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The insider's guide to Fort Lauderdale Beach, Las Olas, the Elbo Room and the best restaurants in Fort Lauderdale
Everything worth doing within ten minutes of the front door — the beach, the boulevard, the 1938 dive bar on the corner, and where to eat.
When you book a Fort Lauderdale vacation rental you want the sand, the beachfront bars and South Florida's dining scene within reach — not a hotel room where the parking is valet-only and the balcony looks at another hotel. For a deeper dive on one cuisine, see the best seafood restaurants in Fort Lauderdale.
From a private 3-bedroom, 3-bath home base at Jonathan's House you are under ten minutes from Fort Lauderdale Beach, Las Olas Boulevard, and the best restaurants in Fort Lauderdale. Here is how to use them.
1. Fort Lauderdale Beach and the Elbo Room
Start with the eight-minute drive straight east to Fort Lauderdale Beach. Whether you are out on the sand or walking the white wave wall along A1A, this stretch of coast is the reason people come.
When the afternoon heat arrives, the corner of Las Olas Boulevard and A1A is where you stop. The Elbo Room — searched about as often as the Elbow Room Fort Lauderdale, so you are in the right place either way — has been pouring since 1938. Two storeys, open to the ocean breeze, live music, and more Fort Lauderdale history than anywhere else on the beach.
2. The best restaurants in Fort Lauderdale and on Las Olas Boulevard
The dining here holds its own against anywhere in South Florida. A few that are minutes from the house:
- Las Olas Boulevard: Louie Bossi's Ristorante for house-made pasta in the courtyard, then Rocco's Tacos, YOLO and Big City Tavern for the rest of the evening on Las Olas.
- Oceanfront and waterfront: Steak 954 right on the sand, with the jellyfish tank and the dry-aged steaks, or Takato for Japanese-Korean upstairs from the beach. For something slower, brunch or a dockside lobster roll at Coconuts or Boatyard on the Intracoastal.
- Classic Italian: Casa D'Angelo, a few minutes north on Federal Highway, still one of the premier Italian rooms in the city.
3. Then come back to a house, not a corridor
After a day at Fort Lauderdale Beach and dinner on Las Olas, you come back to three bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a full kitchen, a private driveway you do not pay for, and a fenced backyard with a heated saltwater pool. No resort fee, no valet line, no sharing a lift with a conference.
More before you book: how booking direct works · the house, room by room · all guides