Garden City Beach this summer will stand on it. There is a meaningful difference between those two experiences, and only one of them involves salt air.

When and Where to Watch

Season 5 of Battle on the Beach premieres on HGTV on Monday, June 1, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The season runs for seven episodes, with a new one airing each Monday night. The premiere is a two-hour event — a supersized opener that drops the three teams into Garden City, sends them racing to the pier, and sets the competitive tone for everything that follows.

Each episode of Battle on the Beach will stream the next day on Max beginning June 2. For those without cable, that next-day streaming window means the whole season is fully accessible — no subscription to a live TV service required, just a Max account and a couch near a screen. HGTV also maintains an active presence on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and YouTube under the hashtag #BattleOnTheBeach for viewers who want behind-the-scenes content alongside the main episodes.

If you are planning a Grand Strand vacation this summer and want to visit the filming locations in Garden City, the timing works in your favor. The show premieres June 1, the peak summer season runs through August, and the Pier at Garden City will be doing exactly what it does every summer — fishing by day, live music by night, the Atlantic out front and the marsh behind. The cameras will be gone, but the coast will still be there, looking exactly like itself.

For those who want to stay closer to the North Myrtle Beach end of the Grand Strand, the beach communities of Crescent Beach and Windy Hill offer that same unhurried coastal rhythm — and a stay in one of our oceanfront homes or oceanfront condos puts you on the same Atlantic shore where the cameras have been rolling all spring. The Grand Strand is a long, generous coast. There is room for everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Information in this article is sourced from HGTV’s official press release, HGTV.com, and reporting from the Myrtle Beach Online. Premiere dates and episode schedules are current as of publication. Verify current airing information at hgtv.com.

Mother’s Day 2026 Gift Ideas: From a Beach eCard to a Vacation She’ll Never Forget

She Still Thinks of You Every Day

Look in the mirror long enough and you start to see it — the years, the small changes, the unmistakable evidence that time moves whether you tell it to or not. You are, by any reasonable measure, a grown adult. You have bills and responsibilities, probably a few gray hairs, maybe a kid or two of your own tugging at your sleeve. And yet, to one particular person on this earth, you are still and will always be her child. That quiet, stubborn truth belongs to your mother.

Life moves fast. Schedules get crowded. The calls you mean to make get pushed to tomorrow with surprising regularity. But Mother’s Day 2026 — falling on Sunday, May 10 — hands you a reason to stop, look up, and let her know that she has never left your thoughts either. What you give her doesn’t need to be extravagant. It just needs to be real. It needs to say: I see you, I remember, and I’m grateful.

Below you’ll find a range of gift ideas — from something you can send in sixty seconds to something that gives her an experience she’ll talk about for years. Whether you’re planning ahead or scrambling at the last minute, there’s something here worth giving.

Start with a Free Beach eCard — No Sign-Up Required

Some of the best gifts cost nothing except a few moments of genuine thought. Thomas Beach Vacations offers a collection of beautiful virtual postcards — ocean scenes, beach sunrises, coastal watercolors — that you can browse, personalize, and send directly to Mom without creating an account or entering a credit card. Just pick the one that fits, write something from the heart, and send it her way.

There’s something fitting about a beach eCard, especially if she’s the kind of mom who has always said she’d love to take a trip to the Carolina coast. It’s a little daydream delivered right to her inbox — a glimpse of the Atlantic, a quiet reminder that the beach is always waiting. You can find the full selection at northmyrtlebeachvacations.com/e-postcards/, and it takes all of three minutes. Three minutes that will make her smile and reach for the phone to call you.

If you want to go a step further, pair the eCard with a note that promises a real trip — something she can look forward to. The combination of a beach postcard and a genuine plan to visit the Grand Strand together is a gift that works on two levels: it delights her today and gives her something to anticipate all summer long.

Flowers: Classics Never Go Out of Style

There is a reason flowers have anchored Mother’s Day since Anna Jarvis chose white carnations for the first celebration back in 1908. They work. A well-chosen bouquet lands differently than almost any other gift — it fills a room with color, scent, and the unmistakable message that someone thought of you today. If you can’t be there to hand them over in person, a delivery service does the job just as well.

1-800-Flowers (1800flowers.com) has long been the reliable workhorse of online floral delivery, with same-day options available in most areas. ProFlowers (proflowers.com) tends to run competitive deals and offers fresh-cut arrangements with solid ratings. From You Flowers (fromyouflowers.com) is a good option if you’re looking for value without sacrificing quality. Order before May 8 to guarantee Mother’s Day delivery — the closer you get to May 10, the tighter options become.

If your mom lives nearby and the weather cooperates — and in coastal South Carolina in May, it almost always does — consider picking up a locally arranged bouquet from one of the florists along the Grand Strand and dropping it off yourself. An unannounced visit from her child is almost always the best part of any Mother’s Day gift.

A Photo Book: Giving Her the Story of Her Life

Flowers fade in a week. A photo book lasts a lifetime. If your mother is the kind of person who lingers over old photographs — who keeps albums in the closet and pulls them out when grandchildren visit — a custom photo book built from your family’s best memories might be the most meaningful thing you give her this year.

Chatbooks (chatbooks.com) makes the process surprisingly painless — you can pull photos directly from your phone or social media, arrange them, and have a polished book printed and shipped without feeling like you need a design degree. Shutterfly (shutterfly.com) is another dependable option, and their design team service means you can hand off the layout work entirely if you’re short on time. Printique (printique.com) stands out for print quality and flexibility, with a five-day turnaround on most orders and layouts that range from simple to magazine-worthy.

Think about what fills the pages: the beach trips from years past, the holidays that somehow feel like they happened last month, the three generations squeezed into a single frame at somebody’s kitchen table. If you have shots from past visits to Cherry Grove Beach or Crescent Beach, a chapter dedicated to those coastal summers would make any mom proud.

Presents That Say You Were Paying Attention

The best gifts are the ones that prove you were listening. Not the generic bath set that could go to anyone, but the thing that tells her — specifically, unmistakably — that you know who she is and what she values. That takes a little thought, but the payoff is worth it.

A spa or beauty gift certificate works because it gives her something she would rarely buy for herself: time and attention for her own well-being. If she’s been mentioning her sleep lately, a quality smart sleep assistant or sound machine can genuinely change her nights. For the mom who loves her home, beautiful coastal-inspired décor — a piece of driftwood art, a framed print of the Atlantic, quality linen in ocean hues — brings a little of that Grand Strand feeling into her everyday space. And if she has a favorite clothing store, a gift card there is never a cop-out; it’s practical respect for her own taste.

The through line in all of these is the same: you thought about her specifically. That is, when everything else is stripped away, what she actually wants from you.

For the Mom Who Eats with Her Heart

Some moms show love through food — through the meals they’ve cooked, the recipes they’ve guarded, the way they always knew exactly what you needed to eat when things weren’t going well. For a mom like that, a food gift lands at a deeper level than almost anything wrapped in a box.

Bean Box (beanbox.com) curates small-batch cold brew coffee subscriptions and single-origin selections that are a genuine treat for the mom who considers her morning cup non-negotiable. Tea Drops (myteadrop.com) takes the humble cup of tea and turns it into something a little magical — no bags, no mess, just beautifully pressed tea that dissolves straight into hot water. For the ice cream lover, a Goldbelly (goldbelly.com) curated kit from an artisan creamery delivers something she genuinely can’t find at the grocery store.

And if she’s a wine lover with an appreciation for the South, Duplin Winery (duplinwinery.com) out of Rose Hill, North Carolina, offers Southern muscadine wines and curated gift collections that carry a regional story worth sharing. It pairs nicely with the idea of a long coastal afternoon — which, as it happens, is exactly what North Myrtle Beach is made for.

The Gift That Outlasts Every Bouquet: A Beach Vacation

Here’s the thing about the Grand Strand in May: it’s about as close to perfect as a beach gets. The water temperatures are climbing but the summer crowds haven’t arrived yet. The mornings are quiet and golden. Restaurants have open tables. The price of a vacation rental is still at shoulder-season rates before the full summer surge kicks in. For a mom who has been saying “we should take a trip” for years without it ever quite happening, this is the year to make it real.

North Myrtle Beach has four distinct beach communities, each with its own personality. Ocean Drive carries decades of shag dancing history and a lively, social energy that moms who love music and culture tend to adore. Windy Hill sits at the southern end of North Myrtle Beach with a quieter, more residential feel — ideal if she prefers sunrises over crowds. Cherry Grove Beach has a charming, unhurried character, with marsh views on one side and wide Atlantic swells on the other. And Crescent Beach sits in the middle of it all, beloved for its clean, sweeping coastline and easy access to everything the area offers.

If you want her waking up to the Atlantic right outside the door, Thomas Beach Vacations offers an exceptional selection of oceanfront homes and oceanfront condos across all four communities. There are properties that sleep four and properties that sleep sixteen — enough room for the whole family to gather around a table the way she has always hoped you would. She can sip coffee on the deck while the morning light scatters across the water. She can hear the waves from her bed. That’s not a gift you can wrap. But it’s the one she’ll remember for the rest of her life.

Take Her to Dinner on the Grand Strand

If your Mother’s Day plans include dinner on the coast, the Grand Strand has no shortage of excellent options. 21 Main at North Beach Plantation is one of the most consistently celebrated steakhouses in the area, with an atmosphere that feels genuinely special. Flying Fish Public Market & Grill on Barefoot Landing offers fresh coastal seafood in a lively waterfront setting that tends to delight first-timers and regulars alike. Mother’s Day weekend is one of the busiest restaurant weekends of the year along the Strand — reservations made now will save you a lot of stress on May 10.

Frequently Asked Questions

Published by Thomas Beach Vacations · North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina · northmyrtlebeachvacations.com

4th of July in North Myrtle Beach 2026: Fireworks, Events & Where to Stay for Independence Day

There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles over the Grand Strand on the morning of the Fourth of July — the kind that comes before something big. By noon the beach chairs are staked, the flags are planted in the sand, and the smell of sunscreen and charcoal drifts up from a hundred oceanfront decks. By nightfall, the sky above Cherry Grove is all fire and color, and the boom of professional shells rattles windows up and down the coast. Independence Day in North Myrtle Beach isn’t just a holiday. It’s the peak of the whole summer, and the city knows how to throw a party.

