Fort Lauderdale Travel Guide
For details of what to do and see in Fort Lauderdale check out our Fort Lauderdale guide to car hire in Fort Lauderdale.
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With a long standing reputation as the party town of Southern Florida, Fort Lauderdale lies just a short distance outside Miami, and shares a high quality nightlife, and superb beaches with its neighbour.
During Fort Lauderdale's "peak" during the 1980s, it developed a reputation as the spring break capital of America, and every Easter, tens of thousands of university students would arrive from in the city from all over the country during their holidays, and indulge in a marathon period of debauchery so extreme, that it would have shamed the bassist out of Motley Crue.
The streets would overflow with sticky beer, and residents would often find the detritus of the night before (naked, sleeping students, vomit, and empty bottles) littering their gardens. Days were filled with general hung-over malaise, and nights with loud music and manic dancing. Halcyon days indeed.
These days, the students of the 1980s have largely grown up, and though they still return to Fort Lauderdale every spring, these days they bring family with them, and enjoy a more laid back vacation than they did in the past. Fort Lauderdale too has grown up, and is now recognised as one of the most up market tourist destinations in America. A haven for yachters and cruisers, the majority of the hotels that stand along Fort Lauderdale's sea front are of a very high standard, offering great service and luxurious facilities to their guests.
Fort Lauderdale now offers some of the best opportunities for retail therapy in the state, with a number of large shopping arcades in the city centre that share an easy co-existence with the the out of town strip malls, where you can pick up the best bargains in warehouse sized discount stores. Around the city centre, there are a number of high quality wine bars and night clubs offering a variety of experiences to their guests - although few that are as full on and shocking as you might have found in the city twenty years ago.
Perhaps the most famous attraction in Fort Lauderdale after the shops and state art gallery is the famous boat - the Jungle Queen, which offers a fascinating trip through the canals of the city before hading to the island where the local Indian population used to live. Once on the island, visitors get the chance to purchase a variety of "genuine" Indian artefacts, but the real excitement is in the sense of discovering the hidden side of the city as you cruise through it.
