Georgetown, South Carolina – a very special place

Halfway between Charleston and Myrtle Beach is Georgetown, a unique and delightful community located on the Sampit River Harbor which opens up to the Winyah Bay.   Georgetown has the historic riverfront downtown that many communities strive for but never quite get.  The Harbor Walk provides great scenery and has numerous drink and restaurant opportunities from the many Front Street establishments that back onto the harbor.  Interesting enough, although you wouldn’t think it – the the steel plant and other heavy industry across the harbor add to the view rather than detract from it.  Great restaurants and bars abound as do, museums, and unique shops that include: antiques, art galleries, boutiques, a department store, books, and more.  Most of the activities and retail locations are right on Front Street, the town’s main drag and drift off on side streets with elegant historic homes and cottages framed by moss draped oaks.  It’s all a manageable size and you can cover most of the town in a day or two – allowing plenty of time to visit the many bars and restaurants on the Harbor Walk.

If the town lacks anything, it’s downtown lodging, with the only downtown option being the Harbor House, a very attractive and fairly expensive waterfront B&B which has just 4 guest rooms.  There are inexpensive and nice chain hotels including a Hampton Inn, Jameson Inn and Quality Inn all of which are out at the marina, just off the bridge into town on southbound 17 and only a few minutes drive to downtown, in this instance we recommend the Hampton – but as always we prefer our lodging to be within walking distance of most destinations.  Several B&B’s were listed in older guidebooks but apparently have not been able to stay in business.  There are also a few “motels” but upon inspection we found these to be unacceptable for a number of reasons, stick to the chains in this town if you can’t get in the Harbor House.  In our next post we will describe what we feel is a particularly outstanding Front Street restaurant – the Goat Island Grill.