Miami or Fort Lauderdale with kids
 

Hi all.

Taking a cruise out of Miami next March with my wife and daughter (12), and our friends who have a 6 year old son and 3 year old twin girls.

Neither family has been to Miami or Fort Lauderdale before, so I am looking for advice and recommendations on which city would be more "family friendly" (for lack of a more precise term) for us to stay in for 3-4 days pre-cruise.

My daughter is a shopaholic and a foodie, so I'm less concerned about finding things that she will enjoy doing than I am for our friends - not that we can't go separate ways during the day. Since we'll be spending a week in the sun and on beaches while cruising, I'm not too fussed about beach time prior to the cruise. Also reasonably sure that activities such as going out on an air boat to look for alligators in the Everglades is going to get vetoed by both moms and all of the girls.

All comments, thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I live on the beach in Fort Lauderdale and for a variety of reasons I would suggest you stay in the Miami area instead of coming up here. You don't necessarily have to stay in/on South Beach but that might be the most convenient place for you to be.

Your daughter is <B>12 years old and a "foodie"</B> and a shopaholic? I can only imagine what that must be like and how it came to be. Definitely stay down there.

Topping this for you, Terrence, for possibly some more helpful answers.

I agree with Dukey, but another place to consider for a family friendly place attractive to kids is Hollywood Beach, about midway between the two. Hollywood Beach has a long "Broadwalk" running alongside the beach for more than a mile. There is a section of the Broadwalk with shops, mostly of the souvenir type and beach items, small hotels renting usually by the week, and restaurants although none of the restaurants have much to offer other eating outdoors with a beach view which makes up for a lot. However, a block from the beach there are several very nice restaurants that also have water, but not ocean views. The Marriott on the beach has a good restaurant too and would IMO be the best place to stay. There are also several clubs on or just off the Broadwalk.

There are stands along the Broadwalk where one could rent 2,4, of 6 passenger pedal carriages to ride along the Broadwalk in a dedicated lane, as well as bicycles, and other transportation toys that are popular with kids.

The beach itself is wide, clean and chairs and cabanas are available for rent as are jet skis and such. There is free music on weekends and some nights.

Since you say beach is not primary, I would also look at more inland hotels - once you get out around I95 and even Florida Turnpike you get a lot more space for the money. Usually girls that age are more interested in any random mall than boutique shopping, and there are plenty of malls a bit inland. There are also a couple of Miami and South Beach food tasting tours - foodie daughter might enjoy these.

Tell the Moms the airboats are fun.

And for the younger kids, consider driving up to West Palm Beach and spending part of a day at Lion Country Safari. It is one of those animal things were you stay in your car and drive thru various habitats. Your daughter might roll her eyes and say it is stupid, but after she sees giraffes 2 feet from the car, she might even enjoy herself.

And wherever you stay, find one of the local fishing piers and take a walk out to the end. You can watch local guys fish, see pelicans close enough to touch, and there are almost always surfers or kite boarders around that will provide free entertainment.

What about Palm Beach?
http://worth-avenue.com/

For hotel, the Breakers would be a great idea with kids -
http://www.thebreakers.com/families_at_the_breakers/

Thanks to all for the responses.

Our only Florida experiences to date have been with numerous trips to Orlando, and a couple of nights in Dunedin/Clearwater to catch some Spring Training baseball (oh, and a port day in Key West on a previous cruise), so south FL is a complete mystery to me.

We sail on a Saturday at a time of year when it can still blizzard up here in the great white north, so having that buffer zone for cancelled flights is why we are planning to fly down 3-4 days ahead of time. Worst case scenario (fingers crossed) we get delayed by weather and still make the cruise, and best case scenario, we leave snow and come to sun and sand.

I've thrown out MIA and FLL, as they are places that we can fly into. I see suggestions above that we should also consider Hollywood and Palm Beach. In looking at the map, it seems like everything is reasonably close, so no matter where we pick as a home base, I assume that the drives to the other locales are reasonably easy, e.g. if we stay in FLL, it's easy enough to hop over to South Beach?

And to Dukey1 - yes, my munchkin is a self-professed foodie (she has just started her own food blog) - I blame it on watching far too much Food Network. It's great though, because she will try anything - she may not like it, but she will try it.

And she is a shopaholic as well, but it pretty responsible with her money - $10/week for allowance, of which she gets to spend $4, has to save $3 and has to donate $3 to charity. She loves to shop, but knows that she has to save her money in order to do so (except for things like birthday money, or when her great-grandmother slips her a $20 - that she can spend).

<<<$10/week for allowance, of which she gets to spend $4, has to save $3 and has to donate $3 to charity.>>>
I love this. What a great way to teach financial responsibility and altruism!