Located just across the South Carolina border from Calabash, North Myrtle Beach features a wealth of fun activities and venues. The downtown district at the junction of Ocean Drive and Main Street is known as the Horseshoe and hosts music festivals, parades and other cultural events near the beach. The new North Myrtle Beach Park & Sports Complex offers hiking, biking, ropes courses and water skiing.
The most popular spot in North Myrtle Beach is Barefoot Landing, a multi-use complex that offers great shops, restaurants and theaters, like the Alabama Theatre and the House of Blues. The shops are located along a wooden boardwalk on Barefoot Lake, and a new restaurant district is being developed on the Intracoastal Waterway. Other shopping venues include the Coastal North Town Center, Myrtle Beach Mall and the Tanger Outlets.
The Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle Beach is the birth place of the Carolina Shag, the state dance that grew out of the sounds of beach music and the crashing waves. The 1950s and ’60s dance craze saw teenagers flock to the beach, and many of those same “kids” still come to take a stroll down memory lane at SOS (Society of Shaggers) events. Dance clubs like the OD Pavilion, Fat Harold’s and the Spanish Galleon are still shagging after all these years.
