Looking for nice neighborhoods close to the beach

[ruski]

If I were looking for a place by the beach, I would look at Sunny Isles.

[beachykeen35]

Originally Posted by SierraDog

With your budget, you can find a great property in one of the following areas within a mile or so of the beach:

Coral Ridge
Coral Ridge Isles
Lauderdale By the Sea
Victoria Park


I lived in Coral Ridge (Oakland Park Blvd/Bayview Drive) for a while and think it would really fit your desires. I walked and biked over to the beach often (beach is just about 1/2 mile), and the neighborhood is very pleasant. You can get a lot of bang for your buck with the homes in that area, the yards are spacious and beautifully landscaped and the homes are sprawling ranch style properties.

The beach near this area (Oakland Park) is the best, because it's not lined with hotels and tourists. You can just lock up your bike and walk up the beach. Just a mile or so north of Oakland Park and AIA, you arrive at Commercial and AIA, which is known as Florida's best beach diving location (Lauderdale by the Sea) featuring a very healthy reef system.

There are an increasing number of good restaurants and amenities, shopping is close and convenient, and people really take great care of their homes. I must disagree with VR about the quality of restaurants and amenities out west versus east. I live in Plantation now (East Plantation) which is really lacking in good restaurants, and I don't know what could beat the restaurants of east Fort Lauderdale... there are so many places I miss being able to just drive 10 minutes to from my old place in Fort Lauderdale. There are some advantages of the west (primarily kids and school-related) but the lack of restaurants is frustrating. The only good news for me is that my restaurant spending is down

Thankyou Sierradog, that is great information and it sounds like just what we are looking for. It surely does look nice from the things i have found online so far and this is another big nudge in that direction.
really helpful thanks again

[SierraDog]

Originally Posted by ruski

If I were looking for a place by the beach, I would look at Sunny Isles.

Not sure if you fully read the original post, considering the OP is looking for a home close to work in Ft Lauderdale, with a yard - S.I.B. does not fit the bill at all as it is really all condos and a rough commute to Ft Lauderdale.

[Nolefan34]

Well Vr2 is wrong on all fronts.

Weston is too far away from the beach for your lifestyle. It takes closer to 40 minutes than 20. 26 miles is just the total distance on 595. It assumes there is no traffic and does not account for the stoplights once you get off 595, bridges, trains, etc. Finding beach parking can also take several minutes. On weekends beach parking is hard to find unless you get there before 10AM.

Also, there is virtually nothing in Weston except housing communities and a few small shopping plazas. The restaurants are all high end, expensive and very limited selection. You have to drive outside of Weston to reach a mall, Target, Wal-Mart, or any type of small businesses or services. It is a wonderful place to raise kids and has great schools if you want that dull, suburban lifestyle in cookie-cutter style gated housing communities. If you only go to the beach 4 times a year, it is close enough. But that does not sound like the lifestyle the original poster wants.

Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale beach, and the East Side of the city does have lots of nightlife, entertainment, and restaurants contrary to Vr2's opinion. I do agree that downtown is like a ghost town during the day except for some business people. There is not much for children except for the IMAX theatre and children's museum.