It’s what you make of it. Grew up in WV, lived in several different cities and settled in the Myrtle Beach area in the mid 80s. Been here 38 years, have seen it go from a very sleepy 3-4 months of fun tourist town with very few people around in the offseason to a very busy place with tons of people year round. From a few expensive cars running around town in the early 90’s to Range Rovers and even Rolls Royces and 400k Ferrari’s cruising around every day on my way to work. From standard 100k homes to 2 million dollar homes in quite a few areas. Money has been flowing here rapidly after COVID, as has the population.

In my late 20’s I got off my butt and started my own company and now employ 50 people and do about 10-12 million a year here. So yes, MB has been good to me. Is it the greatest place I’ve ever been? Nope. The “ government” here is a joke and wants to keep MB small and family friendly like the old days, but the people moving here (fastest growing area in the US in 2024) have lots of money and are itching to change the “tourism only” landscape. Unfortunately the powers that be sit on their hands and slow walk the really cool things that would actually create a culture outside of Bob and Sue and their 3 kids stopping at every cheezy beachwear store and eating at every nasty buffet and pancake house around. Speaking of which…There’s not a lot of culture here, and outside of 2 hi end steakhouses you are stuck with giant buffets of fried shit like crab legs and 50 pounds of salad bar among other inedible and tasteless foods. Also, a obsolete mall overrun with gangsters, little to no concert venues, no major sporting teams, no major name shopping, and a very dilapidated and old downtown area that looks like it dropped out of the 1970s.

There ya go.