Litchfield Beach
Litchfield Beach, SC
Litchfield Beach sits between Huntington Beach State Park and Pawleys Island, a mix of gated resort communities and real public access, with 15 accesses in North Litchfield and 7 more in South Litchfield open to anyone. Litchfield by the Sea, the big gated resort in the middle, keeps its own stretch private, but the public accesses on either side reach the same wide, quiet sand.
Genuinely quiet, uncrowded sand between two of the area's best known beaches, though the gated resort in the middle can make the public accesses easy to miss on a first visit.
How we score beachesSkip the resort entirely and use the public accesses along Parker Drive or Norris Drive instead. Same beach, no gate, no resort fee.
Public accesses in North and South Litchfield offer free parking, generally small lots or a handful of roadside spaces per access.
Most accesses are boardwalk or sand path crossings over a low dune, similar in scale to nearby Pawleys Island.
Water reaches the low 80s by August, during the same hurricane season, June through November, that runs the length of the Grand Strand. Being sandwiched between a state park and Pawleys keeps it quieter than the beaches further north.
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