Fort Lauderdale Beach

For most of its early life this was simply the town beach of a small Florida city that had grown up around the New River and the inland waterways people later nicknamed the Venice of America. That changed almost overnight in 1960, when the film Where the Boys Are, a comedy about college students chasing sun and romance over their spring break, was set and shot right here. The movie made Fort Lauderdale Beach the place every young person in America wanted to be in March, and for the next twenty-five years they came, by the hundreds of thousands.

By the 1980s spring break at Fort Lauderdale had swelled to a scale the city could no longer manage, with enormous crowds packing A1A and the strip behind it. The town made a hard decision: rather than lean into the party, it would reclaim the beach for everyone. Through the late 1980s and into the 1990s the city discouraged the mass spring-break scene and rebuilt the waterfront from the sand up.

That reinvention is why the beach looks the way it does now. The famous white wave wall, a low serpentine barrier that curves for more than a mile between the sidewalk and the sand, and the wide brick promenade beside it, both date from that 1990s makeover. What had been a crowded party strip became a landscaped, walkable oceanfront that draws families, cruisers, runners, and travelers of every kind.

The public strand stretches roughly seven miles up the coast, from the central beach near where Las Olas Boulevard meets the ocean north toward the quieter village of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Because it is so long, the beach has room to be many things at once. There are stretches that are clearly family territory, with gentle water and playgrounds nearby; a well-known LGBTQ-friendly section that has welcomed visitors for years; and even a dedicated dog beach where leashed dogs can run on the sand during set hours.

The water itself is the draw. The Atlantic here is usually warm and often calm, good for swimming and floating, and the reefs and wrecks a short distance offshore make Fort Lauderdale one of the easiest places in Florida to snorkel or scuba dive. Boat tours, glass-bottom cruises, and fishing charters leave from the nearby marinas and the port, so the beach is as much a launching point as a destination.

Along the promenade, the low wave wall doubles as a bench the whole length of the beach, a place to sit and watch the water while joggers, skaters, and cyclists roll past on the brick path. It is the kind of public space a city builds on purpose, and it shows.

Sunrise is the beach's quiet hour, when the promenade belongs to runners and early walkers and the light comes straight off the water. Midday is for swimming and sunbathing, with lifeguards on the central towers and cafes and shops just across A1A for a break from the sun. Evenings bring the strollers back out, and on the right night you can watch a lit cruise ship ease out of Port Everglades and slip past the horizon.

Because the beach is public and open all along its length, you can make it as simple or as full a day as you like. Lay out a towel with nothing but sunscreen and water, or line up a morning dive, an afternoon on the sand, and a sunset walk down the promenade. Free access, real lifeguards, and a genuine variety of stretches to choose from make it easy to do either.

Come outside the winter high season and around spring break and you will find the same beach with far more room on it. Late spring, summer, and fall stay warm and sunny, the water is at its most swimmable, and the promenade is calm enough to feel like a local's beach rather than a famous one.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.