Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk Self-guided Audio Walking Tour
Description
Listen to a tour guide through your smartphone as you explore Fort Lauderdale's Las Olas Riverwalk along the New River. We'll point out and tell you all about the attractions, buildings, statues, parks, memorials and more that make up the incredibly beautiful Riverwalk. Aside from the sights, you'll learn a bit about Fort Lauderdale's history, the river and it's natural beauty. Tour highlights include the Esplanade Park, History Fort Lauderdale, Hoch Heritage Center, Thrive Sculpture, the New River Yacht Club, the Stranahan House and much more! Live GPS map shows where you are and where to go next. As you get close, tour guide commentary will automatically play. Enjoy anytime, not just on your booking date. Stop & start anywhere along route. Note: the number of travelers you select is the number of devices you can download the tour to. Trust the platform with over 75 tours & 25,000+ happy customers.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Updated 2025! The tour will take you along the riverfront and through the heart of Fort Lauderdale’s Arts and Entertainment District. It should take about an hour to an hour and half if you don’t stop... but we highly recommend you do! You can stop anywhere you like, take detours and take in the sights at your own pace. We’ll be waiting for you at the next stop when you’re ready to continue.
The Broward Center has been wowing people with top-quality entertainment since its opening in 1991. It’s been credited with breathing new life into the entire downtown district and revitalizing the city of Fort Lauderdale.
According to The Oxford dictionary, an Esplanade is “a long, open, level area, typically beside the sea, along which people may walk for pleasure.” Check it out and see if you agree!!
The Museum of Discovery & Science has been compared to a “small-scale Disney Park” and with its “hands-on” rather than “shhh be quiet” approach, it does feel more like a theme park than a museum.
We'll tell you how the New River got its name!
As of 2022, History Fort Lauderdale has the largest collection of historic buildings in the entire county. We'll tell you about a few of them.
NEW RIVER INN: Designed to resemble a southern plantation and built to withstand hurricanes, the New River Inn is simply beautiful. It’s like being transported to a different time and place.
KING-CROMARTIE HOUSE: Reputed to be one of the most haunted houses in Fort Lauderdale, we'll tell you why.
Welcome to the PHILEMON NATHANIEL BRYAN HOUSE. We'll tell you some of its interesting history.
Once a warehouse for the post office, the Hoch Heritage Center is now a key player in local and state history. Now, in place of mail, it holds one of the most important collections of historical records in all of Florida.
This monument displays a PATH rail segment that was unearthed from the World Trade Center wreckage. We'll tell you its significance.
THRIVE SCULPTURE stands over 30 feet tall and is crafted in glass-fiber reinforced concrete and weighs in at about 14 ton. Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice a fern-adorned archway that you can walk through.
“The Historic Downtowner” beautifully reflects the charisma of the roaring 20s. One room, in particular, The Maxwell Room, is especially nostalgic. If you take a stroll along the southern riverwalk, it’s a great stop!
You'll see a very distinctive building with a unique shape, adorned by colorful murals on its exterior walls and 25,000 square feet of exhibition space, a sculpture terrace, an auditorium store and a café and what’s inside is every bit as spectacular too.
This is actually a satellite campus, with the main campus being located in Boca Raton. They have something pretty unique....we'll tell you what it is.
NEW RIVER YACHT CLUB LUXURY APARTMENTS: What makes The New River Yacht Club extra-special though is that its design team got very creative. We'll tell you how.
You’ve probably noticed that the Riverwalk has a number of commemorative bricks and colourful banners decorating the way. This is a charming approach to fundraising that “Go Riverwalk” has been practising for over 30 years. You see.. the bricks are actually for sale!
Don’t worry this park is not full of actual cigarette smokers…. or middle aged men drinking beer and smoking their favourite meat on a Traeger.. it’s named after... we'll tell you!
The south side of the river is also home to a section of Fort Lauderdale known as Rio Vista, considered to be one of the best places to live in all of Florida.
“Historic Stranahan House Museum is Fort Lauderdale’s oldest and most historically significant surviving structure. This is where it all began."
The Plaza is named to honour Ward, a dedicated Floridian who cherished community involvement. We'll tell you some of her many accomplishments.
We'll tell you about this fabulous boulevard’s best feature....in our opinion. If you follow it all the way to the end, about 2 miles from here, you’ll come to breathtaking Las Olas Beach!
This celebrated strip has been referred to as “Fort Lauderdale's premier destination for shopping, dining, events, entertainment, galleries and things to do” and also “the forefront of everything from fashion boutiques and art galleries to memorable restaurants, sidewalk cafes and bars.”
This impressive space is named in honour of Wayne Huizenga, an upstanding Fort Lauderdale entrepreneur who contributed much to the city’s growth.
