Broward County prices the same 1.8 mile ride at $12 on one page and $21 on another
Broward County Aviation Department puts a taxi from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Port Everglades at $12, estimated on the meter reading. Port Everglades, a department of the same county, puts the average taxi fare at $18 to $21, and so does the airport department’s own rate table. The gap is 1.8 miles.
The split is not between two departments, then, but between two pages of the same one: the rate table carrying $18 to $21 was updated July 23, 2026, and the cruise page carrying $12 was updated six days later. Both figures were still on those pages when they were read twice on October 7, 2026.
Port Everglades sits 1.8 miles from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the shortest of the three airport gaps the port publishes. The other two, Miami International Airport at 27 miles and Palm Beach International Airport, renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT) in July 2026, at 50 miles, carry no fare from the airport side at all. The nearest one is priced twice, differently, by two arms of one county government.
Every figure below was read from the department that sets it, against one fixed trip: two adults landing at FLL on sailing day, bags claimed, curb to a numbered Port Everglades cruise terminal. The Broward County Aviation pages were read in September 2026 and twice more on October 7, 2026, and still carry July 2026 update stamps. The Port Everglades cruise pages were re-read the same day, after the county’s fiscal year opened on October 1.
| What a cruise passenger needs | Broward County Aviation Department (FLL) | Port Everglades (Broward County) |
|---|---|---|
| Distance between airport and port | Not published on the cruise or ground transportation pages | 1.8 miles, on the cruise FAQ page |
| Driving time | About a 10-minute ride, updated July 29, 2026 | Just minutes away on U.S. 1, with no number attached |
| Time to allow before check-in | Not published | 45 minutes to one hour, covering five named steps |
| Taxi fare | $12 (estimated) on the cruise page, $18 – $21 on the rate table | Average taxi fare is $18 – $21 |
| Luxury sedan fare | $45 on the rate table, updated July 23, 2026 | n/a |
| Shared ride | Named as one of two options, with no price | Van on Demand at $11 per person, parties of 3 or more |
| Free shuttle to the port | There are no free shuttles to the port | n/a |
| Rideshare fare | Pick-up zones published, fare not published | Named under a heading, fare not published |
Only one line in that table carries a figure from both departments, and the two figures disagree by up to $9 on a ride neither of them measures at more than ten minutes.
The seaport next door to the runway, and the three gates into it
Only one port in the nation sits adjacent to an airport, Port Everglades states, and it routes arriving passengers along U.S. 1 across the 1.8 miles it publishes. What sits between the curb and the ship is not mileage. It is a gate.
Three entrances lead in, each of them published by name: Southeast 17th Street at Eisenhower Boulevard, State Road 84 just east of U.S. 1 at Spangler Boulevard, and I-595 East at Eller Drive. Every one of them has a security checkpoint where guests aged 18 and older must show a government-issued photo ID and cruise documents. No weapons are allowed on port property under Florida State Statute 311.12(3b), and vehicles are subject to search. A taxi does not skip that queue.
Behind the gates are eight cruise terminals numbered 2, 4, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26 and 29, each with its own street address, from Terminal 4 at 1800 SE 20th Street to Terminal 29 at 2200 SE 35th Street. Drivers arriving from I-95 south take Exit 26, from I-95 north Exit 24, from I-75 Exit 19 and from Florida’s Turnpike Exit 54, all of them onto I-595 East. The layout of the eight terminals and the garages and lots Broward County runs at Port Everglades decides which gate a driver should be given, because the destination is never the port. It is a terminal number.
A 10 minute ride sits inside a 45 minute to one hour allowance
One travel time appears on the Broward County Aviation cruise page, and it is short: “It’s about a 10-minute ride from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Port Everglades.” That sentence, on a page stamped July 29, 2026, is the only clock either department prints for the drive itself.
A different kind of number comes from Port Everglades. Its cruise FAQ asks travelers to allow 45 minutes to one hour for the transfer process from FLL, and then itemizes what the hour buys: claiming luggage at the airport, boarding transportation to the port, clearing the security checkpoint at the port entrance, checking baggage curbside, and filling out forms inside the cruise terminal. Its Getting Here page repeats the floor, suggesting at least 45 minutes between flight arrival and cruise check-in.
Subtract one from the other and the shape of the trip appears. About ten of those minutes are spent moving. The remaining 35 to 50 are spent standing still, at a carousel, at a gate and at a counter. Elsewhere the same allowance scales with distance, and Port Everglades asks two to three hours from Miami International Airport at 27 miles and three to four hours from Palm Beach International Airport at 50 miles, which is what makes the 1.8 mile version so lopsided: almost none of it is the ride.
