Myrtle Beach has a reputation as a family beach — a workingman’s destination where a week of sun and fun with the kids won’t break the bank. In a time of layoffs, high unemployment and recession, that makes the Grand Strand — the 60 miles of shoreline from Georgetown, S.C. to the North Carolina state line — especially attractive.
The area offers a bit of everything: weathered beach bungalows at Pawleys Island and mom-and-pop hotels amid pricier high-rise condos in Myrtle Beach; amusement parks where you pay by the ride; and golf challenges ranging from tilting at mini-golf windmills to making the green on windswept layouts winding through stands of oak. But the main attraction is, and always has been, the beach.
