AAA writer takes ‘ultimate scenic drive’ to discover the Hammock Coast

AAA writer takes ‘ultimate scenic drive’ to discover the Hammock Coast

Stacy Tillilie’s “short but leisurely coastal road trip” from Charleston to the Hammock Coast revealed “the best of two South Carolina worlds.”

Chronicled in a three-page story in AAA World Magazine, Tillilie offered up to readers the joys that can be found along South Carolina’s Hammock Coast, the pristine, nature-centric area that stretches between Myrtle Beach to the north and Charleston to the south. The Hammock Coast is made up of Georgetown County’s coastal communities of southern Garden City, Murrells Inlet, Litchfield Beach and the iconic Pawleys Island, as well as historic Georgetown and Andrews.

Tillilie made the trip with her college-aged daughter, Angelina. The goal, she wrote, was to “put the office and school in the rearview on a whirlwind weekend that would lead us on a round-trip 170-mile drive along the coast to sample a handful of small waterfront towns perfectly poised between Charleston and Myrtle Beach and aptly called the Hammock Coast.”

Tillilie is an editor for AAA’s The Extra Mile and AAA Traveler Worldwise, where she covers all things travel in both digital and print spaces, with a special focus on U.S. destinations, family travel and road-tripping. She is the author of a book on AAA’s 100-year history, and her writing has appeared in publications such as National Geographic Traveler and Philadelphia Home + Design. Most recently, her writing earned top honors from the North American Travel Journalists Association, the Content Marketing Institute and the National Federation of Press Women. A graduate of St. Joseph’s University with a bachelor’s degree in English and Rutgers University with a master’s degree in English/creative writing, she loves a good story, a long road trip and a sunny place by the water in a cool coastal town.

A Road Trip to the Hammock Coast

In Tilillie’s article, titled “From the Holy City to the Hammock Coast,” she and her daughter recount how they spent a night in the historic district of Charleston before heading “off to discover the less-touristed Hammock Coast, named for its unhurried way of life and drawing inspiration from the place where, in 1889, riverboat Capt. Joshua John Ward crafted a new sort of hammock using the lattice-like cotton-rope design prevalent today.”

She noted that southern Garden City, the Hammock Coast’s northernmost community, was only 85 miles from Charleston. Once arriving in Garden City, the duo backtracked their route to discover all the amenities and special beauty of the Hammock Coast, all easily accessible along Highway 17, also known, appropriately, as Ocean Highway.

Backtracking immediately brought them to Murrells Inlet, the “once-sleepy” fishing village famous for its seafood, string of restaurants at the iconic MarshWalk, and home to two of the Hammock Coast’s most visited attractions: Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens, the 9,127-acre sculpture garden established in 1931 by artist Anna Huntington and her wealthy industrialist husband, Archer Huntington.”

In Murrells Inlet, Tillilie and her daughter enjoyed a breakfast of Lobster Home Fries at the Dead Dog Saloon before headed out to explore Brookgreen and the state park.

Discovering Murrells Inlet

At Brookgreen, she wrote, “We roam the grounds, through a live oak alleé, butterfly garden and palmetto garden, perusing some of the 2,000-plus works by Anna and more than 400 other artists that compose the country’s most comprehensive collection of American figurative sculpture.”

Across Ocean Highway and along the Atlantic Ocean, the writer and daughter duo also explored the 2,500-acre state park, where Titillie noted is an exceptional location for “birding, as well as camping, hiking, biking, surf fishing and beachcombing.”

“But,” she noted, “we’ve come to see the park’s castle: Atalaya, the winter home of the Huntingtons and a National Historic Landmark.”

Stepping Back in Time on Pawleys Island

The southbound tour also took them through the “the tidy towns of Litchfield Beach and Pawleys Island.”

Pawleys, she noted, “is one of the oldest seaside resorts in the US, dating to the 1700s. Thanks to the lack of development, this 3-mile- long barrier island recalls a bygone era when families would gather at the still-operating Pelican Inn, built in the 1840s, or the Sea View Inn, opened in 1937, for a laid-back beach getaway.”

In a funny aside, Tillilie noted that while the Hammock Coast is famous for its golf courses, especially those in the Pawleys and Litchfield areas, she and Angelina were shoppers, not golfers.

So leaving the historic island of Pawleys Island for the mainland, the duo got in their shopping fix by visiting the Hammock Shops Village, a collection of two dozen clapboard shops, including the Hammock Weavers Shop.”

“Here,” she wrote, “a weaver chats with us about the history of the Original Pawleys Island Hammock as he demonstrates the art of weaving the ropes. Angelina tries out one of the nap-worthy hammock samples outside the shop as we plan our route from the oceanside to the riverside in Georgetown.”

Historic Charm in Georgetown

Georgetown, the third oldest city in South Carolina, boasts five museums, more than 60 properties on the National Historic Register, and boat tours of the surrounding waters that take tourists on trips to barrier islands and to catch a glimpse of the Georgetown Lighthouse. The city was named in 2018 as “America’s Best Coastal Small Town” by USA Today, and Southern Living calls it one of the South’s best places to visit.

Tillilie described Georgetown as “a Mayberry of a town, with historic homes with gracious porches lining oak-fringed avenues and a main street with lovely shops, cafés, a hotel and a handful of small cultural museums. It also enjoys an address along the Sampit River, where its four-block-long wooden Harborwalk offers dining and boating.”

She concludes her sojourn with almost a sigh.

“We say goodbye to the Hammock Coast too soon,” she wrote, “wishing we had more time to savor life in the slow lane.”

— By Mark A. Stevens, director of tourism development for the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce