Brunswick County Beaches

The Brunswick County Islands are just naturally home to a variety of beach environments, each unique. The beaches of Brunswick are dominated by private residences, virtually no beachfront high rise hotels and a much slower place than Myrtle Beach.

Sunset Beach

The smallest of the three southernmost Brunswick Islands and the closest to the condo (not to mention our personal favorite!), Sunset Beach is full of rustic charm. A quaint, one-way, wooden bridge leads you across a pristine salt marsh as you approach the island. It is a wooden structure than can only hold one lane of traffic at any given time, and is the only one of its kind still in use along the East Coast. While this does cause headaches for those trying to get on or off the island, many locals say the bridge does give the town a more relaxed feel. While you're waiting in line, it also gives you the opportuntiy to admire the marshland and watch the many boats queueing up to make their way along the ICW when the bridge opens up for boat traffic at the top of every hour. This is in stark contrast to the rapid growth affecting other beach communities, including the Grand Strand.

Three miles long, the beach is known for its wide strand and thick sea oats which attract hundreds of shore birds each morning. Walking and bird watching on the beach is a favorite activity. Cottages and hotels are available for rental and a small commercial district provides supplies for residents and visitors. Sunset Beach is the only land access for the southern-most undeveloped barrier island, Bird Island. The southern end of the beach which is accessible only on foot borders the NC/SC line and is partially protected by a large stone breakwater (notice the small shipwrecked boat on the shoreline!) that also shelters the approach to the Ocean from the Intracoastal Waterway. Despite the protection from the breakwater, the fragile dunes bordering Bird Island are atill susceptible to the ocean's wrath. Take a look at this short video showing some of the damage to the dunes and illustrating how far the ocean has encroached onto them.

Click on the images below for some short video clips of the sights, sounds and the fun at Sunset Beach!

It's a short drive from the condo to Sunset Beach and on your way back you can treat yourself to some of the most unique shops and boutiques along the way in Calabash and Sunset Beach. It's a great opportunity to stop by for a ice cream or some fresh, home baked goodies at Indigo Farms. While you're in the Sunset Beach area, be sure to visit the Ingram Planetarium which offers state of the art light and sound star shows, interative exhibits, science hall, night sky telescope and gift shop.

We're sure you'll find Sunset Beach and the surrounding areas of Brunswick County the perfect addition to your Myrtle Beach vacation plans! Click on the image here to view additional photos of Sunset Beach. If you'd like to see more of the coastal areas of Brunswick County, NC, we'd invite you to take a look at a day trip we put together that will take you all across the county visiting some of the most popular sites in the area.

Bicycling the shoreline on Sunset Beach is the BEST! You can rent your bicycle right across the street from the entrance to Sunset Beach!

Bald Head Island

Bald Head Island, the crown jewel of Brunswick is accessible only by passenger ferry. This pristine environment, a haven for sea turtles, features miles of unspoiled beaches. Strict building covenants maintain the natural windswept beauty of the island. No cars, only golf carts are allowed, and commercial business is limited. Homes on the island feature upscale appointments and incredible views, many available for rental. Beaches include the centrally located South Beach with gently rolling waves and East Beach which stretches 6 miles without a single home. Whether you come for just a day trip or stay for several weeks, Bald Head Island will be an experience you won’t soon forget.

Oak Island

Oak Island includes Caswell Beach with 14 miles of beaches known for their gentle, rolling surf. The southward orientation of these beaches means you can experience both spectacular sunrises and sunsets, right over the ocean. 50 public beach access points make this beach a great place to come for just a day. Family activities abound with the many parks, playgrounds, boat ramps, nature trails and extensive sidewalks found here. You’ll also find a variety of dining options, shops and accommodations, including motels and private rentals. Oak Island is the largest and most active beach town in the Brunswick Islands.

Holden Beach

Holden Beach’s history as a prospering commercial fishing center gives it it’s unique flavor still today. Eleven miles of tranquil beaches are connected to the mainland by only one two-lane elevated bridge. The peaceful unhurried ambiance found here make it a romantic vacation spot with a variety of cottages and condos for rent. If your beach plans include fishing, Holden Beach is also known for its surf and off shore fishing. A full service fishing pier provides a great diversion for the both amateur and expert fisherman.

