Tribal Island, Little River, SC (other)

Name:Tribal Island
Type:other
Street:Hwy. 17
City:Little River
State:SC
Zip:
country:USA
Phone: 843-281-1177
Status:operational

Description:
During a recent trip to Myrtle Beach, SC, I checked my copy of "Tiki Road Trip" to see if there was any tiki to be found. It did mention a miniature golf course called "Hawaiian Rumble" with a working volcano. What I found was a course called "Tribal Island" that had a working volcano (they must have changed the name). I enjoyed it as did the kids. The volcano is guarded by 3 huge tiki's and it erupts every 10 minutes or so when you begin to hear the tribal music (see pics below). The only thing that bothered me was some of the music that played sounded more Caribbean than Polynesian (steel drums?).

A little further down Hwy 17 I found a tiki store called "Tiki's Woodcarvings." They make some absolutely beautiful pieces by hand (with chainsaw). The prices range from around $40.00 to several hundred. I couldn't resist picking up one and they shipped it to my home in TX where it now sits in my entryway (see pic). They're located at 860 Hwy. 17 in N. Myrtle Beach ph. 843-272-1353.

Also in N. Myrtle Beach is a place called "Coconuts Tiki Bar and Grill." Avoid this place. I ordered a Mai Tai and got Hawaiian Punch with Rum and there were no tikis anywhere.

[ Edited by: Juno on 2003-07-25 14:51 ]

[ Edited by: Juno on 2003-07-25 14:56 ]

[ Edited by: Juno on 2003-07-25 14:57 ]

[ Edited by: juno on 2003-07-25 20:36 ]

[ Edited by: Juno 2005-07-13 19:07 ]

My tiki loving g/f and I made mini-golf at Myrtyl Beach part of our vacation with a stop-over on Oct 19. We also consulted Tiki Road Trip and did find both Hawaiian Rumble and Hawaiian Caverns. The former is actually in North Myrtle Beach, which may be why you did not find it. Those erupting volcanos are used in at least three mini-golf courses in the area. You didn't miss anything at Hawaiian Rumble. We looked it over and apart from two crude Tikis that decorated support posts for the porch, we saw no tikiness. They did sell a tiki mug that says "Myrtle Beach" on the front. We played Hawaiian Caverns (same owner as Rumble); it has two tiki face plaques in the office and Hawaiian vocabulary lessons mounted on the hole numbering markers but no tikiness otherwise. It also has a number of fiberglass African Animals, which suggests a previous theme. We saw Tribal Island advertised in a coupon book, but the phone number was disconnected and we didn't run across the place, so I fear it may be gone or morphed into something else. Locals tell me that mini-golf courses go out of business frequently only to emerge with another theme. I suspect Tribal Island may have been born of the "Survivor" reality show craze. We'll check on it next year in case the phone was only disconneceted as a seasonal measure. I envy that you got to play it! - Greg

Take it from an ex-local of North Myrtle Beach, there is not a whole lot of tiki there.

Juno, The Tribal Island is actually in Little River. It's north of NMB. It's new and, unfortunately, I did not find time to run in there while we were there over the weekend.

I will say that another putt-putt place is changing from a train theme to a tiki theme in NMB also. They had no signs up yet, but are working on it. We did see a few tikis holding up the old sign and looked similar to the Tribal Island.

Hawaiian Rumble and Hawaiian Caverns are both neat putt-putts, but unfortunately very tiki-less.

A neat putt-putt place is a the Capt. Hooks. Very fun...but alas, no tikis there either. Just talking skeletons and mermaids with snapping aligators and Peter Pan, or course.

The carver of which you spoke is named Joe Fanelli. He can be found at Dick's Pawn Shop on Hwy. 17 in NMB.
He has been at that location for 5 years. (Although I never remember the tiki carvings, I do recall the bears and dolphins and indiands and stuff.)

Joe is a really cool guy who will talk with you about his work ad his tiki obsession. (I tend to like carvers who will talk with you and share a similar love for tikis as we do. Although I havent met a carver yet who isnt cool and talkative.)

Mr. Fanelli can be found close to the road and to the far left side of Dicks Pawn Shop. Presently, he has a huge 7+ foot tiki standing in front of his shop. He also does masks (which I am going to order) and many other items. Many of Joe's tiki's are his own design, but he is familiar with the works of other carvers and traditional works and can tell you all about them.

Thanks Juno. Glad ONE of us got to putt-putt at the new course! (I was too busy seeing old friends and relatives and catering to the wife, who had to shop at every outlet mall around.)

-C.

[ Edited by: the75stingray on 2003-11-03 08:29 ]

Whiel I'm thinking of this...
Oh yeah...another place to stay clear of:

The Freaky Tiki. (I think I've mentioned this years ago), This place is a club catering to the spring breakers and such. No real tiki's...no real tiki drinks and probably no knowledge or desire to make you one.
And while I personally like the management, I did not like the club.

This has been a few years back (2000), but I'm told nothing has changed in 3 years.

Many of these bars close during the off-season. And the putt-putt places renovate or re-create.

Some of your best drinks can be found in the small grass-hut shacks that dot the beaches and shaded by huge resorts. These small pool side bars often (in my experience) tend to make the best drinks...often trying to cater to the "guest" as opposed to the simple bar fly who will not return and doesnt tip well anyway.
Give them a try.

