Myrtle Beach, a coastal city in South Carolina, gets its name from wax myrtle, a shrub with widespread growth in the region. This city has 60 miles of sandy beaches and offers opportunities for you to enjoy an array of activities, from amusement and water park rides to fishing and communing with nature.
Brookgreen Gardens is a garden museum created in 1931 and is located 17 miles south of Myrtle Beach, in Murrells Inlet. The goal of the garden's creators is to preserve the indigenous animals and plants of the area and to display works of art. Within its walls, you will find sculptures enhancing the botanical gardens and the garden's zoo. The property has 9,200 acres of sandy ridges, salt marsh, fresh tidal and forested swamps.
It was designed in the shape of butterfly wings by Anna Hyatt Huntington, one of the garden’s founders. Each of the four wings gives you a different experience. The lower right wing, has a children’s garden, while the lower left wing is the home of a kitchen garden. Distributed among all four wings are examples of perennials, roses, shrubs and trees. Since the day it opened, more gardens have been added around the butterfly wings, with areas to display sculptures by various artists. The zoo has a seasonal butterfly house that is open from the first day of April until the first day of October. All of the animals in the Brookgreen Gardens Zoo were brought there, because they would not have survived in the wild. They either have a debilitating injury or they were born and raised in captivity at other zoos.
Brookgreen Gardens
1931 Brookgreen Drive
Murrells Inlet, SC 29576
843-235-6000
www.brookgreen.org/
Family Kingdom is Myrtle Beach's only water and amusement park, on the oceanfront. The water park has four areas: intermediate speed slides, speed slides, water flumes and a lazy river. For young children, the park boasts eight kiddie slides and splash pools. The amusement park side of Family Kingdom features 30 rides, including a 110-foot free-fall ride called Slingshot Drop Zone, a wooden roller coaster known as the Swamp Fox and the state's largest Ferris, with views of the ocean. It also has bumper cars, a carousel and a mini-locomotive, that circles the park.
Family Kingdom
300 South Ocean Boulevard
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
843-626-3447
familykingdomfun.com/
Myrtle Beach State Park is three miles south of downtown Myrtle Beach, and it features 312 acres along the coast. The park is open year-round and offers five cabins, two apartments and over 300 tent and RV camping sites. Things to do within the park include, fishing for flounder, trout or whiting; or surfing in the ocean. An equestrian trail also is available, but horses are not allowed to stay in the park overnight. The Sculptured Oak Nature Trail is a half-mile hike through oaks, wax myrtles, hollies, poplars and magnolias, in an area that features various birds, reptiles and amphibians. There is a fork at the end of the trail that leads to a pond, in one direction and a beach, in the other.
Myrtle Beach State Park
4401 South Kings Highway
Myrtle Beach, SC 29575
843-238-5325
southcarolinaparks.com/
Ripley’s Aquarium® occupies 85,000 square-feet of Myrtle Beach’s Broadway-at-the-Beach, an entertainment and dining area. Exhibits include, Rio Amazon, which takes you through an equatorial rainforest where you will see piranha, catfish, stingray and other tropical fish; and Dangerous Reef, the the aquarium's largest exhibit, which features a 340-foot-long path that takes you through a clear tunnel. On the other side of of the reef, you will see snapping turtles, giant stingrays and sharks. In other areas of the aquarium, you are able to touch stingrays, watch delicate sea dragons and jellyfish, and see the brightly-colored fish from the tropical Pacific Ocean.
Ripley’s Aquarium®
1110 Celebrity Circle
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
843-916-0888
myrtlebeach.ripleyaquariums.com/
