Most of the best things to do in Pembroke Park, FL sit within a 15-minute drive of a town that covers only 1.666 square miles. Inside the town limits you get four municipal parks, an over-water driving range and a strip of cheap, unfussy places to eat along West Hallandale Beach Boulevard. The beach, the casinos, the Broadwalk, the water park and the airboats all sit just outside it. This guide works outward in drive-time rings, so you can plan a morning or a full day without guessing which town you’re in.
Orientation: A Small Town With a 15-Minute Radius
Pembroke Park sits in southern Broward County, bordered by West Park to the north and west, Hallandale Beach to the east and Miami-Dade County to the south, with Hollywood and Miramar just beyond West Park. It had 6,260 residents at the 2020 census and an estimated 6,544 in 2024 (Wikipedia). Locals navigate by two roads: West Hallandale Beach Boulevard, which runs through the middle of town and carries its restaurants and retail, and Pembroke Road along the north side, which gave the town its name.
One correction before you plan anything. Pembroke Park isn’t Pembroke Pines, a separate and much larger city to the west that owns the mall, the golf courses, the ice rink and the water park that search results keep attaching to Pembroke Park’s name. The rings are simple: the boulevard and the town parks under 5 minutes, Hallandale Beach and the ocean at 5 to 10, Hollywood and Aventura at 10 to 20, and Pembroke Pines, Davie and the Everglades at 20 to 35.
Season matters more than time of day. Pembroke Park’s population doubles in winter as Canadian snowbirds arrive, according to Visit Lauderdale, the Greater Fort Lauderdale tourism bureau, and peak season runs December through April. That’s when the boulevard restaurants are fullest and beach parking goes first. Our guide to the best time to visit Pembroke Park breaks the year down month by month.
Inside the Town Limits: Four Parks, a Range and the Boulevard
Pembroke Park runs four municipal parks, spread across the corners of town so every resident has one nearby. The Town of Pembroke Park Parks Department keeps them open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, publishes no admission charge for any of them, and handles pavilion and BBQ rentals by application at 954-986-0790.
Raymond P. Oglesby Preserve
Raymond P. Oglesby Preserve is the best of the four town parks and the one to pick if you have an hour. It holds a walking and fitness trail, a playground, picnic tables, BBQ grills and rentable pavilions, and Visit Lauderdale notes it has lots of shade, which is unusual for this stretch of Broward. Pavilion and grill use runs on an application rather than a first-come claim, so book ahead for a group.
Patrick Behan Park
Patrick Behan Park sits on the east side of town, closer to the Hallandale Beach line. It’s the second of the two Pembroke Park sites with reservable outdoor pavilion and BBQ facilities, which makes it the fallback for a cookout when the Preserve is booked. Bring your own shade plan between June and September, because midday heat is unforgiving.
Howard P. Clark Linear Walkway and Ryan Park
Howard P. Clark Linear Walkway is the closest thing Pembroke Park has to a dedicated pedestrian route, a linear path on the east side listed by the town alongside Behan Park. Ryan Park, on the west side, is a neighborhood park with no pavilion rental listed. Both are a walk rather than a destination, and early morning is the only comfortable window for either from June through September.
Aqua Golf Driving Range
Aqua Golf Driving Range, at 2250 S Park Rd, is the one golf facility inside town, and it’s more fun than a range has any right to be: you hit over a 20-acre lake from under a double-wide canopy. The range’s own site says it has been running for more than 50 years, offers lessons, club rentals and a synthetic short game area, and turned up in the movie "There’s Something About Mary." The canopy makes it one of the few outdoor things in town that works on a summer afternoon. Our guide to golf courses near Pembroke Park covers the full courses, all outside the town line.
Untoasted
Untoasted, at 3121 W Hallandale Beach Blvd, is the strongest sit-down breakfast and brunch room with an actual Pembroke Park address. It serves breakfast and lunch all day, and French toast plates are the reason to come. It’s open daily 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., so it’s never dinner, and weekend mid-morning is the busiest window. Further west on the boulevard, Berny’s Kitchen & Bar at 4400 W Hallandale Beach Blvd adds a Haitian kitchen and bar, and our guide to where to eat in Pembroke Park goes deeper.
5 to 10 Minutes East: Hallandale Beach
Hallandale Beach and Boardwalk
Hallandale Beach is the nearest ocean to Pembroke Park, under 10 minutes east on the same road that runs through town. Visit Lauderdale describes the beach as clear, pristine and peaceful, and the boardwalk gets used by walkers, joggers and cyclists. It’s quieter than Hollywood Beach a few miles north, which is why locals use it. If you own your chairs, umbrellas and paddle gear instead of renting, a 5×10 unit holds all of it.