In 2026, the Fourth lands on a Saturday — a natural long weekend that invites you to arrive Friday, settle in, and spend the full holiday at the beach without rushing. The City of North Myrtle Beach has confirmed a packed calendar of official events, from the All City Choir Cantata on June 28–29 to the Salute to America March on the morning of July 4th, followed by the Salute from the Shore military flyover starting over Cherry Grove Beach at 1 p.m., Music on Main featuring The Entertainers at the Horseshoe on Main Street that evening, and two of the finest fireworks shows on the South Carolina coast after dark. Add in the Rotary Club’s field of honor flags at McLean Park, Crooked Hammock’s annual Freedom Fest, and Barefoot Landing’s signature SummerFest programming, and you have a destination that makes an entire week feel like it wasn’t quite enough.

This guide covers every confirmed 2026 event, every fireworks show, and makes the case for why a Thomas Beach Vacations rental in North Myrtle Beach is the smartest base for your family this Independence Day.

Why North Myrtle Beach for the 4th of July 2026

People who’ve done the Fourth in Myrtle Beach proper know what the traffic looks like by 8 p.m. North Myrtle Beach, roughly fifteen miles to the north, offers the same sparkling Atlantic coastline with a notably different character — quieter residential streets, wide stretches of uncrowded sand, and a community that celebrates Independence Day with genuine civic investment. It’s still lively, still festive, still fully summer on the Grand Strand, but the scale stays human. You can actually breathe.

Because the Fourth falls on a Saturday in 2026, this particular holiday is shaping up to be one of the biggest on record. A weekend holiday means more people traveling, more families extending their stay, and more events running from Thursday through Sunday. The North Myrtle Beach Parks and Recreation Department confirmed the city’s full roster of official programming months in advance — a sign of how seriously the city takes this particular week. The Cherry Grove Pier fireworks, the Salute to America March, the Music on Main concert, and the Salute from the Shore flyover are all locked in.

The city splits into four beach neighborhoods — Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive, Crescent Beach, and Windy Hill — each within a short drive of every major event on the 2026 calendar. That geographic convenience matters most on a holiday when parking is premium and patience wears thin by 9 p.m. From an oceanfront rental in any of these neighborhoods, you’re never more than ten minutes from the fireworks, and you return each night to your own kitchen, your own deck, and your own view instead of a hotel corridor.

2026 Fireworks Schedule: Every Show on the Grand Strand

The Grand Strand puts on fireworks at multiple locations on Independence Day, which means guests staying in North Myrtle Beach have genuine options — and in some cases, from the right oceanfront deck, you can see more than one show without leaving your property. Here is the confirmed and expected 2026 lineup:

The fireworks don’t begin and end on the Fourth. Barefoot Landing runs its weekly SummerFest fireworks every Monday evening from June through August, and Broadway at the Beach fires displays on Tuesdays and Fridays all summer long. For families staying a full week in North Myrtle Beach, the holiday fireworks are a highlight in a much longer season of them.

Cherry Grove Pier: The Oceanfront Fireworks Experience

The Cherry Grove Pier fireworks are the centerpiece of North Myrtle Beach’s official July 4th programming, and for good reason. The pier stretches nearly a thousand feet into the Atlantic — one of the longest on the East Coast — and the professional shells launch from it at 9:30 p.m. directly over open water. No buildings. No trees. Just sky and ocean and color. You can spread a blanket on the sand a hundred yards away, wade in at the waterline, or watch from a nearby oceanfront deck. It’s an elemental Fourth of July experience, the kind you remember long after the sunburn fades.

The City has confirmed specific traffic and safety protocols for the 2026 show: the 3500 block of North Ocean Boulevard — the area where the pier sits — will be closed to vehicles, and the 300 feet of beach on both sides of the pier will be cleared at 7 p.m. That means staking your spot earlier in the afternoon is the move, particularly with Saturday crowds expected to be among the largest in recent years. Once the show ends, North Myrtle Beach Police initiate a reverse traffic pattern in Cherry Grove to handle the volume leaving the area, so plan for some patience getting out.

Cherry Grove is also where the Salute from the Shore flyover begins at 1 p.m. — more on that below. Guests who book a Cherry Grove vacation rental can spend the entire day in one neighborhood and never miss a thing: flyover at 1 p.m., cookout on the deck through the afternoon, walk to the beach for the fireworks at 9:30. Boulineau’s Food Plus, Cherry Grove’s long-running neighborhood grocery, stocks everything you need for the grill.

Barefoot Landing SummerFest & the July 4th Show

Barefoot Landing sits on the Intracoastal Waterway at the southern end of North Myrtle Beach and runs one of the most consistently impressive fireworks programs on the entire Grand Strand. Every Monday evening from June through August, the complex launches a display over its central lake as part of SummerFest — an ongoing summer programming lineup that includes live music at the Pepsi Amphitheater Stage, strolling performers, stilt walkers, and family entertainment every night of the week. On July 4th, the regular Monday show steps aside for a dedicated Independence Day spectacular at 10 p.m. that draws a crowd substantially larger than the weekly audience.

Knowing where to stand makes a difference at Barefoot Landing. The Pepsi Amphitheater lawn gives you clear sightlines across the water. The floating bridge near Ron Jon’s Surf Shop positions you almost directly beneath the bursts. Crooked Hammock Brewery’s outdoor seating has a direct line to the show and the advantage of a full bar, which makes the wait considerably more pleasant. All of these spots fill up well before 9 p.m. on the Fourth — arrive by 8 p.m. at the latest if you want a prime position.

For the most memorable way to experience the show, the Barefoot Queen Riverboat runs a special July 4th Fireworks Cruise along the Intracoastal Waterway, complete with dinner and a full bar. The boat docks back at Barefoot Landing for the fireworks finale, giving passengers a front-row floating seat while the rest of the crowd competes for shoreside real estate. These cruises sell out early every year — book well in advance. Guests staying in Windy Hill are just minutes from Barefoot Landing, making that neighborhood the natural base for those who want this show as their centerpiece. Browse Windy Hill vacation rentals to see what’s available.

Salute from the Shore & the Salute to America March

The afternoon of July 4th in North Myrtle Beach is anchored by two back-to-back events that carry a genuinely different emotional weight than the fireworks. The first is the Salute to America March, organized by American Legion Post 186, which begins at 11 a.m. on July 4th. Flag bearers carrying the American flag, the South Carolina state flag, and the POW/MIA and Purple Heart flags march through North Myrtle Beach honoring all current and former military members, gathering at the Horseshoe on Main Street where live music begins at 1 p.m.

At that same 1 p.m. moment, the Salute from the Shore begins. F-16 fighters from Shaw Air Force Base — accompanied by vintage Warbird aircraft — make a low pass over the full length of the South Carolina coastline starting at Cherry Grove Beach in North Myrtle Beach and traveling south all the way to Beaufort and Bluffton. People line up along the water with flags raised, and when the planes come through, the sound arrives before the aircraft does: a low, building roar from the north that rolls in fast, and then the jets are overhead and already gone, banking south into a sky that feels very large in that moment. It’s one of the most moving things the Grand Strand does all summer.

Because the flight path originates at Cherry Grove, guests staying in that neighborhood experience the flyover at its lowest and loudest. The planes are practically overhead. Be on the beach by 12:30 p.m. to find your spot before the crowd closes in around you.

A Full Week of Confirmed 2026 Patriotic Events

North Myrtle Beach doesn’t treat Independence Day as a single evening. The City’s official programming runs from the last weekend of June through the holiday itself, and the private venues and community organizations fill in around it. Here’s everything confirmed for 2026:

Rotary Club Field of Honor at McLean Park (June 28 – July 13)

From June 28 through July 13, the Rotary Club of North Myrtle Beach plants a field of American flags at McLean Park honoring veterans, active duty and retired military, fallen service members, and first responders. The Opening Ceremony takes place on June 28 at 10 a.m. at McLean Park. Families can sponsor a flag for $100, with the honoree’s name, service branch, and rank displayed. It’s one of the quieter events on the calendar and one of the more genuinely affecting ones.

All City Choir Cantata: “In God We Still Trust” (June 28–29)

The City of North Myrtle Beach’s All City Choir presents its 2026 July 4th Cantata, titled “In God We Still Trust,” at Living Water Baptist Church in Longs on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29, both at 3:30 p.m. The concert is free, but tickets are required and available at City Hall or the J. Bryan Floyd Community Center. This is a standing-room event by reputation — arrive early and collect your tickets well before the date.

Crooked Hammock Freedom Fest (July 3)

Independence Eve arrives at Crooked Hammock Brewery at Barefoot Landing with the annual Freedom Fest on July 3rd. The full-day event brings live music, patriotic crafts for kids, specialty hot dogs from the Happy Camper food trailer, and the beloved midday hot dog eating contest. Crooked Hammock is one of the best outdoor gathering spots in North Myrtle Beach on a regular Saturday — on July 3rd, 2026, the night before a long holiday weekend, it’s as close to electric as this beach town gets.

Windy Hill Golf Cart Parade (July 4, Morning)

The Windy Hill neighborhood welcomes the morning of July 4th the way it always has: a patriotic golf cart parade winding through the community’s streets, with residents competing in earnest for the best red, white, and blue decoration. It’s casual, free, and the kind of neighborhood tradition that reminds you why families book the same beach town year after year. Check local Windy Hill community boards closer to the date for the exact start time and route.

Music on Main: The Entertainers at the Horseshoe (July 4, Evening)

The City of North Myrtle Beach’s Music on Main concert series runs every Thursday evening from June through September at the Horseshoe on Main Street in Ocean Drive. In 2026, however, July 4th falls on a Saturday — and the city has confirmed an additional special performance: The Entertainers take the Horseshoe stage on the evening of July 4th, bridging the gap between the afternoon’s march and flyover and the night’s fireworks shows. The 2026 Music on Main series has been themed “Celebrating America’s 250” in recognition of the country’s approaching 250th anniversary, with select bands performing patriotic tribute sets throughout the summer. Admission is free; bring a chair.

Greg Rowles Legacy Theatre (Ongoing through the Week)

The Greg Rowles Legacy Theatre on Main Street in North Myrtle Beach runs its patriotic Music and Memories show throughout the Independence Day period. It’s a good evening option for families who want something air-conditioned and indoors after spending the afternoon at the beach — particularly for groups with military members, who have historically received special pricing during the July 4th week. Check the theatre’s current schedule for 2026 performance dates and availability.

Murrells Inlet Boat Parade (July 4, 2 p.m.)

South of North Myrtle Beach, the Murrells Inlet MarshWalk hosts its annual patriotic boat parade at 2 p.m. on July 4th, with festively decorated boats parading past the waterfront to cheers from the crowd lining the walk. The MarshWalk fireworks follow that same evening at 10 p.m. It’s a full-day destination for families who want to venture down the strand and are staying for more than a few days.

