Seven fantastic things to do with young kids in Fort Lauderdale and the region

Last updated on January 31st, 2026 at 02:34 pm

I raised two kids in Fort Lauderdale, so there was a time I knew all the best playgrounds, parks and beaches around.

But now, a few decades later, I was preparing for one of those kids to come home with a 3-year-old grandchild. And I knew lots had changed.

I didn’t plan to write a Florida Rambler story on the topic, but our outings were such great successes, I felt I had some good tips to share with parents and grandparents looking for things to do with kids in Fort Lauderdale. My focus is on toddler-friendly destinations, though most will be just as big a success with big kids. And while I live in Fort Lauderdale, we didn’t limit ourselves to that city.

Here are our six favorite spots for things to do with kids in Fort Lauderdale.

The redeveloped beach area in Pompano Beach is a blast for families

One of the biggest changes since I last sought family-friendly outings was Pompano Beach, where the beach area has been completely revamped in the last few years.

Our granddaughter lives up north but her name is Coral, so we knew she’d love the ocean. And she did. She loved it so much we went to the beach seven out of 10 days – and three of those times, we went to Pompano Beach.

What’s special about Pompano Beach for kids is that you can park once and not just hang out at the beach, which is very wide, clean and life-guard protected, but also experience three other great areas:

• A wonderful playground adjacent to the beach.
• A splash playground where water spurts out of a non-slip play area.
• The fishing pier, where you’re sure to see pelicans and where you can gaze up the coast at Hillsboro Lighthouse and into the water at fish and other sea life. (We saw a large ray.) The fishing pier is free for people strolling and not fishing!

We loved the grassy areas built along Pompano Beach Boulevard, where there are picnic tables, grills and enough trees to cast shade.

There are now several restaurants in the pier areas. The most casual, Lucky Fish, has outdoor seating where kids are welcome. There are also some good fast casual options – Burger Fi; Kilwins for ice cream;  and Cannoli Kitchen, where we got sub sandwiches and cannolis. (The adults ate while the toddler cavorted on the playground, which she never wanted to leave.) It’s also helpful that there’s a snack bar next to the splash playground and at the pier with $2 ice cream options.

The downside of Pompano Beach is that by afternoon, it was jammed. There is a lot of parking here, but it does fill up on busy afternoons. Parking is not cheap. We used Pay By Phone, a great app that lets you add an hour from your phone when you discover you can’t tear the kid away. But parking on the street was $4.20 an hour and so our outings here ended up costing $12 to $16 in parking.  On a more recent visit, we used the Pier Parking Garage, 3460 NE 3rd St, which was well located and $3.25 an hour that day. (Prices vary by day.)

Parking is quite close to the beach, but we brought a wagon along and used it to go between car, playground and pier. (We left it in the trunk during the hours we were at the beach.) The beach offers no shade, so a beach umbrella makes sense. The splash playground is shaded in early morning. The dry playground is pretty shady at most times.

Pompano Beach Pier
222 N. Pompano Beach Blvd.
Pompano Beach, FL 33062
954-786-4005

Flamingo Gardens, where kids get close to the animals

I have been going to Flamingo Gardens in Davie for years, taking my own kids here when their tree-loving grandmother used to visit every winter.

Again, though, this attraction has gotten better and better over the years.

While a 3-year-old can appreciate some colorful flowers and exotic trees, what really excited her were the animals, many  of which you can get remarkably close to.

Our granddaughter knew flamingos where a symbol of Florida. She got a stuffed flamingo as a gift when she was born (called “fafingo” for a few years) so seeing REAL flamingos was high on her list.

I did not realize, however, that at Flamingo Gardens, you can feed the flamingos, whose big funny beaks are very gentle as they scrape your palm for handout food pellets. Be sure to buy a $1 bag of flamingo food when you buy your tickets. It wasn’t just the kids who thought this was the coolest thing ever.

Hungry ibises are everywhere, and they’re a lot of fun to feed too. Again, buy a $1 bag of bird food (different than flamingo food) so you can have this interaction. Peacocks roam free and are a delight to see, but you are advised not to feed them.

Other up-close animal experiences include the otter area, where playful otters are visible through a large glass window streaking through the water doing backflips in front of your eyes.

The walk-in aviary gets you exceptionally close to a variety of Florida birds and the African spurred tortoise pen has low railings that allow small people to be within an arm’s length of these creatures, who crawl along with surprising speed.

Another favorite: As you head toward the aviary, do pause in front of the fish crows cage. These brilliant crows have learned to say a few words. It delighted young and old when we said “hi” to a crow and it said “hi” back.

