Just beyond the border into South Carolina, you suddenly hit the exuberant mega-tourism of the “Grand Strand,” a 25-mile-long conglomeration of resort hotels, amusement arcades, and Coney Island–style Americana that centers on Myrtle Beach, the state’s number-one tourist destination. South of here things quiet down considerably, as coastal US-17 winds past the lush lowland marshes, passing through historic Georgetown and numerous preserved plantations before reaching Charleston, one of the most gracious and engaging cities in the southern United States.
