Sights—Las Olas Boulevard, with its designer shops, cafes and beautiful people; Bonnet House, an art-filled oceanfront estate; the Everglades' "river of grass"; a sunrise over palm-fringed beaches.

Museums—The Museum of Discovery and Science; the Museum of Art's major collection of CoBrA artwork; the International Swimming Hall of Fame Museum; the International Game Fish Association Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum.

Memorable Meals—Waterfront dining at 15th Street Fisheries; imaginative "Floribbean" cuisine at Cafe Maxx and Mark's Las Olas; breakfast at the Floridian; Latin flavors at Argie Grill; gourmet organic fare at Sublime.

Late Night—The lively beachfront Elbo Room; the popular Bahia Cabana Bar, with its nightly music and view of the yacht harbor; people-watching at Lester's Diner; the Seminole Paradise/Hard Rock complex of restaurants, nightlife and casino.

Walks—The Broadwalk at Hollywood Beach, filled with characters, cafes and shops; beautiful Fort Lauderdale Beach; quiet nature trails through Hugh Taylor Birch State Park or Anne Kolb Nature Park; the Riverwalk, a promenade that meanders past some of the city's earliest buildings and along the New River.

Especially for Kids—Butterfly World's free-flying aviaries; the wooden roller coaster in Dania Beach; Discovery Center at the Museum of Science and Discovery; Young at Art Children's Museum in Davie; airboat tours at Everglades Holiday Park; Splash Adventure at Quiet Waters Park.

Fort Lauderdale sits in the middle of the burgeoning megalopolis known as South Florida, which hugs the Atlantic coast from Miami (a 35-minute drive south) to Palm Beach (a 45-minute drive north). It is the principal city in huge Broward County, two-thirds of which is Everglades swampland. What isn't swampy includes 23 mi/37 km of wide white-sand beaches and 30 other municipalities.

Several nearby coastal communities make up Greater Fort Lauderdale. To the north are Pompano Beach (where sportfishing is a favored pastime), Lauderdale-by-the-Sea (a small seaside oasis) and Deerfield Beach (virtually untouched by beach erosion). To the south are Port Everglades (the country's second-busiest port, frequented by top cruise lines), Dania Beach (known for its antiques), Hallandale Beach (a seaside community popular with younger folks and Eastern European immigrants) and Hollywood (its Broadwalk parallels the ocean). Western suburbs include Davie, Plantation, Lauderhill and Sunrise. If this sounds like a patchwork of towns, it is—making a car almost a necessity for any traveler.

South Florida was long the home of the Seminoles and other Native Americans, but that began to change in the 1830s when U.S. Army soldiers started clearing trails into the area. The city's namesake, Maj. William Lauderdale, built an outpost at the mouth of the New River. Around the same time, runaway slaves sought refuge in the Everglades, where they banded together with the Seminoles to battle white settlers. It wasn't until the arrival of a railroad in the 1890s that the area began to grow significantly. Frank Stranahan, one of the city's founding fathers, migrated from Ohio in the early 1900s and established a trading post, ferry system and post office. (He eventually married a native Floridian named Ivy Cromartie, and their home—two stories of Florida vernacular architecture—is now a museum in the historic district downtown.)

Meanwhile Charles Rodes, an ambitious land developer from West Virginia, followed the lead of Venice, Italy, and increased the amount of waterfront property by dredging waterways through dense mangrove swamps, forming peninsulas and a network of canals that still exist.

Like other resort areas in Florida, Fort Lauderdale boomed following World War II. By the 1960s it was a famed spring-break destination, whose population of raucous partyers peaked at 400,000 in 1985. Eventually the city government cracked down and forced the annual spring bacchanalia to go elsewhere. The city invested millions of dollars to clean up its crime areas in the early 1990s, transforming Fort Lauderdale into a more refined, family-friendly destination known for tourism and business, though it still thrives on the seasonal college crowd.

Along with the rest of South Florida, Fort Lauderdale experienced a real-estate boom, especially for condominiums. A younger crowd started to fill the city, lowering the age demographic and making the nightlife scene less stodgy and suburban.

Davie takes its reputation as an Old West town seriously—some shopping areas have hitching posts for horses, and rodeos are held in the local arena. It's a great place to buy cowboy boots and other western wear.

Dania Beach is one of the region's oldest towns, settled in 1904 by farmers who grew vegetables in the warm winter climate. Today the city's comparative antiquity is honored at Antique Row, a marketplace that stretches through the middle of town. But Dania Beach hasn't forgotten its origins: It was once the state's tomato capital, and stalls along Sheridan Street continue to offer tasty tomatoes in season.

A canal used to link the New River to Lake Okeechobee, allowing travelers to take a steamboat across the state from Fort Lauderdale to the Gulf of Mexico. Silt closed the canal.

The Seminole Indians have a reservation in the heart of Hollywood, but if you didn't know better you'd think you were in a typical suburb. For a glimpse into the more traditional lives of Seminoles, visit their Big Cypress Reservation, about 45 mi/72 km west of Fort Lauderdale. There you'll hear the people speaking their native language and see gator wrestling and authentic palm-thatched chickee houses.

In the neighboring cities of Vero Beach and Charlotte Harbor, skeletal remains as old as 10,000 years have been discovered. More recent history dating back to the late 1890s suggests that renowned "barefoot mailmen" walked along the beach from Hypoluxo to Miami to deliver mail.

The city of Fort Lauderdale, the self-proclaimed "Venice of America," has 165 mi/266 km of navigable waterways and a reported 40,000 yachts, earning its title as "Yachting Capital of the World." There are also 7 mi/11 km of public beaches and 85 public parks, plus more than 200 boat slips and moorings.

Riverwalk bricks have been presented to celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, George Hamilton, Peggy Fleming, "Golden Girl" Bea Arthur, director Steven Speilberg, Michael Caine, and I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden. Good luck finding them among the walkways.

Besides Where the Boys Are, other movies shot in Fort Lauderdale include Cape Fear with Robert DeNiro, Married to the Mob, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, who also did Up Close and Personal there, and Porky's. In Her Shoes, with Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine, filmed in Deerfield Beach, and scenes from The Hours, with Julianne Moore, took place in nearby Hollywood.