"Great location, very clean, close to everything" Top 5 Page for this destination Avista Resort Tip by Darkeyedgirl

I booked the Avista Resort after looking around at several hotels/condos in North Myrtle. What caught my eye about Avista was mainly the location (close to Broadway at the Beach & Barefoot Landing), the vast, open beach area (no overcrowding), and the pools! I asked for a top floor room (since my hubby is a photographer and wanted to get some nighttime shots) and we were put on the 17th floor... the very top floor. The elevators are amazingly fast... no worries about being stuck in an elevator half your life if you stay on the top floor; these suckers move fast and there are four to service each tower (we were in the North Tower).We asked for an early check-in, and upon arrival (4 hours before "check in time"), we were given a pool pass-key and a parking tag so that we could park, change in the hotel bathrooms and swim for a bit while they worked on our room. VERY FRIENDLY and helpful staff, always ready to answer questions or help.

The facilities themselves were all very clean, nicely decorated (all in a yellow and blue scheme), and had a nice layout to give you the max amount of room in the smallest spaces. The parking garage is across the street, and I have read a lot of complaints about this --- BUT --- when you check in, you park underneath the condos and offload your stuff right there into the elevators. No problem. To get to the parking garage, you cross Ocean Boulevard which is never busy; 2 lanes each way and people (believe it or not) DO stop when they see ya trying to cross. None of this "let's kill the pedestrians!" stuff that happens in Cincinnati. Anyhoo.

The cons, which are not that big of a deal: The washer/dryer combo machine is very interesting. LG makes really rockin' stuff. All you really need to do is PLAN AHEAD! I'd do a load every morning (set the combo machine to 'wash'), then after coming back after dinner to go hang at the beach again, set the combo machine to 'dry'. Simple, right? Most people complain to the end on this but it was not that difficult. The combo machines could / should be replaced with simple, small apartment style top/bottom washer/dryer separate machines, but it was fun to mess around with the 'combo machine'. And, you DO have that area on TOP of the machine to fold stuff and store stuff, whereas if there was the washer/dryer apt on-top-of-each-other thingy it would take away that space to fold clothes.

The garbage can in the kitchen: VERY small!!! When you have 2 adults & 2 kids (typical family size nowadays, unless you are very fertile), you make a LOT of garbage. However they do give you extra bags so just fill 'em up and tie them off and leave them for housekeeping. The garbage can in the kitchen is the size of what you'd find aside your office desk, or in a bathroom; just way too tiny. However, just use the bags, housekeeping was marvelous. We asked for more dishwasher detergent and more tissues since we were all snotty from Cincinnati Allergies, and we got them both, no problem.

The little kitchen table is a good place to set 'things'. We didn't use it even once during our 5 day stay. We'd eat breakfast & lunch in the room (while sitting on the floor or on the sofa or on the balcony), and dinner was always OUT. Anyone who sees the pictures of the kitchen will think, "there is no counter space", and you are right. There is enough counter space to fix yourself a goooood cocktail on the rocks, or maybe a sandwich; but don't expect to create 5-star dinners here or even 5-star breakfasts. Just eat cereal or oatmeal, come back for a sandwich at lunch and you'll survive the kitchen in order to go out for that 5-star DINNER in North Myrtle which you should do anyway because who the he|| likes to cook while yer on vacation???

All in all we loved Avista Resort and do plan on going back. The kids were enthralled at the lazy river (dubbed the 'Crazy River' due to certain unruly, unsupervised kids), and we loved the ability to hang out at the pool after dark, walk the beach for 'critters' after sunset and the location was superb.

Unique Qualities: If you look at the pictures of the pools, you will see they are standard size for anywhere in Myrtle (space is tight and land is at a premium so they squeeze everything together, pools, parking, people, etc.). However, the way the pools were laid out was very nice here at Avista. Two separate outdoor pools, one large indoor pool that was never crowded, an indoor AND outdoor lazy river ('Crazy', meaning, don't expect to relax AT ALL in the 'lazy river), and the general cleanliness of the pool area was very nice. No funky smells, no 'fecal incidents', no funny slimy stuff underneath your feet in the hot tub. The only thing we noticed was it is very highly chlorinated (salt based chlorine, so the water tastes like sea water) ... your eyes will burn burn BURN but that is why God invented Visine and Visine A.

Regarding our view from the top floor (room 1704), I can't say this enough... ask for a top floor and you will get it. Due to the shart-eating economy at this point, every single place in Myrtle had a vacancy... so did Avista (duh), so naturally if you request a certain specific room on a certain specific floor, they WILL give it to you. I had asked back in January for the top floor room due to my hubs being a photog, and I called one week ahead of departure just to make sure we DID get the room. Yes, I was told, you're on the top floor. The views from the lower rooms, as I was told by other peeps staying there, suck. You see the pools (which can have some interesting views of their own) and a little sliver of ocean. Our view, phenomenal, and oh that breeze.

We stayed in a '1 bedroom oceanfront' (NOT ocean-view) and I totally recommend this. OceanFRONT means your balcony will have a full view of the ocean. The way the room was laid out was perfect. The kids (ages 12 & 11) took the bedroom with a closet, a large TV and two queen sized beds... & a door... and us adults slept on the full sized Murphy bed which drops out of the wall. A breeze to make up in the morning and OH SO comfortable!

Address: 300 N Ocean Blvd, North Myrtle Beach, SC, 29582
Comparison: about average
Directions: VERY close to Barefoot Landing which was awesome (after having a few drinks at Dick's Last Resort, you don't want to drive too much!) and about 30 minutes from Broadway at the Beach.
Phone: 843-249-2521
Price: US$180 and up
Theme: Hotel
Website: http://avistaresort.com/