Most of the best things to do in Margate, FL sit inside a 10-minute drive: 19 city parks, a golf course, two antique stops and a Caribbean-themed water park, with Butterfly World and Tradewinds Park just north in Coconut Creek and the ocean at Pompano Beach about 20 minutes east. Margate is a Broward County suburb of roughly 58,700 people covering about 9 square miles, small enough that this guide is organized by drive time instead of by neighborhood.
How Margate Is Laid Out and What Sits Where
Margate runs on four commercial spines. Atlantic Boulevard carries the plazas and most of the restaurants, and State Road 7, which locals call 441, is the international strip of Haitian, Jamaican, Peruvian and Thai kitchens. Margate Boulevard holds City Hall, the library and Oriole Golf Club, and Sample Road frames the northern edge.
The city describes itself as about 9 square miles of tree-lined streets and 30 miles of canals, sitting 7.5 miles from the Atlantic and about 20 minutes from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, with 19 parks and recreational facilities (City of Margate). The U.S. Census Bureau counted 58,712 residents in 2020.
Two honest caveats first. Margate has no beach of its own, because the nearest ocean is at Pompano Beach, about 20 minutes east, and the two best-known nearby attractions are about 10 minutes north in Coconut Creek. Everything below is grouped by how far you actually have to drive.
Things to Do Inside Margate, 10 Minutes or Less
Firefighters Park: Lighted Courts and Safety Town
Firefighters Park at 2500 Rock Island Road is the best all-round park in the city. It holds five tennis courts, two pickleball courts, lighted basketball courts, sand volleyball, a half-mile walking trail with exercise stations, a dog park and Safety Town, where children learn road safety (City of Margate). It stays open until 10 p.m., and that matters, because from June to September only after sunset is playable.
Calypso Cove Aquatic Facility: The City’s Caribbean-Themed Water Park
Calypso Cove, at 6200 Royal Palm Boulevard, is Margate’s main summer draw for families. Two slides (48-inch minimum) and a zero-depth pool make it a genuine half day rather than a municipal pool with a slide bolted on. It’s seasonal: in 2026 it runs weekends only through September 27, then closes until spring, and admission is $6 for residents and $12 for non-residents ages 5 and up (City of Margate). Arrive early for a shaded seat.
Margate Sports Complex: Sounds at Sundown and a Free Splash Pad
The Margate Sports Complex is youth baseball by day and a concert venue by night. Sounds at Sundown brings live music and food trucks to the field, and the next show is October 3, 2026, at 6 p.m. (City of Margate). It’s one of the few evenings here where people bring lawn chairs and stay put. The splash play area costs nothing, which makes it the fallback when Calypso Cove is out of season.
Winfield Park: Fishing Docks and a Boat Ramp on the Canal
Winfield Park at 6400 Winfield Boulevard is a canal-front pocket park with covered playgrounds, swing benches, a basketball court, two fishing docks and a boat ramp (City of Margate). It’s free, quiet and a few minutes off 441, and the ramp matters if you keep a kayak in one of the canal neighborhoods.
Oriole Golf Club: Margate’s Only Golf Course
Margate once had three courses, but Carolina Golf Club closed and is slated for redevelopment (Florida YIMBY), and Margate Executive Golf Course closed in 2021 (PGA.com). That leaves Oriole Golf Club at 8000 Margate Boulevard: 18 holes, semi-private but open to public play, opened in 1971. Fairways are open off the tee and the small greens carry a lot of movement (Oriole Golf Club). Our guide to golf courses in Margate covers the wider Broward options.
Hillsboro Antique Mall and Way Back When: Two Antique Stops in One Afternoon
Hillsboro Antique Mall is a women-led, family-owned antique mall with more than 150 vendors of furniture, collectibles and mid-century pieces. It sits at 5460 W Sample Road in Peppertree Plaza, having moved about 2 miles west from Festival Marketplace, so older directions online are wrong. The window is short: noon to 6 p.m. daily, which rules out a morning visit.
Way Back When Antique & Collectibles at 6217 Margate Boulevard is the second stop, closed Sundays and Mondays, so plan the pairing for midweek or Saturday. Plenty of shoppers buy a sideboard before there’s a room ready for it, and a 10×10 storage unit holds a one-bedroom apartment’s worth of furniture in the meantime.
Dinner on Atlantic Boulevard and State Road 7
Pasta And at 4990 W Atlantic Boulevard is the city’s white-tablecloth room: Northern Italian with house-made pasta and risotto, run by chefs Luigi and Esperanza Marenco with their son Gian Marco (Pasta And). It serves dinner only, 5 to 10 p.m., closes Mondays, and the room is small enough that weekends need a booking.
