Things to do Ft. Lauderdale/Pompano Beach

We will be visiting Wyndham Palm Aire from 8/16-8/23. There will be 9 people going 3 kids (6/14/16) and 6 adults (25-72) so I am looking for suggestions for all of those age ranges. This will be our first visit to the area so all suggestions are welcome. If it helps, we will have transportation.

We stayed in Weston FL last year. Some of the things we did was drive to Everglades national park, we saw American crocodiles, and manatees at the visitors center at the end, which is 36 miles to the end. my wife took an air boat ride at an Indian reservation and loved it. We also drove down to Key West. If your military you might be able to stay in the base lodging, we did. It is a long drive there and back, the drive down there is great, It took us awhile to drive down with all the stops we made.

good rec. from previous poster, enjoyed the bonnet house in fort lauderdale also.

You'll have access to 2 great beach spots and parking at the Wyndham Sea Gardens and Royal Vista. All the jet ski's & water toys right there. Ft. Lauderdale Las Olas beach front is fun day/dusk for all ages. Hollywood Beach has free music at the beach most evenings, check their website. John Pennekamp in Key Largo for snorkeling if you have time. Marlins baseball too, so much. Of course the indoor Sawgrass outlet, will keep all ages busy on a super hot or rainy day.

The Jungle Queen

http://www.junglequeen.com/

My kids enjoyed this in their early teens and years later in their early twenties. We've done the afternoon 3hr sightseeing cruise and the early evening bbq dinner cruise.

Lion Country Safari is great. It has been well maintained and is a lovely day trip that the kids should enjoy. My husband and I did it while here on our honeymoon 35 yrs ago and then went back a couple years ago and it was really enjoyable. The older group might enjoy a day at the Japanese gardens. It was beautiful and very educational as well. Hope you enjoy your trip and have a good time no matter what you do.

LouiseG said:

Lion Country Safari is great. It has been well maintained and is a lovely day trip that the kids should enjoy. My husband and I did it while here on our honeymoon 35 yrs ago and then went back a couple years ago and it was really enjoyable. The older group might enjoy a day at the Japanese gardens. It was beautiful and very educational as well. Hope you enjoy your trip and have a good time no matter what you do.

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Lion Country is in West Palm Beach and the Morakami Japanese Gradens are in Delray Beach. Each has an excellent website so you can check for days and times as well as entrance fees and activities.

Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi

Here is one of my writeups on the Water Taxi

I just love it http://www.freelancetourist.com/sunset-cruise-water-taxi-fort-lauderdale/

Things the 14 & 16 yo might like doing: paddleboarding on the intercoastal waterway. Or the ocean. Plus snorkeling in the ocean. Golf (teenagers love to spend money). Ice cream & tee shirts near the beach in Lauderdale by the Sea (or the fishing pier there). Ft Lauderdale Duck boat. Water Taxi if the grandparents are going with the kids. Drift boat fishing. Daytrip to the Everglades. Homemade ice cream.

Adults: Bonnet House and their gardens. Fine dining along with upscale shopping at the Gallery Mall just over the intercoastal waterway on Sunrise Blvd. Morton's Steakhouse at Atlantic & the intercoastal (I like the variety of fine eating better at the Galleria). Charter boat fishing. Day spa anywhere after the bug infested day trip to the Everglades. Trip to get MORE wine while the kids are at the ice cream stand.

Hope this helps ...

This is probably one of the richest areas of the country for things to do, shopping, and dining.

We've done a lot of the things already mentioned. Let me add a couple you might like.

Shopping: Festival Lakes is one of the larger flea markets around. It's all indoors. A lot of junky stuff but there are some pretty good shops as well. Boutique shopping in Fort Lauderdale. Everything in between.

