Broward County with Kids: The Ultimate Family Holiday Guide

It is 9am and you are already winning. The children are in the pool – actually in the pool, not standing at the edge asking if they can get in the pool – and someone has made coffee without being asked. The Florida sun is doing that particular thing it does in late morning where it turns the water the colour of a swimming pool advertisement, and nobody is arguing. Later there will be reef fish and Atlantic rollers and the kind of ice cream that leaves a ring around a small mouth for an entire afternoon. This is Broward County: not quite as famous as its neighbours to the north and south, which is, frankly, a large part of its appeal. Miami has the spectacle. Palm Beach has the chandeliers. Broward County has the beaches, the wildlife, the waterways, the space – and the particular quality of a place that hasn’t spent too long gazing at itself in the mirror. For families travelling in genuine comfort, it is, quietly, one of the best calls in Florida.

Why Broward County Works So Well for Families

There is a specific alchemy required for a family holiday to succeed: enough to do that no one descends into boredom, a pace relaxed enough that nobody descends into a meltdown, and enough quality in the infrastructure that the parents – who are, let us remember, also on holiday – feel that their needs are being met too. Broward County delivers all three, which is more than can be said for most destinations.

Stretched along Florida’s southeast Atlantic coast between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County, Broward encompasses Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach and a handful of quieter communities that rarely appear in airport paperback guides. The coastline runs for nearly 24 miles. The Intracoastal Waterway threads through the whole region like a liquid road. There are nature reserves, marine parks, art museums with dedicated children’s programming, and a dining scene that has matured far beyond the beachside burger. The year-round warmth – average highs sitting around 80°F even in winter – means the planning horizon extends well beyond the summer school holidays, which opens up travel windows that feel genuinely uncrowded. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is compact, efficient, and mercifully free of the particular chaos that greets families at Miami International. That alone is worth something.

The Best Beaches for Families

Let us be direct about Fort Lauderdale Beach. It is excellent. The sand is pale and wide, the Atlantic is warm for much of the year, and the beach has the kind of organised pleasantness – lifeguards, clean facilities, proper parking – that parents appreciate and children don’t notice because they are already running towards the water. Las Olas Boulevard, which runs perpendicular to the beach, gives you restaurants, ice cream and a reason to extend the afternoon beyond the point where sand has entered every pocket.

For families with smaller children, the calmer waters at Deerfield Beach are worth the short drive north. The reef here – the Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier sits nearby – provides gentler conditions, and the beach itself has a neighbourhood feel that larger resort beaches tend to lose. Older children and teenagers who want waves and a bit more action tend to migrate towards Hollywood Beach, where the famous Broadwalk (a broad promenade running 2.5 miles along the shore) keeps the energy up without being overwhelming. Cycling along the Broadwalk with children who are old enough to keep up is one of those activities that sounds ordinary and turns out to be genuinely lovely.

Family Attractions and Experiences Worth Knowing

Broward County’s attraction roster has a pleasing breadth. For wildlife and marine encounters, the Everglades are closer here than from almost anywhere else in South Florida – an airboat ride into that vast, indifferent wilderness is an experience that registers differently depending on the age of the child but tends to land hard on all of them. The sheer scale of it, the silence broken by engine noise and birdsong, the glimpse of an alligator regarding you with ancient disinterest – it is one of the more effective ways of conveying to a child that the world is genuinely extraordinary.

Fort Lauderdale has a number of marine experience operators running snorkelling and diving trips to the natural and artificial reefs just offshore – the water visibility here is exceptional, and for children who have already mastered a snorkel, seeing parrotfish and sea turtles in the wild rather than behind glass tends to be a formative moment. Water taxis on the Intracoastal Waterway provide a gentler introduction to Broward’s aquatic character, and children are reliably enchanted by the sensation of travelling through a city by boat, passing the backs of mansions and the fronts of restaurants from the water.

The Museum of Discovery and Science in downtown Fort Lauderdale is a properly good children’s museum – the kind with an IMAX theatre and exhibits that hold teenage attention as well as a seven-year-old’s, which is rarer than the word “interactive” on every sign might suggest. Flamingo Gardens in Davie, with its free-roaming flamingos and resident wildlife sanctuary, is particularly well suited to younger children and has an unhurried quality that makes it suitable for mornings when no one slept perfectly.

Eating Out with Children in Broward County

The family dining picture in Broward County is strong enough to merit genuine anticipation rather than merely adequate planning. Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Boulevard offers a range of restaurants that strike the balance between quality food and an environment where children are welcomed rather than merely tolerated – a distinction that any parent who has received a cool look from a maitre d’ will understand viscerally.

The waterfront dining culture here is particularly suited to families: there is something about eating at the edge of the Intracoastal, watching boats pass, that gives children something to look at during the gaps between courses, which is worth at least one glass of wine in parental ease. Seafood dominates, as it should this close to the Atlantic, and the quality of fresh fish in South Florida is such that even selective young eaters tend to find something that works. Hollywood Beach’s Broadwalk has a run of casual outdoor options that trade sophistication for practicality – which, after a long day of sand and sun, is exactly what you want.

