South Carolina has become a destination for travelers from around the world. From the mountains to the coast, South Carolina offers something for everyone. International and domestic visitors enjoy the value and variety of the state's 350 plus golf courses. Broad sandy beaches are magnets for water sports and quiet strolls. Its state parks are havens for nature-based activities and programs. And historic sites tell compelling stories of the state's past, from its colonial roots and fight for secession to its struggle for civil rights and emergence as one of the most progressive states in the South.

South Carolina’s towns and cities foster cultural events and world-class entertainment while colorful festivals lure visitors to explore small town charm. Take the time to visit centuries-old gardens, scenic mountain vistas and rural towns that are strung like jewels along the Heritage Corridor. But most importantly, soak in the Southern hospitality.

Myrtle Beach
Temperatures average in the 80s (Fahrenheit) in summer, cooled to comfort by the sea breeze, and 50s in winter, under the sun. Natural beauty, a climate with mild and pleasant seasons, and a variety of activities, almost as limitless as the seashells, have made the Grand Strand the choice vacation spot for generations of Carolinians, national and international tourists. The world has come to fish, swim, sunbathe, retire, sail, snorkel, golf, eat, shop, be entertained and cruise the Strand.

Fishermen delight in the piers, deep-sea and inland waterway excursions, along with the estuaries where crabs and shellfish abound. The Gulf Stream, a massive, undersea river from the tropics, flows about 40 miles offshore, tempering the climate in and out of the water. Shoppers flock to such popular sites like the Waccamaw Factory Shoppes and the Myrtle Beach Factory Stores in Myrtle Beach, Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach, and Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, the area's newest entertainment, dining and shopping mega-complex.

Golfers will find more than 90 excellent courses; tennis-lovers have a choice of some 200 courts, a few of them inside. Old plantation gardens, historic homes and churches welcome visitors. Boat and tram tours offer sightseeing when the feet start complaining. And then there are dinner cruises, helicopter and sailboat rides. Several charted shipwrecks await the adventurous diver. Sunrise on the ocean, sunset on marsh and river, the feeding birds, the fleets of fishing boats as they come and go—these are only a part of a photographer's field day. The big thrill is the food. Miles of restaurants offer heavenly smells and the best in seafood of the day, if not the very hour. The after-dinner fun begins when Myrtle Beach lights up its Pavilion.

Historic Charleston
Here you'll find the very best of the South: a genteel, inviting nature. Indeed, the Charleston area is a place that visitors rarely want to leave. In 1995, Glamour magazine rated the area one of the top 10 travel destinations in the U.S., and Condé Nast Traveler readers named it a "Top Ten" domestic destination for four consecutive years. With a metro population of over 500,000, this aristocratic colonial port boasts 73 pre-Revolutionary buildings, 136 from the late eighteenth century and more than 600 others built prior to the 1840s. Come wander along cobblestone streets, smell the sea breezes, explore antique shops and boutiques and treat yourself to delicious fresh seafood. By horse-drawn carriage, air-conditioned bus, boat, bicycle or on foot, a tour of Charleston is a remarkable journey through time.

Hilton Head
Hilton Head Island, with its four main resort communities of Palmetto Dunes, Port Royal Resort, Sea Pines and Shipyard Plantation, features 12 miles of broad beaches. The island offers more than 20 public or semi-private championship golf courses, several frequented by renowned master players. The MCI Classic is played here, and private lessons, golf schools and clinics are available at many clubs. Tennis is also a big attraction on Hilton Head with some 300 courts, more than any other resort of its size in America. Tournaments abound and the island hosts the Family Circle Magazine Cup annually.

While beach and resort areas are more crowded in the summer, golfers and other active-sports enthusiasts cherish the spring and fall. Winters are brief and blessed with frequent shorts-and-T- shirt days. Off-season rates at some resorts and hostelries help make these cooler months all the more attractive. Accommodations range from oceanfront camping through modestly priced motels, cabins and guesthouses to luxury hotels, seaside villas and apartments. Bountiful fresh seafood and the best in traditional Southern cooking share the regional menu with a nearly endless variety of good food, from the grand resorts to country crossroads. If you haven't yet tried she-crab soup, so-called because crab roe provides the unique flavor, get acquainted here.

Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are forested and steep, in some places penetrable only along narrow passes cut by roaring, cliff-walled rivers. From the mountain heights, some of the rivers plunge hundreds of feet. Whitewater Falls is the best known, tumbling out of North Carolina into the headwaters of Lake Jocassee, plummeting almost 900 feet in two cascades. Another favorite destination of hikers is the 400-foot Raven Cliff Falls, in northern Greenville County near Caesars Head. Come in the spring and you will see glowing pink orchards in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties. Come in the summer to pick, eat and buy fresh peaches.

Whenever you visit, you'll find impressive museums and performing arts centers that bring Broadway "down home." Visitors fascinated with shopping will find opportunities ranging from high-quality specialty shops to outlet malls. And those who want to bask in nature's attractions will not be disappointed. High-country vistas, wild-flowing rivers, tranquil streams and peaceful lakes are within an hour's driving distance from almost anywhere in the Upcountry. In the Upcountry, Southern traditions have melded well with international spice to produce an eclectic mix of natural attractions and cosmopolitan amenities—within a small-town atmosphere. It's a region focused on the future, still mindful of the mountains that have influenced its past and helped define its character.

