How Much to Tip in Myrtle Beach (2026): Golf, Resorts & Myrtle Beach Tipping Guide

Myrtle Beach is a city built on tourism. Sixty miles of sandy shoreline, over 80 golf courses, and more seafood buffets than you can count draw millions of visitors every year. The service workers who power the Grand Strand — servers, housekeepers, caddies, and bartenders — earn a significant portion of their income from tips, especially during the peak summer season. Here is exactly how to tip in Myrtle Beach so you take care of the people taking care of your vacation.

Myrtle Beach Tipping Quick Reference

Summer Season: Tip Like You Mean It

From June through August, Myrtle Beach service workers run on adrenaline and caffeine. Restaurant servers along Ocean Boulevard and the Kings Highway corridor work double shifts in packed dining rooms with families, large groups, and sunburned tourists. The standard restaurant tip during summer is 20–25% — do not default to 18%. These servers are enduring brutal summer heat, high table turnover, and the general chaos of peak season. The same goes for bartenders at oceanfront bars; tip $1–2 per beer and $2–3 per cocktail, and if you are camping at a barstool during a live-music set, throw in a little extra. Hotel housekeepers at oceanfront resorts work through mountains of sand and wet towels — $5 per day minimum, left daily since staff rotate.

Golf Course Tipping

Myrtle Beach is the golf capital of the South, and tipping on the course follows time-honored traditions. A walking caddie at premium courses like the Dunes Club or Caledonia should receive $40–60 per round for a single bag, or $25–30 per bag for a double. Forecaddies — who ride ahead and track your shots — typically get $20–25 per player. Bag-drop attendants and cart staff should be tipped $5 when they clean your clubs after the round. If you are playing a package deal that includes multiple courses, tip at each course individually; the staff at course number two does not share with course number one. Pro shop staff are generally not tipped, though a small gratuity for a club rental setup is a nice gesture.

Seafood Buffets

The Myrtle Beach seafood buffet is a genre unto itself. Places like Captain George's, Bennett's Calabash, and Giant Crab serve heaping platters of crab legs, fried shrimp, and hushpuppies to hundreds of diners per night. A common misconception is that buffets do not require a tip because you serve yourself. That is wrong. Buffet servers still bring your drinks, clear your plates (and there will be many plates), and keep your crab leg bucket from overflowing. Tip 15–20% at seafood buffets — 15% is the floor, 18–20% for attentive drink refills and timely plate-clearing. If you have kids making a mess (and they will), tip closer to 20%.

Resort Hotels

Large oceanfront resorts like the Marriott Resort at Grande Dunes, Kingston Plantation, and the Breakers employ hundreds of service staff. Housekeeping should receive $5 per night — more if you have a multi-room suite or your kids have tracked sand everywhere. Pool attendants and towel-service staff are not traditionally tipped, but if someone goes out of their way to find you a shaded chair during a packed summer afternoon, $3–5 is a thoughtful gesture. Resort valets are tipped $3–5 on pickup. At the resort bar or pool bar, the same $1–2 per drink standard applies, but consider opening a tab and tipping 20% at the end of the day.

For tipping norms across the rest of South Carolina — from Charleston to Greenville — see our complete South Carolina state tipping guide.