? for MB Concierge about accommodations

Hi MB Concierge,

We are going to be in MB the first week in Feb. for a mini vacation and traveling w/ another couple. We are all ';seasoned'; travelers and looking for some nice accommodations for 5 days. The husbands would like to play golf for a couple of days also. We will have a rental car.

Are there are special deals that we might take advantage of at that time? I know that it is pretty much off season so would appreciate any suggestions. We do not want a Days Inn type hotel and do not want to stay in the downtown area either. It doesn%26#39;t have to be a luxury hotel, just something clean and comfortable. Would prefer something either on or near the ocean so we can do some beach walking.

Where can we find the best ';golf deals';? Do they advertise in the local papers?

Any recommendations for nice restaurants? Again, doesn%26#39;t have to be high end, just good food. Don%26#39;t like those ';cafeteria style'; places!

Thanks for any help.

May

? for MB Concierge about accommodations

As I am sure you have noticed there are no shortages of hotels along the Grand Strand. You can get nice Beachfront accomodations from Cherry Grove (North of MB) all way south thru Surfside, Garden City, Pawleys Island, Litchfield. You can go to a resort or rent nice condo. Couple of questions might help pin an area down and then you can read the reviews of the various resorts/hotels to the left.

1. Are you more intersted in lazy quiet days hanging out by the pool and ocean?

If YES, then I suggest either North Myrtle Beach/Cherry Grove area, or further south, Surfside or Garden City.

IF NO, then Myrtle Beach city limits might offer more to your liking. If you are into nighttime entertainment, Myrtle Beach will give you the best options, like Broadway at the Beach.

2. You mention golf, is this mainly a golf vacation or only a day of golf? Many resorts offer golf packages again, look to the left and se what deals/packages are offered. Then if you see something that intersts you, you will get opinions from people who have stayed there.

No shortage of restaurants --nice ones partically on every corner. We have restaurant row in North Myrtle Beach. Your hotel can always offer a suggestion or two. This is a very large area, even though you have a car, you may not want to drive 20 or 30 miles, so your location determines what restaurants someone might recommend. If distance is not an issue, try Calabash, NC for some great seafood restaurants. It is a fishing village and many options there.

? for MB Concierge about accommodations

Hey there May !

Great time to come to the beach....some really good values to be found in not only hotel accomodations, but a number of good restaurants do ';buy one get one free'; specials! And our spring golf season hasnt taken off yet, so green fees are reasonable too!

A few places that I would take a look at would be Mariott Grande Dunes (located at the north end of MB -- very nice resort, decent golf desk), Grande Shores, Monteray Bay Suites (breakfast and a dessert reception included in your room rate!), Long Bay, Sea Island or South Wind Villas. All of these places are located just south of the Mariott and in an area of MB we call the ';Avenues';. Nice beach in this area great for long walks, shell and shark tooth collecting. SouthWind and Sea Island are sister properties with Sea Island being the newer of the two (they opened last season, SouthWind the season before). All are OF properties, most with decent balconies to set out on to enjoy that morning coffee!

As for golf --- that time of year most courses arent that busy, and most do run some great specials that are advertised in the local paper (www.myrtlebeachonline.com). A number of the hotels that I listed do golf packages...in fact forgot another place you all might enjoy...The Breakers Paradise Tower...great golf packages, OF and close to some decent places to eat and be entertained. You might want to look at some of the previous threads concerning golf..there are a number of websites that offer some great golf package options...if thats what you are looking for.

And restaurants...Like Kat said...we have some great options! If you stay more to the north end of MB (the Avenues) you have some of my personal favs there.....Collectors Cafe, Liberty Tap Room and Grille, Villa Mare, City Bar, River City, Cheeseburger in Paradise (great live music there!) Bonefish Grille, Flamingo Grille and Fiesta Mexicana (great $2 margaritas! and great food!). I%26#39;d also check out some of the great options in Murrells Inlet (our seafood capital). Murrells Inlet is about a 30 minute drive south...but you have some great options and the Marshwalk that goes behind a number of the restaurants along the marsh is well worth the visit. Another Italian Fav is Villa Romana at 7th Ave S in MB....and for breakfast...Harry%26#39;s Pancakes about 19th Ave N in MB.....

Hope all the info Kat and I have given helps! Enjoy your time here!

:)

Like many others before you who ask about best golf deals you need to be more specific. I could send you to Cypress Bay or River Oaks but playing conditions would probably be poor.Do you want a good course for the money with good conditions(Crow Creek,Possum Trot) or do you want something with more of a WOW factor like Tidewater or Caledonia.

A good idea might be to play at least one marsh course if you have never had the experience( Rivers Edge,Pearl,Oyster Bay etc.).So more specifics please.Like expensive or cheap,housing or no housing, easy or hard, close or far away etc.

