Exploring South of the Border: Hidden Gems, Abandoned Motels, and Nostalgic Wonders 

So I've been a bit obsessed over South of the Border for years. My parents always encouraged me to look for "Pedro signs" on the drive down 95 each summer, but they never let us stop. Once I started making the trip as an adult in college, I not only stopped every time, I've stayed there numerous times dating back to 2002. I can shed a little light on some of what you saw. 1. The west side motel hasn't been used much in many years. I think technically they still kept it open for when bigger events or the height of summer holiday vacations were happening, but they mostly focus on the motor inn on the east side of the property. The part of the west side motel rooms block that is gone was torn down sometime in 2021. 2. The fountain you thought was a pool with the whale was in fact a pool at one time, but we're talking early 80's or before. 3. Most of the animals in the reptile lagoon are very sluggish and inactive in the winter time. They don't even really need to eat during the winter when they're metabolism slows down. Most of the animals there are likely rescues from people who owned them illegally as pets and are unable to be released into the wild. I agree for some of the bigger ones, a little more vegetation and soil to lay on would be great, but these aren't super active animals for much of the year. 4. While it looks kind of "run down" and in some places, it is, a surprising amount of upkeep and refreshing is constantly happening. The big animal statues and Pedro's get new paint jobs often. The east side Motor Inn has been completely renovated within the last 10 years. They've torn down a number of older buildings that had been around forever but really sold just more of the same junky kitsch in an effort to consolidate funds towards upkeep of the rest of it. There used to be an Ice Cream Shop, a Leather Shop, a hot dog stand, a Tshirt Shop, and a Saloon/antiques store, all separate buildings that have been torn down in the last 15 years. The empty building near the Reptile Lagoon was a bank. 5. The sombrero tower elevator was down for a long period between 2019 and 2023. It had been having issues for years before 2019 and they finally closed it semi-permanently until a total maintenance and parts repair/replace could be done. It re-opened in 2023 and was noticeably faster and smoother going up and down than in the years before the fix. It's an old style and very unique, so hard to keep maintained and repaired. 6. Their ginger ale is awesome, I get some every time. 7. Part of the way they stay in business is the campground for RV's does a fairly brisk business, and there is a popular Motocross track behind SOTB proper that gets a lot of use.

Anybody that lived anywhere on the East Coast knew South of the Border. I know this may sound weird but I would like to see it on the National Registry of Historic sites before it gets so far gone it just gets torn down and disappears. It was tacky and glitchy but it is ours tacky and glitchy. I used it as a mile marker to tell me how far I had to go..

You really are scared to buy a drink from there? Not one thing was out of place or dirty inside that store. In fact it was one of the cleanest I've seen. But you would stop at some random circle K and not think twice about buying 3 day old coffee. You're the people who make places like this go away.Then you get on your high horse about how corporations are taking over. We should support these places before they are gone forever. All that stuff and you buy a $1 magnet, and insinuate the stores are nasty and they abuse animals...

To me, SOB was the concept that eventually led to Bucee's. I remember, as a kid getting excited watching the signs countdown the miles as we got closer to SOB

Retired over the road trucker. Back in the 70's this place was really an attraction.

Why do i get the strange vibe that this dude is the proud owner of a vegan pitbull ? And why does everything seem so .... strange to HIM ? LOL .. there are places that are 1000 times more strange than s.o.b

All of the animals in the lagoon are alive.i love that place .you did not do any justice of that place in your video. I was amazed on how clean and professional that the reptile lagoon was built and maintained. Everyone in every store was super polite.all of the stores like the gift shop was clean.i wish more people would visit the place.

Not a fan of how you treated this place..South of the Border is OLD SKOOL Fun!! Always loved stopping there in the 70's for fireworks and toys that were considered risque at the time. Toys that fart or pee..If you have kids, you know they would love this place!! Is it a "Tourist Trap?" Absolutely!! but who cares. Kids have ipads and other devices to entertain them nowadays, so they are less likely to get bored on long road trips. I-95 between Petersburg, VA and Savannah, GA was and still is a long boring haul through the Carolinas...But there was always South of the Border to look forward to, and we would count down the miles from the signs along the highway. Yes, now there are many (nicer, but barely ) places to stay on I-95 now, but back then---this was the halfway point between NY/NJ and South Florida to take a break and the kids had fun.