Sometimes called “Fort Lauderdale’s most beautiful mile”, this section of downtown Fort Lauderdale is dedicated to enjoying a little of what the Arts and Entertainment community and this glorious tropical waterway, The New River, have to offer.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Wheelchair accessible
Reviews(14)
Worse experience I ever booked. The starting point was on the street walk with very bad instructions. A complete waste
Thank you for your feedback. The tour includes in‑app tutorials that explain how to use the interactive map, but we understand it can still feel confusing for users who aren’t familiar with interactive maps or GPS‑based navigation. We appreciate you sharing your experience, and we’re continuing to refine our instructions so the process is clearer for all users.
Nice casual informative walking tour. Narrator keeps you informed and intrigued throughout this tour.
Thank you so much for your positive review about your Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk tour! We’re really glad to hear the narration kept you engaged and that the walk felt relaxed and informative. We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and are happy it added something enjoyable to your visit.
Pleasant walk among parks and places of interest. I loved the atmosphere of the area, clean and peaceful.
Muchas gracias por su maravillosa reseña. Nos alegra saber que disfrutó del Paseo del Río y su ambiente tranquilo. Es una zona preciosa para explorar a su propio ritmo. Le agradecemos que se haya tomado el tiempo de compartir su experiencia y nos complace que haya tenido un paseo tan agradable con la visita guiada.
Tour takes at least 2+ hours; exact location of some sites is confusing; great way to learn the area; instructions to use site was VERY confusing. The elected tour time was accepted for my purchase; however, the tour wasn’t available until an hour later. For that reason, we were unable to finish the tour.
Thanks for sharing your feedback. We’re glad you enjoyed exploring the Riverwalk area - that’s exactly what our tours are designed for. 😊 Because this is a self‑guided experience, the time it takes can vary depending on walking pace and how long you choose to spend at each stop. The listed duration is an estimate. Just to clarify: the tour is available immediately after purchase, regardless of the “start time” selected on Viator. Those times are automatically generated by the platform and don’t affect when you can begin. Your confirmation email and text message included instant access and setup instructions, and our support team is always available if help is needed. We appreciate your comments and will continue refining our instructions for future guests.
There’s no place to park where you’re supposed to start the tour! We had to start at the Museum where there’s a garage. Why not tell people to start there? Also we paid for two and only needed one . We paid Viator AND an additional 12$ and Tripvia tours! Overall we felt we spent more than it was worth!
Thank you for sharing your feedback. we're sorry the start of your walk felt inconvenient - the Riverwalk area can be busy at certain times, and many guests choose to begin near the Museum for easier access. We do appreciate you giving the tour a try, and your comments will help us continue improving the experience.
Would have been better had we known where the start point was.,so we wound up starting from half from the end and then retracing our steps. All to the beginning .
Thank you for your feedback! We’re sorry for the confusion regarding the start point. While we provide a map and location details to help with navigation, we’ll look into how we can make these even clearer for future guests. We're glad you were able to enjoy the Riverwalk nonetheless and hope to see you again for a smoother start next time!"
Walk was good. We would have missed a few sights without the commentary. Needs to be updated. Buildings now completed and a water fountain no longer there. Good to fill in some time.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts! We're glad the commentary helped highlight sights you might have missed - that’s exactly what we aim for. We also appreciate your note about the tour feeling a little dated. You're absolutely right: Fort Lauderdale keeps evolving, and we’re already working on updates to capture those changes as the city grows. Thanks again for joining us. We’re glad the tour added something to your day!
To be patient in listening & learning about the history of the landmarks. It’s also nice to go when there are other activities on the waterfront.
Thank you for your great review! We are delighted that you appreciated how the tour is "linking the past with the present" and that you enjoyed learning the history of the landmarks. Visiting when other waterfront activities are happening adds another layer of excitement to the area. We hope you'll choose another one of our tours on your next trip!
An enjoyable way to spend part of the day in Fort Lauderdale! I took it nice and easy and visited the art museum as well. It might do to update the walk as there are 2 areas being renovated and updated currently. It’s a lovely area and was a perfect way to spend some time as a solo traveller. I walked back to my hotel on the coast from the final stop as I had plenty of time and Ubers were more than double the cost due to the huge boat show being on, very close to my hotel! But I saw even more!
Thank you for the great review! We are delighted to hear our experience was a "perfect way to spend some time as a solo traveler" and provided a relaxing few hours in Fort Lauderdale. We appreciate you letting us know about the current renovations. We are currently updating the walk directions to ensure all future guests have the most current information. We hope you visit us again soon!
The walk was ok it was the narrator of the tour that was way too cheesy for me. Nice area but I would have rather just walked and enjoyed the sights without the narration.
Thank you for your review. We're sorry to hear that your experience with our walking audio tour did not meet your expectations. We value all feedback, positive or negative, as it helps us improve our tours.
