FORT LAUDERDALE · FLORIDA
Canals, cruises and the Atlantic at sunset.
Water taxis along the Venice of America canals, airboats out in the Everglades, day trips offshore to Bimini and Key West. The South Florida coast on the water and off it.
Only in Fort Lauderdale
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Beaches, marinas, sunset cruises — every Florida coastal town has them. These three are different. A canal city the size of Venice, the largest wetland in North America twenty minutes inland, and another country an easy hop offshore. Build the trip around these and the rest fills itself in.
On the canals
The Venice of America
No other US city calls itself Venice without flinching. Fort Lauderdale has the receipts: 300+ miles of navigable waterways, gondolas if you want them, water taxis if you don’t, and a narrated Millionaire’s Row cruise running every afternoon. The canal grid is the city’s defining feature, and the only way to see it properly is from the water.
- 1 Water Taxi All Day hop-on hop-off Venice of America Boat Tour
- 2 VENICE OF AMERICA TOUR!! Best of Fort Lauderdale over 30 years!!!
- 3 Jungle Queen Riverboat 90-Minute Narrated Sightseeing Cruise in Fort Lauderdale
Twenty minutes inland
Everglades Airboats
A flat-bottomed fan boat with an aircraft engine on the back, gliding across sawgrass at thirty miles an hour. The Everglades is the only place on earth where alligators and crocodiles share a habitat, and Fort Lauderdale is the closest big city to the wettest grassland in North America. Holiday Park, Sawgrass Park, the VIP small-group runs — all under an hour from the beach.
- 1 Everglades Holiday Park Airboat Tours & Rides
- 2 Everglades: Sawgrass Park Day Time Airboat Tour & Exhibits
- 3 Florida Everglades Airboat Adventure and Wildlife Encounter
Off the mainland
Bahamas in a Day
Bimini is fifty miles east of Fort Lauderdale — closer to the city than Miami is. The water turns from Atlantic blue to an unreal turquoise about halfway across. A day-trip ferry or a private charter gets you to a different country, a different ocean, and back in time for dinner on Las Olas.
- 1 From Fort Lauderdale: Day Trip to Bimini
- 2 Bimini Day Cruise from Fort Lauderdale with Round-Trip Miami Transfer
- 3 FROM FLORIDA: Bahamas Day Escape By Ferry
The signature day on the water
Get on the water first.
If you only do one thing in Fort Lauderdale, see it from a boat. The single most-booked tour across the canals, year after year.
The classics
Fort Lauderdale's Most Popular Tours
Water taxis, riverboats, airboats, sunset catamarans. The boats and trips Fort Lauderdale runs on.
By place
Pick a stretch of South Florida.
Las Olas for the bars and boutiques. The Everglades for the airboats. Venice of America for the canals. Pompano for the boardwalk. Bimini if you want to see another country and be back by dinner.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Catamaran if you want sunset over the Atlantic. Airboat if you want the Everglades. Yacht charter if you brought the crew. Jet skis, parasail, deep-sea fishing, helicopter sightseeing — the rest.
First-timer’s plan
Got three days in Fort Lauderdale?
A simple shape that works for most first-timers. One day on the canals, one in the Everglades, one offshore. Pick the specific tour from each day’s shortlist.
On the canals
Get on the water
Start with the Water Taxi or a Venice of America narrated cruise. You see the canal grid the way locals do — from the water, with Millionaire’s Row passing on both sides.
Twenty minutes inland
Into the Everglades
A fan-boat day at Holiday Park or Sawgrass Park. Pickup from your hotel, hour out on the sawgrass, back in time for lunch on Las Olas.
Off the mainland
Offshore for the day
Pick one. Bimini for the turquoise water and the conch salad. Key West for the southernmost point. Miami if you want the skyline from a helicopter.
When the light changes
Fort Lauderdale at golden hour.
The Atlantic turns peach, the canals turn purple, the Intracoastal goes quiet. If we had to pick three boats for the evening drift, these are the ones we’d book.
For the bigger group
Charter the boat for the day.
Yachts, catamarans, sailing day-charters out of the Intracoastal. Our three favourites for a private day on the water, ranked across the city’s top operators.
Out past the breakwater
Sportfishing the Gulf Stream.
The Gulf Stream sits about three miles offshore here — closer than at almost any other Atlantic-coast port. Mahi, sailfish, kingfish, tuna. Three deep-sea trips we’d send anyone with a rod and a morning.
If you came for the adrenaline
The watersports days.
Parasailing over the Atlantic, jet skis through the canals, kayak runs through the mangroves, reef snorkelling fifteen minutes offshore. Three picks for when sitting on a boat isn’t enough.
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