Currency exchange near Fort Lauderdale? You're already in the city

Type near Fort Lauderdale into a map and you half expect the top result to be somewhere out by the turnpike with a Fort Lauderdale mailing address on it. This one isn't. We're at 3200 N Federal Hwy k4, inside Coral Ridge Mall, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306, sitting on US-1 in the middle of the city. That changes how you plan the trip: you're driving toward the coast and downtown rather than away from them, and the last stretch is a walk through the mall rather than a hunt around an office park. If you'd rather check something before you set out, the number is +1 (754) 715-6081.

Nearly everything in Broward that people drive here from sits on the eastern side of the county, and US-1 runs straight through it. That's the road we're on. Coming from Las Olas, Flagler Village or the beach, you're heading north up Federal. From Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea or Pompano, you're heading south on the same road. From Port Everglades or Hollywood Beach, it's a run up from the south end. And if a flight out of FLL is what's driving this, the mall sits inland of the beach, not past it. Each of those starting points has its own page with the turns written out, so pick the one that matches where you're leaving from instead of reading a route you'll never drive.

This counter opens at 11 AM and closes at 7 PM. Hardly anyone in the county has a distance problem getting here; what they have is a morning problem. An early sailing out of Port Everglades, a 9 AM flight from FLL, a job that needs cash in hand before the workday starts, and the nearest window is still dark. Two ways around it. Handle it the afternoon before, which is what most people end up doing, or drive down to our Miami kiosk at Bayside Marketplace, 401 Biscayne Blvd, which opens at 9 AM. That's about the only thing worth leaving the county for.

If you're a few blocks up Federal, walking in and finding we're light on Swiss francs that day costs you ten minutes. From Pompano, Hollywood Beach or out west in Weston, it costs you an afternoon. That's the whole case for ordering online first. The order puts your currency aside at Coral Ridge under your name before you get in the car, and the rate you agree to at checkout stays put for 24 hours. Lock it over breakfast, pick it up on your way home from work. Nothing about it is a deposit against a guess, and the drive stops being a bet on what's in the drawer that afternoon.

Plenty of people in Broward assume the serious work happens down in Miami and the local spot is just tourist money. It doesn't split that way. Both counters run the same book: more than 70 currencies, bought and sold, so the euros you're taking to Lisbon and the pesos still folded in your wallet from Bogota are both handled at this window. Large amounts go by appointment, so the bills are counted and waiting instead of you standing there while someone works a stack. Whatever the size, the money is counted out in front of you and you leave with a receipt, which is the thing you want later if you come back to sell some of it.