Choose Your Beach Neighborhood for Independence Day 2026

One of the real advantages of booking a vacation rental through Thomas Beach Vacations is the ability to pick the neighborhood that matches your family’s Fourth of July priorities. The four sections of North Myrtle Beach each put you in a different relationship to the 2026 event calendar:

Cherry Grove — Best for the Flyover & Pier Fireworks

Cherry Grove is North Myrtle Beach’s northernmost neighborhood, anchored by its famous pier and a wide, gently curving beach. In 2026 it’s also Ground Zero for the Salute from the Shore — the F-16s start directly overhead here at 1 p.m. before traveling south. The Cherry Grove Pier fireworks at 9:30 p.m. are walkable from every rental in the neighborhood. Browse Cherry Grove vacation rentals — the inventory includes some of the largest oceanfront homes available on the North Myrtle Beach market.

Ocean Drive — Best for Music on Main & the July 4th Concert

Ocean Drive is the historic and cultural heart of North Myrtle Beach — birthplace of the shag dance, home to Main Street, and the neighborhood directly surrounding the Horseshoe where The Entertainers perform on July 4th evening. For families who want to walk to the concert, have dinner on Main Street, and then head to the fireworks from there, Ocean Drive is the natural base. Browse Ocean Drive vacation rentals here.

Crescent Beach — Quiet, Central, Family-Focused

Crescent Beach occupies the geographic center of North Myrtle Beach, sitting equidistant from Cherry Grove and Windy Hill. It’s the most residential in feel of the four neighborhoods — quieter streets, strong family character, excellent beach — and it offers easy driving access to every 2026 event without being in the thick of any single one. Crescent Beach vacation rentals tend to be strong value for the Fourth of July week.

Windy Hill — Closest to Barefoot Landing

Windy Hill is the southernmost section of North Myrtle Beach, positioned directly between the beach and Barefoot Landing on the Intracoastal. The neighborhood’s July 4th golf cart parade runs in the morning, the Freedom Fest is a five-minute drive at Crooked Hammock on July 3rd, and the Barefoot Landing fireworks show is closer from here than anywhere else in NMB. Windy Hill rentals include oceanfront homes and condo units across a range of budgets.

Book Your 4th of July 2026 Vacation with Thomas Beach Vacations

The Fourth of July is the single most competitive week on the North Myrtle Beach rental calendar every year — and in 2026, with the holiday landing on a Saturday and a full long weekend in play, demand is going to be higher than normal. The best oceanfront homes with private pools, elevated decks, and direct beach walkovers go first. Often they go in winter, booked by returning families who know from experience not to wait. If you’re reading this while availability remains, that’s your signal.

Thomas Beach Vacations manages one of the deepest inventories of oceanfront properties in North Myrtle Beach — from expansive multi-bedroom homes in Cherry Grove that sleep an extended family of fourteen to well-appointed two-bedroom condos in Windy Hill sized for smaller groups. The team knows the inventory well and can match your group’s size, budget, and neighborhood preference to the right property. Call, browse, or do both.

Frequently Asked Questions

There’s a version of the Fourth of July that lives in the memory for years — the one where the house smells like sunscreen and grill smoke, the kids are still sandy from the afternoon, and somewhere around 9:30 p.m. the sky over the ocean just lights up and everyone goes quiet for a moment. That version of Independence Day exists in North Myrtle Beach, and in 2026 — with the holiday on a Saturday, a city-full of confirmed events, and two of the best fireworks shows on the South Carolina coast — the ingredients are all here. Thomas Beach Vacations can help you find the right property to make it happen. Browse the full collection at northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or give us a call at (866) 249-2100. This is a week worth doing right.

Wine Tasting on the Grand Strand: Vineyards and Wineries Near North Myrtle Beach

Most people don’t pack a corkscrew when they head to North Myrtle Beach. They pack sunscreen and sandals, maybe a good novel, and the kind of loose intentions that belong to a place where the main agenda is the ocean and the rest is negotiable. The wine can wait. Or so the thinking goes.

And yet, tucked between the golf courses and the seafood shacks and the long afternoon light on the water, the Grand Strand has quietly built a wine scene worth knowing about. Not Napa, not the Finger Lakes — but genuine, rooted, often surprising: working wineries producing muscadine wines from vines that have been in the ground for generations, tasting rooms staffed by people who take real pleasure in walking a stranger through a pour, and a vineyard in Little River that has spent more than two decades turning a former tobacco plantation into one of the most beloved afternoon destinations on the Carolina coast.

Whether you are staying in Cherry Grove Beach, Ocean Drive, or anywhere along the coastline, a wine afternoon is easier to arrange than you might think — and a good deal more memorable than another round of mini-golf. Here is a complete guide to the vineyards and wine tasting venues on the Grand Strand.

The Muscadine: The South’s Native Grape

Before you visit a single tasting room, it helps to know the grape. The muscadine is the wine grape of the American South — thick-skinned, deeply aromatic, and specifically adapted to the heat and humidity of the coastal Carolinas. It does not want to be Cabernet Sauvignon. What it wants to be, and what it does exceptionally well in the right hands, is itself: fruit-forward, often sweet, unmistakably Southern in character.

Muscadine wines have been made in the Carolinas for centuries — they are what the early colonists drank when European varietals refused to take root in this climate. That history gives them a legitimacy that has nothing to do with Napa or Bordeaux and everything to do with a landscape that has its own logic. The wines produced from muscadine grapes today range from bone-dry to dessert-sweet, from light and crisp to dark and jammy, depending on the winemaker’s approach and the specific cultivar. What links them is a sense of place that is genuinely and unmistakably regional.

A visitor who arrives expecting Napa will be confused. A visitor who arrives curious and open-minded will almost certainly leave with a bottle — or two — of something they have never tasted anywhere else.

La Belle Amie Vineyard — Little River

If there is one wine destination on the Grand Strand that demands its own category, it is La Belle Amie. Located at 1120 Saint Joseph Road in Little River — about 30 minutes north of Myrtle Beach — this 40-acre property was once a tobacco plantation and is now one of the most beloved afternoon destinations on the South Carolina coast. The name means “the beautiful friend” in French, a nod to the Bellamy family’s origins, and the property has been in the family for generations. It opened as a vineyard in 2000 and has been drawing visitors from across the Grand Strand ever since.

The vines themselves are the foundation. Some of the muscadine vines on the property are more than 150 years old, which is a remarkable thing to stand next to while holding a glass of something made from their fruit. La Belle Amie produces its wines under the Twisted Sisters label — a lineup that leans playful in its naming (you will find bottles called “Bless Her Heart,” “Southern Gentleman,” and “Island Mama” alongside more traditionally styled selections) while taking the winemaking itself seriously. The range runs from dry reds and whites to dessert-sweet varietals, with something for nearly every preference.

What distinguishes La Belle Amie from a tasting room is the event experience built around it. The vineyard is open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday brings Wine on the Decks — a relaxed midday gathering with wine, shade, and an acoustic performance in an intimate setting. Saturdays feature live Festival Concerts under the property’s ancient oak trees, with full bands covering everything from classic rock to beach music, food vendors, and the kind of loose, unhurried afternoon that the South does better than anywhere.

Both events are family-friendly and welcome guests of all ages, with non-alcoholic beverages available for non-drinkers and younger visitors. Wine tastings are available throughout the day for an additional fee. Wednesday admission starts at $4; Saturday admission starts at $12, with tickets purchased online in advance running cheaper than gate prices.

A few things to know before you go: bring a lawn chair, bring your own wine glass (the vineyard does not provide disposable drinkware, though glasses are available in the gift shop), and arrive early — parking is free but fills quickly on busy Saturday afternoons. Outside food and beverages, including water, are not permitted on the property, and the policy is consistently enforced. The vineyard typically closes for part of the winter season, so check the official website at labelleamie.com for current hours before making the drive.

Address: 1120 Saint Joseph Road, Little River, SC 29566  |  Phone: (843) 399-9463  |  Hours: Wednesday and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. (seasonal)

Duplin Winery — Barefoot Landing, North Myrtle Beach

If La Belle Amie is the pastoral heart of the Grand Strand wine experience, Duplin Winery is its most polished expression. The flagship operation is in Rose Hill, North Carolina, where two brothers named Dan and David Fussell began making wine in the 1970s and built what became the oldest and largest winery in the South. The North Myrtle Beach location, opened in 2015 by the second generation of Fussell brothers, brings that heritage to a 15,000-square-foot facility adjacent to Barefoot Landing — with multiple tasting rooms, a hand-bottling area, a retail shop, and an outdoor patio overlooking a pond.

The wine lineup runs close to 40 varieties, almost all muscadine-based, with names that range from the evocative — Hatteras Red, Midnight Magnolia, Queen Anne’s Revenge — to the outright whimsical. The wines lean sweet, which is a feature rather than a flaw for most visitors; Duplin has built its following on muscadines that taste like the South on a warm afternoon, approachable and generous and not remotely interested in challenging anyone.

The tasting experience here is more structured than La Belle Amie’s — Duplin’s Deluxe Tasting ($18) walks guests through at least eight preselected wines with the guidance of a knowledgeable associate, includes gourmet cheese dip and crackers, and finishes with a full pour of your favorite selection. A wine flight of four wines runs $20; a wine and cheese flight is $28. For those who want to go deeper, Duplin offers a virtual tour of its Rose Hill wine-making facility followed by a hands-on hand-bottling experience ($25), where you bottle and seal your own keepsake to take home. No reservations are required for tastings or tours.

Non-drinkers and younger guests are not left out — Duplin produces alcohol-free frozen Sweetzers that let everyone participate in the experience. Live music plays on the outdoor patio on Fridays and Saturdays and daily during peak summer season.

Address: 4650 Highway 17 South, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582  |  Phone: (843) 663-1710  |  Hours: Monday–Thursday noon–6 p.m., Friday–Saturday 11 a.m.–8 p.m., Sunday closed (verify current hours at duplinwinery.com)

Carolina Vineyards Winery — Barefoot Landing, North Myrtle Beach

Just steps from Duplin Winery within Barefoot Landing’s waterfront complex sits Carolina Vineyards Winery — a genuinely working winery that relocated from Chester, South Carolina in 2005 and brought four decades of winemaking tradition with it. Founded in 1985 by Tim and Carrie Walker, Carolina Vineyards produces wines from a wide range of South Carolina-grown fruits: muscadine and scuppernong grapes, yes, but also peach, blueberry, elderberry, and more, alongside traditional varietal wines including merlot and chardonnay.

