Best time to travel in Myrtle Beach?
→ The detailed month-by-month page, with 2015-2024 averages
Best time: May to June and September to October
Best avoided if possible: December to March (less pleasant weather or big crowds).
Temperatures and rainfall: 1991-2020 normals from the North Myrtle Beach Airport station, NOAA data (public domain).
Humid subtropical, softened by the ocean: hot, muggy summers around 31°C with the sea at 27-28°C and late-day thunderstorms, mild winters around 14°C, and a hurricane season from June to November. The best time to visit Myrtle Beach is May, June, September and October, with temperatures reaching 31-32°C (July). By contrast, January, February, March, April, July, August, November and December are generally less favourable (less pleasant weather or big crowds, depending on the destination), though a trip is still possible with a bit of planning. In high season, book early: prices and visitor numbers climb fast.
Go against the flow. To avoid the crowds without sacrificing too much on the weather, aim for April and November: the crowds thin out, prices drop too, and the climate stays pleasant.
Do these months appeal to you? See what's best elsewhere too: where to go in May · where to go in June · where to go in September · where to go in October.
At a glance
Why go to Myrtle Beach?
Myrtle Beach is the seaside resort of Middle America, where families from the Carolinas, Virginia, Ohio and Canada have been coming for generations to spend their summer week. The setting is unapologetic: hotel towers lined up facing the ocean, pirate-themed mini-golf parks, giant souvenir shops and pancake houses open at dawn. If you come wanting to see a popular, unselfconscious America, it is an experience in itself.
But the Grand Strand, 97 km of unbroken sand from North Carolina to Georgetown, changes character as you head south. Beyond the city, Myrtle Beach State Park keeps a maritime forest, Murrells Inlet its seafood restaurants on the marsh, Huntington Beach a wild beach where alligators live behind the dune, and Brookgreen Gardens its sculptures under the oaks. Pawleys Island, further on, is one of the oldest summer resorts on the East Coast.
Finally, the area is a land of golf and music: several dozen courses in the surrounding area, the shag, a beach dance born in the 1940s in North Myrtle Beach that became the official state dance, and a country and rock scene on the boardwalk. Hotel prices drop sharply outside July and August, and May, June, September and October keep the sea warm for far less.
Tourist map of Myrtle Beach: what's where?
The map below pinpoints the 6 places covered in this guide: a handy way to picture the distances between each stop and plan your route in Myrtle Beach.
- Myrtle Beach Boardwalk
- Broadway at the Beach
- Barefoot Landing
- Murrells Inlet MarshWalk
- Brookgreen Gardens
- Georgetown
How much does a trip to Myrtle Beach cost in 2026? Budget calculator
Estimate your budget for Myrtle Beach based on your travel style: accommodation, meals, activities and local transport included (flights excluded). Adjust the length and the number of travellers, and the totals update.
Totals for all travellers over the chosen length; the daily amount is per person. Flights extra, indicative amounts to adjust depending on the season.
Cards are accepted everywhere, contactless included. Prices are shown before tax: sales and accommodation taxes add 8 to 11% on purchases and meals and 11 to 13% on rooms, not counting the hotels' resort fees. A tip of 18 to 20% is expected in restaurants.
Safety in Myrtle Beach: should you be worried?
Myrtle Beach is a safe resort overall, but very busy in summer. The main dangers come from the sea: rip currents, common along the Grand Strand, sweep swimmers away every year; swim in front of a lifeguard station and, if caught in a current, swim parallel to the beach. The sun burns fast, jellyfish and rays are found in summer, and late-afternoon thunderstorms mean leaving the beach at the first flash of lightning. Hurricane season runs from June to November, peaking in September: follow the county's evacuation instructions if a storm approaches. Ocean Boulevard is lively and sometimes rowdy at night, particularly during the May motorcycle rallies: keep an eye on your belongings and leave nothing visible in the car. Alcohol is banned on the city's beaches. Health insurance covering the United States is essential.
Things to see and do in Myrtle Beach
Our first-hand favourites, and the great classics:
- Myrtle Beach Boardwalk
- SkyWheel
- Broadway at the Beach
- Myrtle Beach State Park
- Huntington Beach State Park and Atalaya
- Brookgreen Gardens
- Murrells Inlet MarshWalk
- Georgetown
What to book before you go to Myrtle Beach →
🧭 Discover the Myrtle Beach itinerary, day by dayMap, timings, budget and where to stay: free to access, to fit your dates. Create my tailor-made itinerary →The centre and the seafront
Around the boardwalk, between 2nd and 14th Avenues, you will find the big wheel, the amusement arcades, the beach bars and the historic souvenir shops, including the Gay Dolphin of 1946. Plyler Park hosts free concerts in summer, and the piers at 2nd and 14th Avenues let you fish or have a drink above the waves. Ocean Boulevard, parallel to the beach, turns into a parade of cars and pedestrians on summer evenings. The seafront hotels here are the oldest and the cheapest.
