Fort Lauderdale has over 300 miles of navigable waterways. The water taxi is how you see all of it — drawbridges rising overhead, mega-yachts at private docks, and waterfront mansions belonging to the very famous and very wealthy.
Fort Lauderdale earned its nickname — the Venice of America — honestly. The city is threaded through with more than 300 miles of canals, rivers, and inlets, and for a stretch of its history the waterways were as important as the roads. The water taxi is the modern heir to that tradition: a hop-on hop-off boat service that covers the New River, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the canal network that connects them.
The New River runs through the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale, passing under a series of historic bascule drawbridges — the kind that pivot vertically to let tall-masted yachts pass, holding up traffic while the boats slide through. Watching one of these bridges raise as your taxi approaches is one of those small South Florida moments that stays with you.
Further along the Intracoastal, the waterway opens up into Millionaire's Row — the stretch of grand waterfront estates on Las Olas Isles where the docks are often longer than the neighbour's driveway and the boats tied to them cost more than the houses. The sightseeing cruise operators know every owner's name and every story, and they'll share both freely as you glide past.
The Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi is a hop-on hop-off boat service operating along the New River and Intracoastal Waterway. A day pass gives you unlimited boardings at stops covering downtown Riverwalk, Las Olas Boulevard, waterfront hotels, and Bahia Mar marina — letting you use the waterways as a genuine alternative to roads.
Fort Lauderdale has more than 300 miles of navigable inland waterways — canals, rivers, and inlets that thread through the city so thoroughly that many homes and businesses are directly accessible only by boat. Like Venice, the waterways are part of everyday life, not just a tourist attraction.
Millionaire's Row is the stretch of grand waterfront estates along the Las Olas Isles and Intracoastal Waterway. These mansions — many with private docks hosting mega-yachts — have belonged to celebrities, sports team owners (including Wayne Huizenga, former owner of the Miami Dolphins), and business leaders. The water taxi and sightseeing cruises pass right by their docks.
The New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale is crossed by several historic bascule drawbridges — bridges that pivot vertically on a central axis to allow tall-masted yachts to pass underneath. Road traffic stops, the bridge arm rises, and your boat slides beneath. It's one of the most distinctively Fort Lauderdale moments you can experience on the water.
Riverfront Cruises is a Fort Lauderdale sightseeing boat company operating narrated tours along the New River and Intracoastal Waterway. Their Coast Guard-licensed captains narrate the history, celebrity gossip, and legend of Millionaire's Row, Port Everglades, and Old Fort Lauderdale as you cruise. Their white catamaran departs from the New River waterfront.
All 8 photographs were taken by Prashant Dhingra during a water taxi and sightseeing cruise on Fort Lauderdale's New River and Intracoastal Waterway. More travel photography is published at prashant.dhingra.website/travel.