in 1986 found ocean lakes by accident on a six week trip of the eastern seaboard. stayed 6 nights with kids. loved it. booked the next year for 2 weeks. 3 weeks in 1988 and by the end of that trip we purchased a permanant site. have been there every year since. plan to retire in three years and live there full time. it has something for everyone. and any guest i have brought with me has returned at least one more time. i cant say enough about it. beach, pools, convenience, friendly staff, activities for every age. ocean lakes is the best.
My family prefers Myrtle Beach Travel Park (MBTP). We have stayed at Lakewood and did not like it. The bath houses were old and not cleaned very well. We have never stayed at Pirateland or Ocean Lakes. Those are just to far south for us. MBTP is very close to a Wal-Mart and Tanger outlets. Also very close to the main road. They have an indoor and an outdoor pool, lazy river, ocean front, arcade, store, grill, and Chic-Fil-A sandwiches on site. For us this will probably be the only place we stay when going to Myrtle Beach.
Terryallan wrote: Little known fact about PL. You CAN pick your site. They have a unadvertised reservation policy. IF you pay in advance for 7 or more nights. You pick the site. My site for this Summer is 187, ocean front, and faceing the ocean. I too feel that is really important. why drive all that way and not face the ocean, plus the afternoon shade iot provides.
It's not an unadvertised reservation policy - it's right on their reservation page. We have site 111 for Easter.
Quote: 4.We will guarantee one of two specific site numbers if:
A. The requested site is available and the reservation is 7 nights or more,
B. The reservation is paid in full at the time of booking, AND
C. You must specify when making the reservation that you would like to guarantee a site number. A reservation for 7 nights that has been paid does NOT automatically guarantee a site number; it must be mentioned during the initial reservation process.
Well, the way I read that policy, sounds like they do NOT guarantee one specific site, but only guarantee 1 of 2.
Perhaps they have an 'unadvertised' policy in addition to that, like Terry mentioned, where they do guarantee one specific site?
Either way, I think OL's policy/approach is much cleaner and simpler - chose the site you want, reserve it, and you get it, and you'll know exactly how much space you'll have (or not have) in that site. Period.
If it's available and someone else has not already reserved.
To pay ahead of time with Pirateland, you pretty much have to call them. They'll tell you right then and there if you're first choice is already taken. I've never had to go with a second option yet.
willald wrote: My vote is for Ocean Lakes, Pirateland, or Lakewood. In that order.
I disagree with TerryAllan about 'tiny sites' at Ocean Lakes. It IS true that *some* of their sites are small, but they also have many that are huge, with plenty of room. And, Ocean Lakes shows you on their web page, exactly the size (Length and Width) of each site, where trees and other obstructions are on the sites, AND lets you reserve a specific site, exactly the one you want. Soooo, with Ocean Lakes, you know exactly what site you're getting, and how much room you'll have on it. You won't get that much info about your campsite ANYWHERE else in Myrtle Beach.
Golf carts? LOL, I know Terry has a very strong opinion on that matter, but reality is that golf carts are bad at all of the big CGs there on south side of Myrtle Beach (Pirateland, Lakewood, and Ocean Lakes). Ocean Lakes security does just as much as the others to keep them under control (I've personally witnessed them taking carts away from violators). A lot of it has to do with the time of year you go. In the summer, all those campgrounds are very busy, and the golf cart traffic is much worse. Go in Spring or Fall like we do, its nowhere near as bad. We go there to Ocean Lakes for a week in April every year to 'kick off' the camping season, and its always great down there.
Only thing Pirateland has over Ocean Lakes, is the lazy river, and the shelters they put at each site. The shelters definitely are nice. The bad thing about Pirateland, is that almost all their sites back up right up against another site, so the back end of your camper in some cases may be just a foot or two away from the back of someone else's. Not much privacy there. That, and you may or may not get a site where your awning faces toward the ocean. You ALWAYS get that with Ocean Lakes, as all sites there face the ocean.
Lakewood is nice, too, we've stayed there a few times. Only thing I don't like about them is the $25 fee (IIRC) they started charging everyone when making a reservation there. None of the others do that.
Little known fact about PL. You CAN pick your site. They have a unadvertised reservation policy. IF you pay in advance for 7 or more nights. You pick the site. My site for this Summer is 187, ocean front, and faceing the ocean. I too feel that is really important. why drive all that way and not face the ocean, plus the afternoon shade iot provides.
Plus last year at OL. We could not leave the TV hooked to the TT, as it would be out in the road. It is no problem to stay hooked up at PL. Plenty of room.
Good to know about the fee at LW.
OL lets you pick your site as well. Lakewood, lets you pick an area. One downside (to me) is that Pirateland does not have online reservations per se. You can submit a request online, but they will "call you to discuss your reservation". I much prefer making reservations online and know that when I enter my credit card info that I am booking a site at that moment.
