The Final Week of Halloween on the Grand Strand: The Best of Every Day, October 24–31

Photo: MBU owner-provided image.

This is it — the home stretch. Eight days, from Saturday, October 24 through Halloween night itself, and the Grand Strand is squeezing every last drop out of spooky season.

MBU's Halloween HQ is tracking 90-plus happenings this week — too many for one article, and too many for any one human to hit. So here's the honest cut: the best thing (or three) to do every single day, from Little River to Georgetown. Everything else — every last trunk-or-treat, costume party and haunted trail — is one click away in Halloween HQ, linked under each day.

Saturday, October 24

BooFest! at Barefoot Landing (12–4 PM, free) is the family main event up north — four costume contests by age, pets included at 3 PM, registration from 11 AM at the Dockside Village Stage.

Halloween BOOnanza (NMB Park & Sports Complex, 5–8 PM, $5 ages 3+, cash only) is the city's Halloween throwdown: trick-or-treat stations, a monster mash DJ, marshmallow roasting, inflatables, a magic show and a pirate show on the soccer fields.

Halloween Bash on The Avenue (Broadway at the Beach, 7:30 PM, free) is the grown-up headliner — billed as the Grand Strand's biggest Halloween bash, with an adult costume contest paying 1st, 2nd and 3rd and a live DJ. Your costume is your ticket in.

Early birds: the inaugural SayeBrook Trick-or-Trot Halloween 5K steps off at 8 AM in costume ($37.50, benefits the YMCA). And Judgement House at NewSpring Church runs its final weekend both days, 1:30–9 PM ($5 suggested donation, ages 10+).

The full Saturday lineup — two bar crawls, a block party with $1,000 in costume prizes, a murder mystery dinner in Conway and a whole lot more: www.myrtlebeachunlocked.com/halloween-hq

Sunday, October 25

Sunday's the family exhale. Halloween Brunch at Crooked Hammock Brewery (10 AM–2 PM) does a Halloween-themed brunch with pumpkin painting for the kids, right at Barefoot Landing. The First Baptist Church of Surfside Fall Festival (711 16th Ave S, 5–7 PM) closes the day out family-style in Surfside.

In between, Thompson Farm's Fall Festival in Conway runs 10 AM–6 PM ($15, ages 3+) — and keep Halloween Day circled there: their famous helicopter candy drop lands Oct 31. The Haunted BrewBoat Cruise sails out of Murrells Inlet at 7:30 PM ($35) for anybody who wants their Sunday spooky instead of sweet.

Everything else Sunday: www.myrtlebeachunlocked.com/halloween-hq

Monday, October 26

Monday is the locals' secret: the haunts are open and the lines aren't.

Park After Dark: Moonlight and Mysteries (Myrtle Beach State Park, 6:20–8 PM, $15) is a ranger-led night walk through the maritime forest — the spookiest quiet money can buy. Metalheads get theirs at the House of Blues, where Nekrogoblikon headlines a four-band bill (doors 6 PM, from $45.15).

And if a haunted house is on your list this year, tonight's the night to walk into the Nightmare Haunted House on the Boulevard without standing in line for it. More on the haunts below.

Tuesday, October 27

Conway is still the City of Halloween through Friday, and Tuesday's the day to walk it without the weekend crowds. The 17 official display stops — the Pumpkin Trees lit after dark, the Shiverwalk, the haunted pirate ship, Skeleton Alley — are all up and free. Swing by City Hall 2–4 PM for the Skeleton Orphanage and adopt a skeleton baby, birth certificate and all (weekdays through Oct 30, free while supplies last).

The rest of Tuesday, plus every ghost walk rolling this week: www.myrtlebeachunlocked.com/halloween-hq

Wednesday, October 28

Duplin Winery NMB Autumn Fest (4650 Highway 17 S, 12:30–7:30 PM, $40) is pure Southern fall — Carolina Red BBQ or Chicken Bog, a wine-cocktail mixology tasting, patio music, a karaoke contest and a fall best-dressed contest. Not spooky. Just right.

Conway counters with the "South Carolina Ghosts & Legends Vol. II" film matinee (Horry County Museum, 805 Main St, 1–2 PM, free) — a 30-minute ETV film on the state's ghost lore, screened in the middle of the City of Halloween.

Thursday, October 29

Quite possibly the best single day of the season — and it starts before lunch.

Halloween Golf Cart Parade, downtown Conway, 11 AM, free to watch — decorated carts and floats roll down Laurel St tossing candy the whole way.

Then the big one: Jeepers Creepers: Halloween Parade, Ocean Boulevard, 6:30 PM, free to watch. For the first time ever, 125 wildly decorated Jeeps take over the Boulevard, rolling from 15th Ave N to 8th Ave N past Plyler Park and the SkyWheel — spooky lights, skeletons, giant spiders. WPDE's Ed Piotrowski calls it live from Plyler Park. It opens Myrtle Beach Jeep Jam weekend, and it's going to look like nothing this beach has ever seen.