Every price the two Broward departments print for the airport to terminal leg
Between them, the airport and the port name seven ways to cover 1.8 miles. Four carry a published number and three do not, and the four that do come from different pages with different update stamps.
| Mode, as its issuer names it | Published price | Issuer and page | Limit the issuer prints | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taxi cab, airport estimate | $12 (estimated) | Broward County Aviation, Cruise Passengers, updated July 29, 2026 | Up to five people on one meter | Budgeting the floor for any party of 1 to 5 |
| Taxi cab, higher estimate | $18 – $21 average | Port Everglades, Getting Here and all eight terminal pages, and the Broward County Aviation rate table | Metered rate only, flat rates are not allowed | Budgeting the ceiling, which is the safer number |
| Luxury sedan | $45 | Broward County Aviation rate table, updated July 23, 2026 | Estimate subject to the current fuel surcharge | Travelers who want a booked vehicle waiting |
| Van on Demand | $11 per person | Port Everglades terminal transportation pages | Parties of 3 or more, not available on all sailing days | The return leg when no cab is on the stand |
| Cruise line transfer | Not published by either department | Broward County Aviation, Cruise Passengers | Reservation required before arriving at the airport | Passengers who bought it with the cruise fare |
| Free shuttle | None exists | Broward County Aviation, Cruise Passengers | There are no free shuttles to the port | n/a |
| Broward County Transit Route 1 | Fare not printed on either page | Port Everglades, Getting Here | Stops at Northport on SE 17th Street, not at a terminal | Passengers travelling light and early |
The rate table carries one sentence that governs every dollar figure on it: taxi cab and luxury sedan rates are estimates and may vary, and taxi rates are subject to change due to the current fuel surcharge. The county also states that taxi fares are regulated by law, without printing the regulation anywhere on its airport pages.
Van on Demand asks for three passengers and charges $11 each
Port Everglades runs a shared-ride service it calls Van on Demand, and it publishes the price on the alternative transportation page of every one of its eight cruise terminals: $11 per person to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, $25 to Miami International Airport and $45 to Palm Beach International Airport. The port describes it as traditional ride-share for parties of 3 or more passengers, adds that it is not available on all sailing days, and sends travelers to a gray and blue booth to find a dispatcher in a blue VoD shirt.
The smallest party the van will accept pays $33. A taxi carrying those same three costs $18 to $21 in total, because both departments say so in writing: the port pages state that the taxi figure reflects total cost regardless of the number of passengers and vehicle type, and the airport page states that cabs accept up to five people for the fare stated on the meter. At four passengers the van reaches $44. At five, the largest party a cab takes, it reaches $55 while the cab estimate has not moved.
On the FLL leg the taxi therefore wins at every party size the van accepts, by $12 to $37, and the criterion is the issuers’ own arithmetic rather than a preference. The nuance is that the same product flips at the other end of the county line: three passengers to Miami International Airport pay $75 by van against a taxi the port puts at $80 to $159, which is the trip Van on Demand was built for.
$11.67 a mile into Port Everglades against $3.35 a mile into PortMiami
Divide the published fares by the published distances and the short ride turns out to be the expensive one. The $12 estimate over 1.8 miles is $6.67 a mile. The port’s $21 ceiling over the same 1.8 miles is $11.67 a mile.
The county’s own long ride is cheaper by that measure. Its rate table puts the Port of Miami at $86, and PortMiami publishes 25.7 miles to FLL, which works out at $3.35 a mile, or $2.61 a mile using the about $67 the cruise passengers page prints instead. The gap between the two Broward pages on the fare table and the cruise page for the Miami run is $19 and has its own story; here it matters only as the yardstick that makes 1.8 miles look costly, at two to four and a half times the price per mile.
Neither figure can be checked against a formula, because Broward County publishes none. Miami-Dade County does: Resolution R-700-22, adopted on July 19, 2022, sets $2.95 for the first sixth of a mile, $0.85 for each additional sixth up to one mile and $0.55 for each sixth after that. Run over 1.8 miles counted as eleven started sixths, that meter returns $9.95, below the airport’s own $12 estimate and less than half the port’s $21. Miami-Dade’s tariff does not govern a Broward cab. It is simply the only South Florida taxi formula a passenger can check.
What a taxi replaces: seven days at the $25.00 daily maximum
The rate card Port Everglades published on October 7, 2026 runs $5.00 for up to 1 hour, $10.00 for up to 5 hours and a $25.00 daily maximum. Item 1135 of its Tariff No. 12, Issue No. 8, effective October 1, 2026, prints the same ladder and still states that all parking fees include sales taxes, so the $25.00 is the whole number, and the port adds that all daily rates begin when you pull the parking ticket from the machine.