Broadway at the Beach and Market Common
Inland, Broadway at the Beach gathers shops, restaurants, bars, theatres and Ripley's Aquarium around a lake. Further south, Market Common has turned the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, closed in 1993, into a district of pedestrian streets, shops and restaurants around a park and a lake. It is the quietest spot for a family dinner, away from the bustle of the seafront.
North Myrtle Beach and Barefoot Landing
To the north, North Myrtle Beach brings together former resorts such as Cherry Grove and Ocean Drive, more residential, with rental houses on the beach and marshes behind. Ocean Drive is the birthplace of the shag, a partner dance to beach music, still danced in the clubs on Main Street. Barefoot Landing, on the Intracoastal Waterway, lines up shops, restaurants and a theatre by the water. The beaches here are wider and less built up than in the centre.
Murrells Inlet and Garden City
The fishing village of Murrells Inlet, 21 km to the south, calls itself the seafood capital of the state: restaurants on the marsh along the MarshWalk, deep-sea fishing boats and kayak trips in the estuary. Garden City Beach, just to the east, offers a more family-oriented beach and rental houses on stilts. The area lives to the rhythm of the tides and the returning fishing boats, and is best visited at the end of the day.
Huntington Beach, Brookgreen and Pawleys Island
The two Huntington estates face each other on either side of Route 17: the wild beach and the Moorish-style castle of Atalaya on one side, the sculpture garden and its oaks on the other. Further south, Pawleys Island, where rice planters spent the summer from the 18th century onwards to escape malaria, keeps its wooden houses on stilts and its rope hammocks, made here since 1889. No towers and no neon: this is the Grand Strand from before mass tourism.
Georgetown and the rice rivers
An hour's drive to the south, Georgetown was the great rice port of the Carolinas. The historic district, the Harborwalk on the Sampit River and the rice museum can be visited in half a day. Around it, former plantations such as Hopsewee and the Hobcaw Barony estate tell the story of rice cultivation by enslaved people and the Gullah culture that grew out of it. Cruises leave from the harbour to Winyah Bay, its lighthouses and its islands.
How many days, and which itinerary in Myrtle Beach?
Three or four days are enough for the beach, the boardwalk, Broadway at the Beach and a day to the south at Murrells Inlet, Huntington Beach and Brookgreen. A week is the usual format for American families, with golf, boat trips and a day in Georgetown or Charleston.
🗺️ Day-by-day Myrtle Beach itinerary · 📓 Printable Myrtle Beach travel guide (PDF) · 🌍 Discover all of the American West
The long weekend (3 days)
Day 1: beach and pool, the boardwalk and the big wheel at sunset, dinner on the seafront. Day 2: Brookgreen Gardens in the morning, Huntington Beach and Atalaya in the afternoon, a seafood dinner on the Murrells Inlet MarshWalk. Day 3: Myrtle Beach State Park in the morning, Broadway at the Beach and the aquarium in the afternoon.
The Grand Strand from north to south (5 days)
Day 1: North Myrtle Beach, Barefoot Landing and an evening of shag dancing in Ocean Drive. Day 2: the Myrtle Beach seafront and the big wheel. Day 3: Market Common, then the state park and its pier. Day 4: Murrells Inlet by kayak in the morning, Brookgreen Gardens in the afternoon. Day 5: Huntington Beach at dawn for the birds, Pawleys Island and Georgetown until evening.
Myrtle Beach and the Lowcountry (1 week)
Four days on the Grand Strand for the beach, Brookgreen, Huntington Beach and Murrells Inlet, then down Route 17: a night in Georgetown, then two in Charleston, 2 hours 30 minutes from Myrtle Beach, for its historic district and the Ashley River plantations. This format requires a car, picked up and returned at Myrtle Beach or Charleston airport.
How to get to Myrtle Beach and get around?
There are no direct flights from Europe to Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach International Airport is reached with a connection, most often in Charlotte with American Airlines or in Atlanta with Delta, or via New York, for a journey of 12 to 15 hours. It is 5 km from the centre, a stone's throw from the beach.
Another option is to fly to Charlotte, 290 km and 3 hours 30 minutes away by road, or Charleston, 150 km and 2 hours 30 minutes away, then hire a car. The drive from Charlotte crosses the countryside of the two Carolinas, with roadside stands selling peaches and boiled peanuts in summer.
Once there, a car is all but essential: the Grand Strand stretches for nearly 100 km and local buses are rare. Allow €40-70 a day at the airport. Route 17 and Ocean Boulevard are slow in summer, and the bypasses, the 31 and the 22, save time on longer journeys.
