Marvelous Myrtle Beach: Mild weather, few crowds make East Coast getaway perfect for winter

By: E'LOUISE ONDASH - For the North County Times
East Coast beach getaway offers lots of sand, mini golf, gardens | Saturday, January 12, 2008 8:03 PM PST ∞

After a two-hour drive north from Charleston, S.C., we arrived at our oceanfront Myrtle Beach hotel after sundown and went directly to the balcony. Spotlights from the hotel made the surf 14 stories below look like silvery ribbons crashing into the narrow beach. The next morning, the view was entirely different.

Spread out before us was an expanse of hard-packed sand ---- perhaps 50 yards wide and infinitely long. Even from our perch, the northern and southern ends of the beach were not visible.

"It's not the West Coast," my husband, Jerry, mused, leaning over the balcony. "Who knew?"

Apparently, 14 million visitors in 2006 did.

They came mostly from the Northeast or states within driving distance of South Carolina's aptly named Grand Strand. Consider that Myrtle Beach's year-round population is only 27,000, and the metropolitan area about 227,000, so the impact is considerable. In the spring and the fall, it's the golfers who converge on the 100-plus courses, and in the summer, it's families who swarm to the beach. So that leaves December and January for the rest of us.

Why should a West Coaster travel to the East Coast to vacation on another beach?

Several good reasons.

For one, the East Coast is not the West Coast. No cliffs or Morro Rocks or treacherous coastline drives along the Grand Strand. Just 60 miles of broad, smooth, white sand. It would take three or four days to walk from one end to the other, and you could do so uninterrupted.

Another reason: price.

For instance, families can stay in a new three-bedroom, three-bath, fully equipped condo such as those at Island Vista (www.the-island-vista.net) for less than $200 a night. An oceanfront, one-bedroom condo costs from $85 to $115 a night. These prices include daily maid service and free amenities such as an indoor swimming pool, spa and "lazy river" ---- a water feature with inner-tube rides that so many Myrtle Beach hotels have. A full-service, all-inclusive breakfast for two in the hotel's oceanfront dining room runs less than $20.

We liked the Island Vista's location, north of the area where most hotels are concentrated. The former stands in a quiet residential area, where you can stroll from the endless beach to a neighborhood with classic Southern shore homes on stilts. Hurricane season is from June 1 to Nov. 30 (another reason to visit Myrtle Beach in January and February), and the town has been devastated several times by "Cat 5's," most recently by Hugo in 1989.

Curious about what such weather is like, I asked our waiter at breakfast one morning if he had experienced hurricanes.

"I've been through two fives, three fours and a bunch of threes," he said.

"It's pretty exciting. Fire, mudslides, earthquakes ---- you people in California can keep 'em. At least we know when a hurricane is coming."

The Island Vista is just a block off Highway 17, the Road to Everything: a bazillion restaurants, several theaters and shopping malls, and lots of miniature golf courses. Neither my husband nor I play golf, but shrink the course and add some elephants, dinosaurs or castles, and we're there. Our three games of miniature golf got quite competitive and ---- OK, I lost every time, but came darned close to winning twice.

Maybe the best part of our early December golfing experience was the lack of crowds.

"Oh, I love this time of year," said one course manager when asked if it was a bit too quiet. "During the peak times, it's kids, kids, kids everywhere. It's hard to keep up and impossible to maintain the landscaping."

You'll also see the pirate theme everywhere in Myrtle Beach because pirates are part of the area's history. South Carolina's coast, with its coves and inlets, made ideal havens in the 1700s for fellows such as Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

Myrtle Beach is also NASCAR country. I know nothing about the sport but found myself tearing around and around a track in a miniature race car at the NASCAR Speed Park. I was definitely out of my element, but it was fun, although it took a few minutes to walk a straight line after climbing out of my car.

For grown-ups and kids who like music and theater ---- make that country music and musical theater ---- there are the Alabama Theater (belongs to the country music group Alabama), Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede and Legends in Concert with its Elvis and Barbra Streisand impersonators. Productions go year-round, with an emphasis on holiday spectaculars in December.

For a change of pace, head south on Highway 17 to the lower end of the Strand, where you'll find Murrells Inlet, Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens. Murrells (rhymes with "pearls") Inlet is a picturesque fishing village with a collection of seafood restaurants, docks, a salt marsh nature preserve and the Lazy Gator. Yes, the latter is a tourist trap, but a rather delightful one. You can't ignore Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus waving at passing traffic and greeting visitors with coffee and candy ---- or the massive collection of Christmas ornaments, the only souvenir I bring home these days. And best of all, this colossal curio shop comes with a resident alligator named Callie, who lives in a swampy corner under the store and occasionally emerges to sun herself on the lawn.

We drove a bit farther south to the state park, a favorite of birders who have recorded sighting more than 300 species here. We hiked for a couple of hours on the flat trail that parallels the Atlantic but hides the ocean from view with the growth of tall grasses and low trees. We also took the long boardwalk out into the saltwater marsh, whose wildlife and flora is highlighted in the new visitors center.

Our holiday treat was a visit to Brookgreen Gardens (www.brookgreen.org), 9,200 magnificent manicured acres of flowers, water oaks dripping with moss, ponds, fountains and priceless sculptures. It was founded in 1931 by the Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington family (hence the name of the state park just across the street) to preserve the native flora and fauna of the Carolina coast and to display objects of art within this natural setting.

Garden supporters and volunteers recently instituted the annual "Nights of a Thousand Candles," which runs weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. As the sun goes down, thousands of the glowing electric lights and candles appear, and various musicians and choral groups perform throughout the garden. Many volunteers begin lighting the candles hours before sundown. Some helpers even climb into the ponds to ignite the many floating hurricane lamps. On the evening we attended, nature cooperated with a spectacular sunset, providing a backdrop of lavender, cobalt, coral and rose for the show.

For information, visit www.discoversouthcarolina.com, www.visitmybeach.com, www.brookgreen.org or www.southcarolinaparks.com; or call (888) 88 MY BEACH (886-9232).