Swap Shop, Fort Lauderdale (Where Gumbo was #441)

Gumbo was visiting one of the most interesting shopping destinations/car museums he’s ever seen, the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Congratulations (as always) to George G, who recognized where Gumbo was.

It’s not every day you see a large indoor and outdoor shopping area, in the middle of which sits one of the finest Ferrari collections in the world.  But that’s the Swap Shop, open daily for your convenience and pleasure.  Swap Shop is said to be South Florida’s #2 tourist attraction with about 12 million people visiting each year.

Swap Shop covers 88 acres, much of it outdoors (including multiple outdoor drive-in theater screens).  The central core of Swap Shop is an 180,000 sq ft air-conditioned shopping and entertainment complex featuring around 2000 vendors selling a large variety of merchandise, such as electronics, jewelry, clothes, etc.

The business was originally called Thunderbird Drive-in, but is now branded as  Swap Shop.  Its 14 drive-in theater screens are the largest drive-in complex in the USA.  The drive-in hosts swap meets on the weekends, also probably the country’s largest.

The reason I visited Swap Shop was not to explore the shopping environment, but rather to visit its greatest treasure.  Swap Shop’s car museum holds an amazing and significant collection of exotic cars, with millions of dollars of the world’s fastest machinery on display for your enjoyment — at no charge.  I’m only including a few teaser photos of the car museum.  The collection is so extensive, I plan in describing it in more detail in this coming Friday’s blog.

Swap Shop is situated at 3291 West Sunrise Blvd., between I-95 and the Florida Turnpike in Fort Lauderdale. It’s open Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; on Saturday and Sunday the shops stay open a little later, till 6:30 p.m.  And it’s completely free (except for those things you may want to purchase).