The word camping usual brings to mind quiet, natural settings far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. But sometimes our family wants to be right in the middle of the action when we travel in our RV.

As we mentioned in our campground review, the best thing about the Myrtle Beach KOA is that you don’t have to choose. This campground is a wooded retreat just steps away from all the excitement of the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk.

There are enough miniature golf courses, amusement parks, and fun houses in Myrtle Beach to keep your family entertained way past the little ones’ bedtime for days on end. But with all the flashing lights and neon signs, it can be difficult to pick and choose between all the options.

Well, we did the hard work for you.

As you read through our recommendations, though, remember our number one family travel tip: always dip into crazy kid fun in small doses. We never did more than one of these activities in a given day.  Instead, we balanced every trip to the boardwalk with a walk at a nearby State Park and a relaxing swim in the campground pool. This ensured that both the kids and adults stayed in mellow camping mode and never hit vacation overload.

So here are our top picks for wild and crazy boardwalk fun, family style in Myrtle Beach.

1. Myrtle Beach Skywheel

The Myrtle Beach Skywheel is located right in the middle of the Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Boardwalk and Promenade. The ride is high enough to give anyone a few jitters, but the views really are just phenomenal. Even though the tickets were not cheap ($13 for an adult and $9 for a child), the ride was quite long and gave us plenty of time at the top to gaze up and down the South Carolina coast. If you want to avoid long lines, arrive when the Skywheel first opens at 11 am. Or you might want to brave the crowds to enjoy the wheel when it is all lit up at night. Let us know how it goes. That’s when you find us around the campfire…

2. Family Kingdom Amusement Park and Splashes Water Park

Family Kingdom Amusement Park is only blocks away from the Myrtle Beach KOA. If you and your kids need to get in your rides fix while on vacation, this is a great family option. There are rides for every age and height, although our boys were disappointed that the height requirement for the big roller coaster was 56 inches. Nevertheless we had a blast on all the great ride go tos: The Buckaneer, Swings, Tilt-a-Whirl, and the Hurricane. We really appreciate the different pricing options available. You can buy unlimited, all-day wristbands if your family is going to be going on tons of rides. Or you can just buy individual tickets if your family is the type to enjoy 3 rides each and then head back to the campfire. Cough, cough.

3. Myrtle Beach Zipline Adventures

We love zip lining. A lot. But it really can be an expensive and time consuming activity. Our favorite thing about the Myrtle Beach Zipline Adventures is that your family can enjoy an introduction to the adrenaline inducing ride without having to go off into the mountains for half the day. Kids only have to be 40 pounds which means our 5 year olds were able to do their biggest zip yet. We are pretty sure they will never forget the experience.

This boardwalk activity also provides some attractive pricing options for a family. You can purchase a ticket for one zip and one free fall (or two zips) for about $32, or you can buy an all day pass for about $43.00. If our boys were teenagers, we would probably splurge on the all day pass for them and then go read books on the beach for a few hours.

4. Jungle Lagoon Miniature Golf

There are so many miniature golf options in Myrtle Beach, you could play a different course every day of vacation if you were so inclined. The Jungle Lagoon happens to be about 100 feet away from the entrance of the Myrtle Beach KOA, which made it our favorite pick hands down. The course is clean and well-maintained, with plenty of obstacles to keep your family entertained through all 18 holes. There are two different courses, the Jungle course and the Lagoon course, and both were equally fun for our boys. Walking over to the Jungle Lagoon after a day playing at the beach and bouncing on the jump pillow was the cherry on our vacation sundae.

5. WonderWorks

We always make sure to have at least one rainy day option on the list when we go on vacation. Wonderworks, located at Broadway on the Beach, is the perfect choice for an indoor family activity. You could definitely spend the entire day. A zany mix between an indoor amusement park and children’s museum, there are tons of hands on exhibits about space, sports, and natural disasters. Virtual air hockey, a bubble lab, a bed of nails…the list goes on. Just be warned: the top floor has an indoor ropes challenge course AND an arcade. If you don’t want to pay extra for your kids to play arcade games, avoid this floor at all costs. Consider yourself warned.

6. Myrtle Beach Pelicans, Minor League Baseball

Right across the street from Broadway on the Beach is the home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, where we enjoyed one of our favorite evenings of our whole trip. Minor league baseball is a perfect family activity when traveling because the tickets are very affordable and every one, young and old, can enjoy the game. We love that our boys can get up close to the action and really see what is going on. They ask questions the whole time and learn so much about baseball whenever we visit a minor league stadium. The Pelicans had a lively crowd, and we all walked away with some great team apparel.

This trip was sponsored by Kampgrounds of America and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.  Our opinions are always our own. For more information about this campground and Myrtle Beach check out last week’s RVFTA podcast for free in the iTunes store or on our blog.  We interview the general manager of the Myrtle Beach KOA, Jeremiah Drew, along with some very happy campers.