Delish Caribbean Restaurant at 171 S State Road 7 is the other end of the range. Griot, tasso, stew chicken, fried snapper and conch fritters come out of a kitchen that runs to midnight on Friday and 4 a.m. on Saturday, which makes it one of very few genuinely late kitchens in Margate.
Spanky’s Cheesesteak & Wings Factory at 309 N State Road 7 is one of Tripadvisor’s top-rated Margate restaurants, which isn’t where most people would guess. It’s counter service with no atmosphere to speak of, and the cheesesteak is the reason to stop. More options are in our Margate restaurant guide.
A Night Out Without Leaving the City
Jesse’s Sports Bar & Grill at 5442 W Atlantic Boulevard opens at noon and runs to 4 a.m. on Sunday, Thursday and Friday and to 2 a.m. the rest of the week (Jesse’s Sports Bar). Pool tables and darts fill the room, and stand-up comedy nights are on the calendar, so check it first.
Brady’s Pub at 988 S State Road 7 is the darts-and-pool bar: 15 steel-tip boards, two pool tables, no food and a regular crowd rather than a scene. It’s open until 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Al’s Night Club at 199 S State Road 7 is the late-night dance club option.
Things to Do Within 20 Minutes of Margate
Butterfly World: 20,000 Butterflies and Birds in Coconut Creek
Butterfly World at 3600 W Sample Road holds about 20,000 exotic butterflies and birds. The lorikeet feeding, cash only at $2 a cup, is the part children remember. It opens at 9 a.m. Monday to Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday. Come in the morning: final entry is 4 p.m. and the butterfly areas close at 4:30 p.m. (Butterfly World).
Tradewinds Park: Disc Golf, Fishing and a Model Steam Train
Tradewinds Park covers about 625 acres split by Sample Road, and as a Broward County regional park its gate is free on weekdays and $3 per vehicle on weekends and County holidays (Broward County Parks). The south side carries disc golf, athletic fields and fishing, while the north side’s educational farm tours and pony rides have been closed since July 2025 for long-term construction (Broward County Parks). The model steam train still runs the third Saturday and Sunday of the month, with September 19 and 20 and October 17 and 18 next on the railroad’s schedule.
Fern Forest Nature Center: Nearly 250 Acres of Old Florida
Fern Forest Nature Center at 201 Lyons Road S preserves 244 acres of cypress swamp, hammock and prairie, with more than 30 fern species along its trails. The half-mile Cypress Creek boardwalk is wheelchair accessible, and the 1-mile Prairie Overlook Trail climbs to an observation platform. It’s a county nature center rather than a regional park, so there’s no gate fee, and it’s open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Florida Hikes).
Seminole Casino Coconut Creek: Open 24/7
Seminole Casino Coconut Creek at 5550 NW 40th Street runs around the clock, about 10 minutes from Margate. The floor holds slots, more than 80 live table games, a poker room, a sportsbook and a smoke-free pavilion with more than 300 slots, worth asking for if smoke bothers you (Seminole Casino Coconut Creek). It’s an adults’ night out, not a family stop.
Pompano Beach: The Nearest Ocean
Pompano Beach is the closest ocean to Margate, about 9 to 10 miles east by road along Atlantic Boulevard, which runs straight there in about 20 minutes. You get a wide public beach, a fishing pier and restaurants near the sand. Regulars end up with a garage full of beach chairs and boogie boards, and a 5×10 unit holds the contents of one room.
Bigger Days Out, 20 to 40 Minutes Away
Xtreme Action Park: The Best Bad-Weather Option in the Area
Xtreme Action Park at 5300 Powerline Road in Fort Lauderdale is more than 200,000 square feet of indoor everything: gas-powered European race karts, six full-size bowling lanes, a 12,000-square-foot roller rink, laser tag and escape rooms (Xtreme Action Park). With about 56 inches of rain a year in Margate, that matters. Karting carries height and age minimums, so check them before promising a younger child a turn.
Fort Lauderdale Beach and Las Olas Boulevard: The Full Day Out
Downtown Fort Lauderdale is about 14 miles southeast, with the beach and its A1A promenade just beyond and Las Olas Boulevard running between them for galleries, restaurants and bars. The Water Taxi’s hop-on, hop-off route is the practical way to see the canal system without owning a boat. Beach parking is expensive and fills early in season.
