Your Guide to Carolina Forest: Trails, Tee Times & a Michelin Guide Kitchen
Carolina Forest sits about 5 miles inland from the oceanfront, on just west of the Intracoastal Waterway. Over the past 20+ years it has become one of the largest and fastest-growing residential communities on the Grand Strand, and but also has quietly become one of the most interesting.
Seven miles of single-track biking, jogging and walking paths wind through the pines here. Championship golf sits at three corners of the map. A 10,000 acre preserve full of Venus flytraps, longleaf pines, and black bears begins where the neighborhoods end.
The first restaurant on the entire Grand Strand to earn a Michelin Guide recommendation now sits within this community, surrounded by a slew of other great places to eat, drink and hang out.
This is where a lot of locals live, shop, golf, and spend their weekends — but it's more than that. It's also a place that can make a great day away from the beach during your visit.
Here are some of our favorite spots to visit in Carolina Forest.
Things to Do in Carolina Forest
The outdoor scene here surprises people, and it starts with a trail system that was never supposed to exist.
In 2012, a few local mountain bikers got permission to build a temporary trail on county land off River Oaks Drive. It never came down. Today The Hulk, officially the Horry County Bike and Run Park, packs nearly seven miles of singletrack into 72 acres of pines. Banked curves, quick climbs, fast descents, and optional bridges and jumps if you want them. Beginners can stick to a gentle 1.5 mile loop, and kids can warm up at the Lil’ Hulk skills park by the lot. It is free and open dawn to dusk.
For something slower, Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve protects more than 10,000 acres of Carolina bays and ancient longleaf pines, home to black bears and the only stable population of Venus flytraps left in South Carolina. Hiking, birding, biking, and horseback riding are all allowed. Go quietly.
Classic car people should not skip Wheels of Yesteryear, a private collection of vintage American muscle cars and trucks kept in immaculate condition. More than 50 sit on the floor at a time and the lineup rotates, so a return visit gives you something new.
Traveling with kids who just need to run? The Carolina Forest Community Center has a playground, soccer fields, and a jogging path, and it is an easy way to burn an hour.
A few more favorites sit on the fringes of the area.
Bowl a few frames at Myrtle Beach Bowl, talk your way out of a room at Escape Goats escape rooms, catch live music on the water at The Boathouse Waterway Bar & Grill, or eat a four course dinner with your hands while knights joust at Medieval Times — all just south of Carolina Forest along the U.S. 501 corridor that runs into the heart of Myrtle Beach.
Where to Eat in Carolina Forest
Carolina Forest is home to some of the best restaurants in the Myrtle Beach area, and you will find just about anything you are hungry for within a few miles.
Start with O.A.K. Prime Kitchen and Bar, the first restaurant on the Grand Strand ever recommended by the MICHELIN Guide. Around here, that lands as hometown pride. Chef Jerrett King is a Myrtle Beach kid who started out bussing tables at a pizza place at 15 and spent the next 15 years working through this town’s kitchens. O.A.K. stands for One of a Kind, and the prime steaks, Chilean sea bass, and grilled octopus earn it. Book ahead.
At The Sneaky Beagle, the patio is the whole point. House brewed beer, a menu running from sushi to tacos to burgers, and a small dog park right on site. Your dog gets a real menu here, not a bowl of water, and can order a Pupcake or some chicken jerky. On a good evening, half the patio is dogs.
A thousand foot pathway runs from the Beagle straight to South Coast Beer Project, and you are allowed to walk it with a drink in hand. Opened in summer 2026, it is Carolina Forest’s first real brewery and a genuinely big swing. The 20,000 square foot beer garden has a huge screen, cornhole, an outdoor bar, live music, and games for the kids, while a seven barrel brewhouse turns out beer on site. Get the wings and the Detroit style pizza.
Sol y Luna Latin Cantina is small, dim, and always hopping, with Mexican favorites sharing the menu with genuinely authentic Latin cooking. Order the empanadas, the birria tacos, and the yuca fries. They pour from more than 100 tequilas and mezcals and run the only sugar cane extractor of any restaurant in South Carolina, which tells you how seriously they take a mojito.
Zeytin is the brunch answer and unlike anything else around. The Turkish and Mediterranean menu gives you menemen, eggs soft scrambled into a tomato and pepper sauce that you dip bread into, alongside brick oven pide, a serious pastry counter, and mimosa flights. Open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., so plan accordingly.
For sushi, King Kong Sushi has been the local pick since 2007, while SOHO Steak & Seafood Sushi Bar is the new arrival off International Drive, with an upscale room and a rooftop you will not find anywhere else nearby. Nonna’s Taste of Italy builds handmade pasta on real Calabrese recipes. And Handley’s Pub & Grub has been the neighborhood living room since 2004, back when Carolina Forest barely had one. Half English pub, half sports bar, with pool, darts, a covered patio, and fish and chips worth ordering.
