Most of the best things to do in Margate, FL sit inside a ten minute drive: 19 city parks, three golf courses inside the city limits, two antique malls and a Caribbean themed water park, with Butterfly World and Tradewinds Park just north in Coconut Creek and the ocean at Pompano Beach about twenty minutes east. Margate is a nine square mile Broward County suburb of roughly 58,700 people, 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 nine 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 ocean is 7.5 miles east at Pompano Beach, and the two attractions locals name first are four miles north in Coconut Creek. Everything below is grouped by how far you actually have to drive.
Things to Do Inside Margate, Ten Minutes or Less
Firefighters Park: Lighted Courts and Safety Town
Firefighters Park is the best all round park in the city and its highest rated attraction on Tripadvisor. It holds five lighted tennis courts, four pickleball courts, sand volleyball, a half mile fitness trail, and Safety Town, a miniature streetscape where children learn road rules on bikes. Those lighted courts matter, because from June to September only after sunset is playable.
Calypso Cove Aquatic Facility: The City's Caribbean Themed Water Park
Calypso Cove, inside Royal Palm Park, is the attraction every Margate kid names first. Two 30 foot slides, a zero entry pool, a splash playground and a lap pool make it a genuine half day rather than a municipal pool with a slide bolted on. It runs seasonally, so check the city calendar in a shoulder month, and 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 it's one of the few evenings here where people bring lawn chairs and stay put. The splash pad costs nothing, which makes it the fallback when Calypso Cove is out of season (city events calendar).
Winfield Park: Fishing Docks and a Boat Ramp on the Canal
Winfield Park is a canal front pocket park with swings, picnic tables, two fishing docks, a boat ramp and a small climbing wall. Children spend most of the visit watching tilapia and turtles surface under the docks. It's free, quiet and five minutes off 441, and the ramp matters if you keep a kayak in one of the canal neighborhoods.
The Margate Walkway Trail: A Flat Canal Side Walk and Run
The Margate Walkway Trail is a paved canal side path starting around NW 31st Street and running east past ibis, iguanas and anglers casting under the bridges. It's free, flat and the closest thing the city has to a scenic route on foot. Locals run it at sunrise, and from June through September that's the only comfortable hour, because there's almost no shade.
Golf on Three Courses Inside the City Limits
Three golf courses inside nine square miles is unusual for a city this size. Oriole Golf Club at 8000 Margate Boulevard is the flagship: 18 holes, par 72, semi private but open to public play. Fairways are open off the tee, the small greens carry a lot of movement, and the par 3s hold the difficulty (Oriole Golf Club).
Carolina Golf Club at 3011 N Rock Island Road opened in 1971 to a Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge design, and plays 6,590 yards from the back tees. The 445 yard par 4 15th is the number one handicap hole. Like Oriole it takes public play, so a weekday morning is the reliable window for a visitor.
Margate Executive Golf Course is the nine hole option, a 1982 Bill Dietsch design at par 30 over 1,379 yards. A course rating of 27.0 means nobody is being humbled, and it walks in well under two hours. Our guide to golf courses in Margate covers the wider Broward options.
Hillsboro Antique Mall and Way Back When: Two Dealer Malls in One Afternoon
Hillsboro Antique Mall is South Florida's largest antique mall, women led, family owned, and carrying more than 150 vendor booths of furniture, collectibles and mid century pieces. It sits at 5460 W Sample Road in Peppertree Plaza, having moved two 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 & Collectible Mall is the second dealer mall, and Tripadvisor ranks it among Margate's top attractions rather than merely among its shops. Pairing the two on one afternoon works because both use the same booth format. Buying a sideboard before there's a room ready for it is a common outcome, and a 10×10 storage unit holds a one bedroom'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 from the Piedmont, pasta made fresh daily, run by chefs Luigi and Esperanza Marenco with their son Gian Marco. Risotto, polenta, game and truffles carry the menu. It serves dinner only, 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, whole fried fish 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 currently tops Tripadvisor's Margate restaurant list, which is not 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 has the latest last call in Margate, running to 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Burgers, pool tables and dartboards fill the room, and the calendar rotates through karaoke, trivia and comedy nights. Check it first, because a comedy night and a Sunday game day are two different rooms.
Brady's Irish Pub is the other name locals give first, ranking second on Yelp's bars list for the 33063 radius: draft beer, pub food and a regular crowd rather than a scene. Al's Night Club at 199 S State Road 7 is the late option, a Caribbean and international room with DJs and hookah that doesn't fill until after 11 p.m.
Things to Do Within Twenty Minutes of Margate
Butterfly World: Twenty Thousand Butterflies in Coconut Creek
Butterfly World at 3600 W Sample Road holds around 20,000 butterflies and birds across open air aviaries, plus a bug zoo and lorikeet aviaries. The lorikeet feeding, cash only at $2 a cup, is the part children remember. Come in the morning, when butterflies are most active: final entry is 4 p.m. and the butterfly areas close at 4:30 (Butterfly World).
