AC Repair in Folly Beach, SC

Have you visited Folly Beach, SC? No matter what kind of beach trip you are looking for, you can find it on the barrier islands of Charleston, South Carolina. Folly Beach is your best bet for the perfect mix of relaxing beaches and spots to dine. Folly Island is 18 square miles of sand and sun and offers a beach town vibe just 20 minutes from the tourist attractions of Charleston.

This article includes:Public Beach Access on Folly IslandFolly Island Places to Eat

Take A Trip To Visit More Beaches That Are Located Not Far From The Upstate!

Folly Island On The Coast Of South Carolina

The beaches of the Low Country offer something for everyone when it comes to a beach trip. For a quiet, non-commercialized beach experience, Kiawah Island’s Beach Walker Park is my go-to option. However, if a tourist-heavy, commercialized expertise is what you seek, Isle Of Palms fits the bill.

If a sandy spot somewhere in the middle of both is what you want, then the beaches of Folly Island are perfect. They are family-friendly, quiet, and some access points have restrooms and showers for beachgoers to use. The downtown area of Folly Island offers a funky beach town vibe that’s solidified its place in the history of the SC coast.

Here’s a Great Map of Folly Island To Show The Kids

Where to Stay Near Folly Beach, SC

This Stay 22 Map contains affiliate links that will help you find the perfect place to stay near Folly Beach!

Accessing The Beach On Folly Island

With six miles of shoreline, there’s no shortage of sand to spread out on when visiting Folly Beach. Finding beach access isn’t difficult, but depending on your family’s needs, one access might be more suitable than another.

Located on the southern tip of Folly Island, the county park offers families all of the amenities they might need including showers, restrooms, a seasonal concession stand, seasonal lifeguards, and chair rentals.

The parking fees range from $5-$20, depending on the season, and are $20 on weekends and summer holidays. Park gates are open from 8 am to sunset.

The Folly Beach Ocean Park is located at the end of West Arctic Avenue. It offers beachgoers restroom and shower facilities that are free and open to the public (currently only open during the summer.)

At the end of nearly every block on the island there is a beach access pathway. Some spots include parking if space permits, otherwise you can park streetside.

The further you drive away from the pier, the less the metered parking costs. By quite a bit. If you aren’t trying to be right next to the pier and center street, drive a few miles north to find cheaper meter rates. The parking meter fees can be paid through a kiosk, or with the PARK Folly Beach app.

The centerpiece of Folly Island is the Folly Beach Pier. The pier was recently renovated. Amenities at Folly Beach Pier include the gift shop, restrooms, showers, changing rooms, and wheelchair beach access.

The Pier 101 Restaurant is open Wednesday through Monday, and offers seafood, sandwiches, and more!

Swimming is permitted on the beach that flanks the sides of the pier, however, the undertow can become dangerous near the pier causing unsafe conditions. Also, people throw baited hooks off of that pier looking to catch “a big un”. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer not to be swimming near where people are reeling in jaws.

The parking fees range from $5-$20, depending on the season, and are $20 on weekends and summer holidays. Pier hours vary by season, so be sure to check the park’s site before venturing out.

Places To Eat On Folly Island

There are plenty of spots to choose from when it comes to meals on Folly Island. These are just a few of our favorites when we head out to spend the day on Folly Beach.

Taco BoyAmeri-mex style food with a kid’s menu, and a full bar. Great spot for nachos and margs after a day on the beach.

The Lost Dog Cafe

The perfect spot for breakfast or brunch, The Lost Dog has sandwiches, burgers, breakfast (all day), and more.

Saint James Gate Proper Irish Pub & Three Monkey’s Ice CreamThe menu here has a little bit of everything, including tacos. It’s kid & dog-friendly! Plus they have some delicious dessert options.

The Pineapple HutIf you spend any time on Folly Island, you are bound to see people walking down the street with a pineapple in their hands. This food truck is where it came from, filled with Dole Whip, or one of their weekly special flavors of soft-serve style ice cream. (March through November).

If you want to extend your trip, head over to Mount Pleasant for a bunch of free things to do while you’re there!

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCBD) – A dredging project led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping to restore a crucial habitat for birds near Folly Beach.

Bird Key-Stono Seabird Sanctuary is home to a variety of colonial nesting seabirds and shore birds. However, the animals are facing what the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources calls “coastal squeeze.”

“There’s people coming in, living on the coast, and there’s water rising up. So, that’s a major threat that we have for all coastal birds,” explained Cami Duquet, a member of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ Coastal Bird Program. She said these factors contribute to loss of habitat.

News 2 traveled by boat out to the island on Friday to see firsthand how the project is building the birds’ habitat up.

“We’re dredging the material out of the Folly River right here, and as part of the project, we’re putting material up here on Bird Key-Stono because it’s an important seabird sanctuary for the state of South Carolina,” said Alan Shirey, an environmental engineer with the Army Corps.

Sand and water are pumped from the channel onto the island through a pipeline. Army Corps officials said the water flows back out to sea, while the sand settles and is leveled with bulldozers.

“Once everything’s surveyed, it’s flattened out and surveyed, it’s going to be undulated so that it provides a natural habitat,” Jim Brooks said. He is a quality assurance representative for the Army Corps.

The work began about a week and a half ago and will need to be completed by March 15 which is the same day the island will close until October for nesting season.

“In order for them to be able to contribute to their population, they need to have a suitable nesting habitat to be able to lay their eggs, to raise their chick, and then have those chicks then contribute to their population,” Duquet said.

By the end of the project, officials said about 40,000 cubic yards of material will have been placed onto Bird Key-Stono. They said the work is associated with the Folly Beach Renourishment Project.

