Introduction
Boca Raton is a rare treat – one of the USA’s wealthiest cities, but relatively unknown by British tourists. Many Brits that do go there are wealthy, and also own homes there. If you are looking for a safe, exclusive place to visit that has great shopping and dining, non-crowded ... Read review
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Advantages: Lots to do, clean, beaches not busy, few tourists Disadvantages: Not for clubbers, car high essential
Introduction
Boca Raton is a rare treat – one of the USA’s wealthiest cities, but relatively unknown by British tourists. Many Brits that do go there are wealthy, and also own homes there. If you are looking for a safe, exclusive place to visit that has great shopping and dining, non-crowded clean beaches, lots of sporting activities and year round sun then Boca Raton may suit you.
There are no poor areas in Boca. Most of its ... ...
Getting There
Boca is about an hours drive North from Miami airport in Palm Beach county. The quickest way to get there by car is via the Turnpike.
Do I need to hire a car?
Yes: Boca Raton is a new-ish city, built with the car traveller in mind. Everywhere is too far away to walk in the heat. Taxis are expensive and public transport is poor.
Introduction Boca Raton is a rare treat – one of the USA’s wealthiest cities, but relatively unknown by British tourists. Many Brits that do go there are wealthy, and also own homes there. If you are looking for a safe, exclusive place to visit that has great shopping and dining, non-crowded clean beaches, lots of sporting activities and year round sun then Boca Raton may suit you.
There are no poor areas in Boca. Most of its residents are wealthy and live in homes that are hidden behind gated developments. The walls/moats to these developments are often surrounded by vegetation, to give the impression that you are not actually in an urban area at all. Everything is immaculately well maintained there, from the parks to the pavement.
Getting There Boca is about an hours drive North from Miami airport in Palm Beach county. The quickest way to get there by car is via the Turnpike.
Do I need to hire a car? Yes: Boca Raton is a new-ish city, built with the car traveller in mind. Everywhere is too far away to walk in the heat. Taxis are expensive and public transport is poor.
Where to Stay
I always stay free at my parent’s house so I am not particularly qualifed to offer experienced-based advice on hotels. The Boca Raton hotel (the distinctive tall pink building by the coast) is the most lavish hotel in the city and many celebrities have stayed there. OK Magazine recently did an article about the place.
There are plenty of other fine hotels in Boca, including the Marriott, Radisson, Sheraton, Holiday inn…. But please note that these are not situated on the beach. Most of the beach area is taken up by private millionaire’s homes. It is therefore essential to hire a car if you plan to stay in Boca.
Eating Out
There seem to be hundreds of restaurants in Boca Raton and most of them are busy every night. The people of Boca rarely use their own kitchens I fear. Mind you, I don’t blame them considering that the food quality is good, portions are large and the prices are very reasonable. You can eat Thai, Chinese, Japanese, American, Italian, Mexican, Cuban, Indian, French, Jewish Deli…the list goes on. New restaurants open all the time here but a word of warning. The people of Boca are a bit like locusts when it comes to a new restaurant opening. They all want to try it out at the same time and because many restaurants don’t take bookings, you can find yourself queuing up for more than an hour trying to get in. The same applies for established popular restaurants such as “Houstons” and the “Cheesecake factory”. A good tip when this happens is to arrive an hour earlier than you plan to eat, put your name on the waiting list, and then leave and come back an hour later. Alternatively you could simply turn up after 21.30, when the restaurants are less busy. I seem to find that many Americans eat out early from 5pm onwards, especially the older people.
Where should you eat you may ask? Well I can only recommend where I have been – which is not everywhere.
If you are looking for an elegant place to dine and don’t mind spending £20+ on a main course then “Petes” (next to the Raddison suit hotel overlooking the lake) is THE place to go. The service and food is immaculate. I especially enjoy the lamb chops and the lobster there. It also has a separate bar with a dance floor, which seems to be the place where single women over 40 hang out to meet rich eligible bachelors.
Slightly less expensive but not lacking in quality is the range of restaurants surrounding the Coutyard Marriott hotel. “Houstons” is a very popular American restaurant where you eat in a dark setting lit by flame torches. The “Rascal House” is a typical New York Deli, better than the Carnagee Deli in New York in my opinion. The “Macaroni Cheese” restaurant, despite its awful name, is actually a very good Italian restaurant where I have never had a bad meal at. THE best Italian restaurant in Boca though for me, without doubt is Maggianos. , located in Boca Village Square, off Powerline Road. This 14,000 sq foot restaurant has a real buzz, and looks like a place where you would expect to see Italian mobsters from the 20’s. The food is incredible. No need to order a starter here though. The starters are as big as a main course and the main courses are big enough to share. This doesn’t bother most local people because they tend to take half their meals home with them in doggy bags.
Bars, Pubs and Nightclubs
Sadly, Boca Raton is not the place to go if you are looking to go out drinking and clubbing. I don’t even think Boca has a nightclub anymore. Your best bet is to go down to Fort Lauderdale, which is a half hour drive away for decent bars and nightclubs.
Apart from the bars that are part of a restaurant (e.g. the bar at T.J.I Fridays), Boca didn’t seem to have many bars at all and the ones that did exist were nothing special. Delray Beach that borders Boca has a better selection. Boca does have a couple of English pubs though, one of which I recommend; the “Lion & Eagle” on US1 does a nice pint of Boddingtons and a good fry-up, and looks quite authentic inside. More importantly, it is a central point where British ex-pats can meet other Brits.
Leisure
Golf: The area has many fine golf courses which allow non-members on to play, so no need to play at the mediocre Municipal golf course. Mizna Trail is an excellent and challenging course with lots of water, that I played on for about £40 with a golf cart. There are plenty of others.
Cinema: The 36 screen Movico Palace is where everybody seems to go to now for a flick. It is an elegantly decorated place like you have never seen, and boasts a restaurant, bar and an upper gallery in certain auditoriums which have arm chair seats. The Mizna cinema is now virtually empty but I prefer it for that very reason.
Ten-pin-Bowling: Don-carters all star lanes used to be a shabby old place, but it has since had a refit. It has 64 lanes and about 12 pool tables.
Kids: The kids will love “Boomers”, which has go-karts, lazer-quest, arcade games, bumper boats and a multi-million Pound Mini-golf course – Southend-on-sea eat your heart out.
Everglade airboat tours: Located at the end of Loxahatchee road. Cost about $20 a head for a half hour tour on the Everglades and we got right up close to the gators.
Beach: Good sandy beaches with toilets, lifeguards, showers, watersports, etc, spanning the whole East coast of Boca. Most beach goers here are local and the beaches are never over-crowded.
Shopping: There seem to be a countless number of shops in Boca and I don’t know how they all make money. The easiest place to shop is the Town Centre Mall, off Glades Road. It boasts several big stores including Bloomingdales, and many designer shops. The Mizna Centre offers more unusual, exclusive shopping. It is an outdoor shopping boulevard built with an elegant European style. It is also the area’s cultural centrepoint with an outdoor auditorium and a cartoon museum.
