Planning a Trip

Getting There

Myrtle Beach International Airport, on Harrelson Boulevard (tel. 843/448-1589) has scheduled air service via Delta/ASA/ComAir (tel. 800/221-1212; www.delta.com), Continental (tel. 800/523-3273; www.continental.com), Northwest Airlines (tel. 800/225-2525; www.nwa.com), Spirit Airlines (tel. 800/772-7117; www.spiritair.com), US Airways (tel. 800/428-4322; www.usairways.com), and the relatively new Myrtle Beach Direct Air (tel. 877/432-3473), which flies into Myrtle Beach from such unexpected places as Columbus, Ohio, and Plattsburg, New York, as well as Newark, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The U.S. 17 Bypass runs north and south, about 2 miles inland from the Grand Strand's coastline. U.S. 17 Business (also known as the North or South King's Hwy.) runs about a half-mile inland from the coastline, through the most congested neighborhoods of Myrtle Beach. Direct access to most of the highway networks of inland South Carolina is via U.S. Hwy. 501, which runs eastward to Myrtle Beach from I-95.

Buses from Greyhound (tel. 800/231-2222; www.greyhound.com) and Southeastern Stages (tel. 404/591-2750; www.southeasternstages.com) arrive and depart from the J & D Travel station, 511 7th Ave. N (tel. 843/448-2472).

Cutting Your Driving Time -- If you're heading from Myrtle Beach to North Myrtle Beach, the opening of the 29-mile Conway Bypass has cut driving time by half an hour. The road brings to life the "Bridge to Nowhere," which for 3 years stood astride the Intracoastal Waterway without a road. The bypass, which is usually known simply as Route 17 or "the bypass," runs from south of Myrtle Beach, near Murrell's Inlet, to Myrtle Beach's northern fringe, near a collection of dinner theaters that include the Grand Ol' Opry and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. Be careful not to confuse Route 17 (the bypass) with its more congested sibling, Business Route 17 (also known as the King's Hwy.), which runs in a north-south direction through the most congested neighborhoods of coastal Myrtle Beach.

Visitor Information

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce is at 1200 N. Oak St. (PO Box 2115), Myrtle Beach, SC 29578 (tel. 800/356-3016 or 843/626-7444 to order literature only; www.visitmyrtlebeach.com), open daily from 8:30am to 5pm. Two publications jampacked with specific area information are Stay and Play and the Myrtle Beach Visitors' Guide, both of which are available without charge from the chamber of commerce. Both magazines, as well as hundreds of brochures advertising regional pastimes, activities, bars, restaurants, and watersports facilities, are available from virtually every hotel and restaurant in town.

Warning: Although their borders blend almost imperceptibly, the communities of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach maintain distinctly different systems of numerating their roads and streets. Hundred-dollar cab fares have been racked up by passengers who weren't clear about which of the two communities they were going to.