More than 200 people packed into a North Myrtle Beach meeting room one evening in June 2025. By the time the vote came, 185 of them raised their hands for tougher short-term rental rules. These are the South Carolina beach towns locals say visitors have ruined. Isle of Palms Isle of Palms voters had a…
A five-minute drive to a restaurant has never impressed a serious Florida seafood eater. The good spots take longer to reach, often down a two-lane road with more mangroves than mile markers. These are the Florida seafood shacks locals treat as worth a full hour of driving, one way. 1. Wild Ocean Seafood Market Wild…
Washington’s coastline crosses state parks, a national park, tribal land, and protected marine sanctuaries. Each jurisdiction sets its own rules for what you can pick up and take home. Here’s what looks like harmless beachcombing but breaks the law in Washington. Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Washington’s rules on beach collecting and…
Walt Disney World opened its gates on October 1, 1971. One Orlando sandwich shop, a short drive from where Walt Disney World would open three years later, had only three years on the clock by then. Other Florida restaurants already had decades on it, one of them by more than six decades. These are the…
On November 30, 1954, a rock from outer space crashed through a roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, and hit a napping woman named Ann Hodges. It’s the only documented case in recorded history of a meteorite striking a person. Birmingham, an hour up the road, has never had a story like it. These are the small…
North Carolina’s prettiest beach towns are being loved to pieces. Just watch the ferry line to Ocracoke, where the wait for a boat can outlast the drive that got you there. It’s a nightmare for locals. These are the beach towns tourists are slowly ruining for everyone else. 1. Corolla Corolla marks the end of…
The most interesting hour in South Carolina rarely happens where the tour buses park. It happens down a two-lane road, in a town of 300 or 3,000. These are the South Carolina towns worth turning off the highway for. 1. Abbeville The brick square in Abbeville, up in the Old 96 District, earns the drive…
The best meal you’ll eat in Texas isn’t in Austin, Dallas, or Houston. It’s in a town you’ve never heard of, down a road you’d never take on purpose. The counter seats a dozen, the pie case runs the length of a wall, and the cook has been there since the Carter administration. These are…
Georgia’s coastline runs only about 105 miles. That’s shorter than a single stretch of Florida’s coastline. Most of that coastline isn’t a beach you can drive to. A boat, a ferry reservation, or a local with a dock decides who reaches five of Georgia’s best stretches, while everybody else piles onto the same three. These…
Ask ten hikers on the Blue Ridge Parkway why the ridges look blue, and many will guess the sky or the altitude. The real answer took scientists more than a century to pin down. Here’s the real reason North Carolina’s mountains turn blue in the distance. Light Doing the Work What you’re seeing off that…