Seven of those days is $175.00, which is the sum a flying passenger never pays. Two adults landing at FLL and taking a cab both ways spend $42 at the port’s $21 estimate or $24 at the airport’s $12, so the taxi wins by $133 to $151 against leaving a car in a garage for a seven-night sailing. The winner is decided on the garage rate, not on convenience, and the nuance matters: the comparison only holds for someone who would otherwise drive to the port and park, which is why the $25.00 daily maximum and the Heron and Palm garages belong in a different calculation from this one.
Where each Port Everglades terminal sends you for a taxi or a van
A separate alternative transportation page exists for each of the eight cruise terminals at Port Everglades, and the walking directions on them are not interchangeable. The cruise menu on the port site links seven of those pages and leaves Terminal 21 out, though the Terminal 21 page answers at the matching address.
| Cruise terminal | Street address the port publishes | What the terminal page says about reaching the curb |
|---|---|---|
| Cruise Terminal 2 | 1801 SE 20th Street | Cross back, go up the same ramp you came down, then cross to the loading pavilion |
| Cruise Terminal 4 | 1800 SE 20th Street | Taxis are directly across the street, north of where you are standing |
| Cruise Terminal 18 | 1901 SE 32nd Street | Walk along the curb with the building on your left, to the corner |
| Cruise Terminal 19 | 2019 Eller Drive | Taxis are directly across the street, south of where you are standing |
| Cruise Terminal 21 | 2021 Eller Drive | Walk north keeping the terminal on your left, to the ranks further along the curb |
| Cruise Terminal 25 | 2025 Eller Drive | Walk north with the terminal on your right, past the doors, then cross to the pavilion |
| Cruise Terminal 26 | 2026 Eller Drive | Taxi loading is in the pavilion directly adjacent, or just east, of where you stand |
| Cruise Terminal 29 | 2200 SE 35th Street | Follow the signs east toward the ship, then south to the pavilion |
The FLL figure holds steady across all eight pages at $18 to $21. The Miami figure does not: it reads $80-$159 on the Terminal 2, 4, 18, 19 and 21 pages and $80-$150 on the Terminal 25, 26 and 29 pages, a $9 spread that depends on which terminal page a passenger opens.
Rideshare has a heading on both county sites and a price on neither
A heading on the Port Everglades transportation page reads “Taxi and ride-shares”, and the section under it prints one fare, the $18 to $21 taxi average. Its FAQ names ride-sharing among the vehicles waiting outside the terminal on debarkation morning, and states plainly that there is no negotiated price for ride-share services, in the same answer where a taxi transfer between two terminals is fixed at a flat $8.
Narrower still is the list on the airport side. For a passenger who did not pre-arrange transportation to Port Everglades, the Broward County Aviation cruise page offers two options, shared ride and taxi cab. The same page offers three for PortMiami, and ride-share is one of them. The service most arriving passengers open on their phone is absent from the county list for the closer port.
Where the airport does publish detail is the curb. Rideshare pick-up at FLL runs from a temporary Terminal 1 area just beyond the taxi podium at Zone Z, from Terminal 2 at Ground Transportation Area 2, and from the first floor of the southern portion of the Palm Garage for Terminals 3 and 4 in Zones A to D, with drop-off on the upper level. One page contradicts itself here: Broward County lists GTA-2 as a pick-up point while stating elsewhere on the same page that GTA-2 has been closed since March 10, 2025 until further notice, and GTA-4 since April 11, 2025, for construction of the connector walkway between Terminals 2 and 3.
Rail does not close the gap either. Brightline operates an airport connector shuttle between FLL and its Fort Lauderdale station at $12 per Guest with a same-day fare, and Broward County publishes its window as 7AM to 8PM, with the last departure from the Terminal 3 stop at 8PM. That station is not a cruise terminal, so the final 1.8 miles stay unpriced whichever way a passenger arrives.
Eight details on the Broward pages that change a ride this short
- There are no free shuttles to the port, in the words of Broward County Aviation, on the same page that puts the drive at about 10 minutes.
- The cruise line coach only exists if it was bought before the flight. A cruise line representative meets pre-arranged passengers in the baggage claim area, and the airport states you cannot use the ship’s transportation without a reservation made before arriving.
- Cabs take up to five people on one meter and accept credit cards, so $12 and $18 to $21 are party totals rather than per-head fares.
- The only flat taxi rate Port Everglades publishes is $8, and it covers transfers between two terminals inside the port, which back-to-back cruisers use and arriving passengers cannot.
- Luggage cannot be left or stored at the port for security reasons, while Broward County Aviation lists public baggage storage in all FLL terminals on 954-359-5505. Only the airport end of the 1.8 miles takes a bag.
- Ground Transportation Booths sit in every FLL terminal at baggage claim level, staffed during arrival peaks, and the office answers on 1-866-435-9355 at option 3. Cruise Services at Port Everglades answers on 954-468-3720.