Gulfstream Park
Gulfstream Park has run in Hallandale Beach since 1939 and pairs thoroughbred racing on three courses with a casino open 365 days a year and more than 20 restaurants, bars and nightspots, including the Carousel Club. The Village at Gulfstream Park adds open-air shopping next door. Live racing currently runs Friday through Sunday with a first post of 12:20 p.m., and the schedule shifts between meets, so check the racing calendar if the horses are the point.
The Big Easy Casino
The Big Easy Casino at 831 N Federal Hwy is the smaller of the two Hallandale Beach gaming rooms, with slots, electronic table games, poker and simulcast betting. It’s open 9 a.m. to 4 a.m. Monday through Thursday and continuously from 9 a.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Monday, with poker daily from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. and simulcast from 11:30 a.m. Worth knowing before you drive over: the on-site venue The Velvet Spell is currently closed.
10 to 20 Minutes: Hollywood and Aventura
Hollywood Beach Broadwalk
The Hollywood Beach Broadwalk is the most useful outdoor asset within reach of Pembroke Park, a nearly 2.5-mile brick-paved promenade along the Atlantic that Travel + Leisure named one of America’s best beach boardwalks. Parking splits between metered street spaces and the Garfield, Nevada Street and Margaritaville garages. Weekends and the winter season are the hardest times to find a space, so arrive early or head straight for a garage.
Le Tub
Half the reason to visit Le Tub, at 1100 N Ocean Dr in Hollywood, is the building itself: a former gas station turned waterfront restaurant, famous for its burger and now celebrating 50 years. It doesn’t take reservations, since seating is first-come, first-served, and that turns into a long stand-around at busy hours. It’s open 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Time your visit for a weekday afternoon instead of a weekend evening.
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood at 1 Seminole Way is anchored by the Guitar Hotel, a 450-foot, 638-room tower. The complex holds a casino, Hard Rock Live for concerts, the DAER nightclub, Rock Spa & Salon, pools and dining that runs to Council Oak Steaks & Seafood and Kuro. Concert nights bring the biggest crowds, so allow extra time for parking.
Art and Culture Center/Hollywood
The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, at 1650 Harrison Street, is the nearest contemporary art venue to Pembroke Park, and it now runs Cinema Paradiso Hollywood, a nearby screen for independent and foreign films. Build a visit around the Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk, held the third Saturday of every month from 6 to 10 p.m. with live music, an artisan market and a free guided tour of the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project.
Yellow Green Farmers Market
Yellow Green Farmers Market at 3080 Sheridan Street in Hollywood is the big weekend market in this area, selling fresh seafood, produce, crafts, artisanal goods and art. It’s about 15 minutes from Pembroke Park. The detail most guides leave out is that it opens Saturdays and Sundays only, 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. year-round. Parking is $8 in the north lot or $15 in the south lot and free after 5 p.m. Go early for produce and seafood, later for the food stalls.
Aventura Mall
Aventura Mall is roughly 15 minutes south and is the closest luxury shopping to Pembroke Park, with Dior, Prada, Louis Vuitton and Hermès among the boutiques. What makes it an activity rather than an errand is the art: more than 25 museum-caliber works by artists including Robert Indiana and Louise Bourgeois are installed through the building. Even if you buy nothing, that’s a free indoor hour on a hot afternoon.
20 to 35 Minutes Out: Water, Gardens and Airboats
C.B. Smith Park and Paradise Cove Water Park
C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines is a regional park about 25 to 30 minutes west, packing batting cages, a driving range, tennis, squash, pickleball, trails and rentable lakeside pavilions with BBQ grills. Broward County regional parks are free on weekdays and charge $3 per vehicle on weekends and County holidays, per the county’s park system fee schedule. Inside it sits Paradise Cove Water Park, with the Paradise Pipeline slides, the Crazy Creek tube ride and the Sharky’s Lagoon water playground. It’s seasonal, open spring through September from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and charged separately from park entry at $15, or $10 after 3 p.m.
Flamingo Gardens Botanical Garden and Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary
Flamingo Gardens in Davie is 60 acres of botanical garden and a wildlife sanctuary with alligators, river otters, bobcats, panthers and native birds, according to Visit Lauderdale’s Flamingo Gardens guide. The 1933 Wray Home shares the grounds. It’s about 25 minutes northwest and open daily 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Go early for the animals.
