Popular among locals as well as tourists, the outdoor CocoWalk plaza and the surrounding neighborhood is an exciting activity center of retail shops, restaurants, bars, and includes a large AMC movie theatre. Both families and flirty fun-seekers keep the marketplace busy from morning until late at night. Amazingly enough, the many clothes, jewelry, and shoe stores (this is THE place for sandals) stay open until 10:30PM, which is ideal for safe and pleasant after-dinner walks. There’s a mix of upscale boutiques and chain retailers, like Banana Republic. One such shop, Koko & Palenki, carries a nice selection of evening shoes, including the latest Stuart Weissmans.
There is always music of some type to entertain shoppers and non-shoppers alike, either emanating from the open air Mexican restaurant or the live cover-singing entertainers performing on the main balcony; and yes, sometimes from both directions. You can enjoy this from sitting in one of the café/restaurants, or one of the open tables on the 2nd floor, as we did, savoring a chocolate/strawberry crepe.
Neighboring streets contain more stores carrying warm-weather tanks, pants, sandals, as well as a variety of restaurants – a steak house, Mexican, Indian, Italian, French, and Chinese. Since we were looking for a light meal, we stopped by a smoothie bar & café called Zoom Zoom (3415 Main Hwy), to enjoy a “fandango” (chicken) salad, and a “tree hugger” sandwich – cukes, cream cheese, sprouts, avocado, tomato on wheat. Though it may not sound too exciting, it was all quite tasty, and cheap.