On the Water

Here is the short answer. Hillsboro Inlet, the cut between Pompano Beach and Hillsboro Beach, is home to a charter fleet that reaches deep water unusually fast. Many of the boats tie up at the Hillsboro Inlet Fishing Center on North Riverside Drive in Pompano Beach. A first trip usually means one of two things: a private charter for your group, typically a half day of about four hours, or a seat on a big drift boat that fishes the bottom with a crowd. On a licensed charter yo

Here is the short answer. You do not need to own a boat, rent one, or hold a license to spend a day on the water here. There are four ways in, and they cost between five dollars and the price of a nice dinner. Launch a kayak or paddleboard from a state park for a $6 parking fee. Ride the water taxi as transportation instead of a tour. Take a crewed boat where somebody else drives. Or ride a volunteer shuttle out to the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse, which is running tomorrow. We

Here is the short answer. Pompano Beach is one of the easiest places in Florida to get underwater, because the reef is close and the wrecks are close behind it. Broward County has three parallel reef lines running the length of the coast. The Inner Reef sits in 20 to 30 feet of water, the Middle Reef in 40 to 60, and the Outer Reef in 50 to 100. Snorkelers can work the shallow end without a boat. Certified divers can be tied off over a wreck twenty minutes after leaving the d

Here is the short answer. There are three ways onto the Intracoastal, and picking the wrong one ruins the day. Rent and drive it yourself if someone in your group was born before January 1, 1988 or holds a boating safety card. Book a captained charter if nobody has that card. Ride the water taxi if you mostly want to see the waterway and eat somewhere on it. Then plan around the bridges, because here the drawbridges, not the distance, decide how long anything takes. We're Bra

Fort Lauderdale is the Venice of America, and this is the complete local guide. The short version: a canal system so extensive the city is best seen from the water, a beachfront that runs for miles along A1A, and a dining scene anchored by Las Olas Boulevard. Ride the Water Taxi instead of driving, paddle the freshwater lagoon at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, eat your way down Las Olas, and time your trip around the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in late October if b

Lighthouse Point is a small waterfront city of about 10,000 people, completely surrounded by Pompano Beach and the Intracoastal Waterway, where nearly every home sits on a canal. The short version: there are no hotels, no attractions in the brochure sense, and no nightlife district, and that is precisely why people who know South Florida book here. You stay in a private home on the water, you eat at Cap's Place, a 1928 island restaurant you can only reach by boat, you watch t

Pompano Beach is Broward County's best-kept beach town, and this is the complete local guide. The short version: 1.5 miles of calm Atlantic beachfront, one of the longest piers in Florida, living coral reefs that start in 10 to 15 feet of water just off the sand, and a real working boating culture centered on Hillsboro Inlet. Eat at the Fishing Village or along East Atlantic Boulevard, snorkel the nearshore reefs, ride the water taxi south to Fort Lauderdale, and come Decembe