Families up north get Trunk or Treat at Little River Landing (5:30–7:30 PM, free) on the waterfront, and grown-ups get the Serial Killer Speakeasy opening in Conway's Historic Peanut Warehouse (6–10 PM, from $57) — immersive true-crime tales and craft cocktails, running Thursday through Halloween night.

Everything else on parade day: www.myrtlebeachunlocked.com/halloween-hq

Friday, October 30

Halloween Eve — half the Strand treats this as the main event.

Jeep Jam Trunk-or-Treat (4–6 PM, Jeep Jam grounds) puts about 100 decorated Jeeps to work handing candy to kids, with awards for Spookiest, Most Creative and Best Movie/TV Jeep. On the Boulevard, Nights at Nance Halloween Boo Bash (5:30–8:30 PM, free) brings live music from Tru Sol and a costume contest at Nance Plaza.

The dive-bar faithful get Pop's Place Bar & Grill's Halloween Costume Party (511 S Kings Hwy, 8 PM) with the contest paying 1st through 3rd, and Radio Source live at Suck Bang Blow in Garden City from 8:30 PM. North end, the 2nd Annual NMB Halloween Bar Crawl (5:30 PM, $35) trolleys across Ocean Drive's best rooms and benefits Kind Keeper Animal Rescue.

The rest of Halloween Eve — brewery bashes, a glow run, haunted cruises and more: www.myrtlebeachunlocked.com/halloween-hq

Saturday, October 31 — Halloween

Clear the whole day.

Halloween on the MarshWalk (Murrells Inlet, 5–10 PM, free) is the coast's biggest Halloween night: trick-or-treating from 5, the kids' costume contest at 6 by the pirate statue at Drunken Jack's, then the adult contest from 7 PM with over $4,000 in cash and prizes on the line.

Families start earlier: the Surfside Halloween Charity Car Show (9 AM–2 PM, spectators free) and Shuck-O-Ween oyster roast (12–5 PM, free) own the morning in Surfside, Thompson Farm drops candy from a helicopter in Conway, Trick-or-Treat at Broadway at the Beach runs 4:30–6:30 PM free, and Barefoot Landing trick-or-treats 5–7 PM free.

Grown-ups close it out with the Halloween-night Bar Crawl out of Market Common (3–9 PM, from $24.01), the Haunted BrewBoat's final sailing (7:30 PM), and Halloween night among the lights at Brookgreen Gardens' Autumn Nights (7–9:30 PM, $50/$45 with supper).

Every last Halloween-night listing — and there are dozens: www.myrtlebeachunlocked.com/halloween-hq

The Haunts — Running All Week

Fit these anywhere. This is your last chance at all of them.

• Nightmare Haunted House (1001 N Ocean Blvd, daily, $15.99/$11.99) — the Boulevard's zombie haunt since the mid-'80s, 4,000 square feet of live actors and animatronics. Best for teens and adults.
• Dead Man's Dock (Crab Catchers, Little River, final nights Oct 29–31, 7–11 PM, $25) — the professionally built waterfront haunt in its first year, and the buzz pick of the season. Little River's free Trail of Fear runs alongside it.
• Fear Factory (7 Elm St, Conway, select nights, $25) — three attractions in one spot: a kid-friendly haunted manor tour, a 4,000-square-foot spooky maze, and the Elm Street Asylum for the brave.
• Fright Nights on Ocean "Boolevard" (Nance Plaza & Plyler Park, through Nov 1, free) — closes with an oceanfront Halloween carnival on Halloween weekend and a Day of the Dead celebration Nov 1.
• Wicked Wonders Halloween Magic Show (Charles Bach Wonders Theatre, Broadway at the Beach, through Oct 31, $38.95+, 13+) — a Vegas-grade illusionist's Halloween show with a blackout ghost segment.
• Ghost walks, nightly at 8 PM — US Ghost Adventures' lantern-lit "Mayhem, Mystique & Murder" tour from Peaches Corner ($24), and Williams Ghost Walks down in Georgetown ($15/$10).
• Haunted BrewBoat Cruise (Murrells Inlet, 7:30 PM, $35, BYOB) sails Sat 24, Sun 25, Thu 29, Fri 30 and Halloween night — ghost stories like Drunken Jack and Alice Flagg, told on the dark water where they happened.

If You Only Do Three Things

1. Thursday night, Ocean Boulevard. The Jeepers Creepers parade is a first — nobody's ever seen 125 Halloween Jeeps roll the Boulevard. History's only fun if you're standing there for it.
2. One real haunt. Nightmare for tradition, Dead Man's Dock for the new blood, Fear Factory if Conway's your base camp.
3. Halloween night on the MarshWalk. The Strand's biggest costume contest, $4,000 on the line, the whole Inlet in costume. That's the photo your friends back home will be jealous of.

The whole season — 90-plus listings with maps, times and the day-by-day picker — lives at Halloween HQ: www.myrtlebeachunlocked.com/halloween-hq

Got a costume worth showing off? The Costume Showdown on Halloween HQ is open — get your photo in before Halloween night. And if MBU missed your neighborhood's party, say so in the comments and we'll get it added.

One week left. Go make it count. 🎃