Places to stay in Ft Lauderdale

[LewisR]

Hi again all,

Well after doing alot of looking around and reading about Fla I am thinking about doing a trip to Ft Lauderdale. But there is not alot of reviews on the hotels in the area. I was going to try staying in the Keys but my dive buddy (16 yr old son) is a bit leary about boat diving(hopefully can get him past this this year). So I thought if we stayed in the Ft Lauderdale area we could do a day trip to the keys do a boat dive or two. But I wanted to be somewhere we could do mostly shore diving. So the few reviews I could find on the hotels at Lauderdale-by-the-sea (do not have to stay here was just one of the places I saw you guys point to) did not look that great.

Sooo anyone know of a nice hotel thats on the beach and close to some shore diving?

Thanks

p.s. Looks like we will either be going June 6 - 12 or Jul 4 - 10..

 

[Padipro]

Most anything along A1A will be good for shore diving, walk out your back door, into the water and swim to the reef. All though it's not much of a reef to speak of. The reefs that are close enough to shore to swim to are very shallow and quite small. They're dived alot so they're pretty picked over. Don't get me wrong, it can be a nice dive but if you want to see a nice reef you'll need to take the boat as these reefs are to far out from shore to swim to. There is plenty of beach diving along the coast around Ft. Lauderdale and there is no real need to drive to the Keys to boat dive, we've got plenty of that right here. Check out the Dixie Divers web site for a list of some of the local dive sites both shore and boat. Most dive shops in the area can set you up with a hotel, or at least give you some info on which are close. I'm sure others on the board can give you some recommendations as well.

Let us know when you'll be in the area and maybe some of us can meet up with you and show you around.

 

[MikeJacobs]

Actually, you can be right on the water in Lauderdale by the Sea. I think your best bet for shore diving in our area is anything 2 or 3 streets north or south of Commercial Boulevard. If you want to see a map, plug 4200 el mar drive (zip 33308) into any mapping software and you'll see the street names... this address is at Hibiscus, 2 streets south of Commercial Blvd.).

Look for anything with an even-numbered address on "El Mar Drive" and you won't have to cross a street or walk down a block. These would be the most convenient - probably starting in the $90 range (this would be a deal) and going to $200 or so a night.

The least expensive place but with a great restaurant downstairs (search for "our place" and "A1A" to find it) and across the street from shopping is the Best Inn on A1A at $45/night according to "snuggle" who I think is about to stay there next weekend. It's a long walk or short drive (a mile?) to the surf, but that sounds like a great deal to me!

 

[Scubaguy62]

Mike, have you ever thought about taking up a career in the hospitality business? You certainly should

 

[MikeJacobs]

Mike, have you ever thought about taking up a career in the hospitality business? You certainly should

lol I have enough friends/family come through that it might be prudent to open my own hotel. Nobody wanted to visit me when I lived in Dayton!

 

[Wendy]

I stayed at this hotel twice in Lauderdale by the Sea. It was nice, and you can shore dive right out front.

www.pier-pointe.com

 

[GrierHPharmD]

Wouldn't Mike be the ultimate Concierge? That just hit me when I read Rick's post...