- Debarkation morning is crowded by design. On cruise days, Friday through Monday, many returning passengers reach FLL at 8:30 a.m., and airlines there may check bags only two hours before departure.
- The Rental Car Center beside Terminal 1 runs its shuttle every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is the only free ride Broward County publishes at the airport end of the trip.
Six ways a 1.8 mile transfer still goes wrong
Budgeting from the airport page and paying the port page is the cheapest error to avoid and the easiest to make. A couple who plans on $12 each way and is charged $21 each way is $18 short on a trip Broward County calls ten minutes long, because the higher of the two official estimates sits 75 percent above the lower one.
Reading either fare as a per person amount is the second. Both departments describe a vehicle total, one saying up to five people ride on the fare stated on the meter, the other saying the estimate reflects total cost regardless of the number of passengers.
Booking Van on Demand to save money is the third. At $11 per person it needs three passengers to run and costs $33 at that size, against a metered cab the same two departments price at $18 to $21 for the whole vehicle.
Giving a driver the port instead of a terminal number is the fourth. Eight terminals carry eight addresses, and four of them sit on Eller Drive at numbers 2019, 2021, 2025 and 2026, close enough that a single wrong digit lands a passenger at another ship.
Sending an adult through the gate without photo identification is the fifth. Each of the three entrances checks every guest aged 18 and older and may search the vehicle, and that queue sits inside the 45 minutes the port asks for, not before it.
Treating the 45 minute allowance as drive time is the sixth, and it ruins an itinerary rather than a budget. Travelers weighing a Fort Lauderdale sailing against a Miami one will find that the two South Florida ports differ on clearance rules and on tax long before they differ on distance.
Which Broward County and Port Everglades pages were read, and when
The figures in this guide were verified in September 2026 against the sources named in each section, and every figure credited to Broward County or Port Everglades was read again, twice and with identical text, on October 7, 2026. That re-reading found one change: Port Everglades raised its parking ladder on October 1, 2026, the first day of Broward County’s fiscal year, from $4.00, $8.00 and a $20.00 daily maximum to the $5.00, $10.00 and $25.00 used above, while the taxi and van figures were unchanged. Tariff items at Port Everglades carry October 1 effective dates, shuttle fares and cruise line transfer prices change by season, and ship schedules change weekly; check the issuer’s page before you travel. No provider paid for placement here, and none can pay to appear. Where a booking link earns Lot and Gate a commission it is marked as sponsored and flagged in this line, and as of September 2026 no affiliate link is live anywhere on this site.
Six questions about the 1.8 miles between FLL and Port Everglades
The answers below use Broward County Aviation Department pages stamped July 2026 and Port Everglades cruise pages, both read in September 2026 and again on October 7, 2026.
Two official figures exist and they come from the same county. The airport side, Broward County Aviation, puts it at $12 (estimated) based on the meter reading, on a cruise passengers page stamped July 29, 2026. On its own cruise pages, read again on October 7, 2026, Port Everglades puts the average taxi fare at $18 to $21.
Exactly 1.8 miles, a distance Port Everglades publishes for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on its cruise FAQ page. The same answer places Miami International Airport 27 miles south and Palm Beach International Airport 50 miles north. Broward County Aviation publishes no mileage for the run on its cruise or ground transportation pages.
About a 10-minute ride, according to Broward County Aviation, which is the only driving time either department publishes. Allow 45 minutes to one hour, says Port Everglades, covering luggage claim, boarding transportation, the port security checkpoint, curbside baggage check and paperwork inside the cruise terminal.
No. There are no free shuttles to the port, Broward County Aviation states on the cruise passengers page it updated on July 29, 2026. A cruise line coach is possible only when booked in advance, since a representative meets pre-arranged passengers in baggage claim and the county says the ship’s transportation needs a reservation made before arriving.
Neither department publishes a fare for it. Broward County Aviation lists only shared ride and taxi cab as options to Port Everglades, though it maps rideshare pick-up at Zone Z, Ground Transportation Area 2 and the Palm Garage. The Port Everglades page gives ride-shares a heading and taxis the only fare.
No, not on this leg. Port Everglades prices Van on Demand at $11 per person for parties of 3 or more, so the smallest party pays $33, while the taxi estimate of $18 to $21 covers the vehicle regardless of headcount. The van does undercut the taxi range to Miami International Airport for a party of three.
The shortest ride carries the loosest price
A county that runs both ends of a 1.8 mile trip should be the easiest source in Florida to plan against. Broward runs the airport, runs the seaport, updated both sets of pages within six days of each other in July 2026, and still sends a passenger to the curb with a fare that could be $12 or could be $21, a shared van that costs more than the cab it competes with, and a rideshare option that appears in a heading and never in a price.
Distance did not make this ride easy to budget. It made it small enough that nobody had to agree on what it costs.