There are many other things to do here that we didn’t get around to  – a narrated tram ride (probably not great for toddlers but I remember enjoying it) and regularly scheduled wildlife encounter shows (11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.)  We did walk quickly through the very interesting 1933 Wray home/museum. There are many old-fashioned items one can show kids.)

This whole experience can be done with a stroller or wagon and the gardens offer extensive shade.

Flamingo Gardens is a bigger ticket price – Adults are $24, age 3 to 11 are $17. Here’s a money-saving tip: Buy your tickets online and save $2 on adult tickets and $1 on kids.

Here’s a complete story on Flamingo Gardens from Florida Rambler.

Here’s the Flamingo Gardens website.

Flamingo Gardens
3750 S. Flamingo Road
Davie, FL 33330
954- 473-2955

Lauderdale-By-The-Sea for a very nice playground near a terrific beach (and ice cream)

Another great beach destination is at the end of Commercial Boulevard in the nicely developed public spaces of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea.

We started at Friedt Park, 4501 Bougainvilla Drive, where there is a restroom and a small shaded playground that has been redeveloped recently to be exceptionally nice. Two blocks east (with city hall and a fire station in between) is the beach, which has a grassy park with colorful Adirondack chairs under pavilions.

The playground carries its beach theme through every piece of equipment and includes several playground items you don’t see everywhere. Kids especially loved the two mist machines that provide a cooling cloud that wafts over the shaded playground when you press the button.

The beach here is broad and clean and at this point, you are a pleasant two-block walk along the beach to the pier area, where a colorful plaza has some amusements especially for kids – giant blocks, colorful lawn chairs and cafes and an ice cream parlor nearby.

Parking at city lots and meters in the beach area is $4 an hour via Pay By Phone and the spaces near the playground have a three-hour maximum. Even on the Sunday after Christmas, a peak visitor day, we found a space near the park.

Note: We brought a stroller here and felt safe leaving it near a pavilion at the entrance to the beach. There is shade here near the beach at various pavilions, but these seats tend to fill up. On Sundays, there’s a lively market with food, arts and crafts from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Note: There are no lifeguards at this beach.

Lauderdale-By-The-Sea Friedt Park
4501 Bougainvilla Drive
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea

Whiskey Creek, passing ships plus the beach at Mizell-Johnson State Park

Mizell-Johnson State Park in Dania has always been beloved in our family and a big part of that is Whiskey Creek, a narrow mangrove-lined tidal waterway that parallels the beach for 1.5 miles. We’ve canoed it, kayaked it and paddled down it on a Stand Up Paddleboard.

But when our kids were small, Whiskey Creek was also a place to swim when the waves were too big or there were jelly fish at the beach.

Seeking a place where our 3-year-old granddaughter would be comfortable playing with a floatie for the first time, we thought of Whiskey Creek with its shallow sandy shoreline and its utter lack of waves.

It was just as expected: She played happily along the shore, where we even spotted a puffer fish in the clear water that she could actually see.

If you plan to swim in Whiskey Creek, if there are a lot of power boats moored there, head south and you’ll find some sandy shore where those boats don’t venture because it is too shallow. (The sandy shoreline is not extensive; it is mostly lined with mangrove trees.)

There are a few other things we cherish about Mizell-Johnson State Park. We love go to the northern end to watch the ships go in and out of Port Everglades. We were thrilled to explain to Coral about tugboats and freighters, as a giant ship cruised past. (When cruise ships pass through, it is quite a spectacle. On Sunday afternoons, you can see them go out to sea one after another.)

At this state park, we love the proximity of restrooms (often an issue at municipal beaches) and the many picnic tables.

At the northern end of Whiskey Creek, Whiskey Hideout is an open air, covered café that serves food and craft beer as well as renting canoes, kayaks and SUPs.

Note: The restrooms near Whiskey Hideout are usable but in poor shape as of winter 2025-26. One other minor issue: The park is directly under the landing pattern for Fort Lauderdale Airport and at Whiskey Creek, you hear jet noise with some regularity. It’s less of an issue at the beach, where white noise from the waves reduces the sound.

The park, once known as John U. Lloyd State Park, has a $6 per car entrance fee.

Here’s a complete story from Florida Rambler about Mizell-Johnson State Park, including its interesting history as the “colored beach” in the days of segregation in Broward County.

Note: We brought a wagon when we parked to go to Whiskey Creek because it’s a bit of a walk from the parking lot. 

Mizell-Johnson State Park
6503 N. Ocean Drive
Dania Beach FL 33004
954-923-2833

Shallow, calm and clear: The beach at Oleta River State Park

This state park in North Miami is in the middle of traffic hell. But once you reach it, it feels like an island getaway.

If you are looking for the safest, calmest, shallowest beach where a small kid can play, this is it.

