Water Bus—The water bus fare is only $5 per person and provides a wonderful tour of the waterways. The captain was very informative, telling us about the mansions and yachts that we were seeing--Who had built them, some of the past owners and sometimes who owns them now. We rode the complete A route and only disembarked twice--once at the terminal and once at Las Olas Riverfront. We got off at Las Olas because the drawbridge was down and we wanted to eat at Shirttail Charlie’s. The porter on the water bus told us we could walk across the railroad tracks and Shirttail Charlie’s would send a shuttle boat for us if we would signal them. However, we found out that there is no pickup point for the shuttle boat on the other side of the track and the shuttle does not start until 7 PM. We had a nice walk to the riverfront and then walked back to our car, which was quite a walk as we were parked at stop 12.

If you plan to take the water bus, it would be a good idea to get a brochure and find the parking areas and stops. One of the buses we rode on was air-conditioned, one was not but the windows were open and it was quite nice. At one point we moved to the open back of the boat, but that was not a good idea because we were over the motor and could not hear the narration. I would highly recommend the water bus (or water taxi) as an alternative to the higher priced water tours.