A cool place to shop at Barefoot Landing or Broadway at the Beach is Tiki Jims. (Found at tikijims.com online). I found several newly manufactured tiki items. In fact, so many that I did not buy them all...yet.

And last, but not least: The Gay Dolphin. (DOn't be fooled by the name), this is one of the oldest souviner shops on the beach. Located in the heart of Ocean Blvd at 10th on the Boardwalk, this HUGE shop has everything...and if you look hard enough you'll find some tikis around the lower levels. I purchased 3 resin tiki neckless for about $3 a piece. They are very neat and will look cool hanging from my shield and spear on my wall. Other newly created tiki trinkets were found, like keychains and new mugs (as mentioned), but none to write home about.

While on the Myrtle Beach subject, let me honestly say DON'T BOTHER WITH THE FLEA MARKETS. I was so pissed that I wasted a day going to all the flea markets to find not one tiki artifact. NONE! These markets are like mini-stores, with no 'garage sale" stuff. The closest thing to a traditional flea market was North Myrtle Beach Flea Market, but hey only had like one row of vendors and a bunch of shacks with vendors.
Not what I'm familiar with.

I was very disappointed that I did not find anything relating to the extinct Hawaiian Inn in Myrtle Beach. I scowered racks of post cards in antique stores and such, came up blank. Closest thing I found was a Treasure Craft-looking tiki head ash tray that read "Florida" on the back.

Hope you guys have better luck when you return.
Happy shopping and putt-putting!

Hawaiian Rumble and Hawaiian Caverns do have a very mild degree of tikiness. In both cases its rather crude and only in the office area.

Hawaiian Rumble has these tiki posts as part of the porch structure.

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[img]http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3cf25b3127cce813269c19cd50000001610)

Hawaiian Caverns has these two masks on the wall where you pay.

Hawaiian Rumble also sells a tiki mug that reads "Myrtle Beach" on the front; I bought one, but I don't know enough about tiki mugs to describe it. I'll try to post a pic soon.

Jackalope- Thanks for the pics. It has been a while since I was at either of the two Hawaiian Rumble or Caverns. I DO remember those painted masks...didn't really qualify for my kinda tiki, if you know what I mean.

I purchased one of the white "Myrtle Beach" mugs from a shop for like $3.00. Off season prices are great!

I would have picked up a few more, but had a very difficult time in just finding one where the logo wasn't scuffed, or the mug wasn't dinged up.

Tiki Jims had some different mugs, with no markings that I can recall. They looked more traditional and were about $6.00 a piece I think.

I figure I'll get back there sometime soon and pick up some more junk to add to my collection.

Anyway, thanks for the pics. I wish I had taken one of the big (7'+) tiki that Joe Fanelli was working on while we were there. I'll put that on my "to do" list next time I'm there.

Thanks!

On a return trip to the East coast, we finally visited Tribal Island on May 16.

There are two courses. Volcano Valley is the one with the tiki and the volcano. The other course is called Tiki Bay, though it features no tikis.

During our visit, the volcano erupted at intervals of 30 minutes. It fired twice in rapid succession, enabling time to get a pic.

I'm afraid the faces on the volcano have names on signs underneath. The two on the left are "Jimbo" and "the Stuff." I am spared remembrance of the third name.

There is one tiki on the course, other than the three on the volcano. Our travel mascot is not, of course, part of the course.

We play a great deal of miniature golf and our reaction to this place is mixed. The course is clean, well maintained and challenging without being too hard. The gimmic volcano (not an uncommon feature in Myrtle Beach) is entertaining and the drum music on the PA really enhances the mood. We liked the music so much that we asked the guy behind the counter what is was, and that brings me to the negative aspect of the place. The guy working the counter was surly, rude and seemed annoyed that we were disturbing his reading by paying for a game or asking questions. It may be worth noting that during our visit, on a Sunday afternoon of pleasant weather, there was only one other party there. If you plan to be in this area and want to play some mini-golf, be aware that competition among mini-golf courses seems to be fierce and Tribal Island was, at the time of our visit, honoring competitors coupons. This allowed us a "two people for the price of one" deal. Look for deals in the "Monster Coupon Book" and other mini-golf coupons on brochure racks in stores, motels and restaurants.

the75stingray wrote:

A cool place to shop at Barefoot Landing or Broadway at the Beach is Tiki Jims. (Found at tikijims.com online). I found several newly manufactured tiki items. In fact, so many that I did not buy them all...yet.

These are pics from May of 2004. This is the sign for the outlet at Barefoot Landing:

Merchandise:



I didn't quite think this place deserved a "locating tiki" listing since it is already covered here, and its a bit too trendy-tiki for my tastes, but it does have some cheap modern tiki mugs ("Myrtle Beach" imprinted) and some nice hula girl lamps.

[ Edited by: tikijackalope on 2004-06-09 04:58 ]

[ Edited by: TNTiki on 2004-11-06 18:12 ]

I was in N. Myrtle last week and stopped by Tiki Jim's. Besides 2 hula lamps this was all they had:

I did get a pic of the tiki outside: