Fort Lauderdale for families
Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church is a working Presbyterian congregation whose own calendar governs the visitor experience. Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple is the grounds and exterior of an LDS temple; the interior is reserved to members holding a current recommend.
Fort Lauderdale for families with kids, in numbers
- Score for families
- 8.2 out of 10
- Picks on this page
- 13 places across 3 lists, led by Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple, Dania Beach Hurricane
Questions families with kids ask about Fort Lauderdale
-
Is it safe?
Fort Lauderdale scores 6.2 out of 10 for solo-traveler safety (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index). The beach strip along A1A is well-lit and patrolled, but the city is car-dependent with limited night transit. Violent crime against tourists stays low. The real risks are heat exposure, aggressive panhandling near the Broward Central Bus Terminal after dark, and pedestrian-hostile six-lane road crossings throughout Broward County.
Read the full answer → -
What to pack
Fort Lauderdale's summer heat index reaches 41°C, so quick-dry fabrics and reef-safe SPF 50+ sunscreen go in the bag first. A packable rain shell beats any umbrella against the daily afternoon squalls along A1A. Closed-toe water shoes pull double duty on Hugh Taylor Birch's mangrove boardwalks and the nearshore reef at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Leave the beach towels behind.
Read the full answer → -
Getting around
Uber and Lyft for everything beyond walking distance. Fort Lauderdale has no subway. The Sun Trolley covers the beach-to-downtown corridor along Las Olas Boulevard and A1A at no charge, and the Water Taxi runs the Intracoastal Waterway for $35 a day. Brightline rail connects to Miami in 30 minutes. Rent a car only if you're going west of I-95.
Read the full answer → -
Best time to visit
November through April is Fort Lauderdale's sweet spot. Daytime temperatures sit around 24-27°C (75-80°F), humidity drops to 50-60%, and afternoon rain is rare. Hotel rates on Fort Lauderdale Beach climb 30-40% from late December through March when snowbirds arrive, so November and early December tend to offer the best balance of weather and price.
Read the full answer → -
Cost per day
Fort Lauderdale costs $75/day on a shoestring, $170 midrange, or $450+ luxury. The gap between advertised room rates and real checkout totals is the defining budget trap. Tight-budget math runs on a hostel dorm at $30-35/night, Broward County Transit, and Publix deli subs instead of overpriced Las Olas Boulevard restaurants.
Read the full answer →
Curated for families with kids
-
Best free attractions
Fort Lauderdale's free hours are best spent outside, and the four places below are the ones worth the drive. This is a coastal county whose most honest introductions cost nothing: a barrier-island state park where the hammock meets the Atlantic, a beach park across the inlet from Port Everglades, a working botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary out in Davie, and a municipal arboretum up in Deerfield Beach. Two of them are Florida State Parks, governed by the state park system rather than the city; two are botanical collections, one private and one public. None of them will hand you a curated experience. They will hand you a map and a bench and expect you to do the rest, which is the point. The list is ordered for a visitor who wants to see the shoreline first, then the inland ecosystems, and who is willing to trade convenience for something that predates the hotel strip. Bring water, a hat, and the patience to walk.
See the picks → -
Best museums
Fort Lauderdale's museum shelf is smaller than Miami's and better for it: five institutions, each with a clear reason to exist, spread from the downtown riverfront at 26.1196, -80.1429 south to Hollywood at 26.0104, -80.1407 and west toward the college campus at 26.0790, -80.2347. There is an art museum on Las Olas, a science museum two blocks away, a nationally significant LGBTQ archive holding the community's paper memory at 26.1367, -80.1301, a working planetarium, and a contemporary art center one town south. That is the whole list, and it is enough. Skip the pressure to fold in every gallery that calls itself a museum; the five below are the ones that keep hours, keep collections, and keep the reason a visitor walked in. Plan a downtown morning around the first two, an afternoon in Hollywood, and a clear-sky evening at the observatory.
See the picks →