As always MBConcierge is right on with her advice.The area both her and I advocate is commonly known as the ';Golden Mile'; and runs from about 48th thru 79th in the northern section of Myrtle Beach.It puts you right in the middle of all major attractions.Its not only a great area in which to walk the beach but the residential areas that seperate it from highway 17 also offer a good walking option.

One more hotel I would throw in the mix is Forest Dunes which offers some of the best balcony views in all of Myrtle from the 6th floor on up.Priced well,it offers larger rooms than most but does not offer a lot of frills.

Also have a lunch or light dinner at Hamburger Joes up by Barefoot Landing.

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your great advice! I knew that this would be the right place for me to gather info. I will check out the places mentioned.

We are familiar w/ the MB area, having visited many times. My brother has a condo in the North MB area so when we have visited we have stayed w/ him. This time around we are looking to try something a bit different and stay at a hotel. My husband has also been down many times on golfing trips w/ a group of fellow golfers so he is very familiar w/ the area. Where to stay is what we are looking for help with.

We are looking for something nice that would offer all the typical amenities, preferably some type of breakfast, etc. in the am. We are not looking for an el cheapo place to stay! The Marriott mentioned sounds nice %26amp; I will check it out. I do like Fairfield Inns %26amp; Marriotts. Find them to be a good value for the money as well as very clean.

The food recommendations sound great. We have eaten at Cagney%26#39;s, a very nice Italian restaurant (forgot the name)at Barefoot Landing (too much food!) and several others. I love fish so Calabash sounds great too!

I think that the husbands will play a couple of days of golf, weather permitting. We may drive to Charleston for a day and see the sights down there. Both guys are fairly decent golfers so think they would be interested in a decent course vs a poor one. I can get more specific info from them as to what they are looking for.

Basically, we are looking for a little R%26amp;R w/ some golf thrown in, some good restaurants to try, and maybe taking in a show at Alabama or Carolina Oprey if there is anything decent there.

Thanks again for all the great advice. Feel free to offer any suggestions.

May

Many of the golf courses have banded together in groups.If you play courses within a certain group good prices can be had.Boroughs and Chapin used to offer choice of either Tidewater or Grande Dunes(both wow factor) along with Myrtlewood and Farmstead for a set price.

Prime Times has Kings North as its top course and choices of Long Bay,Waterway Hills,Willbrook and a few others to group together.

My advice is to call up Myrtlewood and ask for a price to play Tidewater,Myrtlewood Palmetto and Farmstead.Then see if the hotel you choose can get you a better deal.Farmstead would be the longest drive of the 3 at about 23 miles from Sea Island or Dunes Village.

For the Myrtlewood package you might even log onto www.myrtlebeachtrips.com....this is actually the booking website for those courses...good luck in the search!

And...if any other questions pop up, you know where to look for the answers!

:)

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I am in the process of looking at all the suggested hotels. I am thinking that I would like to stay in a low rise vs a high rise so guess we need to consider condo rentals too. My husband and his buddy definitely want an indoor pool so I am finding that lots of the hotels don%26#39;t have indoor pools. We are leaning towards the North Myrtle area to stay in.

They are also thinking that they will wait til we see what the weather is going to be during the time we will be visiting and book tee times then. They don%26#39;t think it will be a problem finding a course to play on. LOL

I looked at the Camelot By The Sea%26#39;s website and that place looks nice. However, no indoor pool listed.

My husband used to stay at the Radisson in NMB when he would go down w/ his golf group. He liked that hotel. Has it changed ownership? I can%26#39;t find it listed. We used to walk over there for their buffet breakfast when we visited my brother.

Will keep y%26#39;all posted. Thanks again.

May

P.S. One other question - is SuperBowl a big deal in MB? What%26#39;s going on if it is?

Football is a huge deal in SC, and there are many sports bars that will have the super bowl on. I am sure there will be bars with some type of super bowl party going on.

Someone mentioned Myrtlewood Condo/golf package. Nice course, we lived in one of the condo%26#39;s in the Myrtlewood complex. They have 3 different condo complexs, they are all nice, ranging from about 10 + yrs old or so, to brand new. At Myrtlewood you will get a condo and swimming pool. You are 1 mile from the beach and 1 mile from Broadway at the Beach, shopping and entertainment venue. Great location, but you will not ocean front, not even ocean view. Thats probably the main question, do you want to stay ocean front, if so, MBCon, always gives good suggestions on lodging. Ton%26#39;s of very good restaurants, no matter what area you stay in, there will be plenty to chose from.

May....

The Radisson is now the Hilton, located near Kingston Plantation...there was another Radisson here located at the convention center, but that is now a Sheraton.

As for Football....its a lifestyle here! Not only pro, but we%26#39;re HUGE college fans (guess thats since we really dont have a ';local'; team)...but with all of us transplants, you%26#39;ll find most sports bars packed out on Superbowl Sunday....Overtime Sports in NMB, Oscars in NMB, Jimmigans (4 area locations), Spencers on the south end, and probably where I%26#39;ll end up...Liberty Tap Room and Grille.

Have fun!

:)