We drove 40 minutes to get here because Coral wanted one more beach day and there was a 1-2 foot chop in the ocean. She had tried out an inflated air mattress at Whiskey Creek and we knew she’d enjoy another day of water play experimenting with flotation without waves.

Oleta River State Park was just what we were looking for and we stayed on that beach for five hours!

The manmade beach here is located on a very sandy shallow cove off the Intracoastal directly across from the Haulover Inlet. This fresh ocean water means that Oleta experiences unusual water clarity. When we walked out of the wooded pathway from the parking lot to the beach, the clear turquoise water made us feel like we were at a Caribbean island. Stop-and-go traffic seemed a long way away.

Oleta has a lot to offer – a pretty kayak trail through mangrove tunnels, excellent mountain biking trails, picnic tables and pavilions and a fishing pier – but we did nothing but hang out at the beach with a very happy toddler.

Note: This place is full of people on summer weekends. On a winter weekday, we shared the broad beach with at most four or five other groups.

Here’s a complete story about Oleta River State Park from Florida Rambler. There are also 14 camping cabins here available for rent, described in this story.

Note: It’s a bit of a walk with gear from the parking lot to the beach, but we were able to roll our wagon right onto the hard-packed beach. Unfortunately, there’s no food service near the beach. We sent an adult to buy lunch at the park concession Blue Marlin Fish House, located outside the park entrance. The food was good but the wait was long. Also, if you want shade, you should stake out a picnic table near the beach in the shade, as the beach itself offer no shade.

Admission is $6 per vehicle.

Oleta River State Park
3400 NE 163rd St.
North Miami Beach, FL 33160
305-919-1846

A happy hour at Mai-Kai is kid-friendly and entertaining for all

The historic Mai-Kai restaurant in Fort Lauderdale reopened in 2024 with a spectacularly restored restaurant and grounds.

While the full dinner and show can be a terrific experience, it’s expensive and requires several hours of good behavior by a child. Here’s a more economical alternative for families: Go to happy hour. Sit at either the indoor Molokai Bar, which looks like the dark and romantic interior of an old sailing ship, or the outdoors Bora Bora Bar, surrounded by tropical vegetation complete with torches and tiki gods, where kids have a bit more room to move around.

Happy hour is from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily and drinks are half off. That means the mocktails — delicious fruity concoctions like an alcohol-free pina colada or tropical fruit punch with a flower in it — are only $6 each. Our kiddo loved hers; meanwhile the adults enjoy exotic cocktails at an affordable $8 to $10 price.

When the young one starts to fidget, head to the tropical gardens, a perfect place to take a walk to explore. When the restaurant was restored, the gardens were substantially improved with a thundering waterfall, theatrical lighting and charming alcoves. The pathway is accessible for both wheelchairs and strollers. (The exception is a section with stairs that has wonderful effects that you enter on the northern side of the gardens. It goes through the restaurant at a lower level in a cool grotto with water and colorful lanterns.)

Parking is valet only ($8) and the place can get busy. We arrived at 4 p.m. during a busy holiday week and could explore all the spaces and take photos without crowds. From the gift shop to the restrooms to the main dining room, it’s all fun to see it all. To appreciate the Mai-Kai best, read our story on its history.

The Mai-Kai
3599 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale
Website: maikai.com

A free ferry to an island plus a splash park in Deerfield Beach

This outing is best for a Friday, Saturday on Sunday, when the free ferry from Sullivan Park to Deerfield Island Park is operating, but even without the ferry, this would be a good destination in northern Broward.

Deerfield Beach has a developed a delightful park for families with free parking on the Intracoastal Waterway at Deerfield Beach Boulevard, just a few blocks from the beach — Sullivan Park, 1633 Riverview Road.

The park has new, shaded playgrounds, fenced for safety and under a pavilion for shade. The two playgrounds are geared to different age groups. Next door is a colorful splash park and unlike a lot of South Florida splash parks, the fountains are still spurting in the winter.

There is also a covered picnic area and benches overlooking the waterway, where it’s fun for kids to watch the stream of boats going by and the drawbridge going up and down.

On top of that, parking for four hours is free at Sullivan Park using the PayByPhone app.

On weekends, a ferry boat takes visitors on about an eight minute voyage across a waterway to Deerfield Island Park, a Broward County park. Boats leave at at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. You can take any shuttle back with the last one leaving at 2:45 p.m.

There’s a nature trail, a boardwalk, a butterfly garden, picnic tables and water and bathrooms on the island park.

While the ferry is not ADA accessible, we saw a dad with a double stroller manage to board and disboard.

It is also known as Capone Island because the noted gangster at one point wanted to buy it.

Sullivan Park
1633 Riverview Road, Deerfield Beach
Website