South of the Boarder
 

Five of us girls ( 2 are young children) are taking a road trip to South Carolina at the end of July, early August. Does anyone have any info on the South of the Boarder attraction? Would young children be interested? Not including souvoniers, is the place costly? Any info would be great!!!!!Thanks!!!!

The best part about South of the Border is the goofy billboards advertising it on I-95 approaching it. The place itself is pretty much purely tacky and a worthless tourist trap.

Check out<BR><BR>www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/SCDILsobhtml<BR><BR>I visited it for the first time last month, and found it 100 times tackier than Wall Drugs. Definitely not a place to stop for more than five minutes unless you love trashy tourist traps.

It's awful - a big waste of time.

That place is still there? Oh my gosh I was there 30 years ago and said there aint no way in ... this place can last because I said nobody would ever come back or possibly like the place! What a joke it is!! Just goes to show you how people in America can "support" these types of places!!

"Not including souvenirs..."??? That's pretty much all it is, although I guess there are feeble places to eat and a feeble place to stay.<BR><BR>I suppose the children would get a kick out of the warehouses full of gimcracks and gewgaws but keep them out of the ones full of sex toys and weapons.

Border

Make it unanimous - a complete waste of time, but a tribute to the power of marketing !!

When my family and I drove to Florida when I was little, we always got a kick out of stopping there. I used to love their billboards. In May, my husband and I drove down with our kids, and stopped in, since he had never been their. We were disgusted by the whole place. It was filthy and very questionable people were roaming the parking lot. As someone mentioned, many of the souvenirs are sex toys and other items with sexual content, so you may want to reconsider with young children.

Cathy, I think that if you're driving by there anyway, you should stop...it is one of those wacky roadside stops...before you even get there you will be bombarded with about 100 signs for over 200 miles that feature SOB's "mascot" Pedro...it's where Mexico meets the south and the result is hilarious...you can go the top of Sombrero Tower where you will see woods separated in half by I-95...you can even get married there in Pedro's Pleasure Dome and people actually do...there are several stores that sell lots of different merchandise, if that's what you want to call it...back scratchers, salt and pepper shakers, you name it...you can also buy fireworks there because it's legal, but it's not legal to take them into certain states...if for nothing else, it's a good place to take a break from driving and let the kids run around for awhile and it's not expensive...there are a few places there where you can buy food, ice-cream, soda, etc.

Just stopped there briefly for the first time in 25 years. It is definitely pretty disgusting, especially the restrooms. However, I did notice that there are several amusement rides young kids might like (we have a 3-yr old). I have no idea what time they operate. It was cold and rainy when we stopped, so nothing was running. Personally, I would stop just out of curiousity if I had never been, but you probably won't want to stay long.

Question for Ilisa...the last time I stopped at South of the Border was about 8 years ago...I do remember an "adult" store, but the entrance was blocked by a huge clown statue holding a sign that read Dirty Old Man's Shop in back, and it was obvious that you couldn't see anything unless you went all the way in...has that changed? I'm only asking because as a mom I would never suggest that people take their kids somewhere that is inappropriate...it wasn't filthy then either and no one was hanging around in the parking lot, although it was midday...true, it was tacky, but okay for a short break.

The first (and last) time I went to SOB two years ago, the 'questionable' stuff was in a blocked off area, BUT there was an open/short wall separating the two where you could look over and see the lingerie on blow up dolls. <BR><BR>That was only in one store. It seemed most of the stores carried the same junk.

Merilee, that section is still there, located at the back of the main shop. However, walking through that shop you can still find some items with less explicit sexual content. In fact, on the doors of the shops were signs warning people of the sexual nature of some of the things. One of the grossest things about SOB were the bathrooms. My 3 year old was only recently potty trained before that trip, so if she had to go, I had to take her. I wanted to hose us down after that. Oh, and we were there midday as well.

Thanks for the info Ilisa...I appreciate it.

If the kids are old enough to remember, stop and take them. It's been several years, but we've stopped once. As Ken said, "a complete waste of time, but a tribute to the power of marketing!!" If they are old enough, it's a great lesson on how someone can make nothing look exciting.