Palm Beach, Gold Coast
Kind of like the Hamptons but with less nightlife, this playground for the rich and famous is a society based on benefit parties, second homes (mansions), fine dining, and Beverly Hills-style shopping. If stepping in is a bit out of your league, you’re certainly not alone. But you shouldn’t be scared either.
A stroll along the beach is dazzling, a slow stroll through the massive gated complexes (or a stroll through the Breakers Hotel) is the best anthropology-based amazement, and chomping at one of the few affordable restaurants is a sober reminder that you don’t everyone is a Rockefeller (note the real waitress and fast-food cooks at Green’s Pharmacy). Love it or hate it, ‘the island’, as it’s called, is a classic and inextricable part of Florida life.
The long, narrow island of Palm Beach sits between the Intracoastal Waterway, here called Lake Worth, and the Atlantic Ocean. It’s just east of West Palm Beach and those other communities that stretch to the south. The main north-south artery is S County Rd (Hwy A1A), and two major bridges link downtown to the mainland, the Flagler Memorial Bridge (Royal Poinciana Way). Further south, Southern Blvd and Atlantic Ave provide access to the island.
Downtown stretches from Royal Poinciana Way to Worth Ave, with most of the major attractions scattered between them. Prices tend to go up as you head south. Ocean Blvd runs from the southern edge of Breakers to the tip of the island; most of the mansions worth looking at are below Worth Ave.
Fort Lauderdale, the Gold Coast
Once upon a time, Fort Lauderdale was known as a top destination for beer-drinking college students on raucous spring break. And, until the mid-’80s, it was this precise set of images—drunk 19-year-old girls in wet T-shirt contests, boy bands drinking beer in the streets, and non-stop partying in hapless beachside hotels—that dominated the most. knowledge of the people about the place. But boy, what a difference a couple of decades make!
Today, after a concerted effort to clean up by banning activities loaded with such booze-fueled bacchanals, Fort Lauderdale has managed to attract more mature and sophisticated visitors with its myriad offerings (though there’s still plenty to do within the confines of many bars and discotheques). The city’s Port Everglades is even the winter home of the sleek new Queen Mary II cruise ship, for God’s sake.
Although much of the inner city consists of endless, unappealing malls, look for the good stuff and you’ll be rewarded. You’ll find beautiful beaches, a Venice-style waterway system, an international yachting scene, chic new hotels, upscale restaurants, and gay hotspots, all just 40 minutes up the coast from Miami.
Fort Lauderdale, 40 miles north of Miami, is set on a grid where it’s physically possible (it’s hard with the water breaking things up). It is also divided into 3 parts: the beach, east of the Intracoastal Waterway, in the center of the mainland, and Port Everglades, the cruise port south of the city. US Hwy 1 runs through downtown, while Highway A1A skirts the ocean and is also called Atlantic Blvd or Ocean Blvd, depending on whether it is north or south of Sunrise Blvd. The main streets between downtown and the beach they are Sunrise Blvd to the north, Las Olas Blvd to the center and 17th St to the south.
Castillo De San Marcos, Atlantic Coast
In 1672, after the British burned the city around them one too many times, the Spanish began building this coquina citadel. Completed 23 years later, it is the oldest masonry fort in the continental US. Rangers wearing Spanish colonial uniforms add to the medieval feel of the place. The cannons are heard throughout the city when they are fired every Sunday. The fort is located between San Marcos Avenue and the Matanzas River.