Fort Lauderdale splits neatly into a downtown core around Las Olas Boulevard and the New River, a barrier island strip of beach and A1A about ten minutes east, and a spread of gardens, outlet shopping and airboat landings out west toward the Everglades. Water connects all of it, so the strongest trips pair one walking day between the Riverwalk and the museums with one day spent on the sand and aboard a boat.
The top 15, ranked
Ranked by how consistently each pick appears across official Fort Lauderdale sources, the local destination marketing organization, and recent independent roundups.
- Top pick
1Best for Walking · #1 of 15
Las Olas Boulevard
Neighborhood LandmarkLas Olas and DowntownAn open public street at all hours, with shops, galleries and restaurants keeping their own schedulesFree with paid optionsLas Olas runs east from the New River to the ocean, and its central blocks hold the city's densest run of galleries, independent boutiques, sidewalk cafes and bars under a canopy of shade trees. Past the shops the boulevard crosses the Intracoastal and threads through the Isles, the fingers of canal front street that earned Fort Lauderdale its Venice of America nickname, before ending at the beach.
Local tipPark once in a downtown garage and walk the shopping blocks, because the metered street spaces on the boulevard turn over slowly and rarely open when you want them.
- Top pick
2Best for Beach · #2 of 15
Fort Lauderdale Beach and the Beachfront Promenade
ParkThe Beach and A1AOpen daily, with lifeguards on duty through daylight hours in the guarded sectionsFree with paid optionsThe city's signature stretch of sand runs for miles along A1A, separated from the traffic by a low white wave wall and a wide promenade that carries walkers, runners and cyclists for about two miles. Lifeguard stands, showers and rental kiosks cluster in the busy section near Las Olas, while the blocks north toward Sunrise Boulevard thin out into quieter sand backed by sea grape.
Local tipThe garages and metered lots along A1A fill by late morning on weekends, so arrive early or come across on the water taxi and skip the parking problem entirely.
- Top pick
3Best for Sightseeing · #3 of 15
Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi
TourIntracoastal and the canalsRuns daily from late morning into the evening, with departures every half hour or so at the busier stopsTicketedA fleet of open sided boats works a loop of stops along the New River and the Intracoastal Waterway, calling at the beach, Las Olas, the downtown Riverwalk and the marinas around Seventeenth Street. Captains narrate the run past the yacht basins and the waterfront estates, and an all day pass turns the service into both a sightseeing cruise and a genuinely useful way to move around town without a car.
Local tipBuy the all day pass rather than single rides, and board at a quieter stop such as the Riverwalk if you want a seat on the shaded upper deck.
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4Best for History · #4 of 15
Bonnet House Museum and Gardens
Historic SiteThe Beach and A1AOpen most days with a weekday closure, and the last house tour leaves well before the grounds shutTicketedChicago painter Frederic Clay Bartlett built this plantation style winter house in 1920 on beachfront land given to him by his wife's father, the Chicago lawyer Hugh Taylor Birch, and it has survived intact between the highrises and the Intracoastal. Thirty five acres protect one of the last barrier island habitats left in South Florida, and the house itself is a working artist's fantasy of murals, carved animals, shell rooms and a courtyard hung with orchids.
Local tipThe house and the grounds are ticketed together but take very different amounts of time, so leave at least an hour for the gardens and the swan pond after the tour ends.
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5Best for Nature · #5 of 15
Hugh Taylor Birch State Park
ParkThe Beach and A1AOpen daily from early morning until sundown, every day of the yearTicketedHugh Taylor Birch bought this oceanfront land in the 1890s and left one hundred and eighty acres of it to the state in 1941, which is the only reason a wooded barrier island still survives in the middle of a resort strip. A shaded loop road carries walkers, cyclists and skaters past a freshwater lagoon where canoes launch, short trails run through maritime hammock, and the beach sits directly across A1A.
Local tipAdmission is charged per vehicle, so a carload pays far less than the same group arriving separately, and the loop road is best covered on foot or by rented bike.
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6Best for Walking · #6 of 15
Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale
ParkLas Olas and DowntownAn open public path at all hours, with the parks along it following city park hoursFreeA brick and paver path follows the New River through downtown, linking a chain of small parks between the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and Las Olas Boulevard. Along the way it passes the science museum, Esplanade Park, the restored buildings of the old town and a run of dockside restaurants, and its lawns carry a free monthly jazz brunch and a fall festival.
Local tipWalk it in the early evening when the heat drops and the boats come back in, and take the north bank if you want the shaded stretch.
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7Best for Art · #7 of 15
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale
MuseumLas Olas and DowntownOpen most days with a weekday closure, plus one extended evening each monthTicketedEdward Larrabee Barnes designed the eighty three thousand square foot building at the head of Las Olas, which opened in 1986 for a museum founded back in 1958. The holdings run past twenty five thousand works and are strongest in three places, the largest American collection of the postwar European CoBrA group, the deepest holdings anywhere of the realist painter William Glackens, and a growing body of Latin American art.
