What is the best way to get from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale?

It is south down the coast, roughly an hour on a clear run; times vary a lot with traffic. That is the honest version — the number a map gives you is the version with no traffic, no rain and nobody else going the same way, and this route rarely offers all three.

Depending on the route, the options are a train where one runs (Brightline links Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach and Orlando), driving yourself, an app, or a car booked ahead (Brightline, n.d.). A train still leaves you at a station with your luggage; a car booked ahead goes door to door. Driving yourself means parking at the other end and staying dry, sober and unbothered for the whole run. An app means standing at the kerb hoping someone accepts a long fare, and the fare can change with demand. The longer the trip, the worse that trade gets.

Flying in, the choice is PBI or FLL. The nearer airport is not always the faster door-to-door once the drive is counted, and the concierge will say plainly which one works better for your timing.

Booked ahead, the car is yours for the whole run: one driver, one fare agreed before it starts, luggage handled at both ends, and a car that waits if you are late rather than leaving. If you are going Fort Lauderdale and back the same day, the same car and the same driver hold the return, which is usually the half people forget to plan.

Las Olas Boulevard is the spine of dinner here, with the beachfront rooms a short drive east. A car for the night ties them together. Most of these trips end up somewhere around Las Olas, the Beach, Downtown.