Fort Lauderdale Boat Show 2026: Dates, Tickets and How to Actually Do the Week

Six venues, five days, and one rule that catches people out every year: there is no box office. Buy online or you don’t get in.

The 67th Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show runs Wednesday 28 October to Sunday 1 November 2026. It spreads across six waterfront locations, it moves people between them by shuttle and water taxi, and it is the single biggest week of the year for this city’s waterfront economy.

Below is what it costs, when the gates open, where everything is, and the handful of decisions worth making before you go. For the social side of the week — the galas, the crew nights and the brokerage receptions — we keep a separate running list of Fort Lauderdale Boat Show parties.

Start here: tickets are online only

The show has confirmed there is no onsite box office. Every ticket is bought in advance, online. If you turn up at the Convention Center on the Thursday expecting to pay at a window, you will be standing outside it.

That single fact is the most useful thing on this page, so it goes first.

What it costs

Ticket	Price	Valid
Wednesday Preview	$73	Any one day, Wed–Sun
1-Day General Admission	$48	Thu–Sun
2-Day General Admission	$80	Thu–Sun
2-Day Preview + General Admission	$105	Any two days, Wed–Sun
Children 6–12	$19	One day, Wed–Sun
Children under 6	Free	With an adult
Windward VIP Experience	$459	One day, Wed–Sun

The Wednesday maths is worth a second look. The $73 Preview ticket is valid any single day of the show, not just Wednesday — so it is a $25 premium over the $48 one-day pass for the option of the quieter preview day. If you want two days including Wednesday, that is $105 rather than $80.

Windward VIP at $459 includes gourmet food, a premium open bar and activations across two locations, an hour of early access to the Superyacht Village before general admission, and complimentary self-parking. Whether that is worth roughly nine times a day pass depends entirely on whether you are there to look at boats or to meet people.

Active military and veterans get one complimentary General Admission ticket for Sunday 1 November, by advance request. That has to be submitted ahead of the show.

Hours

Day	Open
Wednesday 28 October	12pm – 7pm
Thursday 29 October	10am – 7pm
Friday 30 October	10am – 7pm
Saturday 31 October	10am – 7pm
Sunday 1 November	10am – 5pm

Sunday closes two hours earlier than the rest of the show. If Sunday is your only day, you are working with seven hours, not nine.

The six venues

The show is not one site. It is six, strung along the water:

• Broward County Convention Center — the indoor exhibitor floor, and the parking anchor
• Bahia Mar Yachting Center
• Hall of Fame Marina
• Las Olas Marina
• Pier Sixty-Six Marina
• Superyacht Village

Nobody does all six properly in one day. Pick two or three, and pick them by what you actually came for — the Convention Center for gear, trades and services; the marinas and the Superyacht Village for the boats themselves.

Getting between them

This is where the show is better organised than most people expect.

• Parking at the Convention Center is a $20 flat rate per day, with more than 3,000 spaces. Park once.
• Complimentary shuttles and golf carts connect the Convention Center to all six venues. They are included — you do not pay again.
• Water taxi runs at $15 per day through WaterTaxi.com/FLIBS. On a show this shape, the water is frequently the faster route, and it is the only way to see the venues from the angle the boats were designed for.

The practical version: park at the Convention Center, do the indoor floor first, then take the water between the marinas.

A plan that works

One day, first time. Buy the $48 Thursday or Friday pass. Convention Center at opening, water taxi out to Bahia Mar and the Superyacht Village by early afternoon. Weekends are busier.

Two days, doing it properly. The $80 two-day pass, split indoor and on the water. Or $105 if you want the quieter Wednesday preview as one of them.

Here to do business. Wednesday preview, and think hard about Windward VIP — the value is the room, the early access and the parking, not the open bar.

With kids. $19 for 6–12, free under 6, and the water taxi is the part they will remember.

And then there are the parties

The boats are the reason the show exists. The evenings are where a fair amount of the business actually gets done, and almost none of it appears on the official schedule.

Boat show week carries two black-tie galas — the International Superyacht Society awards on opening night and the SeaKeepers Founders Event at the Ritz-Carlton on the Thursday — plus the annual crew nights that the chandlers and yards throw every October: Yacht Chandlers at DAER, National Marine Suppliers‘ Yacht Bikers Poker Run, Safe Harbor Lauderdale Marine Center‘s Halloween party, Bradford Marine‘s captain and crew party. Most of those dates land two to three weeks before the show.

We keep a running list — who throws one every year, what it costs, and how you actually get on the door: Fort Lauderdale Boat Show Parties 2026.

Before you go

• Buy online. There is no box office. This is the one that ruins days.
• Check Sunday’s early close if that is your day.
• Decide your venues before you arrive, not in the queue.
• Military and veterans: submit the Sunday request in advance.
• If you are here for the week, sort the evenings early — the party list is updated as hosts announce.

Full details, ticket purchase and venue maps are at flibs.com.

Citywide.TV covers business, technology and marine across South Florida. FLIBS is the biggest week on our calendar, and we will be back with coverage from the show itself.