A Long Weekend at Ocean Lakes

Most of our Myrtle Beach homes sit inside Ocean Lakes, a large gated community directly on the beach south of the main strip. It is a different rhythm from a hotel, and worth knowing before you book.

How the community works

Ocean Lakes is its own small town. There is beach access, a water park, pools, a general store, and paved streets connecting all of it. Guests come and go by golf cart more than by car, and most of a stay happens without leaving the gates.

The community sets its own rules on quiet hours, curfews, and how golf carts are operated, and they are enforced. We send the full set with your booking confirmation so nothing is a surprise once you are there.

A reasonable three days

• Day one: settle in, walk to the beach, eat at the house
• Day two: the water park in the morning, then the boardwalk and the SkyWheel after the heat breaks
• Day three: drive south to Brookgreen Gardens or Huntington Beach State Park, both a short trip and both far quieter than the strip

Eating

The Murrells Inlet MarshWalk is the answer most locals give for seafood, and it is about twenty minutes south. It is a row of restaurants on a boardwalk over the marsh, so the walk itself is part of it.

For a night in, most of our homes have a grill. The general store inside the community covers what you forgot, though a proper grocery run before you arrive is cheaper.

When to come

June through August is beach season and books up first. May and September are the quiet trade: warm water, thinner crowds, and easier rates.

October still swims some years and is the best month for golf, which is why the shoulder season here looks nothing like the mountains.