Two Broward pages, two taxi fares, one Miami cruise terminal
Broward County publishes a taxi estimate of $86 from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to the Port of Miami. A second county page puts the same fee at about $67, and both pages carry a July 2026 update stamp. Miami-Dade County publishes no fare and no driving time for the 7.1 miles between its own airport and PortMiami.
The airport 25.7 miles from the ship prices the ride. The one 7.1 miles away does not. That inversion is the real case for and against flying into Fort Lauderdale for a sailing out of Miami, and it holds up under every attempt to settle the question from official pages alone.
Every figure below was read from the issuer that sets it, against one fixed trip: two adults, a seven night sailing, airport curb to a lettered PortMiami terminal. Pages from Broward County and Brightline were read in September 2026 and the Miami-Dade figures were verified in August 2026. The commuter railroad’s own site is not among them, so every rail detail below is the county’s.
| What a cruise passenger needs | Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (Broward County) | Miami International Airport (Miami-Dade County) |
|---|---|---|
| Distance to PortMiami | Not published by Broward County on its cruise or transportation pages | 7.1 miles per PortMiami, about 9 miles per the airport |
| Driving time to PortMiami | About 45 minutes without traffic, at least 90 minutes recommended | Not published at either end, in either direction |
| Taxi figure published | $86 on the rate table, about $67 on the cruise page | $15 minimum on trips originating at MIA, meter after that |
| Luxury sedan figure published | $90 (Broward County estimate) | n/a |
| Rail chain named by the issuer | Tri-Rail, then an unpriced taxi from the Miami train station | Metrorail at $2.25 each way, then a free Coral Way Trolley |
| Free airport shuttle to the train | Free Tri-Rail shuttle buses from the FLL terminals | MIA Mover to the Miami Intermodal Center |
| Where to ask a person | Ground Transportation Desks in each terminal, baggage claim level | Taxi stands at the lower level curb, staffed and badged |
Six of those seven rows are filled on both sides. The two that decide a budget, a fare and a duration, are filled on opposite sides of the county line. That is the finding, and the rest of the piece is what it costs.
Four terminals, two seaports, and the airport Broward County runs between them
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport lists its address as 100 Terminal Drive, Fort Lauderdale, and Broward County treats Port Everglades as the home seaport and PortMiami as the second one. Both appear on the airport’s cruise pages, with very different treatment. Port Everglades gets “about a 10-minute ride” from the terminals. PortMiami gets about 45 minutes without traffic, plus a recommendation to allow at least 90 minutes during morning and evening rush hour.
The airport itself is four terminals with a taxi podium at each, a Rental Car Center holding 12 rental companies at 600 Terminal Drive, and a Broward County Transit Route 1 stop at the Rental Car Center, Stop G. None of that changes at the county line. What changes is jurisdiction: a passenger bound for Miami leaves Broward halfway through the ride and arrives at a port whose ten lettered terminals, garages and rates belong to the Miami-Dade pages covering PortMiami terminals and garages.
Two counties, one ride, and only one of them prices it.
A $19 spread on one county site, a 1.9 mile spread on the other
The Broward County Cruise Passengers page says the taxi “fee will be about $67” to PortMiami. A rate table on the county Ground Transportation page puts the Port of Miami line at $86 for a taxi cab and $90 for a luxury sedan. The two pages were updated six days apart in July 2026 and disagree by $19, which is about 28 percent of the lower figure.
The pattern repeats closer to home. For Port Everglades, the same Cruise Passengers page gives “$12 (estimated) based on the meter reading” while the rate table gives $18-$21. On a ride Broward itself calls 10 minutes long, its two published numbers sit up to 75 percent apart.
Miami-Dade County contradicts itself on a different variable. PortMiami publishes 7.1 miles to Miami International Airport and the airport publishes about 9 miles back to PortMiami, a 1.9 mile disagreement inside one county government, verified August 2026. Neither department publishes a driving time or a fare for the run, and the port’s own cruise FAQ answers the fare question by linking to a commercial estimator.
Each county publishes the half the other leaves out, then disagrees with itself inside its own half. One county prices the ride and cannot settle on a price. The other measures the ride and cannot settle on a distance.
