Carolina Pines

Our Thanksgiving trip was a journey of two extremely opposite campgrounds: Cades Cove Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains just off The Loop, and Carolina Pines RV Resort in Conway, SC, 15 minutes from Myrtle Beach. As opposite the two spots are, both may be a contender for the best campground ever. Here is the link to Cades Coves.

Situated near Myrtle Beach, Carolina Pines is inland and a new resort, hence only a few newly placed trees in a flat environment. The resort offers hundreds of full hookup sites, both back in and pull thru, with stone fire pits and picnic tables. We got a huge concrete pull thru in the C loop. The Mantis looked almost invisible in the sea of fifth wheels and class A motorhomes. In addition to RV sites, Carolina Pines offers several styles of cabins, seasonal sites, and a few residential cabins. ​

Carolina Pines deserves the title of resort. We spent most of this trip enjoying the resort-quality amenities. We played putt putt daily and the course was fun, challenging, and beautiful. We were also in the heated pool and hot tub daily. We never even made it to the indoor pool except to check it out. In season, there are two other pools, a huge water park, and forthcoming lazy river. We also really enjoyed playing bags, pickleball, billiards, bounce pillow, basketball,  working out in the gym, playing in the arcade, playing board games and cards in the rec room, relaxing by the gas fire pits or many other great seating areas, and enjoying food and drinks from the cafe by the pool. ​

The resort is so big that we could nearly log a three mile walk in the morning walking the perimeter of the resort, but was laid out well enough that the resort amenities were never too far from any site. But if you are, there is parking for cars, golf carts, and bikes at all of the amenities. We enjoyed trivia night on Friday evening and a 90’s cover band on Saturday evening. ​

We did leave for a few hours on a couple days. One day we went to see Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach. It was a cool, windy day, so we didn’t spend a lot of time there. On Black Friday, we opted outside at Huntington Beach State Park. ​​

Huntington Beach State Park has a nice trail, a great beach, and a fantastic campground. It is a place we put on the list for a future visit.

We've been fortunate to visit a lot of great places during our Thanksgiving trips - The Grand Canyon, Asheville NC, Stone Mountain GA, New Orleans, and Cherokee NC. Will we be able to keep this streak alive this year, and where will we go?