Hollywood Beach

Overview

Hollywood Beach sits in Broward County between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and what distinguishes it is the Broadwalk: a brick-paved promenade built in the 1920s that runs directly along the sand for nearly two and a half miles, from Sheridan Street to Hollywood Boulevard, lined with cafés, ice-cream counters, rental shops and low-rise hotels. It is closed to cars and busy with walkers, cyclists and joggers from early morning.

That arrangement gives the beach a different character from its neighbours. There is no wall of high-rise towers as at Sunny Isles to the south, and no boulevard traffic as at Fort Lauderdale to the north. The buildings are modest and the promenade is the social centre, which is why the beach draws a mix of local families, snowbirds and day visitors rather than a single crowd.

The sand is broad and pale, the water Atlantic and moderately surfed, and access is free along the whole length with numbered street entrances off the Broadwalk.

Photo summary of last month

Conditions vary along the two and a half miles, and the northern end toward Dania frequently differs from the central Broadwalk on the same morning.

Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt

Sargassum reaching southeast Florida is carried north by the Florida Current, the flow that becomes the Gulf Stream, and it arrives in scattered patches, so whether it lands depends on the wind on the day: an easterly pushes it ashore, a westerly holds it offshore.

The sargassum season

Within the season the wind matters more than the calendar, which is why clear and affected days alternate.

The wider picture, including how the belt has changed over the past decade, is set out in our Florida sargassum season guide.

Swimming conditions and safety

This is an open Atlantic beach with a gentle shelf and generally moderate surf, comparable to Fort Lauderdale and calmer than Florida's central coast. Rip currents are the principal hazard rather than wave height, and they form most readily on windy days and near structures.

Lifeguards staff 28 towers year-round, and the standard warning flags are used. Purple indicates marine pests rather than sargassum, usually jellyfish or Portuguese man o' war, which arrive on the same onshore winds that carry the weed.

On sargassum: fresh weed in the water is harmless and simply unpleasant to swim through. The sulphurous smell comes from material that has decomposed on hot sand for a day or more, releasing hydrogen sulphide.

Access and parking coordinates

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is about 8 miles north.

The Broadwalk

The promenade is the reason many people choose Hollywood over its neighbours. It runs the length of the beach with a separated lane for cyclists and skaters, and the businesses along it are small and independent rather than chains. Rental stands offer bicycles, and the flat two and a half miles make it an easy ride.

It also changes how a sargassum day feels. On a stretch where the promenade sits directly against the sand, a line of sargassum is immediately visible from the café tables.

The live camera

This beach has a live webcam on the Broadwalk, which is the fastest way to judge conditions before setting out. Because conditions can change within hours, a camera is more useful here than a seasonal average. It appears alongside the photographs and the current score on our live map.

Check live conditions before you go

Conditions at Hollywood Beach change within days and sometimes within hours, so check the live map on the morning of a visit. On the live map we track it with dated photographs, the Broadwalk webcam and a daily condition score, so you can see how it looks now rather than how it usually looks.