Old 96 District
The Savannah River, now impounded in a series of lakes, forms the "Freshwater Coast” and Old 96 District's western boundary. The Savannah River Scenic Highway winds over a hundred miles along the shores of three major lakes and through four counties. Warm hospitality and natural beauty abound. In the spring, the blush of the blooming peach orchards spreads across soft, new-green hills. Summer days are for fragrantly ripe fruit, glorious flower gardens, deep shade and all the delights of sparkling waters. Fall paints bright, bold strokes over thousands of acres of the Sumter National Forest, where deer and wild turkey have reclaimed the land once cleared for agriculture. Nowhere in "Old 96" is the traveler far from prime fishing, a cool swim, a golf course, or a touch of history.

Old English District
Here, you’ll find a love of land, family and tradition; the joy of the race and steeplechase; courtly manners that have evolved into a typically "Southern" reverence for antiquity. The large river systems that brought in settlers—Pee Dee, Catawba-Wateree and Broad—now offer visitors all sorts of water recreation. Catawbas, noted for their pottery, still live along the river in eastern York County. Famous potters, they are the only tribe maintaining a homeland in the state.

Genealogy researchers will love local archives and old churchyards. Yet quaint and remote as some of its countryside may seem, the Olde English District is scarcely, at its most rural, more than an hour from city lights, entertainment and amenities such as airports, amusements, theaters and concert halls. A country bed and breakfast inn may offer a lullaby of whippoorwills after a long day at a theme park or outlet mall. With Championship golf and trophy fishing, history tours and horse farms, water slides and nature hikes, lakeside camps and draped four-posters, fish fries and dainty teas, the choices abound.

Santee and Cooper Counties
Because they were not fully cleared of stumps and timber before the floodgates were closed, the huge lakes, dotted with live, bird-sheltering cypresses, offer a haven for such species as striped bass, crappie, bream, white bass and largemouth bass. Several world records have been set here, among them an Arkansas blue catfish that weighed 109.4 pounds and a 58-pound channel cat. In lakeside communities such as Rimini, Santee, Pineville, and several others, fishing information abounds. For other tastes, there are five counties of surrounding countryside and towns, quiet retirement communities, first-rate golf courses, pleasure boating, city and outlet shopping, special activities and arts events, exquisite gardens, museums, historic sites, cycling, and birding. Spring, with its burst of azalea, iris and wisteria bloom, is show time in Santee Cooper Country, with fall close behind both in beauty and activities.

Pee Dee County
The earliest explorers met Indians of the Pee Dee tribe who lived and hunted in its broad valley. Unspoiled groves of tall trees flanked its passage. So clear of underbrush was the forest floor that a man could be seen half a mile away, wrote one adventurer. Natural, meadow-like clearings bloomed with exotic species of wildflowers. Big game abounds. Plantations near the Pee Dee's mouth grew rice; upriver they grew indigo and later tobacco. While tobacco and cotton remain major commercial crops today, indigo left a whimsical mark: it provided the blue dye used to paint around doors and windows of cabins to keep "Ol' Plat-Eye," the coastal boogie-man, from entering. And then there is Darlington, home of the roar of the stock car engine and the thunder of the crowd. Who could imagine stock car racing without Darlington? Through this land of vigorous small cities, retirement communities, sprawling farms, quiet villages, excellent golf courses, and record-breaking racecars, the leisurely dark waters of the Pee Dee still roll, an Upcountry river on the move.

Area: 32007 sq.mi, Land 30111 sq. mi., Water 1896 sq.mi.

Location: 34.03923 N, 080.88634 W.

Coastline: 187 mi., Shoreline 2,876 mi.

Border States: Georgia - North Carolina.

Agriculture: Tobacco, poultry, cattle, dairy products, soybeans, hogs.

Industry: Textile goods, chemical products, paper products, machinery, tourism.

Flag: Asked by the Revolutionary Council of Safety in the fall of 1775 to design a flag for the use of South Carolina troops, Col. William Moultrie chose a blue which matched the color of their uniforms and a crescent which reproduced the silver emblem worn on the front of their caps. The palmetto tree was added later to represent Moultrie's heroic defense of the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan's Island against the attack of the British fleet on June 28, 1776.

State Mottoes: Animis Opibusque Parati - Dum Spiro Spero, Prepared in mind and resources - While I breathe, I hope.

Origin of state's name: Named in honor of England's King Charles I.

Population: 3,885,736; 26th, 12/99.

Statehood: May 23, 1788.

Topography: Blue Ridge province in northwest has highest peaks; piedmont lies between the mountains and fall line; coastal plain covers two-thirds of the state.

State Capital: Columbia.

Largest Cities: Columbia, Charleston, North Charleston, Greenville, and Spartanburg.

Geographic Center: Richland, 13 miles southeast of Columbia.

Highest Point: Sassafras Mountain; 3,560 feet, 29th.

Lowest Point: Atlantic coast; sea level, 3rd.

State Bird: Great Carolina Wren.

State Flower: Yellow Jessamine - Gelsemium sempervirens.

State Nickname: Palmetto State.

State Song: Carolina.

State Tree: Sabal Palmetto - Sabal palmetto.