Shopping is America’s favorite sport! I’m a woman who loves shopping. The thrill of the hunt, the excitement of the find. Let the men watch sports on television, the real competition is stalking a great sale and coming home with a bargain. I like to shop alone, stealthfully slipping in and out of aisles, always with a keen eye for an unwary buy or unexpected treasure. Some of my girlfriends shop in packs like hunters and gatherers. They swoop in, attack the racks, grab up the best deals and quickly check out before their competition knows what happened. We all live in the Boynton Beach area and these are some of our favorite hunting grounds.

The Boynton Beach Mall is our mall of choice for everyday needs. It’s in a very convenient location and it offers a pleasant shopping experience blending great places to shop with a relaxed neighborhood feel. The main stores are Macy’s, Dillards, JCPenney and Sears, along with over 135 specialty stores and eateries, all set in a freshly renovated Florida garden setting. There’s even a wonderful kids’ play area with a delightful merry-go-round. Many retired people, who we call mallwalkers, enter the mall before it opens to briskly walk back and forth for exercise in a safe, air conditioned environment.

CityPlace in West Palm Beach is an exciting downtown destination set in an open-air plaza where old-world architecture, beautiful fountains, and sidewalk cafes create an atmosphere reminiscent of a European town center. There have many well known shops, fine restaurants, and a 20-screen movie theatre.

Another favorite is the Mall at Wellington Green. This Mediterranean-style mall features over 170 specialty shops and restaurants, plus four 2-level department stores: Macy’s, Dillard’s, JCPenney and Nordstrom. The 1.3 million-square-foot, two-level mall serves as the premier year-round shopping for residents as well as tourists in the Boynton Beach area.

Now, for our upscale shopping safaris, the girls and I have two favorite sites nearby: Town Center in Boca Raton and the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens. Shopping at the Town Center is always an adventure. They have approximately 220 specialty stores including Tiffany, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Cartier, Cole Haan, Burberry, Kate Spade, Juicy Couture, Hugo Boss, Sephora, Tourneau, Swarovski, Godiva, Anthropologie, Chico’s, The Walking Co., Coldwater Creek, Easy Spirit, Lilly Pulitzer and many others. The department stores are Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Sears. And the people watching is amazing.

Shopping at the Gardens Mall is simply divine. This luxurious 1.4 million-square-foot center, featuring over 160 fine specialty shops, is anchored by Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Sears. The specialty shops include Chanel, Gucci, and Ralph Lauren. This is a world-class shopping destination, which blends award-winning architecture, fine art and natural landscaping with an innovative retail mix, plus casual and fine dining, such as P.F. Chang’s and Brio Tuscan Grille as well as California Pizza Kitchen and Ruby Tuesday. Shopping there is an elegant afternoon. And of course, both malls offer valet parking.

Our appetite for garage and yard sales is satiated by our two favorite flea markets: the Carnival in Delray Beach and the Festival in Pompano Beach. The nearby Carnival Flea Market is a 35,000-square-foot indoor, air conditioned building, with more than 180 booths filled with all new merchandise at discount prices, so you can shop till you drop!

The massive, quarter-mile-long Festival Flea Market Mall is a shoppers’ paradise with over 500 shops, restaurants, fragrance and cosmetic shops, shoe stores, clothing shops, jewelry stores, home furnishing stores and gift boutiques. Some of my girlfriends claim this is the best flea market in South Florida.

Last on my list of favorites is Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. With over 350 brand name stores and more than 2,380,000-square-feet of retail selling space, it is the sixth largest mall in the United States, and the largest outlet mall in South Florida. When you shop here, plan on spending the whole day and be sure to wear your track shoes…this is not a stroll down Main Street, it’s a trek designed for super shoppers.

Well, that my list of the best shopping in the Boynton Beach area, from top to bottom. I love living here and so does my family, especially when I come home bearing gifts from my shopping expeditions.