Local tipChildren get in free and the museum runs one late evening a month with free admission, which is the easiest slot for a family to use.
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8Best for Family · #8 of 15
Museum of Discovery and Science
Family AttractionLas Olas and DowntownOpen daily during daytime hours, with IMAX screenings running later into some eveningsTicketedTwo floors beside the downtown Riverwalk hold more than two hundred hands on exhibits, running from flight simulators and a storm chamber to live animal habitats covering Florida otters, bats and sharks. The EcoDiscovery Center recreates an Everglades airboat ride indoors, and the attached AutoNation IMAX screens documentaries and features on a five story screen billed as the largest in South Florida.
Local tipThe IMAX ticket is sold separately from museum admission, so decide before you arrive whether a film is part of the plan or not.
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9Best for Sightseeing · #9 of 15
Jungle Queen Riverboat
TourIntracoastal and the canalsSightseeing departures run through the day, with the dinner cruise leaving in the early evening on most nightsTicketedA pair of mock sternwheelers has been carrying passengers out of the Bahia Mar marina since 1935, long enough that the boats count as an institution in their own right. The daytime sightseeing run takes about ninety minutes up the New River past the mansions of Millionaires Row and the yacht basins, while the longer evening trip adds a barbecue dinner and a variety show on the company's private island.
Local tipThe afternoon sightseeing cruise is the better pick if you mainly want the river and the houses, since the dinner run gives most of its time to the island show.
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10Best for Family · #10 of 15
Butterfly World
Family AttractionInland BrowardOpen daily during daytime hours with a later start on Sunday, and closures during stormsTicketedSet inside Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek, roughly half an hour north of downtown, this was the first park of its kind in the country when it opened in 1988 and remains the largest butterfly house in the world. Screened aviaries hold around twenty thousand butterflies at a time among dense tropical plantings, and separate walkthroughs cover hummingbirds and lorikeets alongside an insectarium and a botanical garden.
Local tipButterflies are most active in warm midmorning sun, so aim for an early arrival on a clear day rather than turning up after an afternoon thunderstorm.
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11Best for History · #11 of 15
Historic Stranahan House Museum
Historic SiteLas Olas and DowntownOpen most days for scheduled tours, with the last tour starting in mid afternoonTicketedFrank Stranahan ran a ferry and a trading post on the New River, and the wide porched wooden house he finished in 1901 is the oldest surviving building in Broward County. It served in turn as a store, a post office and a town hall before becoming a family home, and guided tours cover the frame construction, the trade with Seminole families and the life of Ivy Stranahan, the area's first schoolteacher.
Local tipIt sits behind a restaurant on Las Olas and is easy to walk straight past, so check tour availability ahead because the house also books private events.
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12Best for Wildlife · #12 of 15
Everglades Holiday Park
TourInland BrowardOpen daily during daytime hours, with departures through the day and pauses in bad weatherTicketedThe closest Everglades access to the city sits at the end of Griffin Road on the edge of the water conservation areas, carrying a Fort Lauderdale address though it lies a long way west of the beach. Hour long airboat rides run out into the sawgrass with a guide, and back at the landing the resident alligator handlers put on a short show with rescued animals in a covered arena.
Local tipMorning departures are cooler and calmer than afternoon ones, and the boats are loud enough that ear protection is worth packing for small children.
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13Best for Nature · #13 of 15
Flamingo Gardens
GardenInland BrowardOpen daily during daytime hours with a last entry before closing, shut only on a couple of winter holidaysTicketedSixty acres in Davie, roughly half an hour west of downtown, hold a botanical garden of more than three thousand tropical and native species gathered around a stand of old growth live oaks. A wildlife sanctuary houses Florida animals that cannot be returned to the wild, among them panthers, bobcats, otters, alligators and a walkthrough aviary, and the 1930s Wray family home survives as a small house museum.
Local tipA narrated tram loops the grounds and is the quickest way to get your bearings before doubling back to the garden paths on foot.
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14Best for History · #14 of 15
History Fort Lauderdale
MuseumLas Olas and DowntownOpen daily during daytime hours, with guided tours at set times in the afternoonTicketedA cluster of restored buildings beside the Riverwalk carries the city's story, centered on the New River Inn, a 1905 hotel built of poured concrete block that now holds the main galleries. Exhibits track the settlement from Seminole trade and the New River pioneers through to the growth of the beach resort, and studios upstairs put working artists inside the historic building.
Local tipDocent led tours run at set times through the afternoon and add far more than the labels do on their own, so time your arrival to catch one.
