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State park series #2: The State Park We Couldn’t Believe We Didn’t Know About
47 Plays17 days ago
“Family trips feel different when there is finally enough room for everyone to slow down, shift gears when needed, and enjoy the day without constantly trying to keep up.”
In this episode, I continue our Summer State Park Mini-Series with a visit to Huntington Beach State Park, located just outside Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
While Myrtle Beach is often known for its crowds, attractions, and busy boardwalks, Huntington Beach State Park offers a quieter and more flexible alternative for families looking to slow down and connect with nature.
In this episode, I share why this park worked so well for our family, including opportunities for wildlife spotting, beach exploration, movement, and unstructured outdoor play. We also discuss why lower-pressure destinations can be especially helpful for families raising children with ADHD, autism, anxiety, and other behavioral differences.
You'll learn:
- Why flexibility can make family travel less stressful
- How nature-based destinations can support regulation and exploration
- What makes Huntington Beach State Park a great addition to a Myrtle Beach itinerary
- Why some of our favorite travel memories happen away from the crowds
This episode is a reminder that meaningful family travel does not have to be packed with nonstop activity. Sometimes the trips that work best are the ones that leave enough space for everyone to slow down, adjust when needed, and genuinely enjoy being together.
Topics Covered:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction
- 00:00:14 – Welcome to Family Travel that Supports ADHD, Autism, and Anxiety
- 00:01:25 – Introduction to Huntington Beach State Park
- 00:03:41 – Reason #1: Variety without overplanning
- 00:04:49 – Reason #2: Beach environment without constant stimulation
- 00:05:26 – Reason #3: Wildlife and nature engagement
- 00:06:21 – Exploring the Nature Center and touch tanks
- 00:07:30 – Who Huntington Beach State Park works best for
- 00:08:17 – Flexible travel and peaceful family moments
- 00:09:01 – Closing thoughts and encouragement
About Your Host:
Dr. Josette Bianchi is a board-certified pediatrician, mom of three, and a travel lover who believes families should feel confident exploring the world together. Through Family Travel that Supports ADHD, Autism, and Anxiety, she shares practical tips, real-life experiences, and encouragement for families raising children with big feelings, sensory needs, or behavioral differences.
Combining her medical background with her perspective as a parent, Dr. Bianchi helps families plan flexible, sensory-friendly trips. Each episode offers simple ideas, honest stories, and helpful tools to make travel more manageable and more meaningful for neurodiverse families.
Connect with Dr. Josette Bianchi:
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Transcript
Introduction to Family Travel Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Need a last minute summer trip idea that doesn't require six months of planning and emotional recovery afterwards? Welcome back to our state park mini series. Today we're going to be heading to South Carolina to Huntington Beach State Park.
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to Family Travel that supports ADHD, autism, and anxiety. Podcast for families who love to travel and have children with big feelings, challenging moments.
00:00:25
Speaker
I'm Joseph Bianchi, a mom to three children, board certified pediatrician, and a travel
Exploring U.S. State Parks Series
00:00:30
Speaker
lover. If you're raising children with ADHD, autism, anxiety, or other behavioral differences, and the idea of travel feels both exciting and overwhelming, this podcast is for you.
00:00:42
Speaker
Today we're back with another episode in our summer state park miniseries. These are short episodes featuring state parks located throughout the country that have worked especially well for our family while traveling. Again, these are great for planning last minute, no nonsense trips when advanced summer planning just falls to the bottom of the to do list, which honestly happens to me all the time, especially in and that like late winter springtime when you're trying to cram that summer travel planning in and there's so much else happening.
00:01:12
Speaker
These are also great to add on if you were able to plan something to an itinerary wherever you may be going. So grab your crew, your luggage, and your love of adventure, and let's hit the road together.
Discovering Huntington Beach State Park
00:01:25
Speaker
Okay, so today we're heading to South Carolina outside Myrtle Beach and Murrells Inlet to talk about Huntington Beach State Park. It's located just south of Myrtle Beach. I actually talked about Huntington Beach State Park a little in my Myrtle Beach episode earlier this season. It was the number one place of the three places in our 3-2-1 format. But I just wanted to circle back because it ended up really surprising us in a good way.
