Can anyone recommend a good resort/hotel in Myrtle Beach? I'd prefer something on or within walking distance of the beach, and it needs to be family friendly. The weather looks sketchy, so indoor water-park type stuff or other indoor entertainment for the kids would be fantastic. Was planning to stay at Dunes Village but they are unavailable for the dates I want. Thanks!
The Caravelle Resort. It's in the more family friendly section. It's on the beach and they have an indoor pool and jacuzzi in case it rains.
I agree with the Caravelle. I would also recommend The Longbay and Ocean Reef which are in that same area.
My wife and I stayed at the Marriott at Grand Dunes. It was very nice, and all of the staff were great. It is a little on the pricey side, but we went early spring. I'm not sure how the prices are right now. Everything there is beautiful.
We like Carolina Winds. They have an indoor pool/spa. We stayed at the Long Bay Resort years ago but found it very noisy inside. www.carolinawinds.com
Check out Dunes Village Resort. My nephews had to be pulled away from the indoor water fun. LOTS of stuff inside for kids! http://www.dunesvillage.com/amenities.cfm
From the original post "Was planning to stay at Dunes Village but they are unavailable for the dates I want."
When we were down there last weekend we walked over and checked this place out - it looks pretty nice inside and out and it's real close to the Dunes Village if you like that area. http://www.islandvista.com/
recommendations The Ocean Reef is not bad.What price range are you looking in?That makes a lot of difference.I have stayed at quite a few places and we have a timeshare at the Marriott.I would recommend the Island Vista also it is very nice.
Ocean reef You should be able to get in to Ocean reef for that and if they aren't full they may give you an upgraded room for no additonal charge.
My parents go down every winter and stay at the Sea Mist ... my Dad golfs in the off season, so they go down in January and get great deals. http://www.myrtlebeachseamist.com/amenities/
We've also stayed at Sea Mist many times. They have a LOT for kids to do and they have the biggest lazy river.
Thank you so much everyone who posted and pm-ed me!!! Dh and I went through the list of recommendations and, based on amenities, location, availability and price, selected SeaCrest Oceanfront Resort. I guess October is still somewhat busy at MB since several of the resorts were fully booked or only had a small number of the very expensive rooms available. Even the place we chose only had a few rooms available. We're going next weekend, so I'll update with our review as soon as we get back. Thanks again!!!
Just got back, and we had a great time! Figured out when we got there that it was fall rally bike week, which explains the lack of rooms/reasonable rates at some of the hotels previously recommended. It was way too short of a trip, but very much what we needed and everyone had a blast. As promised, my review of the resort: We stayed at Sea Crest, located more towards the south end of Ocean Blvd. No problems with late check-in and we got lucky each night and found a parking spot in the resort parking lot. Parking in their lot is VERY limited (which I'm sure is the norm), but they do have a parking deck directly across the street, which would have been fine. We were pleased to note that they have a security guard walking around all night. They have a large tower (13 floors) and a small 4 story attached building. We stayed in the large tower in one of their angle ocean suites (which was the best available due to bike week). Room description: You walk directly into the bedroom, which has two double beds, a dresser, small TV, nightstand and closet. A door leads into a small hallway, off of which is the bathroom to the left (sink with plenty of counter space on outside, toilet and shower/tub separated by door) and leads straight into a galley kitchen. Door at the end of the kitchen leads into the family room, which had a murphy bed, small dining set (round table, 3 chairs), flat-screen TV, 2-seater couch, coffee table and one upholstered chair. Sliding glass door lead out to a small balcony with 2 chairs. My thoughts on the room: The resort was built in 1983 and the rooms probably have never been updated. The bedroom area was fine, although very poorly insulated so you could hear every little thing from outside (not uncommon with hotels, so no big deal). My only major complaint there was that we tried to turn on the heat when it got chilly and it immediately smelled of burning hair and other burnt things that a heater shouldn't emit. We thought it might go away and waited a few minutes, but it just got worse, so we turned it off and dealt with being cold. Had to open the door for a while to get rid of the stench, so I wish they had left us some extra linens or an extra blanket. We didn't bother calling the front desk because it was almost 3am and the kids were sound asleep. The bathroom was pretty clean, although very tight, and showed obvious signs of having last been updated in 1983, such as cigarette burns on the edge of the tub (non-smoking room), crusty fixtures and kinda gross grout (especially around the bottom outside edge of the tub). The kitchen was asthetically the worst part of the suite. Very old and obviously in need of replacement due to lots of use. The refrigerator was dented and dinged like crazy, the particle board cabinets were starting to peel and crumble on the corners, and there is no dish washer. There is a sign that asks you to wash your dishes before you leave. This must be done on the honor system because almost all of the dishes in the cabinets were gross. They give you all the basics, which was fine after we washed everything (which I probably would have done anyway, so not a huge deal). Coffee pot was horrible and gross. No complaints at all about the family room. Balcony was great, with a great view of the ocean. Amenities: First, I was thrilled to see that there was direct beach access from the resort, which made it super easy to take the kids down. The resort has an indoor and outdoor lazy river. We preferred the indoor as the outdoor has no propulsion, while the indoor had tons. There are two jacuzzis, but we didn't use either. The outdoor kid play pool area was great. The kids loved it. My only complaint would be that just about every kid there banged up there knees jumping or falling out of the submarine, but nothing major and no big deal. Just something that could easily be fixed with a rubber mat outside on the bottom to prevent scraping (but chlorinated water is clean so the scrapes were fine and minor). My little guy enjoyed the frog slide in the indoor kids pool. There is an outdoor tiki bar and they had live entertainment most of Saturday. Nothing flashy and great for families. There is a small restaurant that serves breakfast on the 5th floor (not included, but convenient). It was pretty horrible and the person behind the counter couldn't seem to figure out how to poor coffee. We opted not to eat there. We didn't check out any of the other amenties. Final thoughts: This resort was good for the price, and we'd stay again, although we do plan to try other resorts to see if we can find something better. The price was average for almost every other resort we looked at. Our favorite part was definitely the pool areas (we all loved the indoor lazy river and spent a ton of time there). This is definitely a family resort and really great for any weather conditions. Thanks again! Crysta