" Depressive nostalgia " ... Wow, what an apt term! I am old enough to remember when S.O.B. was a busy place. Funny, even back in the late 70's and early 80''s, it had that exact same vibe you just described. It was just a lot busier... I grew up in MD with grandparents in FL who would meet us halfway right there every trip, twice a year. 💯

Growing up in 1970's Maryland, you knew who had driven to Florida for vacation because they had an SOB bumper sticker on their car, and man there were a lot of them.

wow that was the place to buy fireworks when i was a kid (im 54 now) i grew up in CT and when fireworks were illegal in most places people would go down there buy them for nothing and bring them back to CT and sell them at like 10x the price; i also remember how dirty the taco place was

South of the border is a dying breed of simple entertainment. It is from a by gone era. I wish society was as simple as it used to be to be.

Overnighted there twice - first time in 1964 when my parents moved from Maine to Florida (I was on leave after USAF Tech School) and again in 1968 when they did it again and I was on my way to Europe with the USAF. It was tacky then. Rooms were clean and comfortable, though. One thing that I did like was that all of the parking is covered - so if the weather was crap, you didn't get wet between the car and the room.

SOB stays open from the fireworks store, MX tracks behind the truck stop, and ginger ale they actually hired a professional zoologist (definitely not from the area) for the reptile lagoon and the animals are very well took care of

It really is a lot of fun to stop while slogging along 95. I always stop for gas, refreshment, and a walk around the property to stretch out. I bought a copy of their new photo book on the history of their billboards through the years. Highly nostalgic and recommended.

I have been driving by South of the Border since 1972 before I-95 was fully completed through South Carolina. The best attribute of South of the Border was always the billboards on I-95 for miles before arriving at South of the Border. The sign that i can remember best is "Chili today, Hot tamale" which was a play on the weather forecast "Chilly today, hot tomorrow". I also enjoyed seeing South of the Border as we drove by but it was always an expensive tourist trap, even in its heyday, and heyday was a long time ago. We stopped at the restaurant for some Mexican food about 10 years ago and the place was dead and dated. The food was overpriced, bland and the service was exceptionally slow. I will still enjoy seeing the billboards even though there aren't nearly as many as in the 70s, and driving by the big sombrero but South of the Border is now a fuel stop at best for me.

My family always spent 2 weeks in Myrtle Beach. We lived(and still do) in DC suburbs. About an 8-10 hour trip. South of the Border was a must stop. It was the first place where we could get "good" fireworks. For ten years I saved my grass cutting, snow shoveling, leaf raking, pop bottle collecting $$$$ for those m-80's, cherry bombs, and rockets. I would always have at least $200. That was a lot of goodies back in the '70's. I still traveled to Myrtle Beach a few times during the '80's and '90's but haven't been back in 30 years. I'm sure everything is changed. South of the Border was always hopping back in the day. Looks like a ghost town now. Sad.....

I remember visiting my grandparents in North Carolina when I was a kid and we stopped at SOB to use the restrooms. That’s the first place I ever saw pay toilets. I think it was a quarter to open the toilet lid. Then there was one that cost a quarter to open the restroom stall. Crazy

I remember seeing the signs every few miles down Interstate 95 advertising South of The Border

Who remembers all the crazy SOTB billboards up and down 95 for hundreds of miles back in the day. Very few today.

I used to ride my motorcycle all up and down the east coast. I lived near Benson North Carolina at the time and one day decide to go down there and finally check it out. Sad to say it was even less busy than when you did this tour. I had all my gear on and it was a 95° day so I didn't stick around long. Thanks for the tour!

That. Place. Rules. Simple and plain.

