The best things to do in Margate, FL with kids fall into two rings. Inside the city you get Calypso Cove, Firefighters Park and a canal front pocket park with fishing docks. About ten minutes north, in Coconut Creek, sit the two attractions locals name first, Butterfly World and Tradewinds Park. Margate is nine square miles with no beach of its own, so this guide covers everything within roughly a thirty minute drive, sorted into outdoor days, indoor afternoons, free options, and the timing that South Florida heat forces on any family.
The Family Map of Margate and Its Drive Time Rings
Margate is a Broward County suburb of about 58,700 people sitting between Coral Springs, Coconut Creek and North Lauderdale, and it runs 19 parks and recreational facilities inside its nine square miles (City of Margate). Four roads carry nearly everything a family needs: Atlantic Boulevard, Margate Boulevard, State Road 7 and Coconut Creek Parkway.
Almost nothing here is walkable between destinations, so plan on driving. The Atlantic is 7.5 miles east, about 20 minutes down Atlantic Boulevard to Pompano Beach. Butterfly World, Tradewinds Park and Fern Forest Nature Center are ten minutes north, Coral Springs adds indoor options in 12 to 15 minutes, and Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton sit 25 to 30 minutes out. For the adult version of this list, see our wider guide to things to do in Margate.
Outdoor Family Days Inside Margate
Margate's own family attractions are parks and a municipal water park, none of them more than ten minutes apart. Residents pay less than visitors at the pool, and the parks cost nothing at all.
Calypso Cove Aquatic Facility: Slides, a Zero Entry Pool and Limited Shade
Calypso Cove is the city's Caribbean themed water park, inside Royal Palm Park, and it's the first place most Margate kids name. Two 30 foot slides handle older children while a zero entry pool and splash playground suit toddlers. Shade is limited, so bring hats and claim an umbrella seat early. It runs on a season rather than year round, so check the city calendar before driving over in a shoulder month. The floats and beach chairs a season like this generates have to live somewhere, and a 5×10 storage unit is the size most families use for that overflow.
Firefighters Park: Safety Town and a Playground Built for the Heat
Firefighters Park is the best all round park in Margate and its top rated attraction on Tripadvisor. The draw for younger kids is Safety Town, a miniature streetscape with real signs and crossings where children learn road safety, plus a playground that now sits under a large awning on astroturf instead of sand. Older kids get five lighted tennis courts, four pickleball courts, basketball, sand volleyball and a free half mile fitness trail. The lights are the point: courts stay playable after sunset, the only sane hour to play from June through September.
Margate Sports Complex: A Free Splash Pad and Sounds at Sundown
The Margate Sports Complex is youth baseball by day and a concert lawn by night. A splash pad, a quarter mile exercise loop and shaded bleachers make it a real morning stop even when nobody in your family is playing a game, and the splash pad is the free wet option when Calypso Cove is closed for the season. Sounds at Sundown brings food trucks and live music, so pack lawn chairs and expect a local crowd.
Winfield Park: Fishing Docks, Turtles and a Boat Ramp
Winfield Park is a free canal front pocket park off Winfield Boulevard with swings, picnic tables, two fishing docks, a mini climbing wall and a boat ramp. Kids feed the tilapia and wait for turtles to surface, which buys a surprising amount of quiet for the adults at the tables. It sits five minutes from the traffic on State Road 7 and rarely feels busy. Bring your own rods and bait, because nothing is rented on site.
Outdoor Attractions Within a Twenty Minute Drive
The bigger outdoor days sit just over the city line, all four within about 20 minutes and all four better before noon.
Butterfly World: 20,000 Butterflies and the Lorikeet Feeding
Butterfly World in Coconut Creek keeps roughly 20,000 butterflies and birds flying loose in open air aviaries, alongside a bug zoo and hummingbird and lorikeet houses. The lorikeet feeding, cash only at $2 a cup, is the part children talk about on the drive home. Come in the morning, when butterflies are most active, and note that final entry is 4 p.m. with arrival recommended by 3 p.m. (Butterfly World). Call ahead in summer, since afternoon storms can close things early.