Dining: Great German food at Cypress Nook. Cap's Place near Hillsboro Inlet (http://www.capsplace.com/). Malulo's International Seafood (Peruvian, on E. Atlantic Blvd, a few blocks west of A1A; totally awesome ceviche). Christina's Greek restaurant, also on E. Atlantic. Our normal place to stay is Wyndham Santa Barbara so my recommendations are closer to there than to Palm-Aire.

Tours: check with the concierge/activities desk at the resort. We've done swamp tours, snorkeling, duck tours, day trips to Miami and Key West. There are lots more available. There are casinos nearby.

And the ocean at Royal Vista will be delightful.

Your week will pass before you know it.

All awesome suggestions. Thanks a bunch...and keep them coming

Museum of Science and Discovery with great Imax films, Butterfly World, Miami Metro Zoo, and the Festival Flea Market are all fun.

This is my favourite site for the Fort Lauderdale area is this one:

http://www.sunny.org/webcam/

The opening webcam is at Marriott BeachPlace but there are other webcam locations that may also be of use.

The listings of restaurants, beaches, nightlife, etc. are quite interesting. It might include Pompano as that's quite close to Ft. Laud.

Brian

Do the Duck Boat

I took my mother to Pompano Beach last September and she wanted to do the Duck Boat in Ft. Lauderdale. You get it right at the Marriott Timeshare in Ft. Lauderdale. A lot of fun to see some famous people's homes on the intercostal and the a tour of Ft Lauderdale. It takes about 2 hours.

If you want to go the other direction (north)....we just visited here this week http://www.gumbolimbo.org. It is the sea turtle rehab center. We were staying in Delray. From Pompano it looks to be 14 miles. It's free (they suggest a $5 per person donation). We were there with kids 13, 16 & 17 and we all enjoyed it. It's mostly outside. You can take a nature walk on the boardwalk, climb an observation tower, see aquariums and sea turtles up close. It's not very big but we were there about 1 1/2hr AND it was raining pretty hard.

natasha5687 said:

All awesome suggestions. Thanks a bunch...and keep them coming

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Natasha,

You posted in the Florida forum. If you have't alrady, look at the top portion of the forum
and you will see two Sticky's - one of them is SE Florida Website Links. Check out the many suggestions compiled by the late Tugger, KenK,

Great list. RIP Ken.


Richatd

Here's a link to Ken's comprehesive list just mentioned in the previous post
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37110

EileenL said:

Here is one of my writeups on the Water Taxi

I just love it http://www.freelancetourist.com/sunset-cruise-water-taxi-fort-lauderdale/

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Ditto: The Water Taxi is a must and very enjoyable.

Here's info about one of my favorite places in the area. I'm almost afraid to post the information for fear of having difficulty getting future appointments.

The Margate School of Beauty is a short drive from Palm Aire. All kinds of beauty services are availalble at rock bottom prices because they are provided by students who are well trained and supervised.

But my favorite service is a full hour massage for $25.. Or you can get a lower price by purchasing a 5 pack of coupons that you can share with anyone. They have no expiration date. I actually used one 5 years later. Many of the "students" have worked for years in other states and need to take this course to qualify for a license in Florida.

If this is of interest, call now and make reservations. There is no penalty if you do not call to cancel, or fail to show up at the scheduled time. There are always people standing by for a cancellation.

There is a large Publix Supermarket near the Beauty school, and a Beall's outlet store with excellent prices. And it is a few miles away from a huge WallMart store and the Coconut Creek Casino on State Road 7 .

http://www.margateschoolofbeauty.net/massageservice.html


At Palm Aire you'll be pretty close to the Golden Corral buffet restaurant and Sweet Tomatoes . You can print out discount coupons on their website or find them in the local newspaper. And my favorite Japanese restaurant is Kyojinbuffet.com (2 locations)

Just wanted to add that the drive down to Key West was much longer than we anticipated due to traffic through Miami. It was a nice drive overall, but less scenery than we expected since the marshes sort of block out the beach view once you get past Miami. Lots of fun once you get there, but sort of a long boring drive.