My husband and I get into the same argument every year right around tax return time. Where are we going on vacation this year? I grew up going to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He grew-up going to Ocean City, Maryland. He usually wins and we go to Ocean City. Mainly because it is closer and he is the one paying. This year, I decided to go to both. Now I can make the ultimate decision of which one is the better destination place.
Ocean City has always been great place for us. You have everything in one place…the boardwalk, beach and bars! We could arrive on Saturday and not have to drive our car again until check-out. They also have a bus, we call it the drunken bus (take a ride after midnight), that for two dollars will ride you up and down coastal highway all day.
The boardwalk at Ocean City is the place to be. It has shops, food, and entertainment. You have not had french fires until you have had Thrasher’s French Fries. They are the best! A must eat while at the beach. The best meal that I had on vacation, I had at Mug & Mallet on the boardwalk. The price wasn’t that bad and you got to keep your mallet as a souvenir. For cheap dinning, Paul Revere’s, is a great buffet for $9.99. The shops are great. If you need a crazy t-shirt to add to your collection, you’ll find it there. For entertainment, they have several bars, some interesting stores, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and the rides. If you have kids, the rides is where you’ll be. There are two parks at the end of the boardwalk. One is a second location for Jolly Roger’s and the other is Ocean City’s pier rides. The pier rides are excellent. They have a lot of old rides inside the one building. They include: Snoopy’s Red Baron plane ride, old metal fire trucks, a kids whip, two merry-go-rounds (one is just for kids), boat rides, motorcycles, and a couple more rides. There is also newer rides outside. They have several thrill rides and more newer kids rides. There are other attractions around Ocean City to see. Jolly Roger’s is a theme park full of rides, water slides and go-karts. There are also numerous miniature golf courses.
The beach a Ocean City is not the greatest. First, the water is cold! We usually go to Ocean City the first week of August. The water temperature then is usually in the low 70’s. That’s not exactly pleasant swimming water, but you get used to it. Second, the waves break right on the beach too. So if you’re trying to take a peaceful dip, I’d go to the hotel pool. It’s ruff out there. You do get some calm days, but most the times the waves are pretty crazy. Last, the beach is wide. This can be looked at good or bad. Bad, because that is a lot of sand to walk over while trying to carry ten tons of beach stuff and not burn your feet. Good, because you have more room to play volleyball or Frisbee and you don’t have to pile your blankets one on top of the other.
There are plenty of restaurants and bars at Ocean City. Anywhere that you stay, you can walk out your door and have several restaurants and bars within walking distance. They have a wide variety to choose from. They also have some of the best buffets. I recommend the Bonfire if you are going all-you-can-eat. Being from Pittsburgh, Salty Dog’s is one of my favorite places to eat. It’s owned by a Pittsburgh native and has a Steelers theme. The best bar to visit while in Ocean City is Seacrets. I’m not sure how many bars are located there, but I would say at least ten. You can drink on rafts during the afternoon. In the evening you can make your way through the club which has both inside and outdoor locations. Plus you have the “Drunken Bus” to get you safely from bar to bar and back to your room.
Myrtle Beach is also an awesome vacation destination. It requires a car to get you place to place, but they do have a lot of attractions.
Myrtle Beach does have a boardwalk area. When we were younger it used to be the place to go, but they recently tore down the Pavilion (amusement park) and now there is not much there. Ripley’s Believe It or Not is located there along with Ripley’s haunted house and movie show. The one place that we go to every time we are in Myrtle Beach is the Gay Dolphin. It is the east coast’s largest souvenir store. It’s has several stories of useless vacation junk, but it’s a must. For the most part, the boardwalk has gotten pretty dirty and they have better places to go.
Barefoot Landing and Broadway on the Beach are the places to go instead of the boardwalk. They both have food, shopping, and entertainment. Broadway at the Beach is the bigger attraction. You can visit Ripley’s Aquarium and pet sting rays and see sharks up close. They also have an IMAX movie theater which has several different shows. We saw the Deep Sea 3D show which was great. There is also a place called Pavilion Nostalgia that has about ten of the Pavilion’s rides that they saved. Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood are also located at Broadway. Barefoot Landing has the same stores for the most part. They have two animal attractions there. They have Alligator Attractions which has alligator shows like the ones you see on TV with them feeding the gators. They have a host of other animals there also. The other attraction is called Tigers. For $40 you can get a picture with a baby tiger. The pictures turn out great, but after the long wait, you see the tigers for about 30 seconds.
Myrtle Beach does have an amusement park called Family Kingdom. It has more rides for kids, but there is a roller coaster and a couple other spinning type rides. They do have a couple water parks that we did not visit. From the road they didn’t look very exciting. The golf courses at Myrtle Beach are amazing. They have some of the most creative and crazy courses that I’ve ever seen. The one has some of the holes in tree houses!
The beach at Myrtle Beach is perfect. The water feels like bath water. It’s the perfect swimming temperature. The waves are perfect too. They break far enough out that you can still have some good waves, but the kids aren’t getting beat up in the shallow. You can go out and relax and ride the waves. The beach is not very wide, so you have the good and bad points as stated above. The one problem with the beach is that there are a lot of sea shells. At one point when you are walking out in the water, you’ll reach a tough patch of shells to walk through.
Myrtle Beach has a lot of restaurants and bars also. The one problem is driving distance to them. We like the restaurants in Merrel’s Inlet, which is about a half hour drive from Myrtle Beach. If you visit there, I highly recommend Drunken Jack’s and Oliver’s. At Barefoot Landing they have a restaurant called Dick’s. It’s a good time if you know what you are getting yourself into. We’ll just say that the name of the restaurant represents the attitude of the employees. It’s all in good fun and it’ll definitely be something different. Broadway at the Beach has several restaurants to chose from Landry’s and the Crab House are both excellent restaurants. Located behind the Hard Rock Cafe is a strip of bars and clubs, which is the place to go for nightlife. The other restaurant I recommend is the Sea Captains House located around the 2800 block they have excellent food, but get there early, the wait is usually an hour or longer.
In the end, a beach town is a beach town. They are all very similar. If you are looking to party, go Ocean City and stay near the boardwalk. If you’re looking to relax either place will do. I recommend staying at the higher number streets in Ocean City to get away from the excitement of the boardwalk. If you have a family I suggest Myrtle Beach. I will say that my vote goes to Myrtle Beach. The beach is better, it’s cleaner, it’s more family oriented, and has more attractions. I will miss getting a cheesy T-shirt and some of my favorite Ocean City Restaurants, but Myrtle Beach will be our new vacation spot.
