Should I stay in FLL or Miami, given .....

[Turtles06]

Would love advice from you South Florida experts on the following:

 

In late April, my partner and I will be embarking on a TA that leaves from Miami. We are flying into FLL, because that made the most sense in terms of buying a one-way ticket. We'll be arriving mid-day on a Thursday and we'll be renting a car; our ship departs on Saturday. I expect that we'll be spending most of Friday up in the Delray Beach area visiting elderly relatives (but we won't be staying with them). It's possible we might even drive up there on Thursday.

 

So we'll need a hotel for two nights, and we'd prefer not to switch hotels the second day. My initial thinking was to stay in FLL; we could check in after our flight arrives and ditch our luggage. It seems perhaps silly to fly into FLL, immediately drive to Miami to check into a hotel there, only to drive up to Delray Beach the next day, and then drive all the way back to Miami (in Friday traffic, no less). Plus, hotels in FLL seem be less expensive than they are in Miami.

 

This thinking also assumes that on a Saturday morning, it should be no big deal to drive from FLL down I-95 to the POM, but please let me know if that's wrong.

 

It would be sort of nice to wake up in Miami the morning of the cruise, but I don't know if that makes the most sense, given our other plans.

 

I would certainly appreciate any advice about this. Thanks in advance!

[DanJ]

If you have no other plans centered around Miami, then I don't see any problem in your thinking. I have no idea what kind of timeframe this visit with relatives would take (a visit with my elderly relatives usual entails an hour before they need to go nap or something and we take off LOL). If you plan to make a day of it with them, I don't see anything wrong with staying up there the 2 nights if you wanted, without even driving back to Ft Laud. It's not that far to Miami. It's not like you are up at the crack of dawn and down at the port waiting for the ship. An hour or so drive on Saturday morning from Delray or even Ft Lauderdale if you stay there, won't be anything to worry about. Obviously things happen and you can have a tractor trailer jacknifed across the highway, in which case you will be wishing you did drive to Miami the night before. Those are just the chances you take though.

[JohninDC]

Stay in the FLL area, drop the car in Miami the morning of your cruise - both Avis and Hertz have downtown Miami locations very close to POM ($10 cab ride if they will not shuttle) or return to the MIA airport location - Thrifty/Alamo/National offer free shuttles to POM. Good luck! :)

[TravlGrl]

How about staying in Delray Beach instead of FLL or MIA? The Marriott is right there on A1A across from the beach, or there are plenty of other smaller "boutiquey" hotels in the area. My favorite is the historic Colony Hotel on Atlantic Ave in Delray. You could enjoy the fun village-like atmosphere of Delray, and depending on when in April you'll be in FL, you might arrive during the Delray Affair which is a arts event along along Atlantic Ave.

 

Saturday morning, plan on an hour to get to MIA. We do it all the time, and if I-95 is gucky, take the Turnpike. Enjoy!

[mrpayroll]

I would stay in Fort Lauderdale the night before and drive to Miami in the morning. Save some Money on the room that you can spend while on the cruise..

[royalcruz]

Stay in Fort Lauderdale or Delray.

[Turtles06]

Thank you all for the feeback, it's much appreciated!