The beaches,
town by town.

The short answer

Same ocean, five sets of rules

The Grand Strand's sand belongs to different governments: the cities of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, the towns of Surfside Beach and Pawleys Island, and Horry County for the unincorporated stretches such as most of Garden City. Each writes its own beach rules, and they genuinely differ, which means where you buy decides which government's rules your everyday beach runs on.

Three rules are the same everywhere and worth stating once: no alcohol, no glass, no fires on the sand, anywhere. Everything else varies, and the two tables below carry the differences that change how you would actually use the beach: the dog clock and the shade rules. If one of these tables decides your town for you, the town by town page carries prices and the rest.

Dogs

The dog clock, beach by beach

Every beach here allows dogs most of the year. The difference is summer. The table below states the hours dogs are allowed, in season and off, so you do not have to work it out from the ban times. Leashes are required on all of them, 7 feet or shorter.

Read the last row again if the dog is family. Pawleys Island is the one beach on this coast where a July afternoon with the dog on the sand is legal, and from October to April the town allows dogs off leash under voice control with a leash in hand. Off season, Myrtle Beach opens up too: dogs any hour on the beach and the boardwalk from the day after Labor Day through April 30.

Pick up after the dog everywhere; every jurisdiction requires it and tickets get written. In North Myrtle Beach the timing differs enough to matter: the ban starts May 15 rather than May 1 and ends at 4 rather than 5, an extra hour of summer evening beach.

Shade

What shade you can put up, and when

This is the rule visitors trip over every summer, and each government writes it differently.

Two details save arguments. In Myrtle Beach nothing goes up before 8 a.m. and everything comes off the sand by 7 p.m.; in North Myrtle Beach and on the county beaches, anything left between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. is removed. And Surfside Beach is the one place on this list where a family canopy is legal on a July afternoon, which is exactly the kind of small fact that picks a town.

The rest of the everywhere-rules: holes no deeper than two feet in Myrtle Beach and filled before you leave on every beach, no fireworks, and in North Myrtle Beach swimmers stay within 50 yards of shore and no deeper than shoulder height. Myrtle Beach runs designated surfing and kayak zones at five street ends in summer between 10 and 5.

Parking and carts

Who parks free, and the winter cart season

Parking follows your address

Each government runs its own parking program, and the pattern is simple: residency in the right town is what makes beach parking cheap. The City of Myrtle Beach gives its residents a decal covering city paid spaces, meters and street-end accesses; Surfside Beach issues town decals; North Myrtle Beach posts its rules access by access. If you buy outside the town limits, you are a visitor in the paid zones like everyone else, which is one of the quiet differences between an address inside city limits and one outside them. How to actually get the decal after you close is on the new resident checklist, and the incorporated-or-not question is explained on the town by town page.

Golf carts: on the road yes, on the sand only in winter, only in the county

Golf carts with the $5 state permit drive local streets all over the Grand Strand, and many neighborhoods are built around that. The sand is different. The cities keep carts off the beach in every season, but Horry County allows permitted carts with a licensed driver on its unincorporated beaches from November 1 through February 28. The road-permit rules are on the checklist.

Here is what that season looks like on a Saturday in January. You put the cooler and the buckets in the cart and drive down onto the sand at Garden City. The beach is empty in both directions, so you pick your spot and stop there. The kids build sandcastles. You eat lunch out of the cooler with the ocean fifty feet away and no one else around. Then you sit and watch the waves for an hour before you drive back up the beach. That is a normal winter weekend for owners here, and most visitors never learn the season exists.

Our own guide

Where we actually go, by mood

For the social day, the team goes downtown, to the stretch by the boardwalk: pay about ten dollars to park for the day and you are next to the music, the bars, the volleyball court that runs all day, and everyone staying in the hotels around you. It is the easiest place on the coast to spend a day talking to people you just met.

For the quiet day, drive to Cherry Grove, as far north as South Carolina goes. Parking is usually free at the accesses, and the walking trails at the Heritage Shores preserve on the marsh side, plus the long walk up the point, lead to stretches of sand most visitors never reach. For the slow day, Surfside Beach calls itself the Family Beach and its town beach runs at that pace: sandcastles, small crowds, short walks from the neighborhood streets behind it.

The dog table above is personal for us: Devin brings his dog to the sand every chance the clock allows, off season especially, and calls it the best free thing on this coast. Two practical notes to finish. The chair and umbrella stands working the sand in front of the hotels are licensed beach services, and renting from them is how you set up without carrying anything. And September is the locals' month: the crowds go home, the water stays warm into October, and the weather page shows it month by month.

Living with it

What this means when you own here

Rules read differently when the beach is your daily walk instead of your vacation week. The summer dog clock stops mattering when your normal beach hour is 7 a.m. before work. The umbrella rules stop mattering in September, which is warmer in the water than June and empty of crowds; the weather page has the ocean temperatures month by month. And the flags and rip current basics become second nature the way anyone's home geography does.

The one thing worth deciding before you buy rather than after: which of these five sets of rules fits how your household actually uses a beach. A dog household points one way. A grandchildren-every-July household points another. Tell us which one you are and we will show you the sand along with the house.

Common questions

Grand Strand beach rules FAQ

Sources: City of Myrtle Beach beach rules, North Myrtle Beach beach laws, Town of Surfside Beach, Horry County beach rules, Town of Pawleys Island beach rules. Rules change; each government's own page governs, and we re-check these when we update this page.