Cheap Date Ideas in Fort Lauderdale: 10 Dates Under $50 for Two

The best cheap date ideas in Fort Lauderdale are Hugh Taylor Birch State Park ($6 per car for the whole day), the free concerts at the Hollywood Beach Bandshell, and the NSU Art Museum on Las Olas ($16 a person — and free on the first Thursday of the month). Every date on this list lands under $50 for two, most of them well under, and none of them feels like settling.

Fort Lauderdale gets priced like a yacht town, and some of it is. But Broward's best date material — the beach, the New River, the mangrove parks, a bandshell on the sand — is public, cheap, or flat-out free. November is when to cash that in: the humidity is gone, sunset lands around 5:30pm so golden hour fits inside a weeknight, and the holiday season starts switching on this week.

The rules for this list: every total is for two people, checked this morning, with the parking and the footnotes printed. Where a place has a free day or a cheaper ticket tier, that's the move we price. For the wider playbook, our date ideas under $50 hub covers all three counties — this guide is the Fort Lauderdale and Broward edition.

The 10 Dates at a Glance

Every pick with the real math for two — the full plans follow below.

The free ones

1. Las Olas Boulevard + the Riverwalk, downtown Fort Lauderdale — free. Start at the NSU Art Museum end of Las Olas and walk west to the New River, then follow the brick Riverwalk as the boats go past and the towers light up. The lit house on the riverbank is Stranahan House, Fort Lauderdale's oldest surviving structure — you are looking at it on this guide's cover. The date: this is the first-date walk that never fails, because the scenery keeps handing you things to talk about. Go at dusk, split a gelato on the boulevard on the way back, and the whole night costs whatever dessert costs. More walks like it in our romantic Fort Lauderdale guide.

2. Hollywood Beach Bandshell, Hollywood — free concerts, Wednesday to Sunday, 7–9pm. The Hollywood Beach Bandshell at Johnson Street on the Broadwalk runs free live music five nights a week — rock, R&B, blues, Latin — with the ocean as the backdrop and the Broadwalk's cafés behind you. This week: Ricky Valido plays Wednesday, November 18, and The Lunatics play Friday, November 20 (both in our events calendar). The date: claim a spot on the wall by 6:30pm, dance if the band earns it, then walk the Broadwalk under the lights. Parking at the Garfield Garage runs $3 an hour on weekdays and $4 on weekends — the only line item.

3. Anne Kolb Nature Center at West Lake Park, Hollywood — free. Anne Kolb Nature Center at 751 Sheridan Street protects about 1,500 acres of mangrove wetland, and there is no gate fee. The exhibit hall is open 9am–5pm; the park itself runs 8am to about 6pm in the winter months. The move is the five-level, 68-foot observation tower — stairs or elevator — for the view over West Lake to the Intracoastal. The date: boardwalk trails through the mangroves, crabs scattering off the path, then the tower at late afternoon when the light goes flat and gold over the water. Quiet, unhurried, and genuinely beautiful — the nature date for couples who'd rather walk than sit.

4. Secret Woods Nature Center, Dania Beach — free, daily 9am–5pm. Broward's first nature center, Secret Woods at 2701 W State Road 84, is 57 acres of cypress wetland and laurel oak hammock on the South Fork of the New River — boardwalks, a butterfly garden, and total quiet ten minutes from downtown Fort Lauderdale. Admission and parking are free. The honest footnote: parts of the river boardwalk and the manatee deck have been under repair since the 2023 floods, per recent park coverage — the trails are open, but if the deck is your whole reason for going, check the county park page before you drive. The date: a morning walk when the butterflies are active, then let the day drift toward the beach, fifteen minutes east.

Under $35 for two

5. Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, Fort Lauderdale — $6 per car. Birch State Park at 3109 E Sunrise Boulevard is 180 acres of maritime hammock wedged between the Intracoastal and A1A, open 8am to sunset every day. The $6 vehicle fee (2–8 people; $2 each if you walk or bike in) covers parking all day — compare that with $4-an-hour beach meters and this is the best parking deal on the Fort Lauderdale beach strip, with a park attached. The date: shaded picnic areas and grills under the trees, a beach gate and crosswalk to the sand, and a late-afternoon walk along the Intracoastal side. Bring the picnic from our picnic dates guide — the Croissan'Time bakery run mapped there starts about a mile from this gate.

6. Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, Fort Lauderdale Beach — parking $4 an hour plus your food. At 1100 Seabreeze Boulevard, at the south end of the beach, the city's beach park lists the exact kit a cheap date needs: grills, picnic tables, restrooms, and outdoor showers, right on the sand. The lot runs $4 an hour (5am–2am), and alcohol isn't permitted on the beach — this is a lemonade-and-iced-tea date. The date: two hours of parking is $8; add a deli pickup on the way and you are at a beachfront grill date for under $30 total, with the sunset over the skyline behind you on the walk back to the car.

7. NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Las Olas — $32 for two, or free on the first Thursday. NSU Art Museum at 1 E Las Olas Boulevard is open Tuesday–Saturday 11am–5pm and Sunday noon–5pm (closed Mondays); adult admission is $16. The budget move is on the calendar: every first Thursday of the month, admission is free from 11am to 7pm for Free First Thursday Sunny Days/Starry Nights, with a two-for-one happy hour in the café. The date: an hour with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Surrounded Islands exhibition — the pink-fabric islands were a Miami story, and the museum is now their home — then out onto Las Olas as the boulevard lights come on. Art first, stroll second, and on the right Thursday the whole thing costs you a coffee.

8. Bonnet House Museum & Gardens, Fort Lauderdale — gardens only, $30 for two. Bonnet House at 900 N Birch Road is a 35-acre artist's estate preserved between the Intracoastal and the Atlantic — orchid house, freshwater lagoon, wading birds, and paths that feel a century away from A1A. It's open Tuesday–Sunday, last admission 4pm, grounds closing at 5pm, with free parking. The full house-and-gardens ticket is $30 a person, which breaks this list's budget for two — so the cheap date is the gardens-only ticket at $15 a person. Picnics are allowed on the grounds with paid admission, which makes this the prettiest picnic lawn in Broward. The date: go at 11am when it opens, wander the lagoon loop slowly, and eat under the trees. Closed Mondays and Thanksgiving Day — plan around both this month.

The seasonal splurges that still clear $50

9. Flamingo Gardens, Davie — $48 for two. Flamingo Gardens at 3750 S Flamingo Road is 60 acres of botanical garden and Everglades wildlife sanctuary — flamingos, a free-flight aviary, a narrated tram tour included in admission, and some of the oldest trees in Broward. It's open daily 9:30am–5pm (last entry 4pm; closed Thanksgiving Day), and adult admission is $24, which puts two tickets at $48 — the ceiling of this list, and worth it. The seasonal upgrade: from Saturday, November 21 through December 30, the gardens reopen at night for Hoffman's Chocolates Winter Wonderland, 5:30–9:30pm with the gardens lit and live entertainment, at the same $24 adult price (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day; animal exhibits and the tram don't run at night). A daytime date now, or a lights date from next Saturday — same ticket math.

10. Holiday Fantasy of Lights, Coconut Creek — $34 per car, opens Saturday, November 21. The Holiday Fantasy of Lights takes over Tradewinds Park's north entrance, 3600 W Sample Road, for its 32nd year: three miles of giant animated displays, driven from your own car, nightly 6–10pm from November 21 through January 2 — holidays included. The price is per standard car at the gate, not per person, so a couple pays $34 total and a double date pays the same. The date: thermos of something warm, holiday playlist on, windows down when the air is cool. Weeknights beat the weekend car line, and it is the easiest date on this list — nobody parks, nobody walks, the dog can ride along. Our holiday lights showdown compares it with Miami's two walk-through shows if you want the full season plan.

How to run this list

First date, keep it weightless: the Las Olas and Riverwalk stroll, or the Bandshell on a Wednesday night — free, public, and easy to extend or end gracefully. Daytime date: Birch State Park or Bonnet House gardens, where the setting does the impressing and the receipt stays small. One night only this season: the Holiday Fantasy of Lights from November 21 — it's the only pick here that disappears in January.

Two habits keep cheap dates cheap in Broward: time the free days (NSU's first Thursdays, the Bandshell's five free nights a week), and treat parking as the real admission price — a $6 state-park gate or a free nature center beats an hourly meter every time. And when the budget stretches a little further, our free Lauderdale-by-the-Sea guide builds a whole $0 day twenty minutes north — just note its own update this week: Anglin's Pier itself is closed for a long rebuild, so that date now runs on the square, the beach, and the shoreline view of the pier.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the best cheap date in Fort Lauderdale? A: Hugh Taylor Birch State Park — $6 per car for a full day of shaded picnic grounds, trails, and beach access at 3109 E Sunrise Boulevard, open 8am to sunset. For a free night date, the Hollywood Beach Bandshell's concerts run Wednesday–Sunday, 7–9pm, at no charge.

Q: What free dates are there in Fort Lauderdale? A: The Las Olas and Riverwalk stroll, Anne Kolb Nature Center and Secret Woods Nature Center (both free Broward County nature centers), the Hollywood Beach Bandshell concerts, and NSU Art Museum on the first Thursday of each month, when admission is free 11am–7pm.

Q: What is a good date under $50 for two in Broward right now? A: The seasonal pick is the Holiday Fantasy of Lights drive-thru at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek — $34 per car, nightly 6–10pm from November 21 through January 2. Year-round, Bonnet House gardens-only tickets are $15 a person ($30 for two) and Flamingo Gardens is $24 a person ($48 for two).

Q: Is Anglin's Pier in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea open? A: No. The pier has been closed since Hurricane Nicole damaged it in 2022, and the town's rebuild timeline points to 2028 at the earliest. The square, beach, and restaurants at the foot of Commercial Boulevard are open — the date works from the shore, just not out on the pier.