If you search RU-vid, there's an old video of Charles Kuralt visting the Blenheim bottling facility way back in the day. As a native South Carolinian, I very much enjoyed the video and think your "depressive nostalgia" description is perfectly fitting. Thank you for taking the time to make the share.

Back in my trucking days, I kept telling myself that I would stop by there one day, but never did. Everyone I knew called it a “tourist trap.” Cool tour, and great video!

The hotel actually does good business. I drove down to Florida two months after this video posted, and we stopped at South of the Border Motor Inn for a room only to find out there were no vacancies.

We have driven past sob many times and now watching this video we will definitely stop by. That place looks amazingly clean and the reptile area was a million times nicer than most zoos. .

I like the place and you should loosen-up a little bit! I will be staying at the motel in the future! Why don’t you jump in and see if they are real? Lol!😀😁😂

Back in the 70's, my parents would bring my brother and me there as a mini-vacation. We lived in NC at the time. Great memories.

They used to sell Coors beer there when it wasnt legal in North Carolina. Ive been up on the top of that hat, it terrified me because the flooring was metal grating and you could see down to the ground. Also there used to be a place there (not sure today) that sold really good burritos.

I lived in Fayetteville, NC in the 80s and my dad and I would make a run down there to buy fireworks for the 4th of July. Looks like hardly anything has changed.

Love the shelter over the motel room parking spots. ❤

This is a wonderful slice of Americana and dude complained the entire visit. It’s sad that it’s becoming run down due to lack of business.

I stayed there in the early sixties on a trip as a kid with my family. We had breakfast in the restaurant. Extensive trinket shops. The restaurant had something on the ceiling Sombreros I believe. It had an exotic feeling. At that time bits of 95 were built but not connected. We generally took US 301 which started up in Maryland. 301 ran past it. The speeds were much slower and you simply turned off 301 in the place. Other than south of the border i don't recall there being much around that area at that time.

When I first got to Ft.Bragg, NC in 1980 I met several people who had honeymooned there. It is such an icon on the east coast that once when I was deployed in the Middle East we averaged out the distance and made a sign of the thousands of miles to South of the Border. I used to joke that my buddies head was so big that we stopped at SOB for coffee and when got to Bragg he said he forgot his hat and by the time we got back they were charging folks to walk on the brim.

Remember going there as a kid on road trip I loved it

I remember going there as a kid back in the 70s I'm thinking 1977 I was 5 years old

I wonder if in 20 years, it will be abandoned, and start to look like some of those old resorts in the Poconos.

Guessing the ‘I’d Tap That Shirt’ was a souvenir. The minute you said ‘I don’t know anything about animals ‘ I was like ok dude is not from VT or at best an invasive species. Enjoyed your vid regardless. Even if it did have that judgey ‘let’s see what the unwashed masses of working class do for entertainment’ under current.

My mom and dad went to South of the border for their honeymoon, after they got married in Dillon SC

Still remember when I first went to Florida and would see the signs a couple of hundred miles before getting to where this is and wondering about it all the way down the coast.

Highway 501 goes directly to Myrtle Beach, and Interstate 95 by passes it. 501 is generally where the people using I-95 turn off to go to Myrtle.

Probably been by 100 times, never stopped. Lol.

They open both hotels during the tourist season, summer time.

I will confidently say that NONE of those poor living creatures should be held in captivity there.

I've been going by there for 45 years and have always wondered how that place stays open. There's never anybody there! Even people that live close by can't tell you how it stays open. Laundering for the cartel, maybe. Lol

They stayed in business so long if you go in the spring summer time they are crazy busy. When I drop to Florida from NJ my gf and I stopped and they hardly had open parking and tourist busses lined the back lot.

