A local guide · Updated weekly

Things to Do in Fort Lauderdale

If you only do ten things in Fort Lauderdale, start with these: the beach behind the wave wall, a Water Taxi day on the Intracoastal canals, Las Olas Boulevard, Bonnet House's gardens, Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, and FATVillage on an ArtWalk night. This guide is written by locals — the essentials first, then the live list of what's happening this weekend, the neighborhoods worth your time, and the free finds the tour buses skip.

One thing the big listicles won't tell you: nearly every pick below doubles as a perfect date. Where that's true, we say how — it's the layer fifteen years of South Florida date nights buys you.

At a glance

Quick picks — the top 10

  1. 1

    Fort Lauderdale Beach & the Wave Wall

    Beachfront · Free · Best for: First-timers

    Four miles of wide sand behind the white wave wall on A1A — calmer than South Beach, with the promenade, the beachfront restaurants and the Elbo Room all in walking distance. Sunrise is the local hour.

  2. 2

    Las Olas Boulevard

    Downtown · Free–$ · Best for: Strolling & dining

    The city's main street: galleries, boutiques, sidewalk cafes and the restaurants locals actually book, running from downtown to the beach. Window-shopping is free; dinner is the splurge decision.

  3. 3

    The Water Taxi & the Intracoastal

    The canals · $$ · Best for: Only-in-Fort-Lauderdale

    Fort Lauderdale is the Venice of America — 300 miles of canals — and the hop-on Water Taxi is the easiest way to see them: mansions, mega-yachts and waterfront stops all day on one pass.

  4. 4

    Bonnet House Museum & Gardens

    Beachfront edge · $$ · Best for: History & photos

    A 35-acre 1920s estate wedged between the beach and the Intracoastal: art-filled rooms, orchid gardens, and a resident monkey colony. The most surprising morning in the city.

  5. 5

    Hugh Taylor Birch State Park

    Beachfront · $ · Best for: A nature escape

    A 180-acre barrier-island park between the Intracoastal and the ocean — maritime hammock, a freshwater lagoon, canoe rentals, and a tunnel under A1A that drops you onto quiet sand.

  6. 6

    FATVillage & the downtown arts district

    Downtown · Free–$ · Best for: Art lovers

    Warehouses turned galleries and studios just north of downtown. The last-Saturday ArtWalk — food trucks, live music, open studios — is the best free night out in Broward.

  7. 7

    NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

    Downtown · $ · Best for: Rainy days & art

    A real art museum on the New River's edge: strong contemporary and Latin American collections, rotating exhibitions, and a cafe — the city's best bad-weather plan, one block off Las Olas.

  8. 8

    The Riverwalk & the New River

    Downtown · Free · Best for: An easy evening

    A brick promenade along the New River past Esplanade Park, the Broward Center and the Museum of Discovery and Science — free Sunday jazz brunches, festivals, and the city's front porch.

  9. 9

    Lauderdale-by-the-Sea

    Just north · labeled nearby · Free–$ · Best for: Old-Florida charm

    The beach town that refused to grow up: a walk-off-the-sand reef, Anglin's Fishing Pier, and a small main street of ice-cream shops and tiki bars. Twenty minutes up A1A, worth every one.

  10. 10

    A boat day on the Intracoastal

    The water · $$–$$$ · Best for: The big occasion

    Charter it, rent it, or time your visit for the boat show — being on the water is the city's native state. Even a one-hour sightseeing cruise past the mansions resets what you think this city is.

Happening now · Friday, October 30 – Sunday, November 1

This weekend in Fort Lauderdale

A static list goes stale; this one doesn't. These are the Broward events on our calendar for this Friday through Sunday, pulled live — when they end, they drop off, and the next weekend's take their place.

Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS)
Wed, Oct 28 – Sun, Nov 1

Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS)

