Myrtle Beach is best known as a golfing and beach vacation destination, which it certainly is. But, there's so much more to see and do here.
I'm staying at Marriott's Myrtle Beach Resort & Spa At Grande Dunes (843-449-8880), which is a lovely, high-rise hotel/resort, located right on the ocean. The rooms are spacious and extremely comfortable, plus the property has plenty of amenities, including beachfront access, several pools, tennis courts, a day spa, and multiple restaurants. The resort hotel is located adjacent to a luxurious Marriott Vacation Club timeshare property.
During my first day in Myrtle Beach, I visited Broadway at the Beach - a unique dining, shopping and attraction area that offers at least one or two full days worth of things to see and do. For example, you can spend several hours visiting Ripley's Aquarium (an 87,000-square-foot indoor aquarium). It offers many impressive exhibits. The aquarium's phone number is (843) 448-2331.
The Broadway at the Beach area also features an IMAX Theatre which shows a selection of 3D IMAX movies. You'll also find a traditional movie theatre here, a handful of restaurants (including a Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood), Dragons Lair Mini Golf, and many one-of-a-king shops.
For kids, teens and adults alike, one of the coolest and most impressive attractions at Broadway at the Beach is MagiQuest (843-916-1800). This is a massive, fully-interactive experience which is a cross between a video game and a role-playing adventure filled with quests, challenges and puzzles to solve.
Every MagiQuest participant is given a magic wand (which really works). Casting the wand allows players to interact with their surroundings. Kids will like the "Harry Potter"-like experience, while teens and adults will be challenged and entertained by the more advanced quests.
Each visit to MagiQuest can be a 60, 90 or 120 minute experience. All of your progress is automatically tracked (via your magic wand), so your collected gold, experience points and progress is saved after each visit. Anyone who enjoys RPG video games or the "Harry Potter" books/movies will really enjoy MagiQuest. It's a very impressive and fun attraction that's well worth the price of admission. Each visit and each quest will be totally different, especially if you spend a little extra money and time to fully customize your wand.
MagiQuest is definitely one of the more fun, unique and addicting family-friendly attractions I've experienced in a long time. There really is no other attraction anywhere that offers a similar interactive and immersive experience. (Several MagiQuest locations are now open around the world, however, the location in Myrtle Beach was the first.)
If you're more interested in experiencing traditional museums, galleries and theatre, for example, Myrtle Beach offers all of this and much more, plus just about everything here is very affordable (including the flights to get here). For example, Spirit Airlines offers direct flights from several popular East Coast cities that are convenient and affordable. Plus, driving to Myrtle Beach is easy from many cities.
June, July and August are the most popular months to visit Myrtle Beach (since it is a beach-oriented area), however, the weather is very pleasant here throughout the year.
Check out photos from my visit to Myrtle Beach below. For more information about this awesome destination (which is ideal for families, as well as golfers, spa goers and shoppers, for example), visit the official Myrtle Beach Conventions and Visitors Bureau's website at www.visitmyrtlebeach.com.
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