Fort Lauderdale Attractions, Entertainment & Things to Do

Introduction

Like many of its southeast Florida neighbors, Fort Lauderdale has been revitalizing for several years. In a state where gaudy tourist zones often stand aloof from workaday downtowns, Fort Lauderdale exhibits consistency at both ends of the 2-mi Las Olas corridor.

Matching the downtown's innovative arts district, cafés, and boutiques is an equally inventive beach area, with cafés and shops facing an undeveloped shoreline, and new hotels gradually replacing faded icons of yesteryear.

Sharp demographic changes also are changing the faces of Greater Fort Lauderdale communities, increasingly cosmopolitan with more minorities, including Hispanics and people of Caribbean descent, as well as gays and lesbians. In Fort Lauderdale, especially, a younger populace is growing while long-time residents are becoming fewer, to a point where one former city commissioner likens the change to that of the city's historic New River -- moving with the tide and sometimes appearing at a standstill. "The river of our population is at still point, old and new in equipoise, one pushing against the other."

The jewel of the downtown area along New River is the Arts and Entertainment District, with Broadway shows, ballet, and much more at the riverfront Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Clustered within a five-minute walk are the Museum of Discovery and Science, the expanding Fort Lauderdale Historical Museum, and the Museum of Art (MOA/FL), home to "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs." Restaurants, sidewalk cafés, bars, and blues, folk, jazz, reggae, and rock clubs flourish.

Las Olas Riverfront is a multistory entertainment, dining, and retail complex along several waterfront blocks once owned by pioneers William and Mary Brickell. Tying this district together is the Riverwalk, extending 2 mi along the New River's north and south banks. Tropical gardens with benches and interpretive displays fringe the walk on the north, boat landings on the south. East along Riverwalk's north side is the pioneer Stranahan House, and Las Olas shopping and dining begins a block east. Tropical landscaping and trees separate traffic lanes in some blocks, setting off fine shops, restaurants, and popular nightspots.

Fort Lauderdale's beachfront offers the best of all possible worlds, with easy access not only to a wide band of beige sand but also to restaurants and shops. The most crowded portion of beach is between Las Olas and Sunrise Boulevards. North of the redesigned beachfront is another 2 miles of open and natural coastal landscape. Much of the way parallels the Hugh Taylor Birch State Recreation Area, a preserved patch of primeval Florida, where recent hurricane-force winds toppled trees and denuded landscape.

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