As the holiday crowds hit the beach this busy July Fourth weekend, they may be surprised to see how much it costs to park.
In recent years, some coastal cities in South Florida say they’ve raised fees for beachside parking to keep up with inflation or to generate more funds for new parking sites amid rising demand.
Some areas offer permits and lower rates for residents, while making out-of-town beachgoers pay more.
Ahead of the holiday weekend, the South Florida Sun Sentinel checked in with several beachside communities, from Delray Beach to Hollywood, regarding their parking strategies. Here’s an overview of the parking costs.
Boca Raton
Parking in one of Boca’s city-run beach lots used to cost $20 per day, back in 2021. Today, the daily beach parking fee for standard-sized cars is $35 on weekdays, and $50 on weekends/holidays for visitors without a beach permit, the city’s website shows.
The cause for this increase? Mayor Andy Thomson said it comes down to plain economics.
“Every item that we buy, every chemical we use to clean the bathrooms has increased in price over the last five years,” Thomson said.
Mateo Solaert uses his phone to pay for parking at South Inlet Park in Boca Raton. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lifeguards and park rangers, playground and pavilion upkeep, and trash cleanup all create costs for the city.
Though the lot price has been in place for years, the $50 fee has at times drawn sticker shock.
“Parking is now $50.00 on Saturdays!!!! OUTRAGEOUS!!!!” one user wrote. Another person commented that the higher Boca fee is “why we always go to the Deerfield beach.”
Saying that the standard weekend price is “not nothing,” Thomson also highlighted the $3-per-hour metered parking available to visitors at South Beach, Red Reef Park and along State Road A1A, among the locations.
Will Herrera, 41, said he used to live in Boca Raton as a teenager, and would go to the beach about once a week. When he comes back to Florida to visit family, Herrera prefers to drop his family off at the beach and drive around until he can find metered parking on State Road A1A.
“I’m not paying $35,” Herrera said.
Signage at the South Inlet Park parking lot is seen in Boca Raton. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Cindy Perna, 64, of Clearwater, noticed that Boca Raton’s beach parking fees were higher than if she were to visit the beach near her home. She considered the beach-parking rates near her home in Clearwater “way more family friendly.”
Thomson said the city aims to ensure access for Boca Raton residents, giving them “an exceptional deal” through an annual beach permit. Annual permit prices, at $62 in 2021, are now $85 for Boca Raton residents, and $102 for all other Palm Beach County residents.
Pompano Beach
Pompano Beach raised beach parking rates in 2021, said Jeff Lantz, Pompano Beach’s parking manager. That increase was in response to growing demand at the beach, as well as the city wanting to “stay competitive with our neighboring cities.”
Currently, parking at Pompano Beach’s only beach garage, the Pier Garage, is $1.80 per hour on weekdays and $2.50 on weekends. Street parking along the coast is $2.50 on weekdays, $3.25 on weekends and $4 for holidays.
Allison Fournier, a city commissioner, said that heightened demand came from “a complete revitalization of the beach area” over the last decade.
Pompano’s beachside is now outfitted with fine dining options, a Kilwins, a pier and a jellyfish museum. “It’s not the old, gritty beach town that we used to have in Pompano,” Fournier said.
With demand still outpacing parking supply, the City Commission considered raising prices by 20% in December 2025. However, commissioners delayed any increase from taking effect until they reach a deal on a new beachside parking structure, the Oceanside Garage.
A proposed resolution also would increase the parking discount for Pompano residents from 20% to 50%. “The garage that was brought to us was not the right answer, not the right solution, and not the right cost,” Fournier said, adding that the commission is looking to find a path forward.
Delray Beach
Delray Beach offers glittering shores off a bustling downtown.
There, metered parking along State Road A1A is $3 an hour, and $2 for nearby surface lots.
A1A rates went up in May 2023, rising from $1.50 per hour.
The change, which also included raising prices on Atlantic Avenue, drew online pushback from locals in 2023. On Delray’s Facebook page, one user said the new fees were “way too expensive.” Another called the increase at the beach “sad,” especially as residents were “feeling the pinch of inflation.”
Parking fee increases are “typically about revenues,” Delray Beach Commissioner Juli Casale said.
Beach parking revenues contribute around $3 million per year to the city’s general fund, according to Public Safety Information Officer Ted White.
The city also raised some downtown parking prices in 2025, an increase Casale “was not a proponent of.” Public garages now cost $1.50 per hour, and metered side streets $3 per hour.
“Even though I didn’t want the increase, the price isn’t really unreasonable,” Casale said. She noted that the price is still lower than some private lots, which she said she has recently seen charge as much as $22 per hour.
Delray offers an annual beach parking pass. The $90 parking-pass sticker is for residents and non-residents alike. The city also offers residents a 50 cent discount on metered street parking, according to its website.
Hollywood
Hollywood updated its parking fees just last year.
Beach parking rates had cost $3 per hour on weekdays and $4 on weekends since 2016.
Now, street spots cost an extra 50 cents per hour. Rates at one beach garage, the Nebraska Garage, went down a dollar, while prices held stable at Hollywood’s other beach garage, the Garfield Garage.
Joann Hussey, communications director for the city, said Hollywood raised some downtown prices after conducting a parking study in 2025.
“The study indicated rates were too low, based on demand and major metropolitan locations with beach amenity, so an increase was justified,” Hussey wrote in an email to the Sun Sentinel.
According to Hussey, another issue was overcrowding. Downtown, vehicles were staying for as long as they liked in free public lots, “reducing turnover and limiting parking availability for customers visiting local businesses.”
Roger Caruso, director of Parking Compliance, said growing interest in Hollywood is “creating greater demand and pressure on our available parking spaces.”
Hollywood, too, aims to give local taxpayers a break. Residents can get a 50% discount on parking, and purchase annual permits to be used downtown or at the beach for $175.
Fort Lauderdale
Compared to some other cities, Fort Lauderdale has gone longer without raising beachside parking costs.
Prices last went up in 2020, the city confirmed, when the city raised beach parking to $4 per hour and downtown parking to $3. With that change, the city also gave a discount to residents, who can pay just $1.50 an hour for beach parking.
The change “was driven by revenue losses during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ashley Doussard, deputy strategic communications director for Fort Lauderdale, wrote in an email. During the pandemic, the city’s Parking Fund “experienced a substantial shortfall” that would have forced the city to suspend some parking services and operations.
“The rate increase helped stabilize the fund and avoid those impacts,” Doussard wrote.
Steve Glassman, a city commissioner whose district includes the beach, said that “as the city has grown, so has that demand for parking grown.” Glassman said the 2020 fee schedule also created new discounts for residents, something the commission was “very much interested in.”