Tradewinds Park: Stables, Disc Golf and a Model Steam Train
Tradewinds Park runs to more than 600 acres and is probably the most activity packed park in Broward County. Stables offer trail and pony rides, and the grounds carry disc golf, athletic fields, playgrounds and fishing lakes. A model steam train runs the third weekend of the month, and the Holiday Fantasy of Lights drive through takes over in winter (Broward County Parks).
Fern Forest Nature Center: 247 Acres of Pre Development Florida
Fern Forest Nature Center on Lyons Road preserves 247 acres of the Florida that development erased, with 34 fern species along the raised Cypress Creek boardwalk and an observation tower. Alligators, snakes and wading birds are all realistic sightings. There are 2.2 miles of trail and no admission charge, and parts of the boardwalk are wheelchair accessible.
Seminole Casino Coconut Creek: Open Around the Clock, Adults Only
Seminole Casino Coconut Creek at 5550 NW 40th Street runs 24 hours a day, about ten minutes from Margate. The floor holds slots, more than 80 live table games, a poker room, a sportsbook and a smoke free pavilion worth asking for if smoke bothers you. The gaming floor is 21 and over.
Pompano Beach and the Pompano Beach Pier: The Nearest Ocean
Pompano Beach is the closest ocean to Margate, roughly nine miles east along Atlantic Boulevard, which runs straight there. You get a wide public beach, a fishing pier and a redeveloped fishing village with restaurants on the sand. Parking near the pier fills by mid morning at weekends from January through April. Regulars end up with a garage full of beach chairs and boogie boards, which is about what a 5×10 unit holds.
Bigger Days Out, Twenty to Forty Minutes Away
Xtreme Action Park: The Best Bad Weather Option in the Area
Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale is 200,000 square feet of indoor everything: a karting track with electric karts that reach 45 mph, six bowling lanes, a roller rink, laser tag and escape rooms. In a city that averages 61 inches of rain a year, 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
Fort Lauderdale Beach is about 14 miles southeast, with the A1A promenade alongside it and Las Olas Boulevard a few blocks inland 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 full by late morning in season.
Everglades Holiday Park: Airboats on Griffin Road
Everglades Holiday Park at 21940 Griffin Road runs roughly 60 minute airboat tours, plus a live alligator presentation from the Gator Boys rescue team. It opens 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days, rain or shine, with the last airboat leaving at 5 p.m. sharp (Everglades Holiday Park). Morning tours see more wildlife and less heat. For anything further 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 91.4F, and dew points sit above 65F from May through October, which is when the air turns muggy rather than merely warm (NOAA 30 year normals). 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, so storm surge isn't the local threat it is on the barrier islands, but wind, power outages and canal flooding are, and outdoor attractions can shut on short notice for an afternoon thunderstorm.
Nothing here is 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. Broward County Transit Route 62 connects neighborhoods to State Road 7. Parking is free at the plazas and at every city park, which is a real advantage over the beach cities.
Watch the Monday closures and the short windows. Pasta And closes 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 lives at the same dew point, which is why climate controlled storage in Margate is the default here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Margate, FL known for?
Margate is known for its parks and its golf. The city runs 19 parks and recreational facilities across nine square miles, including Firefighters Park and the Calypso Cove water park, and it holds three golf courses inside the city limits, which is rare for a city this size. 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 the Margate Walkway Trail early, before the heat. Drive ten 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 fitness trail cost nothing, the splash pad at the Margate Sports Complex is free, and the Margate Walkway Trail is open at any hour. Fern Forest Nature Center in Coconut Creek charges no admission for 2.2 miles of boardwalk.
Are Pompano Beach and Margate, FL the same?
No. Margate and Pompano Beach are separate Broward County cities about nine miles apart on Atlantic Boulevard. Margate is inland, has no coastline and covers nine square miles. Pompano Beach sits on the Atlantic and has the pier, the public beach and the fishing village. 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 or Carolina Golf Club, browse the two antique malls, eat at Pasta And, then finish at Jesse's Sports Bar or Brady's Irish Pub. Seminole Casino Coconut Creek is ten minutes away, open 24 hours and restricted to 21 and over.
What is there to do in Margate with kids?
Calypso Cove is the headline answer, with Butterfly World, Tradewinds Park and the Safety Town streetscape 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 golf courses 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 take a season of patio furniture, and 5×15 spaces suit long narrow loads like paddles and folding tables.
Larger spaces cover the household version of the same problem. A 10×15 storage space takes a two bedroom, 10×20 units handle a three bedroom or a small business inventory, and a 10×30 unit covers a whole house between closing dates. If you're unsure which fits, the storage unit size guide shows what goes in each. Come see the Margate location once the garage has stopped closing.
