A Quick Peek at The City and An Early Look at Its Boat Show
By Gaby Keiderling
Fort Lauderdale isn’t just another dot on the map of coastal escape—it’s where the ocean seeps into everything. Mornings here start with sunlight dancing off canal water and end with dock lights twinkling like constellations.
The sea isn’t scenery; it’s the spine of the city. They call it the Venice of America, but that undersells it. Venice is built around water. Fort Lauderdale is built because of it. Its 165 miles of navigable waterways carve through neighborhoods, restaurants, shipyards, and superyacht slips.
Life here doesn’t revolve around commutes—it flows. From your driveway to your dock, your dock to your weekend in Bimini, everything moves on water.
It’s a city that doesn’t just embrace the boating lifestyle—it embodies it. And naturally, it is only fitting that it has one of the most notable boat shows in the world.
A City Built for Boating
No other city marries ocean access with urban energy quite like this. The moment you arrive, you understand: Fort Lauderdale is the world capital of modern boating culture. It’s where ideas, craftsmanship, and current all collide.
Step into any café near 17th Street Causeway and the conversations aren’t about work commutes or real estate market—they’re about hull design, slip fees, and tomorrow’s tide charts. Superyacht engineers share breakfast with center-console captains. Charter brokers network with boatbuilders. Everyone here, in some way, belongs to the water.
That’s why the marine industry isn’t just an economy here—it’s a way of life. Over 142,000 people earn their living from it, driving more than $18 billion in regional economic output.
The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show: October 29–November 2, 2025
FLiBS is where world debuts happen, like Yamaha’s new jet-powered day cruiser and the first PWC with a walk-around deck being introduced at this year’s show.
When the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show—better known as FLIBS—returns each fall, it’s not an event that descends on the city. It’s a tide that rises from within it.
Other boat shows bring the ocean indoors. Fort Lauderdale brings the world to the ocean. Over five days, the city becomes one living, breathing marina—seven miles of docks, yachts, and dreams stretching from the Broward County Convention Center to Superyacht Village.
Guests travel not by shuttle buses, but by water taxi, gliding between displays of innovation and indulgence. This year’s reimagined Windward VIP Experience redefines luxury: gourmet dining and open bars at Superyacht Village, shaded lounge cabanas at Hall of Fame Marina, and uninterrupted views of the world’s most extraordinary vessels.
It’s a show where deals happen over dock lines, friendships form on bow decks, and billion-dollar ideas are tested against the tide. While Monaco leans into its exclusivity and Miami flirts with flash, Fort Lauderdale stays grounded — open, friendly, and fiercely authentic. You don’t need a yacht to belong here, just an appreciation for where the ocean meets ingenuity.
Beyond the Docks
Once the show closes, the city keeps its rhythm. Locals spill into Coconuts or Boatyard for dockside dinners as the sun dips below the skyline. A few head out for night runs along the Intracoastal—a private afterparty in motion.
By sunrise, the water calls again—diving off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, paddleboarding through Middle River, or cruising south toward Biscayne Bay. Here, you don’t plan your life around the water. You plan your life on it.
