Public transport in Ft Lauderdale (Miami, Fort Lauderdale: rent, hotel, limo)

[dibo]

Hello everybody,

I will be visiting Ft Lauderdale late February and I was wondering if there is a convenient public transport system there. Everybody says that I should rent a car but I don't intend to do so as I dont like driving in a city that I dont know very well.

This is the first time I post a message on here.. :-)

Thank you very much for your help!

[macguy]

Originally Posted by dibo

Hello everybody,

I will be visiting Ft Lauderdale late February and I was wondering if there is a convenient public transport system there. Everybody says that I should rent a car but I don't intend to do so as I dont like driving in a city that I dont know very well.

This is the first time I post a message on here.. :-)

Thank you very much for your help!

It's not real good. OK for getting from one place to another if you aren't in a hurry. I had my car worked on not long ago and had to take a bus to pick it up because my wife was in Miami. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get to where I could have driven with a car in 20 minutes.

I really should have taken my bike I would have been there in less then an hour. It is just hard standing around a half hour waiting for buses and then having to change or go to the main terminal to get to where you are going. Not that cheap either, Do yourself a favor, rent the car.

Fort Lauderdale is easy to drive in by the way. It is like a checker board most streets have numbers very few names and with the address you can get right where you want to go with no problem. Forget cabs also, I have no idea what the deal is with them, they don't even show up some times and always late.

[dibo]

Macguy,

Thank you for your quick and comprehensive answer. Is it easy to find a parking place in the downtown. I will be moving in Las Olas Bvd area the most of the time.

I have another question. What is the best way to get in Ft Lauderdale from Miami International Airport?

Thanks again!

[doggiebus]

The easiest way would be to catch a cab at MIA. There are two other ways. You could schedule a pick up with a company called Super Shuttle www.supershuttle.com. Or schedule a limo pick up.

If you plan on just staying in the Las Olas area, then you wouldn't need a car, you could walk to restaurants, the museum, bars, etc. But if you want to see Ft. Lauderdale you really should rent a car.

[bale002]

For FLL to MIA, there is also the Trirail. However, two problems with this.

First, the Trirail schedule is thin, especially on the weekend. You need luck for the Trirail schedule to mesh with your needs.

Second, it does not arrive exactly at MIA, but about 2-3 miles outside where passengers take a shuttle bus. These shuttle buses were in no way designed to carry baggage and the possibility of being injured by falling baggage or tripping over it lying on the shuttle bus floor is actually quite real.

Look, this is the United States, the ruling class mainly consists of members and representatives of the automobile and oil industries, and they will never allow a serious public transportation policy - and not even discussion of it - until the last drop of oil is pumped from planet earth or a serious loss in a major oil war (and maybe by then they will have invented something else).

By the way, I once tried to park around Las Olas to eat in a restaurant, it was on a weekend day, proved to be an impossible task, and we left the area to eat in some cheap chain restaurant off dismal Federal Highway.

In any case, unless you stay in a hotel right along the strip and do not plan on going anywhere else but from hotel, beach, restaurant and back again, you really do need a car, Macguy has already described the situation quite well.