Hilarious video Ian!!! You gotta do a part 2😅 although long drive from Maryland The black cashier was really digging you can’t imagine having to work there though like how polite you were to everyone total class on your end because I’m sure they deal with alot of nuckleheads

a big thing keeping sob around is their motocross training facility, lots of money comes from it, some of the best coaching i’ve ever had

I used to ride through here as a young man around 2003. It was old then and empty. Stopped by years ago while with an ex-girlfriend, a weird place. I think the only way they stay open is by selling awesome fireworks. Pedro says so.

Around 1974 I played that golf course.

I’ve been going through there on the way to Myrtle Beach since the 80’s. It’s never busy. Ever. It’s 100% a front for human trafficking and/or money laundering

Fireworks keep sob open

I always stop at JABS Fireworks whenever I run down to Florida. It doesn’t look like much has changed since I was a kid given that the only income for people in that part of South Carolina is from travelers and Firework sales. It’s a very very poor region of the state

Always enjoy passing by South of the Border. It's almost surreal every time.

I’ve been here but I didn’t spend a lot of time as u was just passing through. I missed half of this stuff and I didn’t even know the reptile lagoon existed Maybe it wasn’t open in 2019 The whole place seemed somewhat shut down then Maybe it’s coming back a bit? It looks very clean and well cared for I think I was in the Myrtle Beach shop I can’t see how I can share a photo here but there was “ toilet paper for cheap assholes surrounding baggies of (I assume) fake poop

We have actually stayed in the campground several times; not sure if it still exists. We do go by this 4-5 times a year; never see much traffic and have always wondered how it manages to stay in business. Also never knew there was an elevator in that thing :)

I was married here, because we were to young to marry in NC

Stop by their least twice a week! Pokemon go haven! Lol

Wow! Talk about a hot tub time machine experience! I haven't been there since I was a kid!

We used to stop there going down 301 back in the day. Always looked so forward on stoping there when I was a kid. Man, its sad seeing it like that.

They needed a population to utilize this area. I feel people don’t have to stop by that area like they used to. This was an amazing place before p go phones.

As a NC resident, I have passed this place so many times but never stopped. This is fascinating.

I thought it was a really nice place....for what it is, and it's age. Why go to the place just to trash on it? Attitude reflects the the sub count on this channel.

Im disappointed that you ripped on a Piece of Travel history. It may not have been your cup of tea, but many of us have wonderful memories if the place. Its neat and clean and well cared for. Its a shame u chose to rip on it instead of seeing the charm and kitch.

Brother you've got to drive down the road some either way. There are cool abandoned buildings both ways and some are grand.

South of the Border used to be such a nice place. I wonder if they still have a campground?

Why is there no pro skate video yet at SOB? Seriously fellas, step it up.

It looks different in the late spring/summer/early fall when people heading to the beach stop through, and take a bathroom break.

Stayed at the south of the border motel last year on the way down to the beach, and needless to say, I slept with my gun mere inches away from my hand the entire night.

I took my kids there in the '80s. A couple of years ago I took my grandkids there. It is busy still busy in the summer.

Stopped at the truck stop portion about a year ago always wondered about the rest thanks

They should name the gift shop Just Junk as most gift shops are.

THAT PLACE WAS AWESOME AS A KID AN6 THOSE SIGNS ON THE HIGHWAY BUILT YOU UP A REAL TREAT !! NEVER FORGETTING THAT!!

The amusement park is only open in the summer

I went to reptile land in Pa , they had some of those lickin toads

"Why did that smell like Cheetos?"😂😂😂

Aww we LOVE south of the border! Me and my wife stay whenever possible! Of course it used to be nicer, but, I still enjoy it! We stay at the main lodge with the nice outdoor and indoor pools! All the neon and anatomically incorrect animals ❤! Plus the chili burger is dang good! I guess you gotta be the right kinda person to appreciate it, but it’s a kitsch Mecca around these parts

I need that pedro's forecast shirt HAHAHA

They certainly have the most road side signs starting in Virginia and points south. If by the time you reach the South Carolina border and the tall sign/sombrero, you know you have arrived. All I can think of is back in the 60's and 70's during the migration of families to Disney World this place was hopping. Having a family Thruster full of kids, who didn't stop there, it must have been a must stop for gas and maybe an overnight stay in a cheap motel and breakfast. Every time I have stopped now, its very quiet and hardly anyone around except to buy gas. I'd call it a roadside stop for sure. Sort of like Wall Drugs heading west on the interstate. Never stayed a one of the motes as their are so many nice hotels not far away down the interstate.

