South Carolina's Myrtle Beach is a hugely popular family vacation spot for some very good reasons, including 60 miles of wide soft-sand beach, lots of lodging options, and an explosion of waterpark action.  To highlight its appeal during less-than-sunny economic times, MyrtleBeachHotel.com is offering its own vacation stimulus plan. This we know because we received a press release saying so. Maddeningly, the site doesn't have a page that explains the stimulus plan promotion. Instead, you need to scour the special offers to see which individual hotels are offering the two featured deals. To further muddy the waters, not every hotel offers both options, so be sure to read carefully before booking. Despite all these false starts, the deals—when you finally find them—are quite good.

Look for “30% Early Booking Savings” to get 30% off a stay at a participating hotel between now and December 31, 2009. The catch is that you have to book by February 28, which means you have less than a week to lock it in.  There are about a dozen Myrtle Beach hotels participating, and you can book anything from standard-issue rooms to oceanfront condos.  When we checked for a week-long stay in April, we found a three-bedroom oceanfront condo with kitchen and laundry facilities going for $190 a night.

The second offer in the stimulus package is the “Spring Fling—Free Nights and Fun Days” offer, which gives up to three free nights if you stay at select properties on select dates between now and June 11, 2009.  You can stay seven nights and pay for just four, stay five nights and pay for three, or stay three nights and pay for two.