The breadth of the lineup is one of Carolina Vineyards’ strongest calling cards — the selection runs to more than 65 wines covering a full spectrum from bone-dry to sinfully sweet, which means visitors with varying palates are more likely to find something that genuinely suits them than at venues with a narrower range. A tasting of seven wines runs $6, an honest price for the introduction it provides. Military personnel and first responders receive a 10% discount.

Reviews consistently mention the warmth and personality of the staff — regulars become attached to specific pourers, and the tasting room atmosphere leans more like a neighborhood gathering than a formal wine education. Walk-ins are welcome. Located at Windy Hill‘s doorstep, it makes a natural pairing with the rest of Barefoot Landing’s shops and restaurants for a full afternoon out.

Address: 4992 Highway 17 South, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582  |  Phone: (843) 361-9181  |  Hours: Monday–Thursday 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Friday–Saturday 11 a.m.–8 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.–7 p.m.

Coastal Wine Boutique — Barefoot Landing, North Myrtle Beach

The third wine venue within the Barefoot Landing complex is Coastal Wine Boutique — a wine bar and tasting room at 4884 Highway 17 South that takes a broader, more global approach than its neighbors. While Duplin and Carolina Vineyards are rooted in Southern muscadines, Coastal Wine Boutique’s selection spans a wider range of styles and regions, making it a natural stop for visitors who want to explore beyond the regional signature grape.

Tastings here are affordable — seven pours for $5 — and reviewers consistently highlight the cozy atmosphere and the staff’s ability to read a visitor’s preferences and guide their selections accordingly. Wine slushies, including a chocolate raspberry variety that has developed something of a cult following, add a coastal-vacation playfulness to the experience. The boutique is open seven days a week, making it the most consistently available option in the Barefoot Landing wine corridor and a reliable choice for guests who happen to be browsing the complex and want to add a tasting to their afternoon.

Address: 4884 Highway 17 South, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582  |  Phone: (843) 273-0969  |  Hours: Monday–Thursday 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Friday–Saturday 11 a.m.–8 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.–7 p.m.

Coastal Vino — The Market Common, Myrtle Beach

For the wine lover who prefers something quieter and more curated, Coastal Vino at The Market Common is a different kind of experience entirely. This is not a working winery or a tasting room in the regional tradition — it is a specialty wine shop run by an owner who knows his wines with a depth that reflects years of focused sourcing rather than volume production. The selection is built around small family estates and independent vineyards from around the world, with an emphasis on genuine value and interesting varietals that don’t typically turn up in the standard beach-vacation retail orbit.

Located at 926 C Iris Street in the Soho District of The Market Common — Myrtle Beach’s urban walkable district built on the grounds of the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base — Coastal Vino hosts free Saturday tastings, a monthly wine club dinner held at a rotating restaurant in the Myrtle Beach area, and private wine events including tastings at your rental, home, office, or event space. For guests staying in an oceanfront home or oceanfront condo and looking for a private tasting experience to bring to their group, Coastal Vino is the most natural contact to make.

Hours are more limited than the Barefoot Landing venues, so planning ahead is advisable. But for guests who love wine with the same seriousness the owner brings to selecting it, this shop repays the planning.

Address: 926 C Iris Street, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577  |  Phone: (843) 808-9689  |  Hours: Wednesday–Saturday 2–7 p.m., closed Sunday–Tuesday

Planning Your Grand Strand Wine Day

The simplest Grand Strand wine itinerary divides neatly into two geographic nodes. Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach — close to Crescent Beach and easily accessible from all points along the Grand Strand — puts Duplin Winery, Carolina Vineyards, and Coastal Wine Boutique within easy walking distance of each other. Visitors who enjoy exploring multiple styles in a single outing will find a natural self-guided tasting trail within the complex, pairing well with lunch at one of Barefoot Landing’s many restaurants.

For guests who want the vineyard experience — the actual land, the old vines, the outdoor music, the sense of being somewhere that has been doing this for generations — La Belle Amie in Little River is the destination. Plan for a Wednesday or Saturday, buy your tickets online in advance, pack your own glass and a lawn chair, and allow an entire afternoon. The drive north from North Myrtle Beach takes under 30 minutes and passes through some of the quieter, more rural portions of the Grand Strand that most vacationers never see.

A few practical notes: all tasting venues require participants to be 21 and older with valid ID. Parking is free at all Grand Strand wine locations. Hours vary by season at La Belle Amie especially, so confirming before you go is worth the two minutes. And if you fall genuinely in love with a bottle, several venues will pack it carefully enough to take home — or ship, for those who plan ahead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Kidz With Abilities: Myrtle Beach’s New Pediatric OT Clinic for Children with Autism and Developmental Delays

There is something that parents of children with autism or developmental delays understand that no one else quite can — the particular weight of a waiting list. The months that pass between a pediatrician’s referral and a first therapy appointment. The long drives to clinics in larger cities because there simply is not enough specialized care close to home. The feeling that the window for early intervention is ticking while the logistics stay stubbornly unresolved.

For families living along the Grand Strand — in Ocean Drive, in Cherry Grove Beach, in Myrtle Beach proper, and all the communities in between — the arrival of a dedicated pediatric occupational therapy clinic is not a small thing. It is the kind of addition that changes the calculus of daily life for the families who need it most.

Kidz With Abilities, a new pediatric OT clinic based in Myrtle Beach, has opened its doors — and with it, brought a philosophy of care that puts the child first, the play first, and the potential front and center. Here is what families along the Grand Strand should know.

What Is Kidz With Abilities?

Kidz With Abilities is a pediatric occupational therapy clinic in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, founded and led by Valerie — a pediatric occupational therapist with more than a decade of hands-on experience working with children across a wide range of diagnoses and developmental challenges. She serves as both founder and program coordinator, and the clinic reflects her core conviction: that every child, regardless of their medical history or developmental profile, has the capacity to grow, to learn, and to thrive.

The clinic recently celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting hosted by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce — a formal welcome into the local business community that has been serving the Grand Strand since 1938. That milestone marked not just a business opening, but the beginning of something genuinely useful for the families who call this stretch of the South Carolina coast home year-round.

The name itself says something about the approach. Not “kids with disabilities” — but “kidz with abilities.” The framing is intentional. This is a clinic built on the premise that what a child can do matters more than what currently stands in their way.

Who They Serve: Children of All Ages and Diagnoses

Kidz With Abilities works with children of all ages — from toddlers in the earliest stages of development through school-age children navigating the demands of the classroom and daily life. The clinic specializes in autism spectrum disorder and developmental delays of all kinds, but the scope of who they can help extends well beyond any single diagnosis.

Children seen at Kidz With Abilities may be working through challenges related to sensory processing, fine motor development, gross motor coordination, visual motor skills, social interaction, emotional regulation, feeding aversions, or the foundational skills needed for success in school. The unifying thread across all of it is the belief that meaningful, personalized intervention — delivered at the right time, in the right way — can fundamentally change a child’s trajectory.

For parents who have been told their child’s needs are “complex” or who have bounced between providers without finding a cohesive plan, a clinic built specifically around this population — with a team that wakes up every morning thinking about pediatric OT and nothing else — is a different kind of resource entirely.

Play-Based Occupational Therapy: How It Works

If you have never had a child in occupational therapy, the term can sound clinical in a way that does not quite capture what actually happens in the room. Pediatric OT — done well — looks a lot like play. A child climbing, balancing, reaching, sorting, building, laughing. A therapist right beside them, shaping the activity with precision, reading what the child’s body and nervous system are telling them, and adjusting in real time.

That is the model at Kidz With Abilities. Every session is personalized — built around the specific child sitting in front of the therapist that day, their diagnosis, their strengths, their struggles, and the goals their family has set for them. The play-based framework is not just a philosophy; it is a clinical strategy grounded in decades of research showing that children learn best when they are engaged, when they feel safe, and when the activity feels like something they chose rather than something done to them.

The practical targets of that play are real and meaningful: the grip strength to hold a pencil and write their name. The ability to button a shirt or tie a shoe. The tolerance for the sensory chaos of a crowded school cafeteria. The capacity to sit in a classroom long enough to learn. These are not abstract goals — they are the building blocks of a child’s independence, and they are exactly what Kidz With Abilities is built to develop.

Services Offered: From Clinic to Horseback

What sets Kidz With Abilities apart from a standard outpatient clinic is the breadth of therapeutic modalities they bring to bear. This is not a one-size-fits-all operation. Some children respond best to traditional clinic-based sessions. Others unlock entirely in the water. Others find something in the rhythm and movement of a horse that no conventional therapy room can replicate.

Clinic-Based and In-Home Occupational Therapy

The core of the clinic’s work is individualized occupational therapy — delivered either at the Myrtle Beach clinic or in the child’s home environment. In-home sessions carry a distinct advantage: therapists can work with a child in the actual setting where daily life happens, addressing the specific sensory and functional challenges that show up in that space rather than working to transfer skills from a clinical environment to a real one.

Speech and Language Therapy

Kidz With Abilities also provides speech and language therapy services — a natural complement to occupational therapy for many children with autism and developmental delays, where communication challenges and motor or sensory challenges frequently travel together. Addressing both under one roof means a child’s full therapeutic picture stays coordinated and coherent.

Aquatic Therapy

Aquatic therapy uses the unique properties of water — its resistance, buoyancy, temperature, and pressure — to target sensory input, balance, coordination, and muscle tone in ways that land-based therapy cannot always achieve. For children who are hypersensitive or hyporeactive to sensory input, the water environment can be remarkably effective at reorganizing the nervous system’s response. It is also, not incidentally, a lot of fun — which matters enormously when you are asking a child to do hard things.

Equine-Assisted Therapy

Perhaps the most distinctive offering in the Kidz With Abilities lineup is equine-assisted therapy — OT delivered on horseback. The natural movement of a horse provides children with a continuous stream of vestibular and proprioceptive input while therapists engage them in purposeful activities targeting social interaction, muscle tone, attention, and problem-solving skills. For children who struggle to regulate in traditional settings, the calming, rhythmic quality of a horse’s gait can create a window for therapeutic work that nothing else quite opens.

Why This Matters for the Grand Strand Community

The Grand Strand is often discussed in the context of tourism — the beaches, the golf courses, the restaurants, the events that draw millions of visitors every year to Crescent Beach, Windy Hill, and the broader Horry County coastline. But underneath the tourism economy is a real, permanent community — one of the fastest-growing in South Carolina — full of families raising children, navigating school systems, and looking for the kind of healthcare resources that any community needs to function.

Pediatric specialty care has historically been one of the gaps in that picture. Families in Horry County have long made do with long drives to Columbia, Charlotte, or Wilmington for services that should be available closer to home. The growth of dedicated clinics like Kidz With Abilities signals that the Grand Strand is maturing as a year-round community — not just a destination, but a place where people can genuinely put down roots and find what their families need.

Early intervention in occupational therapy is not a luxury. For children with autism and developmental delays, the research is consistent: the earlier and more consistently a child receives targeted therapeutic support, the better their long-term outcomes in communication, independence, social connection, and academic performance. A clinic that can begin that work sooner — without the barrier of a long waitlist or a two-hour drive — is a meaningful addition to a community’s quality of life in the most literal sense.

How to Connect with Kidz With Abilities

If you are a Grand Strand parent looking into pediatric occupational therapy for your child — whether you are just beginning to ask questions or have been navigating this road for years — Kidz With Abilities is worth a direct conversation. The clinic serves children of all ages and diagnoses, offers multiple therapy formats, and is built from the ground up around the idea that every child has more potential than their challenges might suggest on any given day.

You can learn more about their services, meet the team, and reach out to schedule an evaluation by visiting kidzwithabilities.com. If you are not sure whether your child would benefit from a pediatric OT evaluation, that conversation starts there too — with a team that has spent more than a decade asking and answering exactly that question for families across South Carolina.

Frequently Asked Questions

Myrtle Beach Named No. 1 U.S. Summer Travel Destination for 2026

By Thomas Beach Vacations  |  April 23, 2026  |  North Myrtle Beach, SC

Tripadvisor’s 2026 Summer Travel Index

On April 22, 2026, Tripadvisor — the world’s largest travel guidance platform — released the initial findings of its annual Summer Travel Index, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, claimed the top spot on the domestic list. The ranking is based on first-party search data collected from February 1 through April 10, 2026, covering trip searches planned for June 1 through August 31, 2026. It reflects where Americans are actually looking to go, not where travel editors think they should.

The results placed Myrtle Beach ahead of perennial heavyweights including New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Nashville. The full top ten domestic destinations for summer 2026 are as follows:

The pattern across the list is hard to miss. Seven of the ten destinations are coastal, and four of those are East Coast or Southeast beach communities — a clear signal about where the American traveler’s heart sits heading into summer 2026. Myrtle Beach sits at the center of that momentum.

Why Myrtle Beach Keeps Winning

There is a reason this stretch of South Carolina coastline has been drawing families and groups for generations, and the Tripadvisor data only confirms what regulars already know. Myrtle Beach delivers. It delivers broad, easily accessible sandy beach. It delivers value that is increasingly hard to find in coastal travel. It delivers a mix of entertainment — from the waterparks along Highway 17 to the live theaters along Celebrity Circle — that keeps households of very different ages satisfied under one roof. When the group is split between a twelve-year-old who wants a water slide and a grandfather who wants a peaceful walk at sunrise, Myrtle Beach handles both without complaint.

Visit Myrtle Beach president Stuart Butler put the appeal plainly when commenting on the ranking, noting that the destination’s standing as an affordable, accessible, drive-to location remains a meaningful advantage at a time when fuel costs and inflation are reshaping how families budget their vacations. A large share of the Grand Strand’s visitors arrive by car from the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, and the mid-Atlantic states — and the ability to load a minivan and skip the airport is no small thing in 2026.

The breadth of the product matters too. Broadway at the Beach remains one of the most visited entertainment complexes in the Southeast, anchoring the central Myrtle Beach experience with dozens of restaurants, shops, a laser tag arena, and Ripley’s Aquarium. Further south, Murrells Inlet delivers some of the freshest seafood on the Eastern seaboard, while Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach offers a calmer, waterfront shopping and dining experience that feels a world apart from the strip. The Grand Strand, taken all together, is simply one of the most complete vacation destinations on the East Coast — and search data from one of the world’s largest travel platforms just confirmed it.

The No. 1 Spot for Fourth of July Weekend

The Tripadvisor index broke down travel intent not just by the full summer window but by specific holiday weekends, and the results reinforced what beach regulars have known for years. Myrtle Beach ranked as the top U.S. destination for Fourth of July weekend searches — not just a beach category leader, but the single most-searched domestic destination for the holiday nationally, ahead of Clearwater, Virginia Beach, and every major urban market.

The Fourth of July along the Grand Strand has its own particular rhythm. Communities from Surfside Beach north through Cherry Grove Beach stage fireworks displays over the Atlantic, the kind that reflect off the water and light up the faces of people sitting in beach chairs they dragged out hours early to claim their spot. The boardwalk hums with activity. Restaurants run packed from lunch through late evening. And the neighborhoods of North Myrtle Beach — quieter by design — fill up with families who want the celebration without the traffic jam, gathered on rental home porches watching the sky go orange over the ocean.

What the Grand Strand Offers This Summer

The Grand Strand stretches roughly 60 miles of South Carolina coastline and contains more than enough to fill a week without repeating yourself. This summer, the mix of established attractions and newer arrivals gives visitors strong reasons to explore beyond the beach itself — though the beach alone, stretching wide and flat under a Carolina sky, is reason enough for most people.

For families with younger children, Myrtle Beach’s concentration of waterparks — Wild Water and Wheels in Surfside Beach, Myrtle Waves Water Park on Highway 17 — provides full-day entertainment when the sun is simply too much for prolonged beach time. The SkyWheel on the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk offers a gentler aerial view of the coastline and has become something of an unofficial landmark for first-time visitors. Ripley’s Believe It or Not, adjacent to Broadway at the Beach, continues to draw curious crowds through its multiple attractions.

Evening options shift the tone considerably. The area’s live entertainment venues — Carolina Opry, Pirates Voyage Dinner and Show, and Alabama Theatre in North Myrtle Beach — have been drawing audiences for decades with the kind of stage production that feels specifically designed for a family vacation crowd. Seafood is everywhere, but it ranges from the no-frills buckets-of-shrimp variety at places like Joe’s Bar and Grill to the upscale waterfront dining along the Murrells Inlet Marsh Walk. The common thread is freshness — much of what lands on your plate was in the Atlantic water that morning.

Golf remains one of the Grand Strand’s most recognized draws, with well over 80 courses still operating along the corridor — a density that has made this region one of the premier golf destinations in the country. Summer morning tee times, when the heat is still manageable and the fairways are quiet, carry a particular pleasure that serious golfers plan their trips around.

North Myrtle Beach: The Quieter Side of No. 1

When people search Myrtle Beach, a meaningful share of them end up staying in North Myrtle Beach — and not by accident. The two cities sit about 15 miles apart and operate independently, each with its own government and identity, but they share the same coastline reputation that drove Tripadvisor’s summer ranking. North Myrtle Beach tends to attract the crowd that wants a real beach vacation: more house rental, less hotel strip; more front porch and morning coffee, less neon and all-night noise.

The four beach communities within North Myrtle Beach each carry a distinct feel. Ocean Drive is the oldest and most historically resonant — birthplace of the Carolina shag, a beach dance so embedded in local culture that it has its own official state recognition. Fat Harold’s Beach Club on Main Street is the shrine. Crescent Beach is a quieter residential stretch that families return to year after year for precisely that reason. Windy Hill sits at the southern edge of the city, closest to the Myrtle Beach entertainment corridor and convenient for visitors who want access to both. And Cherry Grove Beach, anchored by its fishing pier and marshside waterways, carries a laid-back charm that is increasingly hard to find anywhere along the East Coast.

Early 2026 occupancy indicators across North Myrtle Beach have been strong. The data that placed the region at the top of national travel searches is not disconnected from what rental calendars are reflecting — summer 2026 is shaping up to be one of the busier seasons in recent memory, particularly for oceanfront home rentals and oceanfront condos that give groups their own space rather than a stack of hotel rooms.

Myrtle Beach has earned the top spot. The people who already know this coast were not surprised by the Tripadvisor ranking. And if you have been circling a summer trip to the Grand Strand for a year or two, waiting for some confirmation that this is still the right call — there it is, in the data, from the largest travel platform on earth.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Myrtle Beach Became a Household Name 50 Years Ago — and Why It Still Is

There is a particular kind of place that earns a permanent spot in the American imagination — not through a single moment or a marketing campaign, but through decades of delivering exactly what it promises. Myrtle Beach is one of those places. Drive down Ocean Boulevard on a summer evening, watch the SkyWheel turning slowly against a deepening sky, and listen to the Atlantic rolling in behind the restaurants and the laughter and the smell of sunscreen on warm pavement, and you will understand something immediately: this is a place that people return to. Not because it is the most glamorous destination on the East Coast. Because it feels like something. It feels like vacation, in the most elemental and uncomplicated sense of the word.

That feeling did not happen by accident, and it did not happen overnight. The story of how Myrtle Beach went from a quiet Carolina town to one of the most visited destinations in the United States is a story worth knowing — especially if you are among the more than 20 million people who make the trip down U.S. 17 each year to see what all the fuss is about.

Before the Boom: A Quiet Stretch of Carolina Coastline

For most of its early history, what would become Myrtle Beach was barely accessible at all. The beaches of Horry County sat behind a wall of geography — rivers, marshland, and poor roads that kept the coastline isolated from the rest of South Carolina well into the late 1800s. It was timber, not tourism, that finally cracked the region open. The Burroughs and Collins Company, a timber and turpentine operation that owned vast stretches of beachfront land, built a railroad to the coast in 1900 to move its product to market. The railroad brought workers to the beach — and workers brought the realization that this sand and surf had potential far beyond lumber.

The town took its name from the wax myrtle trees that grew wild along the shore. By the 1920s it had a modest hotel, a handful of beachfront cottages, and a reputation among middle-class families from the Carolinas as a reliable summer getaway. The tourist season ran roughly from Easter to Labor Day. It was modest and regional and entirely unpretentious — qualities that, as it turned out, would prove to be among its greatest long-term assets.

The postwar decades brought steady but unspectacular growth. Hurricane Hazel swept through in 1954, demolishing much of the oceanfront property along the Grand Strand, but the destruction had an unintended consequence: it cleared the way for a first wave of low-rise hotels and modern development, triggering what would become the area’s first real tourism boom. By the time Myrtle Beach officially incorporated as a city in 1957 — with a permanent population that had just crossed 5,000 — the foundations were in place for something much larger.