Everglades Holiday Park: Airboats on Griffin Road
Everglades Holiday Park at 21940 Griffin Road runs roughly 60-minute airboat tours, plus a 20-minute live alligator show from the Gator Boys rescue team. It’s open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, rain or shine, with the last airboat leaving at 5 p.m. sharp (Everglades Holiday Park). Morning tours see less heat. For anything farther out, see our guide to day trips from Margate.
Practical Notes on Heat, Parking, Closures and Storm Season
Heat and humidity are what visitors underestimate, not distance. August averages a high of 91°F (HistoricalClimate), and Weather Spark puts the muggier part of the year at April 10 through December 1. The workable summer pattern is outdoors before 10 a.m., indoors in the afternoon, outdoors again after sunset. Our guide to the best time to visit Margate goes month by month.
Storm season deserves a straight answer. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks on September 10 (NOAA National Hurricane Center). Margate sits inland at 13 feet of elevation (Wikipedia), so storm surge matters less here than on the barrier islands, but wind, power outages and canal flooding still do, and outdoor attractions can shut on short notice for an afternoon thunderstorm.
Margate isn’t walkable between destinations. Each plaza is walkable inside itself and the parks are self-contained, but the gaps are four-lane roads, so plan on a car. Margate has no rail station; several Broward County Transit routes and the free Margate Community Bus cover the city. Parking is free at the plazas and at the city’s own parks, which is a real advantage over the beach cities; the Broward County regional parks just north charge $3 per vehicle at the gate on weekends and County holidays (Broward County Parks).
Watch the Monday closures and the short windows. Pasta And closes Mondays, Way Back When closes Sundays and Mondays, Hillsboro Antique Mall opens only from noon to 6 p.m., and Calypso Cove runs seasonally. Snowbird season fills the restaurants from January through April, and many seasonal residents lock up in May and leave the bikes and golf clubs behind, which is the job a 5×5 locker does. Anything left in a Margate garage over that summer sits in the same humidity, which is why climate-controlled storage in Margate is the default here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s Margate, FL known for?
Margate is known for its parks and canals. The city runs 19 parks and recreational facilities across about 9 square miles, including Firefighters Park and the Calypso Cove water park, and it has one golf course, Oriole Golf Club. The 30 miles of canals through its residential streets are the other local signature.
What to do in Margate for a day?
A full Margate day works in three parts. Start at Firefighters Park or Winfield Park early, before the heat. Drive 10 minutes north to Butterfly World or Tradewinds Park for the middle of the day. Finish with dinner at Pasta And or Delish Caribbean on the way home.
What to do in Margate for free?
Free options here are genuinely good. Winfield Park and Firefighters Park with its half-mile walking trail cost nothing, and the splash pad at the Margate Sports Complex is free. Fern Forest Nature Center in Coconut Creek charges no admission for its boardwalk and prairie trail.
Are Pompano Beach and Margate, FL the same?
No. Margate and Pompano Beach are separate Broward County cities about 9 to 10 miles apart by road on Atlantic Boulevard. Margate is inland, has no coastline and covers about 9 square miles. Pompano Beach sits on the Atlantic and has the pier and the public beach. Margate residents drive to Pompano for the ocean, which takes about 20 minutes outside rush hour.
What are some fun things for adults to do in Margate?
Adults get the better end of Margate. Play Oriole Golf Club, browse the two antique stops, eat at Pasta And, then finish at Jesse’s Sports Bar or Brady’s Pub. Seminole Casino Coconut Creek is 10 minutes away and open 24 hours.
What’s there to do in Margate with kids?
Calypso Cove is the headline answer in season, with Butterfly World, Tradewinds Park and Safety Town at Firefighters Park close behind. On a wet afternoon, Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale and the Catharine Young Library are the indoor fallbacks. Our guide to things to do in Margate with kids covers age ranges and free options in more detail.
Space for the Gear Between Seasons
A city of parks, canals and boat ramps produces a lot of equipment, and Margate’s older housing stock wasn’t built with much closet space. Value Store It’s Margate facility rents month-to-month with no long-term contract, which suits gear that sits idle half the year. On the small end, 10×5 units hold the contents of one room, a season of patio furniture included, and 5×15 spaces take the contents of two rooms.
Larger spaces cover the household version of the same problem. A 10×15 storage space takes a two-bedroom apartment, 10×20 units handle a three-bedroom home, and a 10×30 unit covers a four-bedroom home between closing dates. If you’re unsure which fits, the storage unit size guide shows what goes in each. Come see the Margate location when the garage door stops closing.