Every fare Broward County prints for a ride out of FLL
The rate table on the Broward County ground transportation page is the only place in either county where a cruise passenger reads a dollar figure for a complete airport to port ride. It covers five destinations in two vehicle classes, with one caveat attached to all of them.
| Destination from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport | Taxi cab, Broward County estimate | Luxury sedan, Broward County estimate | What the number leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) | $18-$21 | $45 | The $12 estimate on the county’s own cruise page |
| Port of Miami | $86 | $90 | The about $67 on the county’s own cruise page |
| Miami Intl Airport | $72 | $90 | The last 7.1 miles from MIA to a PortMiami terminal |
| West Palm Beach Intl Airport | $135 | $145 | Any Port of Palm Beach leg |
| South Beach | $80 | $85 | n/a |
Broward County labels the whole table in one sentence: “Taxi Cab and luxury sedan rates are estimates and may vary. Taxi rates are subject to change due to the current fuel surcharge.” Taxi fares are regulated by law in Broward County, the same page adds, without printing the regulated tariff that produces these numbers anywhere on the airport pages.
One line in that table does arithmetic nobody has published. The same table estimates $72 to Miami International Airport and $86 to the Port of Miami, a $14 difference for the same leg Miami-Dade calls 7.1 miles. Miami-Dade’s only figure for that leg is a $15 minimum on trips originating at MIA. The two counties never cite each other, and their numbers for the final seven miles land one dollar apart.
Two adults, seven nights: adding up the ground legs from each airport
Premises stay fixed: two adults, a seven night sailing, embarkation at a PortMiami terminal, and only figures an issuer prints. Airfare is excluded, because it is the one variable in the comparison that no airport publishes.
Out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the outbound leg has a number and the return leg does not. The Broward County rate table is written for rides leaving FLL, so the $86, or the about $67, covers the airport to terminal direction and stops there. For the return over the 25.7 miles PortMiami publishes, the only figure any issuer prints is Miami-Dade’s $15 minimum on trips originating at the Port of Miami. Published round trip floor: $82. Published ceiling: none.
Out of Miami International Airport, both directions carry the same $15 floor and the same silence above it, which puts the published round trip floor at $30. The floor is not the difference. Exposure is: the unpriced meter runs 7.1 miles from MIA and 25.7 miles from FLL, and Broward County itself recommends allowing at least 90 minutes for the longer one.
Exactly one chain is priced end to end, and it belongs to Miami-Dade. Metrorail at $2.25 each way plus the free City of Miami Coral Way Trolley, which stops three times inside the port, totals $9.00 for two adults round trip. Nothing leaving Broward County reaches a PortMiami terminal on a fully published price, which is why the last mile into the port is documented on the Miami side and nowhere else.
Driving instead of flying moves the arithmetic the other way. A car left at PortMiami for a seven night cruise bills eight days under item 710 of PortMiami Terminal Tariff No. 010, effective October 1, 2025, at $25 per day in Garages C, D, F, G and Surface Lot E, or $35 per day in Garage AA and Garage B, before the 6 percent Florida sales tax the tariff says its rates exclude. Eight days at $25 is $200 plus tax, against $172 if both Broward taxi rides came in at the $86 estimate, and the garage by garage rate sheet Miami-Dade publishes shows why the cheaper lines on it are not for cruise passengers.
Rail out of FLL: free to reach, unpriced to ride, and a taxi at the far end
Tri-Rail is the only public transport option Broward County names for the PortMiami run, and the county names it with a warning attached: the commuter train “does not offer direct service to the PortMiami but gets you close. You would have to take a taxi from the Miami train station to PortMiami.”
Reaching the train costs nothing. Tri-Rail provides free shuttle buses from the FLL terminals to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Station at Dania Beach, with stops on the lower level at Ground Transportation Area 1 by the west end of Terminal 1, at Ground Transportation Area 2 between Terminals 2 and 3, and at Ground Transportation Area 3 between Terminals 3 and 4.
The train is priced by zone, and the zone price is the one figure Broward County does not print. The county names the service, quotes its warning, lists the three shuttle stops above and then sends fare questions to 800-874-7245. The fare policy belongs to the commuter railroad rather than to the county, and the railroad’s own pages are not among the sources behind this guide, so no zone fare is quoted here. The comparison that can be made is with the other county. Miami-Dade prices its whole chain at $2.25 each way on Metrorail, $9.00 round trip for two adults, and puts a free trolley on the last mile. Broward prices neither end of its own chain, and the only figure it does print for the same trip is a road one, about 45 minutes without traffic against the 90 minutes it recommends allowing.
