Climbing the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse: How the Tours Actually Work

Here is the short answer. You cannot drive to the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse and walk in. The grounds sit on a Coast Guard station, and the only way onto them is a scheduled tour run by the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society, a volunteer non-profit. Tours happen roughly once a month, by boat, from a dock on North Riverside Drive in Pompano Beach. Every rider is either a current member of the society or pays a $35 per person transportation fee at the dock. There are no individual seat reservations. The next tour is Saturday, October 10, 2026, and the dates after that run through June 2027. Everything below came off the society's own tour page this week.

We are Brad and Justina, founders of Yours Truly Hospitality. We manage vacation homes across Southeast Florida, from Pompano Beach and Lighthouse Point through greater Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami. Our Lighthouse Point guests watch this beam sweep past their dock every night. Most of them never learn they could stand under it. This is how.

Why You Need a Boat

The lighthouse marks the north side of Hillsboro Inlet, the cut between Pompano Beach and Hillsboro Beach where the Intracoastal meets the Atlantic. Lighthouse Point is named for it. You can see the tower from the inlet bridge, from Hillsboro Inlet Marine Park, and from most of the canals on our side of the water. What you cannot do is walk up to it. The station grounds are not a public park, and the only public access is the preservation society's tour, which runs from a dock on the Pompano Beach side and crosses the inlet by boat.

That one fact shapes the whole plan. You are not visiting an attraction with hours. You are catching a boat on a specific Saturday, with a specific check-in window, and the boats fill in the order people show up.

The Tour Dates Through Next Summer

The society publishes its schedule on its tours page. As of this week, the upcoming dates are:

• Saturday, October 10, the Barefoot Mailman Remembrance Day tour

• Sunday, November 15, the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Appreciation tour

• Saturday, December 5

• Saturday, January 9, the New Year tour

• Saturday, February 13, the Hillsboro Beach Appreciation tour

• Saturday, March 13, the tower's birthday tour

• Saturday, April 10

• Saturday, May 8

• Sunday, June 13, the Lighthouse Point Appreciation tour

Every date on that list runs seven shuttle boats with sail times of 9, 10, 11, noon, 1, 2 and 3. Check-in opens 30 minutes before the first sail time and stays open until the last boat leaves. If your stay with us lands on one of those weekends, this is the easiest half day you will plan all trip. If it does not, the tower is still worth a slow drive past at dusk, and the society's inlet webcam runs year round.

Re-check the page before you go. Weather on this coast can move a boat schedule, and the society updates that one page rather than sending notices.

How to Get On the Boat

The departure point is South Florida Diving Headquarters at 101 North Riverside Drive in Pompano Beach. From I-95 or US-1, head east on Atlantic Boulevard, turn north on Riverside Drive, and the dive shop is a quarter block up on the west side. Parking is the city pay lot across the street, another quarter block north.

At the dock, volunteers register you, put a wristband on your wrist, and load the boat. Membership in the society is the ticket. You can join online before the day or in person at the dock, and if you would rather not join, the $35 per person transportation fee covers the ride. Either way, the society's wording is clear that the tour exists to support the lighthouse, so treat the fee as a donation that happens to come with a boat ride.

The boat leaves the dive shop dock at each sail time, crosses to the lighthouse dock, and the return boat leaves the lighthouse about 30 minutes later. Call it an hour round trip if you take the first boat back. Most people do not. You can stay on the grounds through later sail times and ride back when you are done, which is the move if you want to climb without rushing.

Seating is first come, first served. The society asks you to arrive 15 to 20 minutes before your sail time, and warns that peak season boats fill fast. On a December or February date, that means the 9 and 10 o'clock boats are the ones to plan around.

What You Can and Cannot Bring

This is where guests get turned around, so read it twice. The grounds are a working Coast Guard station, not a beach, and the society's rules reflect that.

Not allowed on the tour at all: beach chairs, beach umbrellas, beach toys, beach towels, coolers, alcohol, recreational drugs, glass bottles, and watersport gear of any kind, which includes snorkels and fishing tackle.

Not allowed inside the tower: backpacks, drinks, food, or containers. Leave the water bottle with whoever is staying on the lawn.

Footwear: closed-toe shoes are required for the climb. No flip flops, no open-toed sandals. This is the rule that catches the most vacationers, because nobody packs sneakers for a Pompano beach weekend. Pack them for this.

The climb itself: children have to be at least four feet tall and with an adult. The stairs are steep and winding, and the society is direct that anyone with a physical difficulty or health condition should weigh the effort before starting up.

What You Are Climbing

The society's history page is the long version, and it is worth the read. The short one: Congress argued about a light at this inlet for half a century before funding it. The contract for the tower went to Russell Wheel and Foundry of Detroit in 1905, for an iron skeleton tower 136 feet to the lens room and 147 feet at the top. The lens came from Barbier, Benard et Turenne of Paris. The whole tower was built, inspected and approved in Detroit, then taken apart, shipped by the Great Lakes, the Mississippi and the Gulf to Miami, and barged north up the old Florida East Coast Canal to the inlet. It was first lit on March 8, 1907.

That is why the March tour is the birthday tour. The society calls the March 13 date the tower's 120th birthday. When you stand at the top, you are standing on a structure that crossed the country in crates and has been turning every night since the Roosevelt administration. The view runs from the Hillsboro Beach condos south over the inlet to Pompano, with the Intracoastal and the Lighthouse Point canals laid out to the west. If you are staying with us in one of those canal homes, you can usually pick out your street.

Making a Day of It

The tour takes a morning. Pair it with the Pompano Beach pier and Fishing Village, which are a short drive south on A1A, or walk Hillsboro Inlet Marine Park afterward and watch the charter fleet run the cut you just crossed. If you booked a home with a dock, the best seat for the beam is your own back patio after dark. The light has a long throw, and on a clear night it reaches a surprising number of our guests' living rooms.

If you want to be close enough to see the sweep from bed, start with our South Florida vacation homes. We will tell you which ones face the inlet.