Ocean Isle

Known for wide sandy white beaches and gentle surf, Ocean Isle Beach is a quiet retreat, offering a variety of activities. A series of t-shaped canals across the island, add to the waterfront. Homes and accommodations are beautifully maintained adding to the special ambiance of the island. A golf resort, hotels, condos and private homes are available for rent. Family activities include a waterslide and miniature golf. Ocean Isle is also home to a renowned waterfront restaurant, great for watching the sunset.

Cherry Grove Beach

Cherry Grove is the closest beach from the condo.....just 5 minutes along Highway 9 to the ocean. It's also the northermost beach along the Grand Strand in SC. From the northernmost edge of Cherry Grove beach you see over to the NC border at Sunset Beach, however, it is not accessible on foot because of all the channels and inlets that separate NC from SC. Because you cannot go any farther north along the coast of South Carolina, the beaches tend to be much less crowded than farther down south. There is also plentiful parking and public beach access in the Cherry Grove area along with numerous other activities, restaurants, grocery & hardware stores, souvineer shops and much, much more.

Traveling along the 3 mile stretch that extends from Sea Mountain Highway to the end of the beach, you'll find much more beach access and free parking farther away from the crowds. You can see details here. It's a great area to rent a bike at The Bike Doctor or just walk through the streets and the finger canals coming in off the backwater, drop a line and test your fishing skills at the 53rd St Boat Ramp, or just enjoy the sights and sounds of nature at the new Heritage Shores Nature Preserve.

North Myrtle Beach Vacation Rentals 

Myrtle Beach State Park

Myrtle Beach State Park is one of the most popular public beaches along the South Carolina coast. Behind the gates of Myrtle Beach State Park is a look at the Grant Strand when it was once a remote stretch of quiet beach and forest. The first South Carolina State Park to open to the public in 1935, the 312-acre park was originally developed by the Civilian Conversation Corps. It includes a campground, cabins, nearly a mile of beach, picnic areas, a fishing pier and nature center and is located about 300 yards from the Ocean. In addition, a nature trail provides a rare opportunity to see one of the last stands of maritime forest on the northern coast of South Carolina. Because of this distinction, the forest has been declared a Heritage Trust Site.The Parks Nature Center offers saltwater aquariums, live reptiles and interactive natural history displays to help visitors understand the significance of the park. A backyard wildlife habitat complete with bird feeders, bird houses, butterfly garden, bird baths and nature sculpture is available for viewing even when the center is not open.

Huntington Beach State Park

Located in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, near the world renowned Brookgreen Gardens, this oceanfront state park offers camping, fishing, coastal hiking trails and general access to three miles of remote, unspoiled beach.
Huntington Beach State Park is also the site of the Spanish-style castle Atalaya, former winter home and studio of noted American sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Huntington Beach offers its visitors the best preserved beach on the Grand Strand.
The park’s freshwater lagoon, salt marsh, maritime forest and beach are outstanding examples of the state’s natural coastal environment. These also provide such prime habitat for birds that the park is widely recognized as one of the best birding sites along the East Coast. Surrounded by some 2,500 acres of native flora and fauna, the park offers many observation decks and walking trails to further enhance your enjoyment

Call 843-237-4440 or the education center at 843-235-8755 for more information.

Things to Do

Picnic Area and Shelters: Three picnic shelters are available for family or other group gatherings. Each shelter may be reserved for $25-32/day.
If shelters are not reserved, guests may use shelters on a first-come, first-served basis at no charge.
Note: Admission fee is not included in shelter price. Rates listed do not include applicable tax and nonrefundable transaction fee.
To make a picnic shelter reservation, call toll-free 1-866-345-PARK or make it online by clicking on Park Reservation button located at the upper right hand corner of this page.
We also have birthday party packages available that include shelter rental.
Park Store/Gift Shop: The park store/gift shop is open year-round and offers limited grocery items, souvenirs, snacks crabbing nets and firewood.