Tradewinds Park: Pony Rides, Disc Golf and a Model Steam Train
Tradewinds Park covers more than 600 acres and is probably the most activity packed park in Broward County. The stables run guided tours, trail rides and pony rides, and there's disc golf, fishing lakes, playgrounds and picnic shelters across both halves of the park. A model steam train runs on the third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Plan a full day rather than an hour, because the two sides of the park are a genuine walk apart, and Butterfly World sits inside the same grounds.
Fern Forest Nature Center: Boardwalks, a Tower and Real Alligators
Fern Forest Nature Center is a 247 acre remnant of the Florida that development erased, with 34 fern species along the raised Cypress Creek boardwalk, a Wetlands Wander trail, an observation tower and a reptile house. Alligators, snakes and wading birds are all realistic sightings, which makes it the best free wildlife lesson near Margate. There are about 2.2 miles of trail and no admission charge. Parts of the Cypress Creek Trail are wheelchair accessible, though not the whole network.
Quiet Waters Park: Splash Adventure and Cable Water Skiing
Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach is about 20 minutes north, and its Splash Adventure water playground tops the local lists of things to do with kids near Margate. Cable water skiing, lakeside trails and camping stretch it across a wide age range in one visit. County parking fees apply at weekends and on holidays, and Splash Adventure is seasonal, so confirm hours on the Broward County Parks site before you commit to the drive.
Indoor Places That Save a Rainy Margate Afternoon
Margate averages 61 inches of rain a year and storms are routine from June through September, so an indoor fallback matters more here than in most Florida towns.
Xtreme Action Park: Karting, Bowling and Laser Tag Under One Roof
Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale is 200,000 square feet of indoor everything: an electric karting track where the karts hit 45 mph, six bowling lanes, a roller rink, a high ropes course, laser tag and escape rooms. It's the single best bad weather option within half an hour of Margate. Karting carries height and age minimums, so check them before promising a younger child a turn, and skip weekend afternoons if you dislike queues.
Urban Air Adventure Park: Trampolines, Bumper Cars and a Toddler Zone
Urban Air in Coral Springs runs more than 15 indoor attractions, including trampolines, climbing walls, an indoor zipline, bumper cars, dodgeball and an obstacle course, plus a separate area for children seven and under. It's closed Mondays and doesn't open until 4 p.m. on other weekdays, which catches families out during school holidays. Socks are required, so bring your own rather than buying them at the counter.
Panthers IceDen: Public Skating and Learn to Skate Classes
Panthers IceDen in Coral Springs is the only place nearby where your children will complain about being cold in August. Public skating sessions run alongside the Panthers Skating Academy and learn to skate classes for hockey, figure skating and recreation. Hours vary by day, so check the public skating calendar before driving over, and bring jackets and thin gloves, which most first time visitors forget.
Margate Catharine Young Library: Story Times and Free Air Conditioning
The Margate Catharine Young Library keeps its own calendar of children's programs and community sessions on the city's events pages. It's free, air conditioned and about as close as Margate gets to a guaranteed indoor hour, which counts in a city with few commercial indoor options. Check the calendar before you go, since programming clusters on certain mornings rather than running all day.
Children's Science Explorium: Free Hands On Science at Sugar Sand Park
The Children's Science Explorium at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton is a free science center aimed at roughly ages five to twelve, with interactive physical science exhibits and traveling exhibits in spring and autumn. The surrounding park adds a carousel, a large playground and the Willow Theatre, so a wet morning indoors can turn into an afternoon outside if the weather breaks. It's about 30 minutes north, and the Explorium keeps longer hours than the carousel.
Free Family Options and the City Events Calendar
Margate has more free options than its size suggests. The splash pad at the sports complex, the fitness trail and Safety Town at Firefighters Park, the fishing docks at Winfield Park, the trails at Fern Forest and the library programs all cost nothing, and so does the Explorium up in Boca Raton.