In the centre, you get around on foot along the boardwalk and by hired bike on the paths and parallel streets. Ride-hailing works well in the evening. Most seafront hotels have parking, often included in the resort fees.
Where to stay in Myrtle Beach?
The Myrtle Beach seafront lines up dozens of hotel and condo towers with pools, lazy rivers and water slides, from €80 to €250 a night depending on the season. Most rooms have a kitchenette, and many establishments add daily resort fees to the displayed price.
The hotels at the southern end of Ocean Boulevard, the oldest, are the cheapest, €70-120 outside summer. Those to the north, between 30th and 80th Avenues, are newer and quieter, with less crowded beaches.
North Myrtle Beach and Garden City focus on weekly house and apartment rentals, the American family formula. For a couple, Pawleys Island and Murrells Inlet offer more intimate inns and B&Bs, far from the neon.
The golf resorts and upmarket addresses, at Grande Dunes, Arcadian Shores or Kingston Plantation, cost €200-400 a night in summer. From November to February, all prices drop by half, but some restaurants and attractions close or cut their hours.
Our picks stop by stop, in three price ranges →
What to eat in Myrtle Beach?
The area lives on seafood: shrimp, oysters, crab and fish fried Calabash-style, after the small North Carolina port some forty kilometres to the north that gave its name to this light batter. The all-you-can-eat seafood buffets, an institution on Route 17, serve crab legs and clams for $40-60.
The Lowcountry brings its own dishes: shrimp and grits, Frogmore stew, in which shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes are boiled together, and crab soup. Murrells Inlet, on the MarshWalk, and the marshside restaurants of Garden City are the best places for these classics.
Breakfast is a local speciality: Myrtle Beach has dozens of pancake houses, open from 6am, where you eat pancakes, waffles and sausage biscuits for $10-15. Boiled peanuts, sold by the roadside, and sweet iced tea go with every summer day.
In the evening, Broadway at the Beach and Barefoot Landing gather the themed restaurant chains, while the boardwalk bars serve burgers and cocktails facing the sea. Allow an 18 to 20% tip in restaurants.
Which kind of traveller is it for?
Myrtle Beach lends itself to a relaxing, festive and nature-focused trip. Whether you travel with family, with friends or even as a couple, everyone finds their own pace. For accommodation, you will mostly find resorts, classic hotels and apartments and rentals.
Entry requirements & practical info
UK, Australian and most EU passports need an ESTA, applied for online before departure, for stays of up to 90 days; a few EU countries sit outside the Visa Waiver Program and need a full visa. Canadians need neither, only a passport. Anyone who has been to Cuba since January 2021 cannot use an ESTA and must apply for a visa.
Rules change: before you leave, check your country's official travel advice.
Once there, to stay online without paying roaming charges, an Myrtle Beach eSIM activates in a few minutes and works as soon as you land (plans from €3.99). Remember suitable travel insurance too.
Frequently asked questions about Myrtle Beach
When is the best time to visit Myrtle Beach?
May-June and September-October: the sea at 22-27°C, days between 25 and 30°C and lower prices than in July-August, when the town is full and expensive. September is still at the heart of hurricane season, so keep an eye on the weather. Winter is mild but too cool for swimming.
How do you get to Myrtle Beach from Europe?
With a connection: the simplest option is to fly to Charlotte with American Airlines or to Atlanta with Delta, then take a connecting flight to Myrtle Beach airport, for a journey of 12 to 15 hours. You can also land in Charlotte and drive the 3 hours 30 minutes by car.
Do you need a car?
Yes, unless your stay is limited to the centre and the boardwalk. The Grand Strand is nearly 100 km long, the finest sites are in the south, Murrells Inlet, Huntington Beach, Brookgreen, and public transport is too infrequent for a visitor.
Are the beaches free?
Yes, all the public beaches on the Grand Strand are free to access, with marked access points between the hotels. Parking near the beach is charged in central Myrtle Beach. The beaches in Myrtle Beach and Huntington Beach state parks require the park entry fee, $8 per adult.
Is it safe to swim?
Yes, if you follow the lifeguards' flags and swim in front of a staffed station. Rip currents are the main danger. The water is warmest from August to September, around 28°C.
Is Myrtle Beach suitable for a couple without children?
Yes, as long as you choose your spot: the north of the town, Pawleys Island and Murrells Inlet are quieter than the centre. Outside American school holidays, in May, September and October, the atmosphere is calmer and the seafood restaurants are easy to book.
Similar destinations
City🇺🇸 Florida
Countries🇧🇷 Brazil
City🇲🇽 Tulum
City🇺🇸 Fort Lauderdale
City🇺🇸 California
Countries🇨🇦 Canada
Countries🇲🇽 Mexico
City🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro
City