Brookgreen Gardens Is the Best Thing Near Myrtle Beach

Let me be direct: Myrtle Beach sells fun, and the fun is fine, but Brookgreen Gardens at 1931 Brookgreen Garden Drive in Murrells Inlet is the reason to drive twenty minutes south and remember that the Grand Strand has a soul.

Largest collection of figurative sculpture in an outdoor setting in the US. Former rice plantation on the Waccamaw River. Over 2,000 sculptures among live oaks and Spanish moss, along pathways through formal gardens, butterfly houses, and a lowcountry zoo. Anna Hyatt Huntington's bronze animals anchor the collection — muscular and tender at the same time. The contemporary additions hold their own.

The Lowcountry History and Wildlife Preserve at the back, accessible by boat, includes remnants of the original rice plantation — earthen dikes, canals, the landscape of labor that made the fortune possible. Most visitors stay in the sculpture gardens and miss this entirely, which means they get the beauty without the context. The preserve is where Brookgreen earns its weight.