I guess the question says it all. I’ve been going there since I was a kid and have good memories of it. I even lived there for four years.
Now sure, it’s not as posh as Palm Beach or some resorts in the Caribbean, but I think that it’s a great place with lots to do, easy beach access, and reasonable prices.
I never understood why it gets the reputation of being a beach where white trash go for their three days away from their trailer/tent/mud shack?
Any ideas?
well, it’s NORTH myrtle that’s the trashy beach. College kids go there for post-finals debauchery. Bikers go here for bike week. After bike week there’s black bike week where the harleys get changed out for rice rockets. all of these non-family undesirables collectively choose N-Myrtle because the housing is cheaper, which is why for the rest of summer the aforementioned white trash continue to carry on the beer swilling fun.
that, and of course there’s the OBX north to it which is quieter and Myrtle/Hattaras south of it which has less neon.
I was there last year for a business meeting. I found the name funny. Myrtle. Hehe.
I was just there this weekend (it’s about an hour from where I live now) and I didn’t think it was trashy. If anything my main complaint is the small size of the boardwalk. Mind you, there’s a lot of stuff OFF the boardwalk for entertainment. But having been raised to consider Ocean City, MD what a boardwalk should be it’s just tiny.
The public beach we went to this time was nice though. Rockier than I would like but nice.
'Cause it totally is? It constantly boggles my mind to meet northerners who drive all the way here to go to Myrtle Beach. Go a few hours more and get somewhere nice! The beach sucks - it’s gray and ugly, the traffic is awful, and every third building is a Wings or Waves.
We’ve gotten in the habit of taking the kids somewhere new and interesting every spring break.
A couple of years ago, I chose Myrtle Beach. My grandparents had taken me there 30+ years ago, it’s got scads of golf courses, and plenty of places to stay.
We chose a pretty expensive high-rise on the beach; we used points for the hotel, but it was north of $500 per night for a 2br suite. Surely that would keep the riff-raff at bay.
Not a chance. I can tell you for a fact that we were the only family there with all of our teeth and 4 matching tires on our truck. I was dumbstruck at the utter trash and unacceptable behavior that they exhibited.
Granted, this was someone elses’ spring break as well, but all in all it’s just as bad or worse than PCB.
That said, we did find nice restaurants, good golfing, and were left alone for the most part.
Broadway at the Beach was a bit hokey, but the kids loved it, so keep it in mind if you go.
I can’t say we’d go again, unless my path just brought me up the coast for some other reason. Redneck Riviera all the way.
These people stayed at a $500/night place oceanfront?
I know that all along Ocean Boulevard (the far side from the beach) there are a ton of older pieces of garbage motels that are cheap and house college students and/or beer swilling rednecks. But those people were at the nice hotels?
i’m guessing the suites are classy but the entire hotel isn’t made up of penthouse suites. everyone uses the same lobby, elevators, and ice machines. that’s how we used to do it in college. the guys rent the shacks and the run-down motels while the girls get the “hotel” rooms @ the Spanish Galleon ~ still there right? (around $150 a night). the guys house the beer-swilling parties and all the sexual after-hour debauchery takes place in the comfort of the hotel. vomit-in-lobby is of course, customary.
If the OP has spent time there and not noticed that the majority of the people were any different from him, that means there is the possibility of two things:
that Myrtle Beach isn’t the white trash haven that everyone says it is, or
jtgain is white trash and doesn’t know it.
I went to HS in North Carolina and Myrtle was the Spring Break destination of choice for underage drinking and debauchery. So there’s that.
I can’t say I have been to Myrtle Beach but a coworker went there last week and said he enjoyed it and he isn’t that trashy. If you want to see a clash of scenery versus clientèle, you have to go to the Florida panhandle (aka The Reneck Riviera). Some of those beaches are as beautiful as exist on the mainland U.S. We are talking sand as white as snow and warm blue water. It also happens to be within driving distance of a huge number of people you don’t want to be on vacation with and they bring raw tonage with them. I am not talking just about the combined weight of their family but also the amount of gear their oversized pickup trucks will carry. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with some of them and love them for who they are but that just isn’t something I need to see on a beautiful beach. I get the Facebook updates with plenty of photos and damn, I don’t think that mix is what Mother Nature intended.
You want gorgeous beach, you keep going to Clearwater (please ignore the Scientologists.) You want deserted, historic, awesome food, you keep going to Amelia Island. You want the Carolina Opry and a bathing suit like a Corona bottle, get off the highway at Myrtle Beach.
I’m not saying it is, because I’ve never personally been there. However, everyone I know who frequents it is what most people consider hicks. I wouldn’ call them white trash. Just southern people, or born/raised in he south, who aren’t highly educated and don’t put on airs. So, I could see how people would look down on it, but I don’t.
Nah, it’s also everybody from Pittsburgh, evidently. For some reason.
That did cross my mind. 
But, I would guess not. My family drives a late model SUV with matching tires. We get up and watch the sunrise. I’ll have maybe 3 beers on the beach and a liquor drink at night sitting on the balcony. We bring young kids, so no clubbing or intoxication. I really don’t think I act the stereotype.
Anyhoo, sure I see the rednecks and the college students in the Sunrise Motel (with Color TV in Every Room!) across the Boulevard and the next two blocks back. They will sit outside, grill in the back of their pickups and swill beer (Natural Light Ice) all day.
If you stay out of that area, you never see it, but even if you don’t they don’t bother you. It’s not like being in a ghetto.
But if you go to the regular tourist destinations, none of that stuff goes on. Just regular vacationers just like everywhere else. At least from my experience.
I feel better already. It’s been about 25 years since I’ve been to Myrtle Beach, and it was as you describe.
Hmmm…this explains why I went there for 3 golf trips and never stepped foot on a beach (if you exclude the sand bunkers).