Then the sequence stops. A taxi closes the Broward chain, and the county never prices it, while Miami-Dade County publishes a free ride over the same last mile: the City of Miami Coral Way Trolley crosses the PortMiami Bridge and stops across from the Terminal J parking garage, across from the Terminal E surface lot and across from the port’s administrative offices. The contradiction resolves in the traveler’s favor, and only the port’s own page carries the resolution.
Brightline sets the shuttle at $12 and Broward sets the clock an hour off
Brightline operates an airport connector shuttle between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and its Fort Lauderdale station, and the two issuers describing it disagree about when it runs. On the Broward County page the hours read “Monday through Sunday from 7AM to 8PM”, with a note that the last shuttle leaves the Terminal 3 stop at 8PM. Brightline publishes hours of operation of 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday to Sunday, at its Fort Lauderdale and MiamiCentral ends alike.
The window is shifted an hour at both ends of the day. A passenger landing at 7:15 AM on embarkation morning who plans from the county page expects a shuttle and, by the operator’s own hours, waits 45 minutes for it.
Price splits the same way. On the Broward side, the page says only that “one-way rides are available at a flat rate per person”, and prints no number. Brightline prints the number: shuttles cost $12 per Guest with a same-day Brightline fare ticket, first come first served, leaving the station 10 minutes after train arrivals and picking up at the airport twice an hour. Brightline’s MiamiCentral Station stands at 600 NW 1st Avenue, which is not a cruise terminal, so the final mile goes unpriced on that route as well.
One more crack sits inside a single Broward page. The county lists Brightline and Tri-Rail shuttle stops at Ground Transportation Area 2 and, in a different section of the same page, states that the GTA-2 curbside pick-up area has been closed since March 10, 2025 until further notice, with GTA-4 closed since April 11, 2025.
Choosing FLL or MIA by group size, sailing day and landing time
Five arrivals produce five winners, each decided on what an issuer prints rather than on airfare. Premises hold: two adults unless stated, a seven night PortMiami sailing, September 2026 readings for Broward and its operators.
A party of five wins at Fort Lauderdale, on published rules. Cabs accept up to five people for the fare stated on the taxi’s meter, per Broward County, so a single $86 estimate covers the group at $17.20 a head. Miami-Dade publishes no trip total to divide, only a $15 floor. The nuance is that Broward calls its own figure an estimate subject to a fuel surcharge.
Two adults who want a budget line before booking also win at Fort Lauderdale, on the same logic and with a sharper caveat. The budget line is either $67 or $86 depending on which Broward page they open, and both are official.
Two adults optimizing ground cost win at Miami, on totals. $9.00 covers a round trip for two on Metrorail and the free trolley, against $172 if both Broward taxi rides land at the $86 estimate. The nuance is three legs and three timetables that no county page adds together into a journey time.
A Saturday or Sunday embarkation has no published winner, which is itself the finding. The Broward rail leg cannot be costed from county pages at all, and Miami-Dade prices its chain at the same $2.25 each way on a Sunday as on a Tuesday, or $9.00 round trip for two adults, so the only weekend number a traveler can read before booking is the Miami one. The nuance is that Broward still puts an unpriced taxi at the end of its line whatever the day.
A landing before 8:00 AM wins at Miami, on published availability. Every rail alternative out of Fort Lauderdale runs on a clock that starts at 7AM or 8:00 AM depending on which issuer is read, while Miami International Airport publishes staffed taxi stands at the lower level curb and PortMiami states that taxicabs serve all cruise terminals on cruise days. Certainty beats price at that hour.
Seven details from the FLL cruise pages that change the arithmetic
- Free shuttles do not exist: “there are no free shuttles to the port”, in Broward County’s own words, and the sentence sits under Port Everglades, the seaport it puts 10 minutes away. Nothing in the PortMiami section softens it.
- The cruise line coach exists only if it was bought in advance. A cruise line representative meets pre-arranged passengers in the baggage claim area, per Broward County, and a passenger cannot use the ship’s transportation without a reservation made before arriving at the airport.
- Cabs carry five people on one meter, per Broward County, and take credit cards. The $86 estimate does not move with headcount, which is what makes the per head arithmetic work.
- Ride-share pickup at FLL has moved. The current Broward County list gives a temporary Terminal 1 area just beyond the taxi podium at Zone Z, Terminal 2 at GTA-2, and Terminals 3 and 4 on the first floor of the southern portion of the Palm Garage in Zones A to D.