The 1970s: When Everything Changed

Fifty years ago, Myrtle Beach was a destination that most Americans outside the Carolinas had still never heard of. That was about to change in a hurry. The 1970s were the decade when Myrtle Beach stopped being a regional secret and became a national name. New construction during that decade alone topped $75 million, and the city’s permanent population tripled. Families from across the East Coast began loading up station wagons and pointing them south, drawn by something that was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: here was a place where you could have a full, satisfying, genuinely fun vacation without spending a fortune.

Developers recognized the momentum and moved quickly. High-rise oceanfront hotels began replacing the small motels and beach cottages that had defined the earlier skyline. Amusement parks, water slides, arcades, and shopping centers appeared in rapid succession, transforming what had been a laid-back beach town into a full-scale entertainment destination. The Myrtle Beach Convention Center had opened in 1970, a signal that the city was thinking beyond the summer vacation crowd. By the end of the decade, the tourist season — once bounded by Easter and Labor Day — had stretched to something approaching year-round.

The Formula That Made It Stick

A lot of beach towns have their moment in the sun. What separated Myrtle Beach from the destinations that peaked and faded was a deceptively simple combination: accessibility, affordability, and variety. Myrtle Beach is easy to get to from most of the Eastern Seaboard. It is easy to navigate once you arrive. And it has always offered enough variety — beach, golf, live music, water parks, seafood, arcades, outlet shopping, state park hiking — that different members of the same family can have entirely different vacations without ever leaving the Grand Strand.

That last point matters more than it might initially seem. A destination that works for a couple of college students, a family with young children, a pair of retired golfers, and a group of friends celebrating a birthday — and works for all of them simultaneously — is extraordinarily rare. Myrtle Beach has managed to be that destination for five decades running, and that breadth of appeal is the single most important reason it has outlasted so many competitors.

Golf Capital of the World

No single element of Myrtle Beach’s identity has done more to extend its reach into new markets than golf. The area’s golf boom began in the 1960s, when developers recognized that the Grand Strand’s climate, terrain, and flat coastal landscape made it nearly ideal for course construction. The creation of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday in 1967 formalized the golf package as a distinct product, and the courses kept coming. By the 1980s, Myrtle Beach had earned the nickname Golf Capital of the World — more golf courses per square mile than any other destination on earth. At the peak, the region boasted over 120 courses and once recorded more rounds played annually than anywhere else in the world.

Today, the region has around 100 courses remaining, following some consolidation over the past two decades as real estate development claimed a number of layouts. But the golf identity has never faded. Players from beginners to seasoned low-handicappers continue to make the Grand Strand a primary destination, drawn by the combination of quality, variety, price, and the ability to play year-round in the mild South Carolina climate. For a significant portion of visitors — particularly those in the retiree and active adult demographic that has made Horry County one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation — golf is the primary reason for the trip.

Staying Relevant: The Boardwalk, the SkyWheel, and Beyond

One of the harder things for any destination to do is reinvent itself without losing what made people fall in love with it in the first place. Myrtle Beach has done this more successfully than most. The beach is still the star of the show — that same Grand Strand coastline delivers the same wide, flat, warm-water experience that pulled those first station wagons down the highway fifty years ago. The fundamentals have not changed because the fundamentals did not need to change.

But the supporting cast has evolved considerably. The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk, completed in 2010, revitalized the downtown oceanfront with a 1.2-mile stretch of open-air restaurants, shops, and walkway that connected the heart of the city to the water in a way it had not been connected before. The Carolina Opry, which opened in 1986, pioneered the live entertainment theater scene that eventually gave Myrtle Beach something resembling a miniature Branson, Missouri on the South Carolina coast. And the SkyWheel, rising nearly 200 feet above the boardwalk, added a landmark that is visible from both the beach and the boulevard — a gondola ride that doubles as one of the best sunset viewing platforms on the East Coast.

Broadway at the Beach arrived in the 1990s as a 350-acre entertainment and shopping complex built around a central lake, adding a destination anchor that gave visitors a reason to spend an entire day — and evening — off the sand. Ripley’s Aquarium followed, and the complex became one of the most-visited attractions in South Carolina. Each addition has built on what came before, layering new reasons to visit on top of the original reason that never stopped working.

More Than Just a Beach Trip

Step off the sand and the Grand Strand reveals itself as something considerably deeper than its postcard version suggests. Myrtle Beach State Park, just south of the main commercial strip, offers a version of the Carolina coast that feels genuinely removed from the boardwalk crowds — maritime forest trails, a fishing pier, a campground, and the kind of quiet that reminds you how wild this coastline was before the hotels arrived. It is a twenty-minute drive from the SkyWheel and feels like a different world entirely.

For families traveling with children, the mini-golf culture alone is worth the trip. Myrtle Beach has more elaborately themed miniature golf courses per square mile than perhaps anywhere else in the country — pirate ships, dinosaurs, volcanoes, waterfalls — and the tradition runs deep enough that many adults have photographs of themselves as children playing the same courses their own kids are navigating now. That kind of generational continuity is not something a destination manufactures. It is something earned, slowly, over fifty years of doing things right.

The live entertainment scene — dinner theaters, concert venues, variety shows — continues to bring visitors who are not primarily drawn by the ocean. The restaurant landscape has matured well beyond the all-you-can-eat seafood buffets that defined the area’s dining identity for decades, though those institutions still exist and still fill up every night in season. And the shopping, anchored by Broadway at the Beach and extended by Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach, gives the retail-minded traveler as much room to roam as the coast gives the beach lover.

North Myrtle Beach: The Quieter, Deeper Side of the Grand Strand

About fifteen miles up the coast from downtown Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach offers a different entry point into the Grand Strand experience — one that trades the high-rise density of the main strip for wider beaches, quieter neighborhoods, and a sense of place that feels more rooted in the area’s original character. It is a separate city with its own government and its own identity, and for many visitors it is the preferred base for exploring everything the Grand Strand has to offer.

The four communities of North Myrtle Beach each carry their own personality. Cherry Grove Beach is known for its fishing pier and unhurried pace. Ocean Drive is the birthplace of the shag — the official state dance of South Carolina — and carries the kind of boardwalk history that no amount of development can fully replicate. Crescent Beach sits in the relaxed center, and Windy Hill offers the peaceful southern end of the strip for those who want ocean views without the foot traffic. Visitors can choose from spacious oceanfront home rentals and well-positioned oceanfront condos — putting the Atlantic directly outside the door and everything the Grand Strand has built over the past fifty years just a short drive away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Fifty years of earning a reputation is not something that happens by accident — and experiencing it firsthand is easier than you might think. Thomas Beach Vacations has oceanfront homes and condos across North Myrtle Beach ready for your next Grand Strand trip. Browse the full collection at northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or call (866) 249-2100 and let the team help you find exactly the right place on the coast.

Best Restaurants in North Myrtle Beach: A Local Dining Guide

The North Myrtle Beach Dining Scene

There is a particular kind of evening that happens in North Myrtle Beach — the kind where the sun is still warm on your face, the salt air is doing whatever it does to your appetite, and you realize you are not heading to a chain restaurant off the highway. You are here. You are on the Grand Strand. And dinner should mean something. It does, if you know where to go.

North Myrtle Beach is often overshadowed by its noisier neighbor to the south, but anyone who has spent a week here knows the truth: the food scene is quietly excellent. You have upscale restaurants that would hold their own in Charleston or Charlotte. You have seafood shacks with more character than most places three times their size. You have waterfront tables on the Intracoastal Waterway, tucked-away marsh-view bars, and breakfast spots so good people are lining up before the doors open. The dining here ranges from barefoot-and-sunburned casual to white-linen special occasion, and nearly all of it leans hard into the fresh, coastal, Southern identity that makes eating on the Grand Strand feel like something more than just refueling.

This guide covers the restaurants worth knowing — the ones locals return to year after year, the ones that earn awards and actually deserve them, and a few hidden gems that do not show up in every generic listicle. We have organized them by category so you can find the right place for the right meal, whether that is a romantic dinner on night one or a pile of crab legs with the family on the back half of the trip.

If you are still planning your trip and wondering where to stay alongside all this great food, make sure you also check out our guide to things to do in Myrtle Beach to round out your itinerary.

Fine Dining & Special Occasion Restaurants

People sometimes raise an eyebrow when they hear the words “fine dining” and “beach town” in the same sentence. North Myrtle Beach tends to change their minds.

SeaBlue Restaurant & Wine Bar

On a Tuesday night in early June, the parking lot at SeaBlue fills up quietly. No neon signs, no outdoor speaker noise. Just a converted building on Highway 17 N that has made itself into something remarkable. Inside, the lighting is muted, the tables are close enough for conversation but not crowded, and the wine list could easily pass for one at a serious urban restaurant. SeaBlue earned the OpenTable #1 Restaurant in the Country in 2014 and has held the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for over a decade. That is not beach-town boasting — that is a legitimate culinary credential.

Owners Kenneth Norcutt and Tracy Smith run the kind of restaurant where they are genuinely present in the dining room — not a corporate concept, but a personal one. The menu is contemporary American with a French backbone: prime steaks, locally sourced fresh seafood, small plates, and several chef’s tasting menus with wine pairings for those who want the full experience. The seasonal menu rotates to keep ingredients at their peak. Reservations are strongly recommended, especially in summer and on weekends. SeaBlue is open Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m., at 501 Hwy 17 N, North Myrtle Beach.

21 Main at North Beach Resort & Villas

Elegance at the beach usually comes with a catch — it is either overpriced, trying too hard, or so stuffy it forgets it is surrounded by vacation. 21 Main manages to be upscale without being stiff. Housed in the Plantation House at North Beach Resort & Villas, the steakhouse carries an award-winning kitchen, an in-house sommelier, and a menu that combines dry-aged prime beef with serious fresh seafood. The 16-ounce Prime New York Strip, the bone-in Ribeye, and the sushi menu are all mentioned in the same breath by regulars. During Myrtle Beach Restaurant Week 2026, they offered a three-course dinner for $69 — an exceptional value for the quality. Complimentary valet parking is available. 21 Main opens Tuesday through Sunday at 5 p.m., with the lounge opening at 4 p.m.

The Parson’s Table

A few miles north of the main North Myrtle Beach strip, in Little River, sits a restaurant that lives inside a restored 1885 church. The Parson’s Table has been drawing diners who want something quietly extraordinary for decades. The setting — original stained glass, warm wood, Southern grace — matches the food, which leans into fresh regional ingredients done with care. Fried green tomatoes, maple bourbon pork chop, and fresh catch dishes rotate with the seasons. Locals who know their way around the Grand Strand consistently name it among the best dinners to be had in the area. It is worth the short drive north from wherever you are staying.

