Looking for the best parks and outdoor spots in Hollywood? On Florida’s Gold Coast, Hollywood is defined by its famous beachfront Broadwalk, barrier-island parks, and warm-water recreation. This local guide covers Hollywood’s marquee parks and green spaces, its trails and outdoor recreation, neighborhood gems, and how to find where locals actually go to get outside.

Hollywood’s best parks & green spaces

The Hollywood Beach Broadwalk — a 2.5-mile brick promenade along the sand — is the outdoor centerpiece, lined with parks, cafes, and beach access. North Beach Park and the T.Y. (Topeekeegee Yugnee) Park, a large regional park with a lake and water playground, anchor the green space.

Trails, waterfronts & outdoor recreation in Hollywood

The beach offers swimming, snorkeling, and paddling, and the Broadwalk is a beloved route for biking, running, and skating. T.Y. Park’s lake supports kayaking and paddleboats, and the Intracoastal and Anne Kolb Nature Center’s mangroves offer paddling and boardwalks.

Neighborhood parks & hidden gems

West Lake Park (home to the Anne Kolb Nature Center) is a mangrove-wetland gem for birding and kayaking, and neighborhood parks like Boggs and the ArtsPark at Young Circle serve downtown. To see how the areas connect, check our guide to the best neighborhoods in Hollywood.

What to know about Hollywood parks

The Broadwalk and beach get busy on weekends and in season — go early. T.Y. Park charges a small entry fee on weekends. Florida sun and storms are real; bring water and sunscreen. Much of the coast is car-friendly.

Where Hollywood locals actually go outdoors

The best-kept outdoor secrets — the quiet trailhead, the uncrowded picnic spot, the park that’s perfect right now — usually come from locals, not brochures. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Hollywood community, real Hollywood neighbors share their favorite outdoor spots and what’s worth visiting this season. For more ideas, see our guide to the best things to do in Hollywood. Join your Hollywood neighbors free and discover the best local outdoor spots →

The Hollywood angle

The parks and trails here are where neighbors actually spend their weekends, each with its own character. Half the fun of time outdoors in Hollywood is stringing it together with the places nearby. the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk is the landmark most people orient around, but neighbors will tell you North Beach Park and the historic downtown are where the town really shows its character, with ArtsPark at Young Circle worth a look if you have the time. Use those as your reference points and this guide slots neatly into a day that feels like Hollywood, not a checklist.

Keep exploring Hollywood

If this was useful, these companion guides cover Hollywood from angles that pair naturally with it: Dog-friendly Hollywood, Things to do in Hollywood, Free things to do in Hollywood. Together they add up to a full weekend without leaving town.

Ask a Hollywood neighbor

The best tips never make the guidebooks — they come from neighbors who know which spot is worth it this week. That is what the Hollywood community on Neighborhood Nurturers is for. Ask Hollywood locals what they would do, or join free and get honest answers from people who actually know Hollywood.

T.Y. Park (Topeekeegee Yugnee) – 3300 N Park Rd

The park most residents mean when they say they are going to the park, and the one visitors almost never hear about. T.Y. Park – short for Topeekeegee Yugnee – is open daily 8am to 6pm, and the pricing is the headline: free Monday through Friday, and $1.50 per person at weekends and on holidays, with under-fives free. There are very few places in South Florida where a family day outdoors costs six dollars.

It is a large inland county park built around a lake, with a campground on site, walking and cycling loops, picnic shelters and open water for paddling. This is the everyday park – the one for a weekday run, a birthday picnic or somewhere to take children who need to burn energy – rather than a nature reserve.

West Lake Park and Anne Kolb Nature Center

This is the serious nature destination and one of the more remarkable urban wild spaces in South Florida. West Lake Park at 1200 Sheridan St protects more than 1,500 acres of mangrove forest – a genuinely large intact system sitting inside a dense coastal city – and is home to the iconic Hollywood water tower. Entry is $1.50 per person at weekends and holidays, under-fives free.