For a more structured dining experience, Fort Lauderdale’s Himmarshee Village neighbourhood and the Flagler Village area have both developed restaurant scenes with enough variety that a family of four with divergent tastes – which is to say, almost every family of four – can reach consensus without negotiation becoming an event in itself.

Practical Tips by Age Group

Travelling with children of different ages is an exercise in creative compromise, and Broward County accommodates the full range better than most destinations. A few observations by age group are worth having before you arrive.

Toddlers and under-fives: Broward’s beaches are generally well-suited to very young children, particularly the calmer stretches at Deerfield Beach where the wave action is gentler. Flamingo Gardens and any waterway boat trip tend to hold attention well – movement, colour, and animals are the three great constants of toddler interest, and Broward has all three in quantity. Air-conditioned midday retreats are worth planning for; the heat between noon and 3pm in peak summer is non-trivial for small people and requires either shade, indoor activity, or a private pool. A villa with a shaded outdoor area earns its keep many times over in this window.

Junior-age children (6-12): This is arguably the age group for whom Broward County is most comprehensively designed. Snorkelling trips, the Museum of Discovery and Science, Everglades airboats, cycling the Broadwalk, water taxis – all of it lands squarely in the sweet spot of being genuinely exciting without requiring the adult-grade risk assessment that teenage activities sometimes demand. The beaches are safe, the weather is cooperating, and the novelty of the natural environment – iguanas wandering across footpaths, pelicans on the pier, lizards of improbable confidence – provides a constant background commentary that keeps curious minds engaged.

Teenagers: Teenagers, who require a specific blend of autonomy, stimulation and the ability to find food independently at irregular hours, do well in Broward County. The Broadwalk in Hollywood is inherently teenager-compatible – active, social, with food options available at most points. Watersports operators along the coast offer paddleboarding, kayaking and jet-skiing in conditions that are excellent for beginners. For teenagers interested in marine life, a proper reef dive (PADI certification courses are available locally) is the kind of experience that outlasts the holiday considerably. Fort Lauderdale’s culinary and cultural scene has enough breadth that older teenagers who prefer a more urban energy can be satisfied, while younger teens are happy to stay close to the water and the pool. Which brings us to the villa.

Why a Private Villa Changes Everything for Families

There is a version of the family hotel experience that works. It involves connecting rooms that are actually connected when you arrive, a pool that isn’t overrun by 10am, a breakfast buffet where no one runs out of the thing your child will only eat, and a lobby that doesn’t make you feel mildly observed every time you arrive back from the beach looking like you have survived something. That version exists. It is less common than the hotel industry would like you to believe.

A private villa with a pool, by contrast, removes most of the friction points that quietly drain the energy from a family holiday. The kitchen means breakfast happens on your terms and at your pace – an underrated luxury when you are travelling with children who wake at times that hotels do not acknowledge as morning. The pool is yours: no booking system, no towel competition, no unsolicited conversation with strangers. The living space means children and adults can coexist without spending every waking moment in the same room, which is, after several days, genuinely valuable for everyone involved. The absence of corridors and lifts and lobbies means the transition between beach and private space is frictionless in a way that compresses the day pleasantly.

In Broward County specifically, the villa offering is exceptionally well-suited to family travel. Many properties sit on or directly beside the waterways, with private docks and direct access to the Intracoastal – which means the experience of waking up, walking into a back garden, and being immediately on the water is not a metaphor but a literal option before breakfast. Pool-to-beach distance is short. The residential neighbourhoods are quiet, safe, and navigable with a hire car. The infrastructure supports extended stays in a way that a hotel room arrangement simply does not.

For families who do this once, the return to hotel accommodation tends to require justification. That is either an endorsement or a warning, depending on your perspective. Probably both.

Before You Go: A Few Practical Notes

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is well served from the East Coast and has direct transatlantic routes that make it viable as a primary entry point for European visitors. Hire a car: public transport in Broward County is not designed with families in mind, and having your own vehicle gives you access to the quieter beaches and Everglades entry points that make the difference between a good trip and a very good one. Sun protection in South Florida requires more planning than most European visitors initially apply. SPF 50 is not excessive. The sun here means business in a way that a week of English summer has not prepared you for. Travel insurance that covers watersports activities is worth securing before you leave. The Atlantic is warm and welcoming and has occasional currents that deserve respect.

For a broader orientation to the region – history, culture, geography and the full range of experiences available – our Broward County Travel Guide covers the destination in detail and is worth reading before you book anything.

The families who do Broward County well tend to do it with a private villa as their base, a loose itinerary that builds in significant unstructured time, and a willingness to let the place set the pace. That sounds simple. It is, mostly. That is rather the point.

Browse our selection of family luxury villas in Broward County and find the property that turns the holiday you are planning into the one your family remembers for years.