00:01:51
Speaker
And we kind of just stopped to like check it out and see what was up. And it was one of those places we sort of regretted just learning about. Like, wow, we've been to Myrtle Beach so many times. How did we not know about this place? And why did we not come here before?
00:02:05
Speaker
And I think in the future when we go back, it's always going to be on our
Activities at Huntington Beach: Beaches, Trails, and Castles
00:02:09
Speaker
itinerary. So I felt like it deserved just a quick circle back to include in the state park series and cover in a little bit more detail.
00:02:16
Speaker
Huntington Beach State Park is great because it combines beautiful beach access. There's three miles of beach there. You could do some surf fishing. you could hang out on the beach, just swim, build sandcastles, whatever. but There's also so much wildlife, so many animals to see, peaceful walking trails, quieter nature spaces to check out. And it felt really easy and flexible for our family than many other traditional beach setups that we've done on the East Coast.
00:02:43
Speaker
The park is known for having wide beaches, but also some great marsh views that are really cool to mix in. Again, as I said in my previous episode, there's lots of bird watching, which we were not super into, but does exist if you're a fan.
00:02:57
Speaker
Great nature center and the Atalia Castle, which is a whole historic home located inside the park. Honestly, one of the things that our kids love most was just how many different things there were to do in one place.
00:03:08
Speaker
I've already covered most of those things. It just kept the day really interesting, but without feeling like overwhelming or overstimulating. And each activity could really be done in a short amount of time, or we could spend longer if the kids were like really engaged.
00:03:22
Speaker
Other than a small admission fee to the castle, it's all included in the admission fee to the park. So there's no stress to like force things to work if the kids get bored and they just want to move on. You don't have to feel like, oh my gosh, we spent all this money and now you want to do something else, which often happens to me on vacation when the kids get bored.
00:03:38
Speaker
So that was another bonus of going here. Okay, so why does Huntington Beach State Park work? For us, so much variety without over planning. Again, really easy. We just kind of stopped here on the way home from a small day trip to Georgetown, South Carolina.
00:03:55
Speaker
And we were going back to Myrtle Beach, and we kind of stumbled on it. And there was so
Why Huntington Beach is Ideal for Families
00:03:59
Speaker
much to do. We could have been there the whole day. If the beach is really starting to feel like too much, you could pivot, go to the quieter boardwalk. You could go to the nature center, head over to the castle. There's so many different pivots you can make.
00:04:12
Speaker
We actually covered the castle quite a bit in an earlier episode. I know, I know, quite a bit, probably too much. My daughter kindly informed me afterward that the castle part got a little bit boring in the Myrtle Beach episode. So I'm going to try not to deliver like a full historical lecture here, but I just want to include that it's really cool. It's inexpensive, only $2, and it's surprisingly fun for kids to explore. My kids loved it.
00:04:37
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I think I just keep bringing it up because it genuinely surprised me. i wasn't expecting a random Oceanside Castle to become one of the highlights of our Myrtle Beach trip, but there we were, and it was awesome.
00:04:49
Speaker
Some destinations really feel like you have to commit to like one activity, but not Huntington Beach State Park. So much to do, so many activities. The other thing that works for us is that there's beach but not constant stimulation, which sometimes happens on some other beach trips on the East Coast, some other like beach destinations on the East Coast that sometimes can be hard to avoid.
00:05:13
Speaker
It's not like a large tourist destination, especially if you go there during the week, it's a little bit quieter, or less overstimulating.
Wildlife Adventures at Huntington Beach
00:05:20
Speaker
There's not a lot of loud attractions or packed boardwalks. So that slower pace really felt nice for us.
00:05:26
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The third reason it works is the wildlife and the nature engagement. I don't know about you guys, but my kids love animals. They love wildlife. They really cannot get enough. So to have this combined with the beach was really cool for them. You can see alligators right in their natural habitat.