Bahia Mar Yachting Center & six waterfront sites · Fort Lauderdale, FL

Unique ExperienceWater & Sunset
Ed Sheeran: LOOP Tour
Thu, Oct 29 – Fri, Oct 30

Ed Sheeran: LOOP Tour

Hard Rock Live · Hollywood, FL

Live MusicRomantic
Karlous Miller
Fri, Oct 30 – Sun, Nov 1

Karlous Miller

Fort Lauderdale Improv · Dania Beach, FL

ComedyNightlife
HULAWEEN at the Mai-Kai
Fri, Oct 30

HULAWEEN at the Mai-Kai

The Mai-Kai, 3599 N Federal Hwy · Fort Lauderdale, FL

NightlifeUnique Experience
Grupo Niche - Niche Disco Tour
Sat, Oct 31

Grupo Niche - Niche Disco Tour

Hard Rock Live · Hollywood, FL

Live MusicNightlife
Haunted Havana Nights at W Fort Lauderdale
Sat, Oct 31

Haunted Havana Nights at W Fort Lauderdale

W Fort Lauderdale · Fort Lauderdale, FL

NightlifeLive MusicRomantic

The day-by-day Broward shortlist — our hand-picked top 5 and the dates worth planning around them — lives on our things to do this weekend in Fort Lauderdale page. The full calendar is on events, and our sister calendar at SFL Cool Events tracks every Broward event this week in one place.

By category

Beaches & Water

This is a canal city that happens to have a beach — or a beach city threaded with canals. Either way, the water is the main event: swim it, ride it, paddle it, or just sit where you can watch it move.

Intracoastal & New River$$

Water Taxi hop-on day

Ride the full loop first to scout the mansions and stops, then hop off for lunch or dinner on the water. A day pass runs about $35 — steep for transport, perfect for sightseeing.

Beachfront$

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park

Rent a canoe on the lagoon, walk the hammock trails, then take the beach tunnel to one of the quietest stretches of sand in the city. A few dollars per car to enter.

Just north · labeled nearbyFree–$

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea reef & pier

Snorkel a living reef straight off the beach, walk Anglin's Pier, and finish with ice cream on Commercial Boulevard. The shore dive capital of Florida, twenty minutes away.

The full Lauderdale-by-the-Sea playbook — reef, pier, and the free version of the day — is in our free date ideas in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

By category

Art & Culture

Broward's art scene is smaller than Miami's and easier to love: one strong museum, one warehouse district, one eccentric estate, and a performing arts center that anchors the river.

DowntownFree–$

FATVillage

Galleries, studios and maker spaces in converted warehouses. The monthly ArtWalk (last Saturday) opens everything at once — go then first, then come back on a quiet weekday.

Downtown$

NSU Art Museum

Contemporary and Latin American art in a striking building on the Riverwalk. Pair it with lunch on Las Olas, one block east — a complete downtown half-day.

Beachfront edge$$

Bonnet House Museum & Gardens

The Birch/Bartlett family's whimsical estate: hand-painted ceilings, shell collections, orchids, and monkeys in the trees. Guided tours run through the day; mornings are coolest.

Gallery nights, art walks and openings land on the South Florida events calendar.

By category

Food & Drink

Las Olas does the dressing up; the Intracoastal does the dressing down. Between them, Broward eats well at every price — and half the best tables come with a dock.

Las Olas$$–$$$

Casa Sensei

Pan-Asian and Latin plates on the Himmarshee Canal, with gondola-style dinner cruises leaving from its dock. The Las Olas table to book when the night matters.

Intracoastal · 17th Street$$

Coconuts

The locals' waterfront pick: dock-and-dine casual, honest seafood, and a deck made for lingering over the marina. Arrive by boat if you possibly can.

Sistrunk · Downtown edge$–$$

Sistrunk Marketplace & Brewery

A food hall and brewery in the historic Sistrunk corridor — graze across local vendors, split a flight, and catch the live-music nights. Dinner for two under $60 is easy here.

Las Olas$$

Louie Bossi's

Big, loud, happy Italian on the boulevard's busiest block — house pastas, a garden patio out back, and the people-watching Las Olas was built for.

Where these tables sit in a full night out is mapped in our Fort Lauderdale date guide.

By category

Music & Nightlife

Fort Lauderdale nights run earlier and easier than Miami's — live music on the river, a legendary beach dive, and big rooms that don't require a velvet-rope negotiation.

Downtown$$

Revolution Live

The city's anchor live-music room, two floors and an outdoor stage a block from the Riverwalk. Touring acts most weeks; check the calendar before you plan around it.

Riverwalk$–$$

The Wharf Fort Lauderdale

An open-air riverfront playground of food trucks, bars and lawn games on the New River — the default Friday plan for half of downtown, and free to walk into.

Beachfront · A1A$

Elbo Room

Pouring since 1938 at the corner of A1A and Las Olas: a legendary dive with cheap drinks, a great jukebox and more stories per square foot than anywhere on the beach.

