East coast beaches

I've stayed in Virginia Beach for work a few times. The sand is brown, but it's clean. There's several good restaurants & other things to do up & down Atlantic Ave.

Just got back from Myrtle Beach, depending on where you stay yes it can be touristy or not. Not much different than Destin/PCB in terms of that. and TONS of golf courses. The water is great in Myrtle too. Hilton Head is a great option as well.

Water gets cooler and rougher towards Virginia Beach.

I love Atlantic Beaches, great for walking and bike riding. Its a nice mix up if you are always going to the gulf coast.

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Are any of the beaches worth checking out in SC, NC or Virginia? I haven’t been to that coast and looking for a few things to do. I am up for any types of outdoor type activity.

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October is a good time to go assuming there is no hurricane coming or just left.

Hotel rooms are much cheaper, in a normal year most of the restaurants on the OBX are still open, and the crowds are gone. Generally you don't have to worry about finding a room in October so you can wait until it is much closer to your travel date to book, IMO.

There are a lot of historical places to visit all along the east coast. You can hang glide at Jockeys Ridge near Kill Devil Hills on the OBX if that interest you; may not be an option in Oct. There are several places you can see wild horses in NC and VA. Ocracoke Island and Portsmouth Island, outer banks, are somewhat unique.

In NC the beaches that face east; Hatteras to Duck, generally have rougher waves than those that face south; i.e., Emerald Isle to Atlantic Beach. Just fyi.

Earlier this year we did a little tour of SC/GA beaches. Went to Hilton Head, Jekyll Island, St. Simons, and one night in Myrtle Beach. We went in Feb. Mostly we visited historical sites but we did stay on the beach except at St. Simon. We did not spend a lot of time on the beach; just walk. We're old.

Google Cumberland Island; haven't been but I think it is worth a visit.

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If you're looking for the white sugar sand beaches of the Alabama/Florida gulf coast, then you're not going to like what you find on the east coast

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I agree with this; neither the sand nor the water are as nice as the gulf.

The beaches are much better on the gulf. If looking for an east coast trip I'd recommend finding a cool place to go that also happens to have a beach. Hilton Head is a great little beach town, especially for golf. It's also right next to Savannah so you can spend some time there as well. I absolutely love Charleston, and while it isn't known for its beaches, it still has one. I would never recommend Myrtle Beach. It reminds me of Galveston in the way that it's a trashy little place with trashy people and ferris wheels and shite like that on the beach.

If you're just looking to go east coast and enjoy the outdoors I'd recommend a mountain trip

Maybe. My parents have always had a condo in Orange Beach, but made it a point to take us to different beaches on the Atlantic and Pacific. I enjoyed it and their differences. I encourage to explore.

Sullivan's Island and Kiawah Island are further from Charleston than Folly Beach, but better.

I've heard good things about Pawley's Island in between Charleston and Myrtle Beach - sounds more low key and less touristy.

Edisto Island is further south than Kiawah and very non-touristy, reminds me of a Dauphin Island with much better coastal and marsh scenery.

I think Kiawah is one of the prettiest places in South Carolina, and the beach is so long it's not as crowded as the others.

Seabrook Island is right beside it, and it gets far less visitors. You can get horses from the stables and ride on the beach there, which might be something your family would enjoy.

The traffic at Folly and IOP can back up for miles in the summertime; it won't be nearly as bad in October, but there's one road in and out. I really don't know how anyone can live on Folly anymore the way it's grown. That was just a place for locals when I grew up there.
Down at Edisto before you get to the beach is Botany Bay, which is my boys' favorite beach. It's a graveyard type beach with the drowned trees, and covered with shells, since you aren't allowed to remove anything. Not the best for swimming though. I imagine that's what all of the barrier islands looked like 100 years ago.

This may be true about Myrtle Beach proper, but the strand is huge and the further away you get from Myrtle to the north (North Myrtle Beach, Cherry Grove) and south (Pawleys Island) it is not trashy at all, with still tons to do for kids, and some of the best golf is north across the NC border.