Fort Lauderdale beach · The mile is ZIP 33308
Fort Lauderdale's local guide
The oceanfront mile, block by block: its two streets, the beach and the reef, the marketplace, and the businesses along A1A.
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Getting oriented
Two streets, one block apart.
Galt Ocean Drive faces the Atlantic. One block west is North Ocean Boulevard, which is A1A, and that's where the shops are. Tap a stop on the map to walk it. Past the town line to the north is Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and south of Oakland Park Boulevard the island keeps going to the central beach.
Stop 5
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea line
The mile ends where the town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea begins. The town has its own beach, its own small commercial street, and reef snorkel trails a short walk off the sand. Anglin's Pier is there too, on Commercial Boulevard.
Read more about Lauderdale-by-the-Sea lineStop 1
Galt Ocean Drive
This is the oceanfront street. The high-rises stand between it and the beach, so walking out of the lobby means walking toward the water. The drive itself runs just under a mile, from Oakland Park Boulevard to just short of the town line.
Read more about Galt Ocean DriveStop 2
North Ocean Boulevard (A1A)
This is the working street, one block west of Galt Ocean Drive: the pharmacy, the banks, casual restaurants and daily errands. At the marketplace, the two streets are only about 100 yards apart.
Read more about North Ocean Boulevard (A1A)Stop 3
Galt Ocean Marketplace
This shopping center at 3700–4032 North Ocean Boulevard was built in 1988 and covers 142,183 square feet on 8.6 acres. CVS is the pharmacy.
Read more about Galt Ocean MarketplaceStop 6
The beach
This is the northeast stretch of Fort Lauderdale beach. Sea turtles nest here from March 1 to October 31, so beachfront lights need to stay low during the season.
Read more about The beachStop 4
Oakland Park Boulevard bridge
The bridge marks the south end of the mile, and it's the everyday drive across the Intracoastal to the rest of Fort Lauderdale. South of the bridge, the island continues toward the central beach.
Read more about Oakland Park Boulevard bridge
Plan your day
What kind of day is it?
The mile itself is a residential beach with a shopping center one block back, and the island keeps going in both directions. Find the kind of day you're having below.
Locals
A weekday here is a beach walk, then CVS, coffee and home. The sand takes care of the morning, and the boulevard takes care of the errands.
A brown pelican in Fort Lauderdale. Photo: Zach Klein from New York, New York, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Tourists
You get wide sand and a row of towers, with the shops one block west. Bamboo Beach Tiki Bar, on the beach side at 4040 Galt Ocean Drive, is open to the public. The central beach, south of Oakland Park Boulevard, has a strip of its own.
Fort Lauderdale beach at Lago Mar, south of the mile. Photo: EgorovaSvetlana, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Spring break
Ocean Manor, at 4040 Galt Ocean Drive, gets spring breakers from March through mid-April. Bamboo Beach Tiki Bar, on the beach side of the same building, is open to the public from 7:00 AM to 2:00 AM Sunday through Thursday, and from 7:00 AM to 3:00 AM on Friday and Saturday.
Thinking of moving
The real decision is which street, and whether you'll actually use the beach you're paying to live next to.
The Intracoastal and Birch State Park from the air. Photo: WPPilot, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Dinner and the night
The mile has a few restaurants. There's more going on once you head north into town or south toward Las Olas.
Fort Lauderdale beach at night, January 2021. Photo: formulanone, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
The town at the north end of the map has a reef you can swim to, Commercial Boulevard, and two restaurants with live music and drink nights.
The rest of the island
The island runs from the Intracoastal to the Atlantic, and it's about 3.3 miles south from the Oakland Park crossing to Las Olas. On the way there's a music room off A1A, Birch State Park and, at the end, the bar at Las Olas.
Entering Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. Photo: Tamanoeconomico, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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The guide
Explore the guide.
Start with the mile, the beach and the marketplace, plus the errands you can run without leaving the island. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and the rest of the barrier island each have a page of their own, and every business on the mile is in the directory.
The mile
The two streets, the towers, the bridge to the mainland, and a century of history.
Walk the mileThe beach
Where this stretch sits on Fort Lauderdale beach, turtle season, and the reef just north.
Go to the beachThe marketplace
The pharmacy and errand stop at 3700–4032 North Ocean Boulevard.
Visit the marketplaceThe directory
Every restaurant, hotel, salon, office and shop on the mile and just north, with hours and phone numbers.
Look up a businessFor businesses
How a shop on this boulevard shows up when neighbors search for what it sells.
Get foundThe directory by type
Just offshore
The reef starts where the sand stops.
A short walk north, in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, three reef lines sit within about 100 yards of the beach, close enough that snorkelers swim out from the sand. The pier the snorkel trails are named for is closed. For where to walk in and the latest on the pier, see Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
- 100 yd
- Distance from the beach to the reef lines off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
- 10 ft
- Depth of the snorkel trails off Datura and by Anglin's Pier, which is closed.
- 1900
- The year the SS Copenhagen sank. The wreck lies less than a mile offshore, in about 25 feet of water.
- Mar–Oct
- Sea turtle nesting season on Fort Lauderdale beach.
How the mile got here
From one man's land to a wall of towers.
The name comes from Arthur T. Galt. The skyline came after he sold.
- 1913
Arthur T. Galt, a Chicago lawyer, buys land here. Most of his 8,000 acres lay west of the Intracoastal.
- 1925
Floranada is incorporated on November 25. The resort town fails in the Florida land crash.
- 1953
Galt sells the oceanfront parcel to the Coral Ridge developers for $19,389,000.
- 1957
The 250-room Galt Ocean Mile Hotel opens on December 19.
- 1970s
Condominium towers rise along Galt Ocean Drive and give the mile its skyline.
- 1988
Galt Ocean Marketplace is built on North Ocean Boulevard.
- 2025
Gazit Horizons buys the marketplace for $35.4 million on March 31.
Scroll sideways for the full timeline. Read the history.
For businesses on A1A
Your neighbors are searching right now.
Someone on Galt Ocean Drive types "dentist near me" or "pizza Galt Mile." The shop that shows up is the one whose listing, page and address all say the same thing, in the words the neighborhood uses. That's what we set up.
Google Business Profile
Correct name, category, hours and photos, with the address people use to find you on North Ocean Boulevard.
A page that ranks
A location page that names the service, the street and the landmark, with schema markup search engines read.
A place in this guide
A page in the business directory for the mile and the streets around it, linking neighbors to your door.
FAQ
Questions people ask first.
Where is the Galt Ocean Mile?
It's on the barrier island in northeast Fort Lauderdale, running along Galt Ocean Drive from Oakland Park Boulevard north to the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea line. The ZIP code is 33308.
Is Galt Ocean Drive the same as A1A?
No. Galt Ocean Drive is the oceanfront street. Through this stretch, State Road A1A is North Ocean Boulevard, one block west.
What is Galt Ocean Marketplace?
It's the shopping center at 3700 to 4032 North Ocean Boulevard, with CVS, a bank, restaurants, salons and medical offices. The Winn-Dixie supermarket there has closed.
Why is it called the Galt Mile?
It's named for Arthur T. Galt, a Chicago lawyer who owned the land for decades and sold the oceanfront parcel to the developers of Coral Ridge in 1953.
When is sea turtle nesting season on this beach?
In Fort Lauderdale, it runs from March 1 to October 31. During those months, beachfront lights have to be kept low, shielded and long-wavelength so hatchlings head for the water.