Fort Lauderdale is technically a city located 28 miles north of Miami, although Google Maps shows the two cities actually seem to merge into one massive urban sprawl.
With its southern Florida location, sub tropical climate, attractive Venice-like canals and the adjacent huge sandy beach, Fort Lauderdale is a an obvious holiday magnet! Even in the midst of January, the temperature was around 24 degrees (80F) with the sun shining on happy sunbathers.
We recently spent two nights in Fort Lauderdale as part of a two week trip which included Florida and Colombia. This is a short post on the full day we spent exploring Fort Lauderdale by foot!
We stayed at the top of Las Olas Boulevard, a popular stretch which runs for a couple of miles before ending at the beach. We had all manner of lively bars and restaurants within a stone’s throw of our hotel. However, as we began our day straight after our (hotel) breakfast we saved this little hotspot for later!
We walked the length of Las Olas Boulevard which, after a mile or so of bars and restaurants, then takes you past a number of attractive canals. These water inlets contain many more eateries, villas, apartments and boats! Many people live on their boats here.
We reached Las Olas beach and after a short wander onto the sand, decided it was time for some refreshment!
The Cafe Ibiza bar has a prime ocean front position, and after ordering a Mojito each with a staggering blow-the-budget cost of $36.60 (£28.65) for two we had just one each and then moved swiftly on our way!
From here we walked north along the promenade and next to the sandy beach for a couple of miles. The promenade is popular with joggers of all ages and electric scooters! In a similar way we have Boris Bikes in London (now apparently called Santander Bikes) you can hire an electric scooter to whisk yourself along the wide sidewalks.
Managing to avoid being run over by kamikaze scooter riders we found a lovely Peruvian restaurant for lunch and reminisced our 2016 Peru adventures over a Cusquena, a beer brewed in Cusco!
As mentioned, Fort Lauderdale is built on a series of attractive canals which offer boat trips and water taxi’s. We continued on foot and walked back through the quiet and serene waterways, next to magnificent canal-side properties many with their own mooring and yacht!
We made our way back towards Las Olas Boulevard and returned to our hotel having walked approximately 10 miles!
Las Olas
For the evening we were spoilt for choice with a huge range of bars, cafes and restaurants. The night time air was still warm, the atmosphere was lively and deciding to go for an ‘All American Experience’ we had dinner in a Cheesecake Factory (first discovered, by us, in Honolulu in April 2012, again in Dubai in 2013 and 2017…).
Cheesecake Factories have an extensive menu with of a range of food (not just cheesecake) and helpfully include the calorie count of each meal… some slices of cheesecake were a shocking 1500 calories each!
Arriving in Fort Lauderdale
We had arrived the previous evening at Miami International airport but as we were heading to Colombia from Fort Lauderdale we booked a Fort Lauderdale hotel for a couple of nights. Getting from Miami to Fort Lauderdale was cheap and relatively easy… we got the Tri Rail which runs between the two airports and is only $3.75 each.
We stayed at the Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites Las Olas, a new, modern and functional hotel which helpfully included a free shuttle pick up from and to Fort Lauderdale Airport.
Next up… on to Colombia!
frombluetogreen.com 