My family of 3 just returned from our 5-night stay at the Avista (Aug 21-26). We loved the hotel and its location. North Myrtle Beach is much less hectic and the hotel was wonderful.
We stayed in a 1 bedroom condo (I believe the layout was an 'L' unit). It had 2 balconies - 1 off the living room, 1 off the bedroon.
The bedroom had 2 comfortable beds, a closet (safe in the closet), a dresser, a television (with remote), a floor-length mirror, and floor-to-ceiling windows on 2 walls.
The kitchen was small (it was actually in the hall between the bedroom and the living room). It was fully-stocked, with pots & pans, baking pans, dishes, glasses, and sliverware. There was a refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, and microwave. All worked very well.
The living room had a murphy bed, table and chairs, a sofa and an arm chair. The television in this room was in a tall cabinet. It was an okay size for our small family, but it would probably be pretty tight for more than 3 people.
The balcony off the living room had a nice view to the beach and ocean. There were 4 plastic chairs and 2 plastic tables out there.
The bathroom was great! It had a nice sink with plenty of counter space and 2 large cabinets underneath. The tub was huge and the shower was heavenly (lots of water pressure).
As for the location of our room - I would have liked to have been on a higher floor. We were on the sixth floor and right outside the sliding glass door in the bedroom was the air conditioning unit for the middle section of the hotel. When you stepped out onto the balcony, the fan on the air conditioner was very, very loud. But, with the door closed, you could not hear it. The other drawback to the room was the spotlight right outside the other bedroom window. The spotlight was lighting up the foad-side of the building. When we went to bed at night, it looked like daytime outside because of the light. THe curtains did a great job of blocking out that light.
As for the pool area: we didn't swim in the pools because the reason we came to the beach was to be on the beach and in the ocean. The pools were a bit crowded inside and out. There seemed to be plenty of chairs, althhough some of them were in the grass outside the pool area. We did go in the lazy river the last night we were there (actually both the indoor and outdoor ones) - and the water seemed to move you along just fine. The indoor hot tub was wonderful.
The parking deck: We never had any trouble parking (and we drive a Pontiac Montana - a large mini-van). We nearly always backed-in to a parking space with no trouble. The walk from the hotel to the parking deck was also no problem. The traffic wasn't heavy, so it wasn't hard to cross the street.
We also ate breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. They had a menu and also had a breakfast buffet. The buffet was great - lots to choose from and actually very good for buffet food.
Overall, I would say the Avista was wonderful. I would definitely stay there again and suggest to friends to also stay there.