Broward Mall and Sawgrass Mills Keep Teen Weekends Indoors

West Broward teenagers do not need perfect weather to have weekend plans.

Between Broward Mall in Plantation and Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, students have two familiar indoor destinations that can absorb a Saturday afternoon without much planning. One sits along the University Drive and Broward Boulevard retail corridor. The other anchors the west end of Sunrise Boulevard with a scale large enough to pull shoppers from across South Florida.

Visit Lauderdale’s shopping guide puts both names on the county map, calling Sawgrass Mills one of the area’s signature shopping experiences and pointing visitors toward Broward Mall in Plantation for the kind of mall stop that still feels familiar. Broward Mall’s own site sells the same basic promise more directly: shop, dine and play in Broward County.

For students, the draw is practical before it is fashionable. A mall gives groups a place to meet without asking one person’s house to become the plan. Friends can browse stores, get food, see a movie, run into classmates or wait while parents shop somewhere else. In South Florida, the air conditioning is part of the appeal too. A climate-controlled mall can feel like a relief from heat, rain and the sticky afternoon weather that makes outdoor wandering lose its charm quickly.

The two malls serve different moods. Sawgrass feels bigger, busier and more like a regional outing, with visitors who may have driven in from another county or flown in for a shopping-heavy vacation. Broward Mall feels more familiar for students who know Plantation, University Drive and the everyday west Broward routes families use all week.

That difference is why both can stay relevant. One is the big destination. The other is the easier hangout. A Piper student might go to Sawgrass for a full-day trip, back-to-school shopping or a wider store selection, then end up at Broward Mall another weekend because it is simpler and closer to someone’s route.

In 2006, the teenage social map still has plenty of room for the mall. West Broward has given students more than one place to walk it.