The city calendar fills in the rest: Movies in the Park, Sounds at Sundown, the Springtime Egg Hunt, a Fourth of July parade and fireworks, the Fall Festival, Bark in the Park, and the Winter Festival in mid December with artificial snow, live music and Santa photos (City of Margate Parks and Recreation). One correction worth having: the Margate Fair is not running in 2026, so don't build a trip around it. Families who keep costumes and festival bins year to year often rent a 5×5 locker in Margate rather than surrender a closet.
Parking, Monday Closures and the Summer Timetable
Parking is free and plentiful at Margate's city parks and shopping plazas, which is the quiet advantage of a suburb built in the 1970s. Broward County parks are the exception, since Quiet Waters and Tradewinds charge at weekends and on holidays. Check Mondays before you drive anywhere: Urban Air is closed that day, while the city parks stay open seven days a week.
From June through September, treat mornings as outdoor time and afternoons as indoor time. August averages a high of 91.4F, September is the wettest month at about 8.13 inches, and the storms arrive on a schedule reliable enough to plan around. Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks around September 10 (NOAA National Hurricane Center), so travel insurance earns its cost on a September trip and outdoor attractions can close at short notice. Our guide to the best time to visit Margate breaks the year down month by month.
Heat is also why bikes and sports bags don't last long in a Margate garage. A climate controlled storage unit in Margate keeps gear out of the swing between 90 degree afternoons and damp mornings, and a 10×5 unit fits a season of team equipment. Longer outings, from airboat rides at the edge of the Everglades to the water parks in Palm Beach County, sit in our day trips from Margate guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is there to do in Margate with kids?
Inside the city, families use Calypso Cove for swimming, Firefighters Park for playgrounds and Safety Town, the Margate Sports Complex for its splash pad, and Winfield Park for fishing on the canal. Ten minutes north, Butterfly World and Tradewinds Park handle the bigger days out. Indoor options sit mostly in Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale, a 12 to 25 minute drive.
What to do in Margate for free?
The splash pad at the Margate Sports Complex, the half mile fitness trail and Safety Town at Firefighters Park, and the fishing docks at Winfield Park are all free. So are the trails at Fern Forest Nature Center and the children's programs at the Margate Catharine Young Library. City events including Movies in the Park and the Winter Festival add several more free days a year.
Are Pompano Beach and Margate, FL the same?
No. Margate and Pompano Beach are separate Broward County cities. Margate sits inland, about 7.5 miles west of the Atlantic, and has no beach inside its limits. Pompano Beach is on the coast and is where most Margate families go for sand, roughly 20 minutes straight east on Atlantic Boulevard. Parking near the pier fills by mid morning at weekends from January through April.
How far is it from Fort Lauderdale to Margate, Florida?
Margate is about 14 miles northwest of downtown Fort Lauderdale, which is roughly a 30 minute drive off peak and longer at rush hour. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is about 20 minutes away. That distance is why a Fort Lauderdale attraction like Xtreme Action Park reads as a half day trip from Margate rather than a quick errand.
What is Margate, FL known for?
Margate is known as a quiet, affordable Broward suburb built around roughly 30 miles of canals, with three golf courses inside nine square miles and a strong parks system for its size. For families, the two names that come up first are Calypso Cove, the city's water park, and Butterfly World just north in Coconut Creek. The city also runs a busy year round events calendar.
Where Margate Families Put the Overflow
Kids accumulate equipment faster than a South Florida house has room for it. Value Store It in Margate rents month to month with no long term contract, so a unit can cover one busy season or several years. Past the small lockers, 5×15 units swallow a garage of bikes and sports gear, 10×10 storage holds about a one bedroom's contents, and 10×15 units cover a family mid move. For a whole house, 10×20 units and 10×30 units are the largest sizes here, and the storage unit size calculator will size it faster than guessing in the driveway.