• Boating: Yes
• Fishing: Yes
• Birding: Yes

Things to Do > Canoeing / Kayaking

South Carolina paddlers often boast about having more coastal marshland and navigable creeks than any other state on the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Conveniently located just down Highway 17 from Myrtle Beach, SC, Huntington Island State Park offers a natural and secluded setting for the paddling enthusiast. Visitors enjoy the close-up view of nature and history that can often be seen only by paddling the slow moving coastal waterways. Little to no experience is necessary to enjoy the beautiful ecosystem surrounding the park.
Salt marsh creeks just outside Huntington at Murrells Inlet, SC, provide spectacular views of grass marshes, secluded pools and even the occasional alligator or playful dolphin. The more adventurous will paddle around Drunken Jack Island, the legendary treasure site of Blackbeard the Pirate. Within easy driving distance are Georgetown Harbor to the south, and the Black River to the west. There a several local tour guides and outfitters who will be happy to help you plan your trip and provide rental equipment and provisions if required.
Enjoy a two hour guided tour of the salt marsh. Excellent for beginners, participants need to reserve a spot at the Education Center (235-8755) by 4:00PM Sunday. *Parties must pre-register! *The tour is designed for ages 9 and up. Under 16 persons must be accompanied by an adult. Please bring drinking water, sunscreen and lace-up shoes that can get wet and muddy. Meet at the Education Center, then caravan to Oyster Landing. *Fee: $ 30.00/person. *Approximate trip time (2) Hours.