Love the SOB. Every time we travel to and from Florida, we make it a point to stop. So many pictures I've taken there. and always check in on FB. BTW the restaurants are really good to go to.

As I kid 6/7 (1989/90) I stopped there on the way from VA to Myrtle Beach. It felt slightly more populated. However, the same vibe of a random assortment of souvenirs was similar. I didn't get to go up the tower then either. Lol.

Reminds me of "The Thing!" in Arizona on I10. Signs for miles about it and it's just... meh. I'm sure back in it's prime it was an awesome spot, and at least they got the ginger ale going for them.

When I was 13 my family drove up from Texas to my brothers wedding in Greensboro NC. On our way back my dad stopped by south of the border. Ever since I was a kid I said I wanted to make it back there. I’m 51 now and I still hadn’t made it back. I’m glad it’s still around but it looks like it’s a little slow in business. But you taking us on a tour sure brought back a lot of memories

I have not been up that way in twenty years. I don't imagine that it has changed much. It was a regular stop for my family on our yearly trip to Florida. It has changed significantly since I was first there sixty-two years ago. Interstate 95 pretty much didn't exist in most of the Carolinas and Georgia. It was rt. 301 which was 2 lanes and quite narrow. No fast food restaurants, just local diners. Every town was different back in those days. Now it seems that every stop along the interstate is exactly like the last. Pedro's place was unique especially when we were children.

I'm sure there would have been more activity there if it had been filmed during the Summer months. However thanks for finally letting me see the reptile lagoon. Very rarely did I ever spend more than 30 minutes there before getting back on the road.

Apparently, Soldiers from Fort Liberty (Bragg), NC have gotten married there.

That ginger ale has a long history in South Carolina. I live in one of the nearby towns about 30 minutes away from there. I can remember as a child buying Blenhiem ginger ale at one of the local mom and pop grocery stores. My dad loved it, so he would buy a carton of it from time to time.

I always love stopping here and the mascot Pedro

First time I was there I was 13 on our way to Georgia, and we stopped on the east side during summer. Of course I thought it was so cool! I know we went in the shops, had lunch, and I played in the arcade a bit. I’ve grown up and don’t like stuff like this anymore, but I’m tempted to go back for nostalgia. It looks exactly the same as 30+ years ago.

I Always stop there when traveling down 95. I love seeing the signs and i have to get something from there every trip. I it a right of passage when you travel 95 through north Carolina and south Carolina.

I remember growing up, and my family and I driving down 95 to go to Florida to see my grandmother and every time we would stop at south of the border. I cannot believe that it isn’t such a dilapidated state and I cannot believe the atrocious way that they are taking care of those animals, it is heartbreaking to see something that you love while you were growing up just be destroyed

Great video but if you had bought something from that first gift shop, you would have made that lady’s day. You probably would have been the first customer she has rung up in a week. That whole place looks dead

I've lived about 1.5 hrs from here for the past 24 yrs and have yet to visit. Keep meaning to, though.

I think SOTB had it's heyday back in the 60s and 70s. It looks kinda creepy nowadays

As a regular there, your there in January, off season! Lot more business May through September!

Well done.

I was nervous if that elevator was functional it would go against everything that make these videos great lol

Roasting in comments... Go to a school that has trailers as classrooms and you will feel the same way...

Oh my! He's so jaded! The old man should have at least bought a 6-pack of that hot spicy soda he was constantly yacking about! He acted disappointed in everything but I wanted him to take his time and show us some of those odd and obscure items they were peddling instead of rushing around and wildly swinging his recorder around like he's panically fleeing a fire!

The gift shops remind me of those you see in the mountains