When you reserve OL for July, In Jan. You don't really get a wide choice.
Thst's because they are so popular and there is a reason for it apparently. It's going to be first come, first serve. I imagine that if I book a site for PL in january for july that my choices will not be as great as if they were back in october. If they are, then people are not choosing PL for a reason.
Quote:
They put you on a site they tell you, Your camper will fit on. They do tell you what site it is, but if you don't like it. Tough. You pretty much take what you can get. Or don't go. My problem.
Huh? You can go online and put in when you are going to be there. You can pick other things for the site as well. It will give you a list by site number, of what's available and the size of the site. It will even tell you if there is a tree on the site, whether or not you can open a slide and etc. I don't understand the part about "if you don't like it, tough...."...Isn't that pretty much the way it is anywhere? If you get there and don't like your site, you asked for another one that is available. If there is not one available, then either you stay on the one you picked or you leave. I don't see the issue here. Isn't PL the same? If I blindly pick a spot by talking to someone on the phone there, but decide I don't like the site, then I can ask for another one if there is one available. If not, then it's the same thing.
Quote:
I don't know 18 months out. Where, or when I'm going. They have changed their reservation policy in the last few years. Making it easier to get in. But, We found some we like better.
Same with me. I don't know when my vacation weeks are until December for the following year. So what I did, was take a chance that I would get a week off during spring break which no one else normally picks (out of 10 people on my shift, only one can be off for the week at a time). I made my reservations for OL back in October I believe it was, for April. I only got charged about $150 out of about hte $400 for the week cost. I did that taking a chance I would gt that week off. I did. But if I didn't and I needed to cancel, then I would get my money back minus $25. And I probably could of saved that $25 by calling them and explaining to them and possibly choosing a week I did get off.
We have stayed at both Ocean Lakes and Lakewood. Both suit our needs, and the concrete pads at Ocean Lakes are great. We have called Lakewood on short notice and always gotten a spot in the area we requested.
One thing no one has mentioned is the crowds on the beach. In this area Lakewood wins. Ocean Lakes has about 3500 sites if you count the houses, and the beach can get quite crowded. In my trips to Ocean Lakes in the summer months, you will need to be on the beach by 7:30am to stake out your little piece of beach heaven, based on the high tide times.
Lakewood has about 1500 sites give or take, so staking out your piece on the beach doesn't have to be so early, and isn't as crowded. Just in case you want to sleep in
We all have opinions of the best places to stay. My advice is pick one and enjoy. All of the campgrounds in Myrtle Beach have their loyal customers.
L Nevins wrote: in 1986 found ocean lakes by accident on a six week trip of the eastern seaboard. stayed 6 nights with kids. loved it. booked the next year for 2 weeks. 3 weeks in 1988 and by the end of that trip we purchased a permanant site. have been there every year since. plan to retire in three years and live there full time. it has something for everyone. and any guest i have brought with me has returned at least one more time. i cant say enough about it. beach, pools, convenience, friendly staff, activities for every age. ocean lakes is the best.
Did you buy an RV site or a house? If RV what sections do they allow you to buy a site in?
My family likes OLCG. reason are mentioned above. Sites are close but not that close. I like the cement sites over the sandy ones. I like the 3000 section. close but not as windy as ocen sites. Golfcarts I wont comment on them. Because we have one and we enjoy it. Go to my webshots pages and see several years worth of OLCG pictures. different site views. Plenty of morning sunrise pictures. one of dime sized hail falling one summer. I do not like the 18 month out resevations as you never know what going on in your life that far out. Summer is hard to get in with out. I do not like you must pay 50% deposit on your stay and thats around $300 for summer trip. BUT over all we enjoy OLCG. you can book today for summer 2013. We are going but will wait to book til around Christmas/New years 2012 to do it. It will hot and crowded anywhere around MytleBeach in the summer. So go and have fun..with the kids, mine have loved it. One other thing. Now as mama and I are getting older and the kids are out of the house we have grow closer to Willowtree Rv resort as our play to stay. 12 miles from the beach. So for us ocean front campground Ocean lakes. Myrtle Beach area Willowtree.
randy
Go Mark Martin? 2003 F-350 SRW CC/LWB 4X4 7.3PSD
2011 Keystone Cougar 327RES My Webshots Pages
Happy Campin'
Randy
Elon, NC-Piedmont area
Ocean Lakes without a doubt. Even if you don't like the golf carts, they are a small price to pay for ALL of the other ammenities. We use to stay at Lakewood but the rules (apparently made by one of the owners who use to be a school teacher) were certainly NOT made with adults in mind. Return to the campground after midnight (like after seeing one of the many shows in town) and they will not let you in. They make you park your car outside the gate and WALK to your campsite. I guess that is one way that they make you stay in camp and pay to see their show. All back-in sites too. Pirateland doesn't give you enough room to negotiate the tight roads.
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