- The Rental Car Center holds 12 companies beside Terminal 1 at 600 Terminal Drive, with shuttles every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, plus ten off-site companies reached from Zone G by courtesy phone.
- Phone numbers appear where prices do not. Ground Transportation at Broward County answers on 1-866-435-9355, option 3, and the county sends Tri-Rail questions to 800-874-7245.
- Debarkation morning is congested by design. On cruise days, Friday through Monday, many returning passengers reach FLL at 8:30 a.m. for flights spread across the day, according to Broward County, which adds that airlines may check bags only two hours before departure.
Six ways an FLL to PortMiami embarkation plan comes apart
Budgeting from the wrong Broward page is the first and the cheapest to avoid. $67 and $86 are both official, both current and $19 apart, and a traveler who budgets the lower figure and is charged the higher one has lost more than twice the $9.00 that covers a round trip for two on the whole Miami chain.
Reading $86 as a per person fare is the second. Every Broward County estimate is a meter fare for the vehicle, with up to five riders on the same meter, so a couple splitting one pays $43 each and a party of five pays $17.20 each.
Treating PortMiami as one address is the third. Ten lettered terminals stand on two sides of the water, and a driver sent to the wrong letter is 25.7 miles from the airport where the corrected trip would have started.
Timing the rail chain from the county page is the fourth. Broward publishes 7AM to 8PM for the Brightline shuttle while Brightline publishes 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, so the two ends of the day are exactly where a tight embarkation plan breaks.
Assuming the return leg is priced is the fifth. Every Broward figure describes a ride leaving FLL. From a PortMiami terminal back toward Fort Lauderdale, the published record is Miami-Dade’s $15 minimum and nothing above it.
Choosing the airport on airfare alone is the sixth. Airfare is the one number no issuer in the comparison publishes, while the ground legs that are published run from $9.00 to $172 for the same two adults, a spread wide enough to swallow most fare differences. Travelers still weighing which Florida port to sail from are comparing what each port authority publishes about parking and access before they price a single flight.
Which issuers were read for this comparison, and in which month
The figures in this guide were verified in September 2026 against the sources named in each section. Parking rates usually change in January, 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 landing at the other county’s airport
The answers below use Broward County and Brightline readings taken in September 2026, and Miami-Dade County figures verified in August 2026.
Two official figures exist, both from Broward County. The ground transportation rate table lists the Port of Miami at $86 by taxi cab and $90 by luxury sedan, while the cruise passengers page says the fee will be about $67. Both pages were updated in July 2026 and the county calls the amounts estimates.
About 45 minutes without traffic is the figure Broward County publishes, with a recommendation to allow at least 90 minutes, especially during morning and evening rush hour. That is the only official travel time for the run, because neither PortMiami nor Miami International Airport publishes a driving time for its own much shorter 7.1 mile trip.
On ground cost the published answer is Miami. Miami-Dade prices a full chain into the terminals at $2.25 each way on Metrorail plus a free trolley, or $9.00 round trip for two adults. On the Broward side the published range is $67 to $86 one way by taxi, with no priced alternative into the port.
Only part of the way. Tri-Rail does not offer direct service to PortMiami but gets you close, per Broward County, which states that a taxi is needed from the Miami train station. Free shuttle buses run from the FLL terminals to the airport station at Dania Beach.
PortMiami publishes 25.7 miles to Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport on its cruise FAQ, verified August 2026. No mileage for the same run appears on the Broward County cruise or ground transportation pages, which give a travel time of about 45 minutes without traffic instead.
Brightline runs an airport connector shuttle between FLL and its Fort Lauderdale station at $12 per Guest plus a $3 fuel surcharge with a same-day train fare. The train ends at MiamiCentral Station, 600 NW 1st Avenue, which is not a cruise terminal, so a further ride into PortMiami is still required.
Priced at 25.7 miles, unpriced at 7.1
Distance and documentation run in opposite directions on this pair. Miami-Dade County owns the port, owns the nearest airport and publishes 7.1 miles between them with no duration and no fare. Broward County owns an airport 25.7 miles out and publishes a fee, a travel time and a padding recommendation, twice, in two versions that differ by $19. The county with less at stake wrote the better instructions, and then wrote them twice.
Flying into FLL does not buy a shorter ride. It buys a ride somebody wrote down.