Have you ever traveled to Ocean Lakes Family Campground in Myrtle Beach, SC? Some families have been visiting this iconic resort since it opened in the 1970s. Rest assured, many updates have taken place since it first opened, and now the sprawling, beachfront property has become one of the most well-known and most-visited along the Grand Strand!
Truth be told, we prefer to take our travel trailer to state or county parks. Less crowds, more nature and more of a “camping” feel. But apparently everyone else had the same idea we did, because when we went to book some dates over Spring Break months ago, every state and county park along the Atlantic SC, GA and northern FL coasts were booked. So we decided to give Ocean Lakes a try.
The purpose of this website is to try and give other travelers like us a realistic picture of a place before they visit. If you’re like me, you like to do some homework before booking a site somewhere, and honest opinions and photos mean a lot!
First of all, Ocean Lakes is HUGE. It’s almost like it’s own little town encapsulated in Myrtle Beach. There are mostly concrete campsite pads (some are not concrete), along with houses for rent, and some year-round residents, as well. With this size, as you can imagine, come lots of people, especially during peak times such as Spring Break and the busy summer months. So know that going into it – if crowds are not your thing, you might consider visiting in some of the less touristy months.
Second, almost everyone toodles around the place in a golf cart. You can rent golf carts inside Ocean Lakes by the day, or you can bring your own (you must register your own golf cart with the front office when you arrive). The golf carts are an easy way to see the entire place, and get quickly from the beach, to the pool, to the playground and back again.
The flip side to this is that there are golf carts EVERYWHERE. Seriously, everywhere. They even have a golf cart parade each evening, where security cordons off a section of the ocean-front road and lets people cruise up and down a particular area. It’s pretty fun, and our kids loved it. But the teenagers tearing up the place with their loud music and golf carts is a real thing. It didn’t detract from our fun, but if you have small children, or if you just don’t enjoy teenagers being, well, teenagers, then again, keep this in mind when you’re booking your spot.
Pro tip: the golf cart parade starts near the ocean side around campsite section H, and goes south until about section P (if you’re looking at the campground map). If you don’t want to be on the parade route, you might avoid booking in that area.
The amenities at Ocean Lakes Family Campground are amazing. We let both of our boys bring a friend this trip, and they had an absolute ball. They would visit the basketball court in the morning, come back to the beach, then head over to the waterpark and pool area. After dinner, they’d visit the arcade and snack bar.
There’s also a beachfront playground, numerous fishing lakes, a full convenience store and laundry facility and much more. Each week, a calendar of events is posted so you can decide to be as active, or inactive, as you’d like to be during your vacation!
Pro tip: Ocean Lakes has a free mobile app available for download. It’s a quick way to see the campground map, check out the activities for the week, see pool and waterpark hours, and more. We highly recommend downloading this app to your phone before you visit!
The campsites themselves are level, and offer 30/50 amp electric and water connection. They also provide a cable hookup with more than 60 channels available. There is free WiFi service for guests, but we found it spotty and weren’t able to connect during our trip. If WiFi is important to you, they do offer some upgraded service for a fee (but we didn’t try this so I can’t speak to the Internet speeds).
To us, having our travel trailer parked at Ocean Lakes felt sort of like camping at a football game tailgate. It’s rows and rows of campers and RVs (plus a few tents here and there). Some sections have more shade trees than other (check out section K!). We were in the 2000 section which had no shade at all. Luckily it was a cool April when we went so we didn’t suffer from the heat, but I’m not sure I’d want to be there in the dead of summer without the benefit of some shade.
The sites are pretty close together. We never felt uncomfortable next to our neighbors, but it’s pretty tight in the spots, especially when most of us had an extra golf cart parked in our sites. Each site does have a picnic table, but there are no fire pits. You can bring your own (we brought our Solo Stove) and were all set for the S’mores! (Bonus: each night people seem to set off fireworks on the beach, which we really enjoyed watching from where we were hanging outside our camper).
The bath houses are sprinkled around the property where the campers are located. They were VERY clean and well kept. They also play music over the speakers, which my 12-year-old thought was hilarious! He’d never heard music serenading him while he was trying to, um, go about his business. But you can tell the staff works hard to maintain the premises.
We enjoyed our trip to Ocean Lakes with our two boys and their friends. I believe we’d definitely go again, but I would probably look for less crowded times to visit, as well as do some research to try and find a spot that had some shade and was set back from the “party” on the beach. But whether you’re ready to live it up with the crowds, or want something a little bit quieter, Ocean Lakes is big enough that it has a little something for everyone. The customer service representatives are very knowledgable and can guide you to a spot that might be right for you.
We hope you enjoyed this review of Ocean Lakes Family Campground! Let us know if you’ve ever visited, or if you plan to visit. Happy travels!
