If you ask a local when Myrtle Beach is at its best, many will point to fall. The days remain pleasantly warm, making it easy to spend the entire day outdoors.
But the weather is only the beginning. Distinctive traditions, unexpected celebrations and new experiences give fall a character all its own along the Grand Strand.
“After more than 25 years of living here, fall still reminds me why I love to call this place home,” said Stuart Butler, president, Visit Myrtle Beach. “You can spend a morning by the ocean, return to a place tied to a favorite memory or discover something new with the people you love. It’s where one-of-a-kind moments bring families together and have them returning year after year.”
Wonderfully Unique and Unmistakably Local: On October 17th, downtown Loris serves up Southern tradition at the 47th annual Loris Bog-Off Festival celebrating the region’s signature chicken bog—a flavorful mix of rice, chicken, smoked sausage and closely guarded seasonings. What began in 1980 as a cooking contest now pairs fiercely guarded family recipes with plenty of things to explore and a grand fireworks finale as the cherry on top. Visitors can taste the dish where it’s most deeply rooted and see how a local meal became one of the Grand Strand’s most distinctive traditions.
That same morning, costumed surfers paddle into the Atlantic for the fifth annual Witches Sunrise Surf in North Myrtle Beach. The sight of black hats and broomsticks against a beautiful sunrise has become one of the area’s most delightfully unexpected Halloween traditions.
A short drive inland, Conway makes its transformation official for the month of October. By mayoral proclamation, the historic river town is deemed City of Halloween, S.C., filling its walkable downtown with jack-o-lantern trees, floating witch hats, oversized creatures, immersive lighting and a packed calendar of family fun like their Graveyard Grand Prix Coffin Race on October 17.
New Reasons to Plan a Fall Trip: Little River’s new and exciting event lineup begins Sept. 12 with the Patriots Day Festival, honoring service members and first responders, while fundraising for 10-Mile Reef, designed as a diving and fishing destination as well as a coral restoration effort. From September 24-October 31, the new Little River Waterfront Fright Nights adds a Trail of Fear, waterfront decor, a haunted house, a costume contest and pirate-themed ‘Boos’ cruises on the Intracoastal Waterway.
On September 26th, the new NMB Live! will bring three stages of free music to Main Street in North Myrtle Beach during the SOS Fall Migration, a celebration of the Carolina Shag dance held September 18-27. The timing connects something new with a tradition that began in Ocean Drive’s dance clubs in the late 1930s. Named South Carolina’s official dance in 1984, the shag continues to be a living part of North Myrtle Beach through lessons, competitions and celebrations.
Brookgreen Gardens also enters its first fall with the newly-opened Purdy Center, a spacious venue and conservatory gardens that features a light-filled Great Hall, changing botanical displays and a floor-to-ceiling tropical Green Wall.
Downtown Myrtle Beach will welcome a new Myrtle Beach Songwriters Festival November 13-14. The two-day event will feature more than 50 singer-songwriters and poets from across the country performing their original work in intimate listening room settings in multiple different venues. Produced by the Songs that Save Foundation, the event will support local children and families through Backpack Buddies.
More to Discover from Morning to Moonlight: Myrtle Beach Jazz Fest celebrates its 10th anniversary October 16-18 at 2501 N. Kings Hwy. in Myrtle Beach, a fairly new location for the three-day celebration that allows the festival to grow while keeping its community roots. Filling the spacious grounds are nearly two dozen live jazz performers along with numerous food options and cultural experiences.
Traditional fall activities abound at Harvest Home Weekend, held October 3-4 at Brookgreen Gardens. Families can pick their annual pumpkin, build and take home their very own scarecrow, get lost in a hay maze, create a festive craft and enjoy an Autumn Creek Adventure amid the sculpture gardens and Lowcountry landscape.
In Murrells Inlet, Crazy Sister Marina gives visitors unique and varied ways to stay on the water well into the fall season. Adventures include dolphin-and-sealife cruises, guided kayak tours through the salt marsh, jet ski rides through inlet channels and half-day, shark or deep-sea fishing trips. After sunset, the lineup gets even more unexpected with a children’s pirate sunset adventure, a Full Moon Ghost Stories Cruise and a Murder Mystery Dessert Cruise.
From sunrise surf to evening jazz, fall in the Myrtle Beach area is not an encore to summer. It is its own experience rooted in local flavor, coastal traditions and surprising new reasons to stay one more day. For trip ideas, lodging offers and an updated event calendar, visit VisitMyrtleBeach.com.
