I am going to be driving from Virginia Beach to Myrtle Beach the second week of April towing a 30 ft. 5er and I am thinking of taking Route 17 instead of the Interstates. Anybody have experience with that route? How long will it take and would I be better off going the Interstates?

Route 17 , below E City, NC, is the most confusing highway that I have ever driven. The signage is very confusing but if you continue heading south you will eventually reach your destination.

Sorry, I cant tell you how long it will take since you failed to disclose your driving speed.

Thanks for the response. It looks like there are many towns and cities along the way. I would be driving the posted speed or below depending on what traffic would allow.

Are you going to Myrtle or North Myrtle?

Myrtle Beach State Park

Then be sure to check Google maps so that you don't follow 17 all the way through North Myrtle to Myrtle. There are so many stop lights and lots of traffic that you should avoid. 9, 22 and 31 will get you around that traffic.

If you want to eat out up, just where NMB and MB meet there is a place called Goodfellows Seafood Hut. Really good food.

Further north is a place called Hamburger Joes. Very reasonably priced.

My mother lives at a campground at MB so we eat at those places often when we are there.

Hwy 17 is a nice drive with lots of small town. We like to travel on back roads and see the USA. On I-95 you only see the next truck passed you at 70 miles per hour. If you like great upscale Italian Cuisine try Rossi's at 9600 North Kings Hwy in MB but stay off the ships the Italian sail.

Make sure you keep to the posted speed limit (as you stated you would), and watch for sudden changes in the speed limit. It's been a while but when I lived in Wilmington NC, I took the trip to Myrtle quite a bit, and that road was crawling with State Troopers, more in NC than SC, but plenty of radar traps on both sides of the border.

Have been following your forum chat, since we are traveling part of this route in July, from Charleston, SC up through Myrtle Beach, Cape Hatteras, and then in to Williamsburg. Our rig is 38 ft. + tow, so we appreciated the suggestions from others about circumventing traffic in Myrtle Beach and the difficulty with following road signs on Hwy. 17. And also about the speed traps.
Have any of you taken your rig on the ferry from Cedar Island to Ocracoke?

Hi Road Rambler: We took the Cedar Island ferry about 5 years ago with no problems. The only difficulty was about 1/4 mile of very narrow road with lots of pedestrians right after the ferry terminal in Ocracoke. I will probably be going that way on our return trip in May.

Thanks VtLee - I'll go ahead & make a reservation. Hope to hear from you if you make the ferry trip in May.