Things to Do > Hiking

Huntington Beach State Park is a full nature preserve. As such, it is a protected natural habitat for all types of wildlife, fish and birds. Diverse habitats of freshwater ponds, salt marsh and the Atlantic shore provide ample scenery and interest for the curious hiker.
A day hike through Huntington’s freshwater and saltwater marshes, pristine sandy beaches, and maritime forests is one of the state's most memorable experiences. The fact that the park is also one of the most beautiful bird habitats in the South is another added benefit.
Huntington Beach State Park is a secluded and well-preserved 2,500-acre gem tucked away from South Carolina’s highly developed Myrtle Beach coastal area. It is the largest expanse of undeveloped beach with easy public access along the state’s upper coast. The Sandpiper Pond Trail provides you with a pleasant and well marked trail. The Kerrigan Nature Trail is a short walk through native flora and fauna.
If distance is a must, hike up and down the 3 miles of protected beach. Watch as the dolphins play and the pelicans swoop. You can break up the hike by cooling you feet at the jetty or enjoy a picnic basket at one of several picnic areas dotting the park.
Guided Coastal Exploration programs are held from March through November. Programs are free with park admission and include alligator walks, ghost tours, beachcombing and birding expeditions. Call the Education Center for program information: (843) 235-8755.
Things to Do > Saltwater Fishing
With three miles of uninhabited and secluded shoreline, the Huntington Island State Park provides ample opportunities for saltwater fishing. Whether casting from the beach, wading into the surf or fishing from the park’s jetty, visitors enjoy a variety of species and the undisturbed calm of a quiet day of fishing.
With the heat of the summer, shore fishing slows somewhat compared to spring and fall. However, in summer many different fishes are available to inshore anglers. Among these are: spotted seatrout, red drum, black drum, flounders, whiting, Spanish and king mackerel, sheepshead, and crevalle jack. As a general rule, summer fishing is better at dusk and dawn. During this time of the year estuaries and coastal waters are filled with a variety of bait fishes and shrimps preyed upon by game fish. As a result, live baits will catch more fish than artificial lures at this time.
Spotted Seatrout
During the summer, spotted seatrout occur in lower parts of estuaries and prefer live baits. In early summer you can get brown shrimp for bait with a cast net at low tide in many areas. Later in the summer, white shrimp will be large enough to use for bait. Also, small menhaden and finger mullet can be obtained with a cast net and you can catch mud minnows either with a baited minnow trap or with a cast net in shallow creeks.
As in the spring and fall, the best fishing is around areas with structures, such as oyster bars, rocks and pilings during periods when the tidal currents are running. The baits may be fished either on the bottom with a slip sinker above a 20-pound test monofilament leader attached to a 1/0 or 2/0 hook or from a float rig. Generally in the summer, trout fishing is quite spotty as the fish do not form large schools typical of cooler periods of the year.
Red Drum
Summer fishing for red drum is slower than during the spring and fall. During July, small juvenile red drum, 8 to 10 inches in length, leave the shallow creeks and form schools in the main estuaries. At this time they are very easy to catch, but are smaller than the allowable minimum size in South Carolina of 15 inches and should be released. These fish will attain legal size in the fall.
During late summer, anglers are frequently successful in catching larger fish (up to 20 to 30 pounds) around jetties and at the mouths of bays and sounds. Baits used are either live menhaden, finger mullet or fresh cut mullet. These baits are presented on fish-finder rigs on the bottom. A 50-pound test monofilament leader attached to a 6/0 hook is satisfactory for cut bait. For live bait, use a slightly smaller hook (4/0) so that the bait can swim more naturally in the current. Cut baits are fished on the bottom, whereas live baits may be fished either on the bottom or floated along the jetty rocks.
Flounders
Flounders are quite abundant in the estuaries during the summer months. This is the time of the year when some folks drift along the shallows during calm nights on an early incoming tide to gig flounders. The boats are generally shallow draft such as jon boats and have lights set up on the bow to illuminate the bottom directly ahead of the boat. As one person poles the boat, the other stands in the bow with a four-pronged spear and strikes any flounders he can see on the bottom. When the night is calm, the water clear and the fish available, quite a few flounders can be harvested.
Many Grand Strand fishermen troll for flounders during summer around inlets. Live baits, such as mud minnows are trolled slowly along the bottom or adjacent to jetty rocks. Other areas where flounders can be caught are inlets north of Charleston, such as Dewees Inlet, Capers Inlet and Prices Inlet.
Sheepshead
During the summer, sheepshead can be caught around jetties, pilings and bridge piers. Fiddler crabs and live shrimp are the best baits and they can be fished either with float rigs (which are successful around the jetties) or with 1/4- or 3/8-ounce split shot weights crimped to the leader. The hook sizes used are no. 1, 1/0, or 2/0 and the leader should be about 20-pound test monofilament. Frequently you have to move from place to place along the rocks to find fish.
Black Drum
Black drum are bottom feeding cousins of the red drum. They feed oncrabs, shrimp, clams and mussels and do not consume fish. They occur around rocks, pilings and bridge piers. Since they are mainly bottom feeders, a fish finder rig works well. When fishing for black drum you may hook a fish that weighs 5 pounds or you might grab onto one that weighs as much as 40 pounds.
