Travel after a move has two layers: getting comfortable with your new local radius, and keeping reliable paths to the people you love. Map the drive from your candidate home to your children’s doors in Verona and Kearny so the hours feel real, not abstract—including weekend traffic. Decide in advance whether you prefer flying and renting, or keeping a car-based rhythm between the Carolinas and northern New Jersey. Airport pairings and door-to-door minutes from a specific shortlisted home remain items to confirm—not names to memorize from a brochure.
From Conway and Myrtle Trace, half-day openers include the Riverwalk (about 10 minutes), Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens along the Murrells Inlet corridor, the Marsh Walk for an evening stroll, and Market Common when you want lifestyle retail without the oceanfront crush. Charleston is about 2 hours one-way; do the round-trip arithmetic (~4 hours of driving) before treating it as a breezy same-day outing—overnight is often kinder. Myrtle Beach oceanfront is a tourism day, not the inland Trace lifestyle.
From inland Ocean County, the shore trio from the Redhook-area pins runs roughly: Cattus Island about 19 minutes, Seaside Heights about 23 minutes, Island Beach State Park about 25 minutes (Point Pleasant / Jenkinson’s farther at about 34 minutes). Inland quiet remains the lifestyle; shore is the optional outing. Keep a simple go-bag for overnight family visits: meds, chargers, a spare pair of walking shoes, and printed directions in case your phone signal dips.