Visiting Hollywood Beach Florida

If viewing the videos sparked an interest in visiting this area, we provide below some basic information on Hollywood Beach as well as some serious advice from long time local residents.  You will also find some additional information recommending area entertainment, attractions, dining, and shopping on the While Here page on this website, and you can also check out the Visit Hollywood and the Everything Hollywood websites for more general information.

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About Hollywood Beach. Quietly nestled between some similarly small communities that provide a buffer zone with fast-paced Fort Lauderdale to the north and bustling Miami to the south, newcomers typically comment that they are surprised to find such a laid-back easy-going paradise hidden within the southeast Florida coastal area.   As you can see from the videos, Hollywood Beach has managed to retain much of the old-style "deco" low-rise low-density south Florida accommodations and has also preserved a great deal of the area surrounding it in a fairly natural state, while forestalling the development of towering high-density condominiums and hotels like those found on Fort Lauderdale and North Miami beaches.  Combining this with a three mile long paved beachfront broadwalk and pedestrian walkway extension makes visiting Hollywood Beach a pleasantly enjoyable experience totally unique from any other Florida vacation spot (the beach broadwalk was named one of the top ten "promenades" by USA Today and also selected as one of the 2009 "Best Beaches for Families" in Fodor's Travel Guides). While Hollywood Beach by itself is a wonderful place to spend an entire vacation, it is also a centrally located jumping off spot (as noted in the "Transportation" section at the bottom of this page) for the many other unique destinations in South Florida (see the "Day Trips" and "Things to do with the Kids" sections on the While Here page).

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Arrival by air. Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL) is conveniently located just a couple of miles inland and we advise against flying into Miami (MIA) for a number of reasons other than the considerably further distance on often congested thoroughfares -- FLL is a much more relaxed vacationer destination than the congested international hub of MIA.  However, you may find more convenient schedules and slightly lower fares with MIA if you are willing to cope with the consequences.

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Tip: if you are considering a visit here to check out the area or to vacation here, click on this link to find South Florida accommodations (and even flights from overseas...). This USAtravelmarket.com website searches 100’s of hotel and travel agents websites to find you the best deals. The link will land you on a page for Miami hotels, but they have lots of search options...

Also, if you are looking for a GREAT travel site for the U.S., click on this link to www.uptake.com. There is some really good info there.

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Where to stay.  With a wide variety of luxury resorts, major hotels, and family owned "Mom and Pop" tourist motels to choose from, a trip to Hollywood can be just as extravagant or as economical as you so choose.  In our opinion, your best option is staying at or near the beachfront broadwalk.  There you will find two very down to earth resort hotels, the "four diamond" rated Marriott and the Ramada, either of which you will find to be more than adequately enjoyable for your stay (but, you should note that the Marriott is the only accommodation on the broadwalk that has been certified as "green lodging" by the state of Florida, has an award winning spa, and along with the excellent broadwalk-side "Latitudes" restaurant/bar, they have the only Starbucks on the beach [check out the Marriott's webcam for the view from their rooms]).  The rest of the broadwalk area provides numerous old style low-rise hotels and motels, and of those we are going to single out and highly recommend the newly remodeled and right on the beach Walkabout Beach Resort.  The other establishments are too numerous to list here, but the Visit Hollywood site provides information on many of the better small lodging choices (as well as some of the luxury resorts), and we do also provide comments and recommendations on some of the more interesting of these below in the "Beach Areas" section.

One serious tip.  You can find a proliferation of lodging choices by doing an online search for accommodations in or near the area of Hollywood Beach, but I have to caution you that I have taken some time to peruse the same information and must warn you from personal knowledge that some of what surfaces may look good from a distance but I assure you that some of those places are not quite all that they might appear to be. Generally, the adage that you get what you pay for applies, but conversely, not always in this case. If you choose to stay at the smaller and more affordable lodgings, look for  an "SSL" designation, although that may not always guarantee the high quality implied by the "Superior Small Lodging" certification.  And, take even MY recommendations with the proverbial grain of sand, as change is constant here and with the current economical situation it is sometimes difficult to keep up with new management and even new ownership (we do endeavor to stay current on any of our recommendations).

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Beach areas. There are three distinctly different areas to stay at along the roughly two mile long broadwalk with the almost two mile long adjoining roadway / pedestrian / bike lane that extends the broadwalk on both the north and south end of this lengthy beachside "promenade".

Old North Beach.  A small, quiet, mainly residential community a mile north of North Beach park via  the Surf Road beach broadwalk extension. Of the small number of accommodations available in this low-traffic area, the suggested options are the California Dream Inn (great ocean view), the Desoto (SSL), the Ocean Queen Inn (the only right-on-the-sand motel except for the South Surf Road area), and the Coronet Motel (not beachfront but has a small pool that is great for children). A short walk from North Beach is the Dania Beach fishing pier upon which rests the Beach Watch restaurant, one of only three North Beach area eateries (along with the Dania Beach Bar and Grill and Jimbo's Sand Bar). And just past the pier there is Lloyd State Park beach that you can stroll along (but not into the park itself as the official entrance is on the other side of the intracoastal via AIA), which is primarily just another beach but is more naturally preserved and less populated than other area beaches (although, burgeoning Port Everglades on the north end continues to expand and become an eyesore to the swampy intracoastal backside of the park). There is also a small dock in North Beach on the intercoastal waterway with charter boats and the popular "Sea Legs" deep sea fishing boat for large groups and the "Skip Dot" charter sportfishing boat.  This link is to a Google map of North Beach - if you would like to "cruise" the area click on "Street View" in the little box in the middle of the satellite view map.

