Fort Lauderdale

The beach is the reason most people come. A long, wide strip of pale sand runs the length of the barrier island, backed by the palm-lined promenade along A1A, and the Atlantic here is warm and swimmable all year. It is around 29°C in late summer and rarely below 23°C in winter. Lifeguard towers line the main stretch, and the water is often clear enough to see the bottom.

The beaches north of the centre are quieter: Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, where a reef lies close enough to snorkel from shore, and Pompano and Deerfield beyond it. To the south, Hollywood's Broadwalk has a more local, family feel. Summer brings afternoon storms and the occasional mat of seaweed. Winter, when the sea is calmest and the air is dry, is high season.

Eating here is pleasant rather than distinctive. The best of it is seafood: grilled grouper and mahi, stone crab claws in their winter season, and casual fish shacks along the Intracoastal where you eat on a dock beside the boats. Las Olas Boulevard has the densest run of sit-down restaurants and terraces. The beachfront leans towards hotel dining and sports bars.

The more interesting food is inland. The large Jamaican and Haitian communities in the western suburbs bring jerk chicken, oxtail and patties, and there are Cuban bakeries and Latin American counters across Broward. Brunch is something of a local ritual. Visitors after a serious food city usually head south to Miami for a night.

Fort Lauderdale is a young city, and its sights are small. The best is the Bonnet House, an eccentric 1920s artists' estate set in subtropical gardens behind the beach. The Stranahan House, a pioneer trading post on the New River, tells the city's frontier story. The NSU Art Museum on Las Olas holds a respectable modern collection, and the Riverwalk links a few historic buildings downtown.

That is roughly the list, and a curious visitor will see it in a day. The appeal of the city lies in its waterways and beach, not in museums or architecture.

Going out here is relaxed and loud rather than sophisticated. Beachfront bars on A1A fill up from late afternoon, especially in spring and at weekends. Downtown, Himmarshee Street has a strip of bars and lounges that run late and draw a young crowd. Las Olas has a more grown-up wine-bar and terrace evening.

The standout is Wilton Manors, just north of downtown, one of the best-known gay neighbourhoods in the country, with a busy row of bars and drag shows along Wilton Drive. Club culture is limited. People who want a big night out generally make the short trip to Miami.

The landscape is flat, and the outdoors here is mostly on the water. Hundreds of kilometres of canals and the Intracoastal Waterway thread through the city, ideal for kayaking, paddleboarding and boat trips past waterfront mansions. Offshore, a chain of reefs and deliberately sunk wrecks makes for good scuba diving close to shore, and sport fishing for sailfish and mahi is a serious pursuit.

On land, Hugh Taylor Birch State Park keeps a strip of coastal hammock and lagoon between the beach and the Intracoastal. The edge of the Everglades is less than an hour west, with airboat rides, sawgrass marsh, alligators and wading birds. Winter is the time for walking and cycling, since summer heat and storms make midday outings hard work.

The obvious day out is Miami, under an hour south by car or fast train. Miami Beach's Art Deco district, the galleries and murals of Wynwood and the Cuban streets of Little Havana make a full day. To the north, Palm Beach has the grand Flagler Museum mansion and the luxury of Worth Avenue, and Boca Raton and Delray Beach make easy, polished stops along the coast.

Key Largo, at the top of the Florida Keys, sits at the edge of a comfortable day, about an hour and a half to two hours away. Beyond these, South Florida is mostly suburbs and wetland, and the heritage towns that make for richer day trips elsewhere are scarce.

For families the draw is simple: warm, gentle water and a broad, lifeguarded beach with showers and parks behind it. The Museum of Discovery and Science downtown is a genuinely good hands-on museum with an aquarium section, and an Everglades airboat ride with alligators is a reliable hit. A large butterfly garden and aviary in the northern suburbs and the boat traffic of the canals add to the list.

The city is safe and relaxed and used to children. The drawbacks are the summer heat and storms and the need for a car for most outings. Orlando's theme parks are about three hours away, too far for a day trip.

Fort Lauderdale is built for cars. The beachfront, Las Olas Boulevard and downtown along the New River are pleasant to walk and are linked by water taxis on the canals and free local trolleys. If you stay in that triangle you can manage without driving.

Beyond it, the city spreads out along wide, hot roads, and buses are slow and infrequent. Fast intercity trains and the slower Tri-Rail commuter line connect downtown with Miami and the Palm Beaches, which helps for day trips. For the Everglades, the outlet malls or the western suburbs, most visitors hire a car or use ride-hailing.

Las Olas Boulevard is the main shopping street, a shaded, palm-lined stretch of boutiques, galleries, swimwear and resort-fashion shops. It is good for an unhurried afternoon but shallow. For bargain hunters the real draw is out west in Sunrise, where one of the largest outlet malls in the country pulls in shoppers from across Latin America and Europe.

Otherwise it is suburban malls, a long-running open-air flea market and beach souvenir shops. There are few local crafts or design shops worth seeking out. Serious luxury shopping means Palm Beach or Miami.

This is an expensive place to stay for most of the year. Beachfront hotel rates climb steeply in the winter high season, when visitors from the cold north fill the town, and again over spring weekends, school breaks and the festive weeks around Christmas and New Year. Eating out means American menu prices with tax and a generous tip on top, even at casual waterfront places, and cocktails at the beach bars add up fast. Most visitors also hire a car, and parking near the sand is rarely free.

Some things cost nothing: the beach, the promenade and the parks behind it. Summer, the hot and stormy low season, brings much lower room rates. Self-catering apartments and older motels a few blocks back from the sand are the usual way to keep a stay affordable.

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts on the New River is the anchor. It hosts touring Broadway musicals, ballet, comedy and concerts through the year, and the smaller Parker Playhouse adds to the programme. A few downtown rock and indie venues bring touring bands, and the beach bars have plenty of cover bands and acoustic sets.

There is no resident opera or orchestra of note and little local theatre. Visitors after a fuller evening of classical music or dance usually look to Miami's arts centre, under an hour away.

There is no bathing culture here. Wellness means the spas of the big beachfront resorts, day spas along Las Olas, and yoga classes held on the sand at sunrise. These are good but no different from what any American resort town offers.

The pace is the real asset. Away from spring weekends the beach town is easygoing, with long morning walks on the promenade and slow afternoons by the water. In winter the warm, dry weather draws plenty of visitors from the north for exactly that.