Everglades Holiday Park
Everglades Holiday Park at 21940 Griffin Road is the closest real Everglades experience, about 30 minutes west, with 60-minute airboat tours through the sawgrass and the Gator Boys Alligator Rescue show. Tours run seven days a week from 9 a.m., last departure 5 p.m., and there’s a cafe and a bait and tackle shop on site. Hours are subject to the weather, so book the earliest slot for calm water and the most wildlife.
Parking, Heat and the Things Guides Skip
Nothing in Pembroke Park is meaningfully walkable to anything else, so you need a car. The town has no rail station (the nearest Brightline stop is Aventura station), the commercial strip runs along a busy boulevard, and the parks sit in different corners by design. Parking in town is rarely the hard part. It only becomes a problem once you head for the beaches.
Time the outdoor half of your day for the morning between June and September. NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for the nearby Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport put July and August highs at 90°F, and June is the wettest month. The town runs a Thor Guard lightning prediction system, which matters when thunderstorms land on summer afternoons.
Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, peaking statistically on September 10 (National Hurricane Center). Pembroke Park sits a few miles inland at roughly 10 feet of elevation, and the town posts storm updates before, during and after a storm. Book refundable rates in that window. Climate-controlled storage in Pembroke Park is worth considering for anything paper, wood or upholstered that would otherwise sit out a South Florida summer.
Closing days are the other trap. Untoasted shuts at 4 p.m. daily, Yellow Green Farmers Market trades weekends only, Paradise Cove closes for the season after September, and the Hollywood ArtWalk is one Saturday a month. Seasonal residents who lock up a place for the summer often move a one-bedroom’s worth of furniture into a 10×10 storage unit rather than leave it in a closed apartment. For narrower plans, our things to do in Pembroke Park with kids guide splits indoor and outdoor by age, and the day trips from Pembroke Park guide covers everything past the 35-minute ring.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s Pembroke Park known for?
Pembroke Park is known as a small, working, residential town in southern Broward County rather than a visitor destination. Its motto is "The Small Town that Means Big Business," which fits the warehouse and furniture district off Park Road. Locally it’s known for four municipal parks, a lakeside driving range, a cheap restaurant strip on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard, and a winter population that doubles with Canadian snowbirds.
What are some things to do in Pembroke this weekend?
Start with breakfast at Untoasted before it closes at 4 p.m., then walk the Raymond P. Oglesby Preserve trail while it’s still cool or hit a bucket of balls at Aqua Golf. After that, head out of town: Hallandale Beach is 10 minutes east, Yellow Green Farmers Market runs Saturdays and Sundays only, and the Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk lands on the third Saturday of the month.
What are the main attractions in Pembroke Pines?
Pembroke Pines is a separate city west of Pembroke Park, roughly 20 to 30 minutes away. Its main draws are C.B. Smith Park with the seasonal Paradise Cove Water Park inside it, Pembroke Lakes Mall, the open-air Shops at Pembroke Gardens and Pines Ice Arena. None of these are in Pembroke Park, a distinction search results blur constantly.
Is Pembroke Park a good area?
It depends what you need. Almost half of residents live in mobile homes, according to Wikipedia, and Livability puts the median household income at $48,218, the median home value at $200,932, median rent at $1,378 and the average commute at 30 minutes. The trade for a modest cost of living is a central position, with the beach under 10 minutes east.
What to do in Pembroke with kids?
In town, the walk-up options are the playground and trails at Raymond P. Oglesby Preserve and Patrick Behan Park. Past the town line, Paradise Cove Water Park inside C.B. Smith Park is the warm-weather answer from spring through September, Flamingo Gardens in Davie covers animals, and Everglades Holiday Park runs airboat tours from 9 a.m. Keep an indoor backup between June and September.
Where Value Store It Fits Around Town
Storage is a practical fact of life in a town where many residents leave for the summer. Value Store It’s Pembroke Park facility rents month-to-month with no long-term contract. The smallest space is a 5×5 storage locker in Pembroke Park, which fits the snowbird pattern of leaving beach chairs, bikes and holiday bins behind instead of driving them north each spring. Sizes step up through a 10×5 footprint and the 5×10, each holding the contents of one room, then 5×15 units that take a studio apartment and the 10×10 that holds a one-bedroom. Larger households and the boulevard’s small businesses use the 10×15 space, 10×20 units and the 10×30 unit. If you’re unsure which you need, the storage unit size guide sizes it by what you own rather than by square feet.