Inside it, the Anne Kolb Nature Center at 751 Sheridan St is open Monday to Saturday, 6am to 7pm, and admission is free on weekdays, with a small charge for the exhibit hall at weekends. What you get: an exhibit hall with simulated mangroves and a 3,500-gallon aquarium, a hands-on EcoRoom, an outdoor amphitheatre, an Intracoastal fishing pier, boating and nature trails, and ★ a 68-foot observation tower that gives you the best free view in Hollywood – mangrove canopy on one side, the Atlantic and the city on the other.

The 6am opening is worth planning around. In summer, the only comfortable time to walk here is the first two hours after sunrise, and that is also when the birdlife is active – this is a recognised stop on the Florida Birding Trail.

Hollywood North Beach Park – 3601 N Ocean Dr

The beachfront park, anchoring the northern end of the Broadwalk. It runs 56 acres with more than a mile of Atlantic shoreline, opens 8am to 7:30pm daily, and includes a 60-foot observation tower, pier fishing on the Intracoastal, a beachside cafe and an accessible raised boardwalk. It is the answer when you want beach and shade and parking in the same place, and it is a far calmer stretch of sand than the middle of the Broadwalk. Our Broadwalk guide covers the promenade it connects to.

ArtsPark at Young Circle

The downtown park, and an unusual one – 10 acres of green space inside a traffic circle at Hollywood Boulevard and Federal Highway. It holds broad paved promenades, a children’s play area with an interactive fountain, and a feature fountain designed by the Japanese artist Ritsuko Taho. It is also a venue rather than just a park: free films screen on Friday evenings at 8pm, alongside concerts, art exhibitions and festivals through the year. See our events guide.

Which park for which day

A cheap family day out: T.Y. Park on a weekday, when it is free. Nature and the best view in town: Anne Kolb, early, free on weekdays, and climb the 68-foot tower. Beach plus shade: Hollywood North Beach Park. An evening out that costs nothing: ArtsPark on a Friday for the free film. A long walk: the 2.5-mile Broadwalk.

Practical notes for parks in this climate

Go early. From roughly April through October the middle of the day is genuinely unpleasant outdoors, and the parks are at their best before 10am. Anne Kolb opening at 6am is a gift, not a quirk.

Afternoon thunderstorms are routine in summer, not exceptional – they arrive fast, are often severe, and usually pass within the hour. Plan around them rather than cancelling.

Mosquitoes are serious near the mangroves at dawn and dusk. Repellent is not optional at West Lake.

The seasons are inverted. Winter is peak park season here; the months when a northern city is greenest are the months Hollywood residents stay indoors.

Dogs: rules vary by park, and the beach has its own designated stretch between Pershing and Custer Streets – our dog-friendly guide has the detail.

What a park day costs in Hollywood

This is one of the genuinely cheap cities in South Florida for outdoor time, and the numbers make the point. T.Y. Park is free Monday through Friday and $1.50 per person at weekends, with under-fives free. Anne Kolb Nature Center is free on weekdays, with only a small exhibit-hall charge at weekends. West Lake Park is $1.50 per person at weekends and holidays. The beach itself costs nothing beyond parking, and ArtsPark is free including its Friday-night films. A family of four can spend an entire weekend day outdoors here for six dollars plus whatever they bring to eat, which compares favourably with almost anywhere else in Broward County. The one real cost is beachfront parking, which runs roughly three to four dollars an hour and fills early on winter weekends – park inland or arrive before ten and even that disappears.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best parks in Hollywood, FL?

The Hollywood Beach Broadwalk, T.Y. (Topeekeegee Yugnee) Park, North Beach Park, and West Lake Park with the Anne Kolb Nature Center.

Where can you kayak in Hollywood, FL?

T.Y. Park’s lake and the mangrove waterways at West Lake Park / Anne Kolb Nature Center are great for kayaking and paddleboats.

Where do locals go outdoors in Hollywood, FL?

Locals favor the Broadwalk, T.Y. Park, and the West Lake mangroves — Hollywood neighbors share their favorite spots in our community.