Fresh Seafood: Where the Locals Eat

The Grand Strand has been catching and cooking seafood since before tourism was an industry here. The places that survive the decades are the ones that do not cut corners on freshness or flavor.

Joe’s Bar & Grill

If you ask a North Myrtle Beach local — not a tourist, a local — where they take out-of-town family for dinner, there is a good chance Joe’s Bar & Grill comes up. Tucked behind the Olive Garden, across from the Alabama Theatre in the Windy Hill section of North Myrtle Beach, Joe’s does not look like a destination from the road. Inside, it feels like a hunting and fishing lodge that someone’s uncle inherited and turned into a restaurant — rough-hewn walls, trophy fish, a tidal salt marsh visible through every window, and two bars with wood-burning fireplaces. The dining is what Grand Strand Magazine has called “casual fine dining,” and the description fits.

The menu covers beef, veal, fresh seafood, and poultry with a daily specials board that reflects what came in fresh. Regulars swear by the Prince Edward Island blue mussels sautéed in spicy marinara, the bacon-wrapped scallops on rice, the shrimp and scallop fettuccini, and the steak au Poivre — a filet mignon in a brandy and Dijon cream sauce that more than one reviewer has called the best steak they have eaten on a vacation. Joe’s opens daily at 4:30 p.m. at 810 Conway St., North Myrtle Beach, and reservations are strongly recommended. Happy hour runs daily until 7 p.m. at both bars.

The Shack — Cherry Grove Seafood

Since 2010, The Shack has been the kind of place that families in Cherry Grove walk to barefoot and leave happy. Southern-style cooking and Calabash-style seafood are not trends here — they are the whole point. The Cherry Grove platter is the thing to order: lightly battered fried shrimp, oysters, flounder, scallops, and deviled crab, served with hush puppies and coleslaw. The Shack also does shrimp and grits, biscuits and gravy, steak and shrimp, and daily specials that rotate through classics like chicken bog and hand-chopped Carolina BBQ. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all served, and the portions are the kind that make you question your plans for the rest of the afternoon. It is a family-owned operation, and that shows in the service and the consistency.

Cape Fear Seafood Company

Cape Fear Seafood Company brought its award-winning menu to North Myrtle Beach at 1386 Hwy 17 N, and the reception has been strong from the start. The kitchen focuses on locally sourced shrimp, fish, scallops, crab, mussels, and clams in expertly crafted Southern coastal dishes. The shrimp and grits have won admirers across the Grand Strand, and the patio with fire pits makes it a particularly inviting lunch spot for visitors staying in the area.

Best Waterfront & Barefoot Landing Restaurants

Barefoot Landing, the waterfront shopping and entertainment complex on the Intracoastal Waterway, is home to some of the best dining in North Myrtle Beach. The setting does a lot of work — boats moving on the water, warm lights at dusk, the sounds of the marina mixing with music — but the restaurants here earn their reputation beyond the view.

Greg Norman’s Australian Grille

Since 1999, Greg Norman’s has been doing waterfront dining at Barefoot Landing with the kind of sustained quality that makes it easy to understand why it is still the first restaurant many visitors mention. The view of the Intracoastal Waterway is spectacular, particularly at sunset. The menu draws on Australian-inspired cuisine with serious prime steaks, fresh fish, and a wine list that has held the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for over fifteen consecutive years. It earned a 2024 OpenTable Diners’ Choice and was named Best Dinner with a View by Grand Strand Magazine in 2024. Brunch, lunch, and dinner are all served. For a waterfront meal in North Myrtle Beach that feels like an event, this is the benchmark.

Flying Fish Public Market & Grill

Flying Fish sits at Barefoot Landing with water views and a menu built around the freshest catch the region offers. It is the kind of place where the daily specials board reflects what actually came in that morning, not just what sounds seasonal. The steamed buckets and raw bar selections are consistently praised, and the Buffalo Shrimp Tacos and Mahi Melt have developed loyal followings. Prices are reasonable for a waterfront restaurant, and the atmosphere is casual enough for families without feeling like a theme park. If you only have time for one lunch on the Intracoastal, Flying Fish is the right choice.

Boardwalk Billy’s

Boardwalk Billy’s is where you go when you want the Intracoastal Waterway, cold drinks, a plate of crab legs, fall-off-the-bone ribs, and the feeling that dinner is not a formal event but an experience. The open-air deck is the main attraction, and the raw bar oysters are a fixture on most tables. What surprises people is the menu’s range — alongside the seafood and BBQ ribs, there is unexpectedly solid sushi, which has become a regular order for those who know. The atmosphere is casual and loud in the best way: families, groups, and couples all find a version of Boardwalk Billy’s that works for them.

Tidewater Grill

Also inside Barefoot Landing, Tidewater Grill has positioned itself as a local favorite with rooftop crab cakes, waterfront views, and a menu that spans Calabash-style seafood to hand-cut steaks. The daily specials bring variety beyond the regular menu, and the staff’s attentiveness is consistently mentioned in reviews. Tidewater is a good choice for groups who want waterfront dining at a slightly lower price point than Greg Norman’s while still getting quality food and great views.

BBQ, Southern, & Casual Favorites

Not every great meal at the beach needs a sunset view. Some of the most satisfying eating in North Myrtle Beach happens in simple rooms that smell like smoke and wood and something slow-cooked since early morning.

Brisket — Texas BBQ

You smell Brisket before you see it. The hickory smoke from their Texas-built smoker carries for a good distance, and by the time you walk in the door, you have already decided what you want. Brisket earned the 2024 Best Specialty Cuisine Restaurant award from Grand Strand Magazine, and the accolade is earned through consistency: real slow-smoked Texas barbecue done without shortcuts. Brisket, pulled pork, chicken, ribs, and sausage are all smoked over hickory wood and served with Southern sides that take the meal seriously — fried green tomatoes, collard greens, hush puppies, and a Frito pie that has no business being as good as it is. A well-stocked top-shelf bourbon menu and craft beer selection round out the experience. This is a good stop for anyone who believes that great BBQ is its own category of dining, not a consolation prize for nights you skip the seafood.

Nacho Hippo

Nacho Hippo at Barefoot Landing occupies a specific and important niche in the North Myrtle Beach dining landscape: it is fun, genuinely good, and suitable for everyone from small children to adults who need an extensive happy hour. The concept centers on creative Mexican-inspired food — loaded nachos, tacos, quesabirria, salsa varieties — served alongside craft cocktails, a full bar, and live music on the outdoor deck that overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway. The energy is festive, the atmosphere is colorful, and the food punches above the price point. It is a natural stop during a day at Barefoot Landing, and the happy hour specials make it a worthy evening destination too.

Hamburger Joe’s

Since 1989, Hamburger Joe’s has served the best and most affordable burgers and wings on the Grand Strand, and the regulars here will hold that opinion against any challenger. It is cash only, it is casual, it is everything you want when you want a really good burger after a long beach day and you do not want to think too hard about the decision. The buffalo wings and hickory smoked pork BBQ sandwich are both worth mentioning. Prices run from $5 to $10. This is not a destination for special occasions — it is a destination for the particular kind of hungry that only happens on vacation.

Breakfast & Brunch Spots

The morning meal on a beach vacation deserves better than a drive-through. North Myrtle Beach has at least one breakfast institution and a few excellent alternatives.

Blueberry’s Grill

Blueberry’s Grill at Barefoot Landing is the most decorated breakfast and brunch spot in the area, and it has been for years. The 2025 Best Breakfast and Brunch award from The Sun News is the most recent recognition, but the lines forming outside before 7 a.m. tell the same story without the trophy. The menu is Southern-inspired with a creative edge: the signature blueberry hush puppies are the dish people come back for, the lemon-ricotta pancakes are legitimately excellent, and the shrimp and grits compete with anywhere on the Grand Strand. The smoked brisket hash is a newer menu addition that has quickly become a regular order. Blueberry’s is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., directly off Highway 17 S near Barefoot Landing.

Johnny D’s Waffles and Benedicts

Johnny D’s is the breakfast choice that comes up repeatedly when locals and frequent visitors compare notes on morning spots. The menu name says it all — waffles and Benedicts are the specialties, and both are done with care and variety. Blueberry pancakes, chicken and waffles, and twisted Benedict variations keep the menu interesting for repeat visits. The portions are generous, the prices are reasonable, and the service is the kind of friendly, unhurried pace that belongs on a beach vacation morning.

Casual Bites & Family-Friendly Picks

Not every meal needs to be a sit-down event. North Myrtle Beach has a solid lineup of casual spots that serve excellent food in environments where kids are welcome and the pace is relaxed.

King’s Famous Pizza

Over three decades in the North Myrtle Beach dining scene is a credential few restaurants achieve. King’s Famous Pizza has earned that longevity by doing pizza well and consistently. The menu is focused rather than sprawling — Meat Lovers, House Special, Zorba’s Greek Pizza, Alfredo, and Buffalo Chicken are the standouts — alongside subs, gyros, and pasta. It is a reliable family dinner that satisfies the kind of group where no two people want the same thing. The quality of toppings and crust is what separates it from the standard tourist-area pizza spot.

Benny Rappa’s Trattoria

For Italian food done right — real portions, house-made pasta, the kind of trattoria that smells like garlic and olive oil the moment you walk through the door — Benny Rappa’s is the answer in North Myrtle Beach. It is BYO wine, which changes the math of a dinner out considerably, and the portions are the generous kind that make the value obvious. Groups and families both do well here. It does not pretend to be anything other than a good Italian restaurant, and that is exactly why it has built the loyal following it has.

Tips for Dining in North Myrtle Beach

A few practical notes that will make the difference between a smooth dinner and a 45-minute wait outside a restaurant while everyone in your group gets increasingly irritable:

Reservations are not optional in season. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, the best restaurants in North Myrtle Beach — especially SeaBlue, Joe’s Bar & Grill, 21 Main, and Greg Norman’s — fill up fast. Make reservations before you leave home, not when you arrive. Mid-week dining is easier to get into than weekends, and early-bird windows (typically 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.) are available at several restaurants at a reduced price.

Barefoot Landing is walkable and worth a full evening. The complex at Barefoot Landing clusters several restaurants — Greg Norman’s, Flying Fish, Boardwalk Billy’s, Nacho Hippo, Blueberry’s Grill, and Tidewater Grill — within easy walking distance of each other along the Intracoastal Waterway. It is a natural place to make dinner and a stroll part of the same evening.

Shoulder season is a different experience. Spring and fall dining in North Myrtle Beach is genuinely pleasant — shorter waits, the same quality, and often the same great weather. If you have flexibility in your travel dates, an October or April trip changes the dining experience considerably for the better.