Golf in Carolina Forest
Myrtle Beach is a golf town, and Carolina Forest sits in the middle of some of its best courses.
Legends Golf & Resort just off 501 is the biggest draw, a Scottish inspired complex holding the Heathland, Moorland, and Parkland courses along with a serious practice facility. You can spend a whole trip here without repeating a round.
Legends is also building something the Grand Strand has not really had before. A new nine hole par 3 course is set to open this fall, and it is lighted for night play. Holes run from 50 to 120 yards, so you can get around with two or three clubs, which makes it a genuinely friendly place to hand a beginner or a kid their first set. Add live music on a new entertainment stage, food and drinks, and coastal sunsets, and it turns an evening round into something closer to a night out. Golfers and non golfers can both find something to do here after dark.
Myrtle Beach National gives you three Arnold Palmer signature courses, and King’s North is the one people talk about. It has landed on Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 greatest public courses, and its par five sixth hole, The Gambler, asks you to decide how brave you are feeling before you swing.
World Tour Golf Links does something different. Its 27 holes are replicas of the most famous holes on earth, borrowed from Augusta National, St. Andrews, and Pine Valley, so you can play a bucket list round without leaving Horry County. Kids 16 and under play free with a paying adult in June, July, and August.
Technically in neighboring Forestbrook but close enough to count, Arrowhead Country Club offers 27 holes co designed by Raymond Floyd and Tom Jackson, several of them running right along the Intracoastal. River Oaks Golf Club is worth a look too, with three nines named for local wildlife and a juniors play free policy that has started a lot of local golfers.
Shopping in Carolina Forest
Tanger Outlets on U.S. 501 is one of the best shopping days you can have on the Grand Strand. People build entire afternoons around it, and plenty of families come back year after year for exactly this.
More than 200 brands sit under one roof, and these are the real names. Polo Ralph Lauren, Coach, Michael Kors, Nike, Under Armour, J.Crew, Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Bradley, Guess, Kenneth Cole, Gap, American Eagle, Crocs, and Sunglass Hut, plus a QVC Outlet you will not find in many places. Everything is outlet priced before you even start hunting, and the coupon book from Shopper Services stacks right on top. Join TangerClub before you go and you will do even better.
Come hungry. Auntie Anne’s and The Fudgery are waiting between the stores, and the layout is built for a long, easy loop rather than a sprint. Sales events and family activities run all year, so check what is on the week you visit and plan around it.
Rounding things out, BJ’s Wholesale Club is a recent addition and makes quick work of a grocery run for a big group or a long stay, while Ollie’s Bargain Outlet covers the beach chairs, coolers, and odds and ends you forgot to pack.
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5 Fast Facts About Carolina Forest
- O.A.K. Prime is the first restaurant on the Grand Strand ever recommended by the MICHELIN Guide. O.A.K. stands for One of a Kind, and Chef Jerrett King grew up here, starting out bussing tables at a Myrtle Beach pizza place at 15.
- The Hulk began in 2012 as a temporary trail that local mountain bikers were allowed to build on county land. Nobody ever took it down, and it is now seven miles of free singletrack.
- Sol y Luna runs the only sugar cane extractor of any restaurant in South Carolina, which explains the mojitos.
- Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve holds the only stable population of Venus flytraps left in South Carolina, along with black bears and ancient longleaf pines.
- The Sneaky Beagle and South Coast Beer Project are connected by a thousand foot pathway, and you are allowed to walk between them with a drink in hand.
How to Spend a Day in Carolina Forest
Carolina Forest makes a quiet argument that the best of the Grand Strand is not always the part you can see from the sand. The trails are under the pines. The flytraps are out past the last subdivision. The Michelin kitchen sits in a stretch of River Oaks Drive you would drive right past. Go looking, and this place will give you a day you did not expect.
- Morning. Get to The Hulk early, while it is still cool. Ride, run, or just walk the loop. Beginners can stick to the gentle 1.5 mile option, and kids can warm up at the Lil’ Hulk skills park first.
- Breakfast or brunch. Head straight to Zeytin. Order the menemen and a mimosa flight, and do not leave without something from the pastry counter. Remember, they close at 3 p.m.
- Afternoon. Take your pick. Play a round at Legends, King’s North, or World Tour. Spend a few hours working through Tanger Outlets. Or cool off with the muscle cars at Wheels of Yesteryear.
- Happy hour. Land on the patio at The Sneaky Beagle with the dog, or grab a spot in the beer garden at South Coast Beer Project and see who is playing.
- Dinner. O.A.K. Prime. Make the reservation before you leave home.