Start from 36 curated places around Fort Lauderdale, FL, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
LARB Thai-Isan
A northeastern-Thai kitchen that locals rate as the best Thai in the area, built around the funky, herb-heavy cooking of Isan rather than the sweet pad thai default. The larb, som tum, and a deep-yellow khao soi are the dishes to chase, and they don't dumb down the chili. Best for anyone who wants their Thai food to actually bite back.
Le Patio
A French-Caribbean bistro whose lush back garden feels lifted out of Key West and dropped into Wilton Manors. The cooking leans Provencal with island touches, but the courtyard is the real reason to come. Best for a long, candlelit dinner outdoors when the weather behaves.
Trails & outdoors
Hugh Taylor Birch State Park
The city's pocket wilderness, 180 acres of maritime hammock and a rare coastal dune lake squeezed between the beach and the Intracoastal. A flat 1.9-mile paved loop suits walkers, runners, and skaters, while a short hammock nature trail puts you among gopher tortoises. Best for an easy green break a stone's throw from the high-rises.
Anne Kolb Nature Center
The interpretive heart of West Lake Park in Hollywood, protecting one of the region's largest urban mangrove forests. Boardwalks thread the wetlands and a five-level observation tower gives a rare overview of the green-and-blue maze. Best for an easy, shaded walk with kids and a payoff view at the top.
Things to do
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale
Downtown's serious art museum, a striking modern building holding the country's largest collection of American painter William Glackens plus strong CoBrA and Latin American holdings. The rotating shows punch well above the city's size. Best for a cultured couple of hours and a rainy-day fallback near the river.
Museum of Discovery and Science
A hands-on science museum downtown with an Everglades ecosystem exhibit, an otter habitat, and a giant-screen IMAX theater. It's pitched at kids but the exhibits hold adult attention too. Best for a family afternoon or a guaranteed dry-day backup.
Landmarks & sights
Bonnet House Museum & Gardens
A 1920s winter estate of two artists set on 35 acres of barrier-island hammock between the beach and the Intracoastal. The house is full of the Bartletts' own murals and oddities, and the grounds run to one of the better orchid collections in the country, with resident swans and the occasional squirrel monkey. Best for an unhurried morning when you want the old Florida that the high-rises replaced.
Historic Stranahan House Museum
The oldest surviving house in the city, an 1901 pine trading post on the New River that doubled as the town's first post office and bank. It tells the story of the trader who founded Fort Lauderdale and his dealings with the Seminole, and the porch over the water is the coolest spot downtown. Best paired with a stroll along the adjacent Riverwalk.