Barefoot Resort (North Myrtle Beach) is a large, golf-anchored resort community with multiple championship courses, a marina on the Intracoastal Waterway, and a mix of home styles. It suits buyers who want golf and resort amenities at the northern end of the Strand.
Tidewater Plantation (North Myrtle Beach) is a gated golf community set on a peninsula between the Intracoastal Waterway and the marsh, known for its course and water views in a quieter setting than the resort communities.
Grande Dunes (Myrtle Beach) is the Strand’s flagship master-planned community, packaging golf, a private marina, and an oceanfront club behind one gate. Its scale and amenity stack shorten the social adjustment of a long-distance move, which is why it draws relocating couples and active-retirement buyers.
The Dunes Club (Myrtle Beach) centers on the historic Dunes Golf and Beach Club, one of the most established golf addresses on the Strand, in an in-town setting close to the ocean.
Wachesaw Plantation (Murrells Inlet) is a gated community built around a private golf club on the former rice-plantation land along the Waccamaw River, prized for mature live oaks and a low-key, established feel.
DeBordieu Colony (Pawleys Island) sits at the private, understated end of the spectrum: a gated coastal community on a large tract of protected Lowcountry with a private beach, golf, and a creek-and-marsh landscape. It trades the energy of Myrtle Beach for quiet and seclusion.
A note that applies across all of these: because each community sits on or near the coast, flood-zone exposure varies lot by lot even within a single gate. Before falling for a particular home, check the parcel’s current flood zone on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, since it affects both insurance cost and resale.
A guard-gated community staffs the entrance with personnel who screen visitors, log deliveries, and provide a visible security presence. The result is a higher level of control and service — which many buyers relocating from the Northeast specifically want — and a correspondingly higher fee structure to fund the staffing. The largest amenity communities tend to fall here.
An automated-gate community uses a code, transponder, or call-box system without staff at the entrance. It still limits through-traffic and signals privacy, but at a lower cost and with less active screening. Many golf communities use this model.
Neither is better in the abstract. A guard gate buys service and screening; an automated gate buys privacy at a lower carrying cost. What matters is matching the security model to how you actually plan to live, and reading what the dues fund — a point covered in detail in the luxury home due-diligence guide.
If you want a turnkey, high-service lifestyle and instant community after a long-distance move, a large guard-gated amenity community like Grande Dunes does the most work for you.
If golf is the center of your week, a dedicated golf community — Barefoot, Tidewater, Wachesaw, or The Dunes Club — puts the course at your doorstep, and the choice among them is mostly about location on the Strand and the feel of the neighborhood.
If privacy and natural setting matter most, the South Strand and DeBordieu Colony deliver seclusion and protected land in exchange for distance from Myrtle Beach’s energy.
If you are buying a second home or rental, confirm the community’s rental rules before anything else, since the most private communities often restrict short-term rentals.