00:05:44
Speaker
which was equally exciting and stressful because my kids immediately wanted to become amateur wildlife photographers from three feet away. So that was a little bit stressful, but we kept our distance and we all survived and we're here to tell about it. And I hope that you are safe when you go as well because you really are up close and personal with these alligators.
00:06:04
Speaker
We also saw cool birds, marsh wildlife, and saw some great stuff in the indoor nature center. You could also sometimes see minks, loggerhead sea turtles, depending on when you go. And sometimes there's some rare sightings of harbor seals or leatherback sea turtles that you can catch.
00:06:21
Speaker
The nature center is really focused on coastal wildlife. It has a nice saltwater touch tank and live native reptiles and alligator displays. And if anyone listening to the show knows my son, you know that reptiles immediately move us to the top level of enthusiasm.
00:06:36
Speaker
And we were there right away. And we were engaged in those reptiles. There was a lot happening in that nature center. Both kids got really involved in the touch tank experience. My kids love getting involved in touch tanks to the point where I thought maybe they'd climb in with the horseshoe crabs, but they didn't. So as I've said in other episodes, like Mystic Aquarium episode, bring a towel, chamois, back up clothes if there are touch tanks involved because sometimes you will commit to the full sensory experience.
00:07:05
Speaker
For some kids, nature observation is just really engaging. I know for my kids it is. And it's really a low-pressure activity here compared to more structured attractions. You could stop into the nature center and do like a quick lap for two or three minutes, or you could stay there closer to an hour like we did. But it breaks up the day a bit, and it provides nice background and context to the park and animals for the kids.
Family Flexibility and Engagement at the Park
00:07:30
Speaker
Okay, so who is Huntington Beach State Park a good fit for? i think it's great for families looking for a little bit of a calmer beach experience and a slower paced experience. day when they're in Myrtle Beach.
00:07:42
Speaker
Kids who really like wildlife and animals and kind of want to see them in their natural habitat, which I think is really cool. And families who want flexibility throughout the day, maybe want to jump around to different activities. Maybe you have kids who are all different ages or lots of different interests and you're trying to look for something that captures everyone's interests where you could jump around without the additional cost. And this is kind of perfect.
00:08:04
Speaker
For me, I really appreciated that this state park felt easy to shift gears throughout the day, had a lot to keep my kids entertained, and had a lot to offer for everyone, not just one person. We didn't feel locked into one thing, one schedule, one pace.
00:08:21
Speaker
And honestly, for me, my memory of this place is that my kids just did really well. And we all had a good time and found some peace and solace during a busy vacation. and that was just really nice. When I look back at my pictures of Myrtle Beach, these are my favorite ones because everyone just looks so happy and kind of engaged and peaceful, honestly, which can be unusual for our crew.
Relaxed and Enjoyable Family Travel
00:08:42
Speaker
So in summary, hunting to Beach State Park reminded me that beach trips do not have to always be high energy and jam-packed to be meaningful. Sometimes places that work best are the ones that leave room to slow down, adjust, and just enjoy being together. Thanks for listening to another episode in this mini-series with summer state parks.
00:09:01
Speaker
Remember, travel doesn't have to look like anyone else's version to be meaningful. Meet your family where they are and keep wandering without limits. You guys got this. this episode resonated with you, please follow or subscribe to the show and share it with another parent who might benefit.
00:09:16
Speaker
We'd also love to hear from you. We love feedback at the show, questions, places you'd like us to cover on the show. I appreciated my daughter's feedback on my castle coverage and the Myrtle Beach episode.
00:09:27
Speaker
These things really helped me to do better so I can create better content and better episode for all my listeners. So email me a show suggestion. Review me on Apple, Spotify, Amazon.
00:09:38
Speaker
You can also find us on Instagram at Family Travel That Supports. We share tips, info on upcoming episodes, and we also ask for your input. And just a quick disclaimer, this podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not to be considered medical advice for any patient. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.