Anything close to the Ft. Lauderdale airport?

So our flight isn't until 6:30pm! I checked out the excursions (either airboat or bus/boat tour), and neither of them interest us. Is there anything close to the airport - or that you can take a free shuttle to? Even a movie theater would be fine :-) We just don't want to add the expense of renting a car for the day.

Thanks!

So our flight isn't until 6:30pm! I checked out the excursions (either airboat or bus/boat tour), and neither of them interest us. Is there anything close to the airport - or that you can take a free shuttle to? Even a movie theater would be fine :-) We just don't want to add the expense of renting a car for the day.

 

Thanks!

Gee I was hoping someone would have come up with a few suggestions. We will be finding ourselves in the same boat in May. Our flight doesn't leave until 5 and didn't want to hang around the airport all day. The tours didn't interest us either. I was wondering if we checked our luggage in at the airport, if there was a mall within a reasonable cab distance? Anyone????

Check with your airline to see how far in advance of your flight you can check your bags. Most don't allow bags to be checked until 3 hours prior to departure. Whatever the answer is may help you to decide what to do...whether you will have bags to contend with or not.

We took the water taxi - it stops at several places on route, and you can get on and off at restaurants ( they even have coupons for them), the Galleria Mall, the beach, and Las Olas Blvd for boutiques and more restaurants. There is a "tour guide" on each boat who tells you about the area and points of interest ( who owns the houses, whose yacht is there, how much stuff sells for).

There's a boat every few minutes. They also have senior rates.

have a nice meal and a great stroll on las olas boulevard. it is lovely and easily accessible.

You cannot check your bags more than 3 hours before your flight.

In FLL there are a couple of places of interest. For malls, the closest to the airport would be the North Town Mall located on 3200 N Federal Highway. The other very nice, and huge mall, is the Galleria, located at 2414 Sunrise Blvd. That mall has all the fancy shops and restaurants.

A very, very lovely area is the Las Olas Riverfront walk. It has lots of shops and restaurants and is a great place to see some huge private yachts.

I-Max is close to Las Olas Downtown Ft. Lauderdale

Renting a car may be cheaper than two taxi rides. A lot of the rental car companies have free shuttles from the port to the airport rental car desks.

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas. I didn't know we wouldn't be able to check our bags in early. Now the question is . . . . . what to do with our luggage until then? Hummm . . . . .

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas. I didn't know we wouldn't be able to check our bags in early. Now the question is . . . . . what to do with our luggage until then? Hummm . . . . .

FLL has public baggage holding areas in the terminals. I've not used the service but details can be found here.

Sounds perfect . . . Thank you so much :)

We cruised into Miami with flight of of FLL late afternoon. We split a rental with another couple (huge SUV with plenty of room for everyones bags).

Drove to FLL and went to the Las Alas area, had a nice lunch...did some beach walking.

The rental total was about (probably less) what we could have done for transfers or taxi ride. Rental was probably a little higher since we picked up in Miami (downtown, not airport) and then dropped of FLL airport. Total was about $80 - keep in mind it was for 4 people.

Given that you have time to burn I would check out getting a rental. Its not that hard to get around the area, you'll have a place to put your luggage, and you can relax.

BTW, the rental area at FLL is connected to the terminal that Southwest is in. What I did was drop off my wife at that terminal (we were on Southwest), drop off the other couple at the terminal that they were flying out of and then drop off the car. It was very easy.

not sure it will get you to 630 but there are post cruise tours on most lines...maybe check that out and see if it will help out with the wait time

not sure it will get you to 630 but there are post cruise tours on most lines...maybe check that out and see if it will help out with the wait time

Those things are expensive. $70+/pp.

FLL has public baggage holding areas in the terminals. I've not used the service but details can be found here.

In January, we had the same long wait for our flight after a cruise. However, We found a service that will hold your luggage. They were at the US AIR terminal at Fll airport. They only charged $5 per bag and we had the entire day to spend wherever we wanted without worrying about our luggage. It didn't matter which airline you were flying to use their service.

If you do luggage valet from the ship, you won't have to see your bags from the time you put them outside your cabin the night before until you arrive at your final destination. It's $20 per person and worth every penny.