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15Best for Shopping · #15 of 15
Sawgrass Mills
MarketInland BrowardOpen daily with long hours, opening later and closing earlier on SundayFree with paid optionsOne of the largest outlet complexes in the country sprawls across Sunrise, about half an hour west of the beach, with hundreds of stores laid out along a single indoor loop. The main mall runs to mass market outlets and food courts, the separate Colonnade wing gathers the luxury labels, and the whole place doubles as the most reliable wet weather plan in a city built around being outdoors.
Local tipThe loop is long enough that walking it end to end eats an afternoon, so check the directory at the entrance and target only the wings you actually want.
Where things cluster
Fort Lauderdale falls into four zones, and grouping each half day inside one of them keeps you off the drawbridges and out of the A1A crawl.
- Las Olas and DowntownThe compact core between the New River and the Intracoastal, holding the boulevard's shops and galleries, the Riverwalk parks, the art and science museums and the two oldest houses in the county. Almost all of it links up in a single flat walking loop.
- The Beach and A1AThe barrier island strip about ten minutes east of downtown, where the promenade, the wave wall and the sand run north from Las Olas past Bonnet House to the state park. Parking is the real constraint here, not distance.
- Intracoastal and the canalsThe New River, the Intracoastal Waterway and the residential canals that gave the city its Venice of America nickname. The water taxi and the riverboats work this network, and it is the one part of town better seen from a deck than a sidewalk.
- Inland BrowardHalf an hour west and north the grid gives way to gardens, butterfly houses, outlet shopping and the edge of the Everglades. Everything out here needs a car, and each stop is worth building a half day around.
Make it a day
Downtown first, then the sand
Start on the Riverwalk before the heat builds, taking in either the NSU Art Museum or the science museum and then the shopping blocks of Las Olas. Ride the water taxi east in the afternoon, walk the promenade, and stay on the beach for the last of the light.
One day on the water, one inland
Spend day one entirely between downtown and the beach, pairing a walk through Las Olas and the Riverwalk with Bonnet House and a water taxi loop toward sunset. Give day two to the car, running west to Flamingo Gardens or Butterfly World in the morning and finishing at the Everglades edge or Sawgrass Mills.
Science, butterflies and an airboat
Give the morning to the Museum of Discovery and Science on the Riverwalk, where the flight simulators and the otter habitat hold attention longest. Then pick one big outdoor hit for the afternoon, either the aviaries at Butterfly World or an airboat run and alligator show at the Everglades landing.
Map
Best time to visit
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The dry season from late autumn into spring brings warm days, low humidity and the least rain, which is also why it is the busiest and priciest stretch of the year. Summer is hot and wet with near daily afternoon storms, and the peak of Atlantic hurricane season runs from August into October, so the shoulder weeks in November and April give the best balance of weather and crowds.
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Fort Lauderdale things to do FAQ
Parking, timing, cost, and weather answers for a smoother visit.
How many days do you need in Fort Lauderdale?
Two or three days covers it comfortably. One day handles downtown, Las Olas and the Riverwalk museums on foot, and a second gives you the beach, Bonnet House and time on a boat. A third day is what frees you to drive west for Butterfly World, Flamingo Gardens or an Everglades airboat run without cutting anything short.
Do you need a car in Fort Lauderdale?
Not for the core. Downtown, Las Olas and the beach are linked by the water taxi and a short ride share hop, and each is easy to walk once you are there. A car becomes necessary for anything inland, including Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Flamingo Gardens in Davie, Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise and the Everglades landings west of town.
What is Fort Lauderdale best known for?
Its beach and its boats. Hundreds of miles of inland waterways thread through the city, which is where the Venice of America nickname comes from, and the yachting industry clustered around Seventeenth Street is among the largest anywhere. Port Everglades is also one of the busiest cruise homeports in the world, so a large share of visitors arrive or leave by ship.
Is Fort Lauderdale good for families?
Yes, and it is easier with children than most South Florida cities because the distances are short. The Museum of Discovery and Science, Butterfly World, Flamingo Gardens and the airboat rides are all built for kids, and the beach has lifeguards and generally calm water. The water taxi works well too, since children tend to treat the ride itself as the attraction.
Can you see Fort Lauderdale on a cruise day?
Yes. Port Everglades sits inside the city, roughly ten minutes from both the beach and Las Olas Boulevard, which makes Fort Lauderdale unusually easy to see on an embarkation or turnaround day. Half a day is enough for the promenade and a water taxi loop, or for the Riverwalk and one museum. Leave the inland attractions for a trip with more room in it.
When should you avoid visiting Fort Lauderdale?
Late summer is the hardest window. Heat and humidity peak from July through September, afternoon thunderstorms are close to daily, and the most active stretch of Atlantic hurricane season runs from August into October. Spring break in March also fills the beach and pushes room rates up sharply, so weekday visits work much better in that month.
Keep planning
Use these nearby guides to extend your Fort Lauderdale trip with a different pace and a clear next stop.
Hero image: Fort Lauderdale Beach and the Beachfront Promenade, photograph by Tamanoeconomico, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.