The best bait for black drum is a large piece of blue crab. To prepare the bait, pull the top shell from the crab and cut it into quarters. Thread a large piece of crab onto a 5/0 to 9/0 hook tied onto a swivel with 50-pound test monofilament. Above the leader, which should be from 18 inches to 2 feet long, a 2 to 3-ounce slip sinker is used to get the bait to the bottom. Smaller black drum are delicious, but the larger fish (over 15 pounds) have a coarse flesh. If you catch a large fish you do not plan to eat, it should be tagged and released.
Pompano
During late summer, the fine tasting pompano is relatively abundant in the surf zone but not heavily fished. Pompano frequent the surf zone right where the waves break in "suds" on the beach. These fish feed on mole crabs which live in this high energy area. The crabs burrow into the sand as the wave breaks, and as the water retreats from shore after breaking, the crabs strain the water for microscopic food items that are suspended by wave action. Before the next wave breaks, these small crabs (1/4 to 3/4- inch in length) burrow into the sand.
Not all mole crabs manage to bury themselves after each wave, however, and some are swept short distances from the beach by the retreating water. Pompano cruise just beyond the foam feeding on these crabs.
Pompano have small mouths and since mole crabs also are small, a no. 1 or no. 2 hook should be tied directly onto the line (8- pound test) from the reel. Flip the baited hook into this area and allow it to be carried about by the current. A very small piece of split shot (1/16 or 1/32 ounce) on your line will keep it slightly down in the water column as it drifts. A small float about 12 or 16 inches away from the hook gives a better idea of the location of the bait.
Pompano in the surf generally weigh less than a pound but are fine food fish. If the bait is too far offshore you will not catch pompano. If you fish directly in the suds, you might still miss them but you may latch onto a whiting, a small red drum, or even a flounder. Like pompano, these other fishes are letting the wave action bring them a nice mole crab dinner.
Whiting
During the summer, whiting can be caught in the surf around the groins and in the sloughs and cuts along open beaches. Whiting feed on small worms, crabs, and shrimp. They generally weigh less than a pound and have a relatively small mouth. A rig with two leaders with no.1 or 1/0 hooks baited with cut shrimp fished on the incoming tide frequently will catch whiting during the summer. Although they are not large and do not fight as hard as many of the other inshore fishes, they certainly make up for these shortcomings by being excellent table fare.
King and Spanish Mackerel
During the summer months, the numbers of both of these fishes decrease in comparison with the spring. There are a few kings and Spanish around ship channels and on occassion you can locate a school of Spanish a few miles off the beach by looking for seabirds diving on the baits scared to the surface by the fish. Best times are at dawn and dusk which seems to be the period when these predators are most active.
During summer, kings are caught with live menhaden trolled slowly or drifted under a large float. The same general techniques that worked in the spring are used to catch kings in the summer.
Crevalle Jack
When inshore waters warm in the summer, a southern visitor enters our estuaries to terrorize small menhaden and other small baitfishes. These are the 'jacks.' They do not make spectacular long runs like large king mackerel and they do not perform graceful jumps like tarpon, but they are one of the toughest fishes encountered in inshore waters.
At night or at dusk and dawn during the summer months, jacks lurk around rips during ebb tide feeding on mullets, menhaden and silversides. Experienced anglers use 20-pound test line on a large capacity reel and a moderately stout rod. Good baits for jacks are surface popping plugs like the Striper Swiper or swimming plugs like the Redfin, Rebel, or Rapala.
During the daytime you frequently can spot a school of jacks milling on the surface. This type of fishing requires two people; one casts from the bow of the boat while the other runs the boat to intercept the school of fish. Large yellow bucktails or Hopkins spoons work well during the day. During the daylight a hooked jack will attempt to run back to the school and once it gets into the school, the line will be cut by the other members of the school. Jacks are not good food fish and should be tagged and released.
Saltwater Fishing Conservation and Ethics
Although most people once considered ocean resources to be unlimited, recent repaid declines in the populations of many commercial and recreational species have demonstrated the opposite.
Numerous types of saltwater game fish now are being overharvested and other species will face a similar fate unless all anglers practice wise conservation and adopt an ethical approach to fishing.
Size and catch limits, seasons and gear restrictions should be adhered to strictly. These regulations change from time to time as managers learn more about fish life histories and how to provide angling opportunities without depleting stocks.
The challenge of catching, not killing, fish provides anglers with the excitement and the reward of fishing. Undersized fish, or fish over the limit should be released to ensure the future of fish populations. The number of saltwater fish tagged and released increases annually in South Carolina as more and more fishermen take up this practice that provides information on growth and movement of fish as well as conserving resources.
The positive impact of tag and release has been demonstrated dramatically by the Governor's Cup Billfishing Series. Begun in 1989, this annual event, encompassing the major spring billfishing tournaments, has resulted in a new conservation emphasis among offshore anglers. Now, more than 85 percent of billfish brought to the boat are tagged and released by both tournament and non-tournament anglers. Catches of blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish have increased each year as a result. Saltwater fishermen can further contribute to conservation by purchasing a Marine Recreational Fisheries Stamp (Adobe PDF) which is required to fish from a private boat or to gather shellfish in South Carolina's saltwaters. Funds generated by the sale of stamps must be spent on programs that directly benefit saltwater fish and fishermen.

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