The local guides and award lists matter here. Grand Strand Magazine, The Sun News, and OpenTable are the most reliable indicators of sustained quality on the Grand Strand. If a restaurant has been on those lists for multiple consecutive years, it is earning that recognition through consistency rather than novelty. Seek out things to do in North Myrtle Beach for a fuller picture of the area as you plan your meals around your activities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Lights, Camera, Grand Strand: Myrtle Beach Is Becoming a Film Industry Hub

There has always been something cinematic about the Grand Strand. The way morning light slips sideways across the Atlantic and catches the lip of a wave. The Spanish moss hanging still and silver over old plantation oaks. The way Ocean Boulevard in North Myrtle Beach hums on a summer Friday night with neon and laughter and the smell of salt and sunscreen. People have been coming here for generations to feel something — and it turns out that what makes a place feel worth visiting also makes it worth filming.

With a film currently in production along the Grand Strand, the Myrtle Beach area is drawing attention from an industry that tends to be selective about where it sets up its equipment. And this is not a one-time thing. Visit Myrtle Beach — the area’s official tourism marketing organization — is actively working to position the coastal region as a bona fide destination for film and television production. The conversations happening right now between producers, local officials, and tourism leaders could reshape how the world first encounters this stretch of South Carolina coastline.

For visitors planning a trip to Myrtle Beach or North Myrtle Beach, this development is worth paying attention to. A rising film profile changes a destination — it brings new visitors, new energy, and a kind of cultural credibility that no marketing campaign can manufacture. Here is what is happening, why it matters, and what it might mean the next time you look out at the ocean from a North Myrtle Beach vacation rental balcony.

A Coastline Worth Putting on Camera

The Grand Strand is sixty miles of coastline, but that phrase alone doesn’t capture what makes it visually remarkable. Within a short drive of Myrtle Beach’s famous oceanfront, a film crew can find settings that most coastal destinations simply cannot offer. There are wide, windswept beaches where the horizon seems to stretch past the edge of the frame. There is the Intracoastal Waterway threading through marshland that turns gold at dusk. There are waterfront communities in North Myrtle Beach — Cherry Grove, Windy Hill, Crescent Beach — where fishing boats bob beside vacation homes and the local rhythm of life has not been entirely consumed by tourism.

Move inland and the landscape shifts again. Working farms dot Horry County. Antebellum plantation properties with their broad verandas and live oak canopies offer a visual contrast to the coast that is striking on screen. The rice fields of the Georgetown area, just south of Myrtle Beach, carry a weight of history that few settings in the American South can match. All of this — beach, waterway, farmland, antebellum architecture — sits within 15 to 20 minutes of each other. For a production manager trying to minimize company moves between locations, that kind of geographic density is extremely valuable.

Why Producers Are Choosing the Grand Strand

Film production is a logistical enterprise as much as a creative one. A location that looks beautiful in a photo may become impractical the moment you try to park three grip trucks, source a catering operation that can feed eighty people twice a day, and find hotel rooms for a cast and crew on short notice. The Grand Strand handles all of those demands with relative ease — which is one of the core reasons producers are beginning to look seriously at the area.

The accommodation infrastructure here is enormous. The Myrtle Beach area has tens of thousands of hotel rooms, vacation rentals, and resort properties. North Myrtle Beach vacation rentals through Thomas Beach Vacations offer extended-stay options ranging from oceanfront condos to large beach houses that can accommodate multiple crew members under one roof — the kind of flexible lodging a production company on a multi-week shoot genuinely needs. That scale of inventory, outside of peak summer season, means a production crew is not competing with a convention and a family reunion for the same rooms.

The restaurants and vendors along the Grand Strand round out the picture. A production crew of fifty-plus people eating and spending daily at local establishments like Nacho Hippo, Sea Captain’s House, or Filet’s Restaurant in North Myrtle Beach adds up quickly. The area has the dining depth and retail variety to sustain that kind of prolonged economic engagement without strain.

How Visit Myrtle Beach Supports Film Productions

Landing a film production is not purely a matter of a location looking good on a scout. There is a bureaucratic reality to every shoot — permits, insurance requirements, coordination with local government, and the constant logistical scramble that any large traveling operation requires. Visit Myrtle Beach has positioned itself as the connector between incoming productions and the local resources that make a shoot feasible.

That means helping production crews navigate the permitting process — which varies by location along the Grand Strand and can be a significant barrier for out-of-area crews unfamiliar with the regional landscape. It also means connecting crews with local vendors: hotels, florists, caterers, equipment suppliers, and the other behind-the-scenes businesses that a production depends on but rarely considers until they are actually on the ground and the shooting clock is ticking. That kind of concierge-level navigation through a community’s infrastructure is exactly what makes a destination attractive to repeat productions.

Visit Myrtle Beach has also announced plans to launch a dedicated website later this year with specific information for those interested in filming along the Grand Strand. That kind of targeted resource signals a long-term commitment to the film sector — not a one-off accommodation, but an evolving infrastructure built to welcome production work year after year.

The Off-Season Economic Boost Nobody Is Talking About

Every coastal tourism community wrestles with seasonality. The Grand Strand is no exception. Between Labor Day and Memorial Day, hotel occupancy dips, restaurants trim their hours, and the workforce that powers the summer economy either waits or migrates. Film production does not follow a beach calendar, and that is precisely its value as an off-season economic driver.

The production currently underway along the Grand Strand illustrates the model clearly. A six-week shoot with more than fifty crew members means six weeks of hotel stays, restaurant meals, gas station stops, grocery runs, and retail spending — all in a period when those same businesses might otherwise be quiet. That is not vacation-industry money; it is production-industry money, which runs on a different schedule and responds to different incentives. Attracting even a handful of productions per year, particularly in the shoulder seasons, creates a meaningful economic buffer for the local community.

There is also the local talent dimension. The Myrtle Beach area has a community of people who work in film, television, and commercial production — camera operators, production assistants, makeup artists, location scouts, and others who often have to travel far from home to find consistent work. When productions choose the Grand Strand, they typically prioritize hiring local talent when available. That keeps money and expertise within the community and builds the kind of local production ecosystem that makes future shoots more attractive and more efficient.

Set Jetting: When the Screen Sends Travelers to the Shore

There is a travel trend that has been gaining momentum over the past several years, and it has a name that sounds like it was coined in a marketing meeting but describes something genuinely real: set jetting. It is the habit of seeking out the actual locations where a film or television show was filmed — not a theme park approximation, but the real street, the real beach, the real diner where a favorite scene was shot. For destinations lucky enough to be featured in a widely seen production, the effect on tourism can be substantial and long-lasting.

Think about how the Outer Banks of North Carolina became a magnet for a certain kind of young traveler after the Netflix series of the same name found its audience. The connection between a screen story and a real place is powerful precisely because it is personal — viewers form an emotional relationship with a setting before they ever visit, and when they finally arrive, the place carries a resonance that purely promotional content cannot manufacture.

For Myrtle Beach, the promise of set jetting is significant. A viewer in Chicago who watches a film set against the backdrop of the Grand Strand’s ocean and marshes and beach bars may have never considered a South Carolina vacation. But a well-told story filmed in a compelling place has a way of making the abstract feel concrete, and the concrete feel like somewhere worth going. That is a kind of marketing reach that no tourism budget can fully buy.

South Carolina’s Film Legacy — and What It Means for Myrtle Beach

South Carolina is not new to the film industry. The state has served as a backdrop for some of the most recognized titles in American cinema and television. The Notebook, with its sweeping Lowcountry visuals, was filmed partly along the South Carolina coast. Forrest Gump passed through the state’s landscape on its cross-country journey. The Righteous Gemstones, HBO’s darkly comic look at a televangelist dynasty, has used South Carolina locations season after season. And Outer Banks — the Netflix series that helped define coastal drama for a generation of streaming viewers — drew heavily on South Carolina geography for its production.

What is new is that the South Carolina Film Commission has begun specifically recommending the Myrtle Beach area as a filming location. That institutional endorsement matters. Productions looking at South Carolina for the first time will now encounter Myrtle Beach on the official list of recommended locations — which means it is in the conversation at the earliest stage of a location search, rather than discovered as an afterthought.

What the Grand Strand Offers That Other SC Locations Don’t

Charleston has long been the state’s most filmed city, and it deserves its reputation. But Charleston’s historic district comes with significant restrictions, high permit complexity, and intense tourist foot traffic that can complicate location shooting. The Grand Strand offers something different: equivalent scenic variety with a more flexible logistical environment, a larger accommodation base, and a regional culture genuinely invested in welcoming the production industry.

The mix of events and seasonal activity along the Grand Strand also means that a production filming in the area can capture authentic crowd energy when it needs it, and find near-solitude in the off-season when a quieter setting serves the story better. That flexibility is rare and genuinely useful.

What Film Tourism Could Look Like Along the Grand Strand

If the Grand Strand’s film profile continues to grow — and the current trajectory suggests it will — the experience of visiting Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach may eventually include a layer of film tourism that doesn’t yet exist. That could mean guided location tours through spots featured in local productions. It could mean pop-up exhibits at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center or along Main Street in North Myrtle Beach around a film’s release. It could mean the kind of film festival programming that draws a different traveler demographic — one interested in cinema as much as the coast — and that tends to support a more year-round tourism economy.

Cherry Grove Pier in North Myrtle Beach. Barefoot Landing, with its waterfront dining and entertainment. The broad flat expanse of Huntington Beach State Park, just south of Murrells Inlet. The weathered character of downtown Conway, Horry County’s seat, with its riverfront brick buildings. These are locations that already draw visitors for their own merits. In a film tourism context, they become something more — destination stops on a journey shaped by story as much as scenery.

It is worth remembering that Myrtle Beach’s appeal to travelers has always been grounded in the way the place makes people feel. A film can deliver that feeling to an audience that has never crossed the state line into South Carolina. And once someone has felt it — even through a screen — the pull to experience it directly tends to be hard to resist. That is the deeper promise of the Grand Strand’s emerging film identity, and it is one that travelers who love this coast should be paying attention to.

Frequently Asked Questions

Whether you are coming to the Grand Strand because a film brought it to your attention or because you have been making the drive down Highway 17 for decades, North Myrtle Beach is ready to welcome you. Thomas Beach Vacations has been helping families, couples, and groups find their ideal place on this coast for years — oceanfront condos, spacious beach houses, and everything in between. When you are ready to plan your visit, give us a call at (866) 249-2100 or browse available properties at northmyrtlebeachvacations.com. The Grand Strand is having a moment — and there is no better time to be here for it.