Greater Ft Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau

I’ve been on many a pub crawl, but Fort Lauderdale gave us our first “Pub Trawl” experience. We were staying on A1A and heard that there was a Water Taxi system that linked the beach area to downtown and the restaurants along Las Olas. The nearest Water Taxi stop near the beach was at the end of Seville Street, about three blocks from our hotel, so we walked over, and sure enough, in a few minutes a great big green and yellow floating “water bus” came up to the dock and threw out a platform for us to board.

The water bus is about 40 feet long with seats along the side and huge windows that on nice days slide up, making the whole boat open air. We had no schedule for the day and since this water bus was going north, we boarded, paid $10 (which allows unlimited rides all day) and headed up the in-land waterway 40 minutes, all the way to the end of the line at the restaurant Shooters. There are four or five waterside restaurants here so we stopped and had a beer, watching various yachts and boats go by. The water bus comes every half hour in the day time, so a half hour later, we boarded another one and drifted back down the inland waterway. The captain and his mate kept a running commentary of bad jokes and interesting facts, such as the one that Fort Lauderdale has more canals than Venice. It took about an hour and twenty minutes sailing to get to the water stop for the shops and restaurants of Las Olas. Along the way, we passed Leonard Nimoy’s waterside home, Joe Namath’s former house, about 100 huge yachts and dozens and dozens of beautiful mansions.

We had dinner on the grand old porch of the Riverside Hotel, poked in the shops of Las Olas, then re-boarded the water bus (they come every hour after 7 pm) for a ride up the narrow New River to Riverfront. From here, it’s a short walk to all the pubs along 3rd. We had a great pint at the Lord Nelson Pub and walked past almost a dozen bars and restaurants, all with outdoor cafes overflowing with people.

We walked back to the dock and caught the 10 p.m. water bus south (the last boat is at 11 p.m.) and took it for a romantic hour ride down the New River with all the lights of million dollar homes and the city reflecting in the water. We got off at the Beach Place stop, where it’s just a two block walk to Sally O’Briens, where we had one last Guinness and heard a great live Irish band. From there, it was a four block walk back to our hotel on the beach.

For 10 bucks, we’d spent almost four hours on the water bus, visited all parts of the city, had a running tour of every large mansion and yacht on the water (and the who’s who of who owned each house and what they paid for it) and visited four great pubs….all without driving. Not a bad way to spend St. Patrick’s Day.

-Rich G.
Denver, CO

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