Riverwalk$$–$$$

Broward Center for the Performing Arts

Broadway tours, ballet, comedy and concerts in the Au-Rene Theater on the river — Hamilton plays here in November. The dressed-up night out, Broward edition.

Who's actually playing this week is on the events calendar.

By category

Outdoors & Nature

Between the beach and the Everglades, Broward keeps its wild edges close: mangrove paddles, a 60-acre garden, and a nature center hidden inside a city park.

Hollywood · labeled nearby$

Anne Kolb Nature Center

A maze of mangrove trails in West Lake Park — rent a kayak in the morning and paddle in near-total quiet, herons and jumping mullet for company. Rentals run about $20–30.

Davie · labeled nearby$$

Flamingo Gardens

Sixty acres of botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary — flamingos, a historic grove house, and some of the oldest trees in South Florida. The greenest half-day in Broward.

Dania Beach edgeFree

Secret Woods Nature Center

Seventy acres of hardwood hammock and mangrove on the New River, with boardwalks and a butterfly garden — free, shaded, and fifteen minutes from the beach crowds.

By category

Sports & Big Events

Broward's signature events are genuinely world-class: the largest in-water boat show on the planet, a floating Christmas parade, a beach music festival, and top-flight soccer — all in one county.

Bahia Mar & the marinas$$

Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS)

Late October into November: nearly 1,300 boats across seven waterfront sites, and the whole city turns into a marina. The single biggest week on Fort Lauderdale's calendar.

IntracoastalFree to watch

Winterfest Boat Parade

Mid-December: a hundred decorated boats parade the Intracoastal from downtown to Pompano. Watch free from any bridge or waterfront restaurant along the route.

North Fort Lauderdale$$–$$$

Inter Miami CF at Chase Stadium

Yes, that Inter Miami — the club plays in Fort Lauderdale, in an 18,000-seat stadium built for noise. A home match is Broward's loudest night out.

Fort Lauderdale Beach$$$

Tortuga Music Festival

Each spring, country and rock take over the sand itself for three days. Book the beach hotels early — the whole strip sells out around it.

Concerts, festivals and match days with tickets are rounded up on our tickets page.

By neighborhood

Where to go, neighborhood by neighborhood

Las Olas & Downtown

Dining, galleries, the Riverwalk

The city's center of gravity: the boulevard's restaurants and shops, the museum and performing arts center on the river, and the Water Taxi stops that tie it together.

Date ideas on Las Olas & downtown →

The Beachfront

The wave wall, A1A, beach bars

Four miles of sand and promenade from the port inlet to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea: swim in the morning, Bonnet House before lunch, the beach bars after dark.

Free beach-town date ideas →

FATVillage & Sistrunk

Art walks, studios, food hall

The creative corridor: warehouse galleries and the monthly ArtWalk north of downtown, the Sistrunk food hall and brewery a few blocks west. Where locals' Friday nights happen.

Art walks & events this week →

Wilton Manors

The Drive, dining, nightlife

Five Points and Wilton Drive pack restaurants, bars and small theaters into a few walkable blocks — one of the most welcoming nightlife strips in Florida, and proudly so.

Fort Lauderdale date ideas →

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea & Dania

The pier, the reef, old Florida

Just outside the city line (labeled honestly): two low-rise beach towns with piers, shore reefs and ice-cream counters — the sunrise side of Broward, twenty minutes away.

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea guide →
On a budget

Free & under $50

Fort Lauderdale's best raw material — the beach, the canals, the river — is free. Sunrise on the sand, the Riverwalk, the FATVillage ArtWalk, Sunday jazz on the river: all $0. And when you do spend, a smart $50 for two goes a long way in Broward.

Free finds

Genuinely free Broward outings — pier sunrises, reef swims, garden corners and beach-town strolls just up the coast in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, verified by locals.

Free things to do near Fort Lauderdale →

Under $50 for two

A hundred South Florida ideas that land under $50 — happy hours, kayak rentals, food halls and cheap seats that don't feel cheap, Broward picks included.

100 date ideas under $50 →
The couples layer

For couples — turn it into a date

Here's the honest conversion this site has specialized in since 2010: any general Fort Lauderdale list becomes a date list with timing and a follow-up. Take the Water Taxi at golden hour, not at noon, and step off at a waterfront table. Walk Bonnet House in the cool of the morning and let Las Olas handle the evening. End the beach day at the Elbo Room the way locals have since 1938. The list above is the raw material; the plans below are the finished product.

