Byline: Arthur Frommer Distributed by King Features Syndicate
``Since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell,'' croons the suave dude in the glittery, powder-blue jumpsuit. Gliding off the stage and into the sellout crowd of 1,000, he approaches a middle-aged woman in the third row, drapes his blue scarf around her neck and sings to her: ``Down at the end of Lonely Street in Heartbreak Hotel.'' She's overwhelmed, and the crowd, from teeny-boppers to geriatrics, goes nuts.
We're not in some flashy casino nightclub on the Strip in Vegas, but in the Eddie Miles Theater a couple of thousand miles to the east in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The biggest of more than a dozen resort towns along the ``Grand Strand,'' a broad, sandy swath stretching 60 miles from plantation country up to the North Carolina border, Myrtle Beach has been attracting vacationers since your granddaddy was in shorts.
The first hotel was built here in 1901 and the first grand resort in 1926. Generations later, the place is booming like never before - in summer the local population of about 30,000 grows more than tenfold. In 1997, several travel groups even voted it the country's second-most-popular destination for road-trippers (after Orlando, Fla.) and bus tours (after Nashville, Tenn.).
On the boardwalk. Popular with families and young people in spring and summer, senior citizens and tour groups in the fall, and golfers and retirees year-round, the quintessential Myrtle Beach has long been honky-tonk in flavor, complete with boardwalk, cotton candy, amusement parks, miniature golf and wax museums. The 1990s have brought some updates along similar lines: the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, water parks, an IMAX theater.
Furthermore, since the Carolina Opry country music theater opened in 1986, the live music scene has grown to rank No. 3 in the country behind Nashville and Branson, Mo. There are at least 10 musical theaters besides Eddie Miles', from Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede to Medieval Times. Shows typically cost $20 to $30 per adult, and many feature household names from country as well as pop, blues and Broadway.
There's plenty else to do, too. Golf is extremely big hereabouts, and with nearly 100 modestly priced courses, the area rivals Palm Springs as a duffer's dream (local entrepreneurs invented the golf vacation package back in the 1960s and 1970s). The local fishing is excellent, and the water sports plentiful. Racing enthusiasts have four big tracks to visit, shoppers have choices from upscale to outlets, and you can even head down the coast to see a historic plantation or two.
Myrtle cheaps. What makes Myrtle Beach a budget travel bonanza is the wealth of modestly priced and downright cheap dining and lodging options. Naturally, the area is stuffed to the brim with fast-food joints (more than a dozen Arby's alone), but there are also plenty of fabulous hot-meal deals such as the ``calabash-style'' all-you-can-eat buffets ($9.95 for dinner and $5.95 for lunch at Country Barn Restaurant, for example).
Hotels, motels and vacation apartment complexes run the gamut from ultraluxe to basic. Decent family properties on the ocean, such as the Atlantic Paradise Inn and Atlantic Breeze, offer doubles that start at $18 to $29 per night in winter (when the temperature here is still a comfortable 50 to 56 degrees) and $69 to $85 in the peak weeks of July and August. A number of them offer low-cost entertainment packages. Also, most economy lodging chains have outposts here.
Go even cheaper by taking advantage of the more than half-dozen campgrounds - one of which, KOA, also rents cabins through the summer for just $31 to $39.
Discount coupons good at many hotels, restaurants and other businesses are found in the Dining & Entertainment Guide, (803) 272-7210), which also dispenses information on said dining and entertainment, as well as churches and other services.
Getting there. In addition to some Greyhound bus service and Amtrak service to Marion, an hour away, several airlines fly here. The one with the most nonstops is Spirit Airlines (800) 772-7117, which flies from Chicago and Detroit for $160 round-trip, and from New York, Cleveland, Boston, Newark and Atlantic City for $120. Spirit also offers four-day / three-night packages bundling air, hotel and rental car starting at $309 ($369 during the summer). Other carriers from these and additional cities include Jet Express, (800) 386-2786; US Airways, (800) 428-4322, and ComAir / Delta, (800) 221-1212.
For more information, call the South Carolina Tourism Board, (800) 872-3505, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, (800) 356-3016, or the Myrtle Beach Hospitality Association, (1-888) 269-7853.