FOLLY BEACH – Hurricane Hugo brought one of the best-known art canvases to Folly Road — the Folly Boat. People would paint their anniversaries, create artwork and write other memories on the boat until it washed away during Hurricane Irma. Around the same time, the concrete path at the Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve started to gain popularity in a much larger canvas.

Charleston County Parks bought the Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve from the U.S. Coast Guard in 1989, the same year as Hugo. In 2009, the property was honored as a preserve. Remnants of a concrete road and a few structures were left from the former Loran station that leads to a boneyard beach and views of Morris Island Lighthouse.

The site was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War, including those who fought at the Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863. The unsuccessful assault by the 54th Massachusetts regiment of African American soldiers was made famous in the movie "Glory," which also came out in 1989. Though "Glory" wasn't filmed here, the hit Netflix show "Outer Banks" filmed at this 80-acre preserve.

The Folly Boat was returned years after its disappearance (though in a different spot), but the Lighthouse Inlet became a place to paint and express creativity. The county park attempted to clean up the path various times, but immediately after it was covered again in paint.

Parks spokeswoman Sarah Reynolds said they just don't have the resources to be out there and enforce the graffiti ban. They do, however, respond and paint over explicit or negative messages.

Graffitiing the path remains illegal, but artists still go out and paint it constantly. The Folly community leans both ways on the matter. Some are in favor of leaving the graffiti path as is and others think it takes away from the natural beauty.

Local mural artist Riivo Kruuk said, "It's an integral part of the art world in Charleston." Kruuk painted the mural on Mount Pleasant's hotdog restaurant Skoogies after asking the owner if he could do it for free. He moved here in 2020 from South Florida and noticed a difference in street art from Charleston and there. When he came across the Lighthouse Inlet, he said, there was hope.

Kruuk said he doesn't like it when people trash the preserve or paint on trees. He thinks it should be like the graffiti wall in Goose Creek, which allows artists to express themselves for their community.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCIV) — The Folly Beach coastline is finally getting some much-needed relief after taking a beating from Mother Nature in 2023.

Hurricanes, tropical storms and king tides all took their toll on the popular public beaches.

Friday, the Army Corps of Engineers announced they will soon begin the much-anticipated beach renourishment project.

"You could go sit on with a slow tide, come back when it's high tide, you won't see that beach today," said Folly Beach Mayor Tim Goodwin.

Erosion is a never-ending problem on Folly Beach, which is why this project is so big.

Read more: "Folly Beach dodges severe damage, gears up for $18M renourishment project."

"We're looking to place about 1.2 million cubic yards of sand on the beach, and that's equivalent to about 120,000 dump trucks at a cost of around $18 million," said Wes Wilson, project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District.

"The contractor, depending on how much sand they need to place in each section, typically is in a 500-foot section between two and five days. So areas of the beach that are more eroded they typically spend more time in it," said Goodwin.

With the Army Corps of Engineers picking up the check, Folly Beach leaders can save their money.

"That leaves our beach reserve, but money intact, and we add to that every year. So, every year, we make sure that we have a reserve of money for the day when we have to pay our 15% or 10%," said Goodwin.

Read more: "Coastal damage assessment after heavy storms: Folly Beach experience mixed impact."

That reserve fund is often needed for smaller projects. Many times it's not just the big storms that are the issue.

"The hurricane that comes in and hangs offshore for a day or two and just beats and beats the beach and erodes it. Or Northeasterns that come in and hang around for a day or two that do the same thing, causing a lot of erosion. So this, this money we save this time is in the pot for repairing the beach of neck-to-neck storms or the storms after that," said Goodwin.

"Beach renourishment is a short-term inconvenience for a long-term benefit. And as we do add sand onto the beach, it provides that sense of security for the island for that next big storm," adds Wilson.

For a popular coastline that's suffered some of its worst damage since 2016, it's a welcome fix to get the beach back to normal.

"By building it back up, building the dunes up, extending the beach out, it gives us more area for people to come to enjoy the beach," said Goodwin.

The Army Corps must finish the Bird Cay project on Folly by March 15th. Soon after, they will begin work on the Folly beaches at large. That work will run from March until August.

One of South Carolina’s rascally alligators rattled tourists when it showed up on the second-story deck of a vacation home in Folly Beach.

Videos posted Oct. 27 on Facebook show the alligator was discovered after it reached the top of the stairs.

“Having a house (at) Folly Beach SC for 11 years we have never seen or heard of alligators on the island because there are no ponds,” Greg Bayer wrote.

“That all changed today when the guests at my neighbor’s house pointed out that they had a visitor on the second floor porch. He climbed 16 steps to get there.”

The alligator looks confused in the videos, having realized too late that the stairs led to a wall and railings rather than an exit.

It appeared to be considering a jump from the second floor, until Bayer decided to help. His assistance involved herding the alligator back toward the stairs.

Video shows it teetered precariously at the top for awhile, then appeared to half walk, half slide down the steps. That unexpected move elicited screams from those watching.

“He hissed at me a few times,” Bayer wrote.

The 6-foot alligator eventually exited a gate and went to a marsh near the home, which is on East Erie Avenue, Bayer told WCBD. Folly Beach is about 10 miles south of Charleston.

The videos have been views thousands of times and gotten hundreds of reactions, including a lot of trick-or-treat jokes. Some wondered what the gator expected to find at the top of the stairs, while others say it got lucky to encounter sympathetic tourists.

“One can only imagine the ruckus an inebriated, and disoriented tourist would’ve caused,” John Tucker wrote on Facebook.

“I’ll hand him a beer and some wings,” William Leon said.

“Don’t leave your keys under a planter. They probably know how to unlock a door!” Vicki Owens Sutphin wrote on Facebook.

Read Next

South Carolina

October 03, 2023 1:41 PM

This story was originally published November 3, 2023, 8:50 AM.