Start with our Fort Lauderdale date ideas locals actually love — kayak mornings, Las Olas strolls and Water Taxi sunsets, written by people who date there. When the night is an occasion, go straight to our romantic date ideas in Fort Lauderdale — golden-hour water taxis, garden estates and the tables couples book for anniversaries. Or skip the planning entirely with ready-made date night plans that pair dinner, an activity and a nightcap, each with a rainy-day backup built in.

With kids

Bringing the family?

Fort Lauderdale is an easy family city. The anchor is the Museum of Discovery and Science on the Riverwalk — two floors of hands-on science, an animal hall and an IMAX theater, with the free Riverwalk right outside for the walk to lunch. Add a beach morning at the wave wall, a Water Taxi ride (boats beat buses, every time, at age seven), and Flamingo Gardens out in Davie for the animal day. The one local rule: do the outdoor stops early, before the heat builds, and keep a museum in reserve for the afternoon storm.

Family-friendly concerts, festivals and free days land on the events calendar as they're announced.

Plan it

Sample itineraries & practical notes

One day

Sunrise on the beach, Bonnet House at opening, lunch on Las Olas, a Water Taxi loop in the golden hour, dinner where the boulevard takes you. One side of the Intracoastal at a time — don't cross the bridges twice.

Two days

Day one as above. Day two: a morning paddle at Anne Kolb or the gardens at Flamingo Gardens, Lauderdale-by- the-Sea for the afternoon reef and pier, and FATVillage or the Broward Center for the night.

A full weekend

Build around whatever is live: check the weekend module above for this Friday–Sunday, anchor one big event — a boat show day, a home match, an ArtWalk — and fill around it with a beach morning and one splurge dinner.

Best time to visit

December to April is prime: dry, warm, event-stacked. Summer trades lower prices for heat and a daily afternoon storm — plan outdoor mornings, indoor afternoons, and late nights, which is how locals live it anyway.

Getting around

The Water Taxi is transport and tour in one on the water side; on land, the free downtown electric shuttle and rideshares bridge Las Olas, the beach and the Riverwalk. Brightline's Fort Lauderdale station drops you downtown from Miami or West Palm Beach with no I-95 at all — the smart arrival.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best things to do in Fort Lauderdale?

The consensus essentials: the beach and wave wall on A1A, a Water Taxi day on the Intracoastal canals, Las Olas Boulevard, Bonnet House's gardens, Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, and FATVillage on an ArtWalk night. Layer on whatever is live this weekend — a festival, a boat show, a home Inter Miami match — and you have the city the way locals plan it.

How many days do you need in Fort Lauderdale?

Two days covers the essentials without rushing: one for the beach, Bonnet House and Las Olas, one for the water — a Water Taxi day or a boat on the Intracoastal — plus FATVillage or the Riverwalk. Three days lets you add Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and a nature day at Anne Kolb or Flamingo Gardens. A single day still works if you pick the beach or the canals and commit to it.

What is there to do in Fort Lauderdale for free?

The beach itself, the Riverwalk, the FATVillage ArtWalk on the last Saturday of the month, Sunday Jazz Brunch on the Riverwalk, Secret Woods Nature Center, and every sunrise on the sand. Our guide to free date ideas in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea lists the best no-cost outings just up the coast — every one works just as well for visitors as for date night.

What is the best month to visit Fort Lauderdale?

December through April is the classic window — dry, warm, and stacked with events from the Winterfest Boat Parade to Tortuga in spring. Late October brings FLIBS, the giant boat show. Summer is hotter and wetter but cheaper, with calmer water for boating and storms that clear by evening.

What can you do in Fort Lauderdale at night?

Las Olas after dark — dinner, wine bars, a nightcap at a sidewalk table. Live music at Revolution Live or on the Riverwalk at The Wharf, Broadway and concerts at the Broward Center, the Elbo Room on the beach, and Wilton Drive's bar strip. Fort Lauderdale starts earlier than Miami and rarely requires a plan B.

What are the best things to do in Fort Lauderdale for couples?

Almost everything on this page doubles as a date — that's the local secret. A Water Taxi ride at golden hour, Bonnet House in the morning followed by Las Olas dinner, a pier at sunrise in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Our Fort Lauderdale date guide turns the general list into ready-made plans for two, written by people who date there.

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