The Broadwalk. This area provides the largest number of accommodations, with the central broadwalk area containing the bandshell, shops, restaurants, and bars, therefore being a little busier and at times noisy, with the north and south ends of the broadwalk being considerably more peaceful and relaxing.  There are numerous SSL's in this area, with some of the suggested options being the Hollywood Sands (time-share), the Sea Downs, the Neptune Beach Club, the Tide Vacation Apartments, the Bel Aire, the Hollywood Beach Tower (time-share). There are also a couple of smaller units directly on the broadwalk which conveniently have courtyards with Tiki Bars, the Riptide and the Walkabout Beach Resort, the latter of which we highly recommend -- very reasonable rates, under new ownership with new management, recently renovated, with a tiki bar right on the broadwalk, next to the Marriott (Starbucks and Latitudes restaurant), nicely sized but low-unit lodging with spacious ocean-view rooms and friendly, down-home personal attention. If you are interested in a B&B, there is the Hollywood by the Sea Bed & Breakfast, toward the southern end, off the broadwalk only one very short half block.

South Surf Road. Beyond the southern end of the main broadwalk which turns into South Surf Road is the other somewhat out of the way, quieter, on-the-sand but mostly tourist oriented accommodations. We confess that we do not know this area well, but the personally recommended lodgings in this area would be minimally the Manta Ray Inn and Marine Villas (both SSL).

For more information on the above mentioned accommodations and establishments, click on this Visit Hollywood link.  Once you narrow down your choices, I would strongly advise checking recent reviews on sites like TripAdvisor before booking - as stated previously, these days things tend to change quickly, usually for the better, but not always... You can email us at jeb@lifesacoast.com if you have general questions or if you would like to make a specific request for an up to date opinion, or if you would like for us to check out something for you (we could even video it and send the video via email for your perusal...).

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Transportation. If you just want to stay mostly local, the subject of transportation is covered well at this website, although you will likely find that you may not want to even go slightly "inland" as the beach dwellers here somewhat facetiously refer to the supposed concrete jungle on the other side of the intracoastal waterway (which is not really all that bad, it is just that after awhile it is more of a desire to remain in the relaxed, easy-going, everybodys-happy island atmosphere).  Note that there are bike rentals on the beach for cruising the beachfront broadwalk, although some of the smaller lodgings offer free bikes for guests. If during your stay you would like to venture out on some day trips or overnighters to take in any of the many unique destinations that this region has to offer (see "Day Trips" and "Things to do with the Kids" on the While Here page), Hollywood Beach is not only just a couple of miles from Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale Airport, but also has both an interstate highway and a turnpike for north/south outings, and is right at the eastern end of "Alligator Alley" for westbound Everglades and Gulf Coast get-aways (click on this link for an area map). If you wanted to go north for the dizzying Disney World/Epcot adventure without having to bother with driving, an Amtrak station is just a couple of miles inland (tip: if you take the train to Disney, do NOT go all the way to Orlando which is where most people think of it being located -- it is actually at Kissimmee, well before Orlando). Also available at the Amtrak station is the Tri-Rail commuter train which goes south to Miami Airport and also connects with Metro-Rail for south Miami (bohemian Coconut Grove), and Metro-Rail connects with Metro-Mover to downtown Miami and trendy open air Bayside Marketplace (we should point out that Tri-Rail is not very "scenic" and Metro-Rail is not the most convenient nor could it be considered the classiest upscale mode of transportation, but "it gets ya there"...). Lastly, a precaution if you are new to the area and choose to drive, it is best to avoid the major thoroughfares during "rush hour", particularly down in the Miami area -- if you must travel north/south at those times of day the Florida Turnpike is usually your best bet although in extreme southern Dade county even the pike is often very congested at rush hour, and parking-lot-like sometimes (so if you're coming back from the keys late in the day, just plan to stop for a long leisurely dinner on Key Largo at Sundowner's and relax and enjoy the sunset while the traffic clears on the mainland). If you are going to be driving around the region, you might want to check out the tips related to driving on the tips page...

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If you would like to check out some webcams in the area, click on Area Webcams.

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If you would like to contact us for any reason, just send an email to jeb@lifesacoast.com or add a comment below if you have input on this subject.

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We are going to begin providing below some videos of Hollywood other than the beach so that you can gain a visual perspective of the "inland" areas.

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The above video was taken from the west end of Hollywood's South Lake area, about a mile inland. What you see in the far distance is AIA and the beach area. Note that toward the end of this video you will begin to see an increasing number of high-rise hotels and condominiums as Hollywood Beach fades into our southern neighbor Hallandale Beach which adjoins Golden Beach and Sunny Isles, the start of North Miami Beach (this gradually increasing "high-rise effect" is notable in the next couple of videos also).

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The above video was taken from the west end of Hollywood's North Lake area

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The above video was taken from the observation tower in Holland Park, which is at the eastern end on the northern side of Hollywood's North Lake. The video starts out viewing restaurants on AIA and the intracoastal, pans south to the Hollywood Boulevard bridge and the Hollywood marina, ending with a view towards downtown Hollywood.

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Royal Palms along Hollywood Boulevard looking east toward the beach

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Harrison Street looking east

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Tyler street looking east -- royal palms line the streets everywhere in downtown Hollywood area

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That's it for now, but we are just getting started, so check back from time to time if you would like to see all of downtown and some of the more interesting features of the Hollywood area...

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