Fort Lauderdale may be long famous for its sailing regattas and celebrity homes. But, as Florida regular Adam Edwards discovers, this sprawling beach city is becoming a must-visit on the luxury travel circuit thanks to its unique mix of Michelin-worthy restaurants, Everglades adventures, and sleepy seaside villages.

At the Jet Runway Cafe, there’s a policewoman eating shrimp and grits on the table behind us, and a couple dressed in Ralph Lauren ordering salmon burgers on the one in front. “They probably have a private jet,” says my friend, nodding at the Cessnas parked outside our brunch spot. “It’s not like Miami,” she adds, between bites of fried chicken and syrupy waffles. “The super rich eat in the same place as the rest of us.”

Though mostly a locals’ hangout, the cafe sits on the edge of the city’s private airport and is just across the runway from Chase Stadium – where Inter Miami are currently playing their home games.

Fort Lauderdale has been the base of Miami’s ‘soccer’ team since 2020, while its stadium is being redeveloped. Like its star player Lionel Messi’s decision to buy a mansion in Fort Lauderdale in 2023, the temporary relocation is symbolic of how Fort Lauderdale has emerged out of its near-neighbor’s shadow since the pandemic. 

Long popular with celebrities and the yachting world, this laid-back city has seen a boom in new luxury developments in recent years. The Four Seasons opened a 22-story property on Fort Lauderdale’s beachfront in 2021, while in January 2025, the historic Pier Sixty-Six hotel – former hangout of Frank Sinatra – reopened following an almost €1 billion renovation. 

Intrigued, I’d decided to forgo my usual Miami break and spend a week in Fort Lauderdale. I’d been told it had that glamorous ‘South Beach’ vibe I love about Miami, but at a fraction of the price. I’d certainly have struggled to find anywhere in Miami where brunch costs from €15 – let alone at a restaurant overlooking the private airport, with Gulfstreams taxiing outside the windows. Even better, a night at Fort Lauderdale’s W Hotel, where I am staying, is less than half the price of its sister property in Miami. 

Like its counterpart, the W Fort Lauderdale overlooks the boardwalk and is on its best stretch of sand, just three doors down from the Four Seasons. Its mix of luxury ‘residences’ and hotel rooms certainly has that vibe I love so much of nearby Miami: think two cabana-flanked pools, private sunlounger section on the beach, and free daily yoga in a rooftop bar. What’s more, my nautically-colored suite with its floor-to-ceiling windows and free-standing soaking tub, is the ideal base from which to explore Fort Lauderdale. 

Every day, I get a free two-hour bike rental to head up the coast. Meanwhile, it’s just a 10-minute walk to the nearest water taxi stop, from where I can zip around this ‘Venice of America’. 

If you’ve ever been on one of those Beverly Hills celebrity homes tours, you’ll love the guided hop-on-hop-off boat trips around Fort Lauderdale’s canals. Everyone has lived along its banks, from Al Capone to Sonny and Cher. We pass David Beckham’s sleek, silver yacht, Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett’s dream house (the construction for which is claimed to have outlasted their romance), and stop near the bar where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio allegedly said their final goodbyes (the bar still puts on the live mermaid shows that drew the Yankees there in DiMaggio’s day). 

“Long popular with celebrities and the yachting world, this laid-back city has seen a boom in new luxury developments in recent years.”

But it’s not all gossip about Hollywood hookups and gem-encrusted superyachts; the 25-mile water taxi route connects all of Fort Lauderdale’s top sights, from Las Olas Boulevard – known as the ‘Rodeo Drive of South Florida’ – to laid-back beach suburbs like Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, where I drank Happy Hour cocktails and listened to live music at a clapboard restaurant beside the pier.

The city’s a unique mix, combining the boardwalk bars and palm-fanned lifeguard stations you’d expect in Miami, with sleepy Atlantic beach villages and untamed wilderness. One minute, you can be in some Keys-like beach bar or surfing its breaks, the next you can be amid Downtown’s skyscrapers eating sushi and chimichurri at trendy Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant Sakana Nikkei. 

It’s action packed, with everything from parasailing and kayaking in the mangroves on offer, to diving with rays on its artificial wrecks.

Since arriving a few days ago, I’ve been horseback riding through a forest dripping with jungle creepers, and come face to face with a pretty little butterflyfish while snorkeling the reef that tracks its coast. One morning, I even caught a taxi 30 minutes to the Everglades to look for gators on a classic Floridian airboat safari with EvergladesTours.

But not everyone who comes here is searching for adventure, as I discover from Dale, a businessman I got chatting to at the W’s pool bar. He and his wife had driven over from Florida’s Gulf Coast just to sample Fort Lauderdale’s culinary offerings – which were given a boost in April when the city was awarded its first-ever Michelin star.

Believe it or not, Fort Lauderdale had never featured in Michelin’s famous food guides before 2025. Now, it has five restaurants on the list, including a pizza place and a noodle bar. 

They seem appropriate choices. Fort Lauderdale may be wealthy but it’s definitely not haughty. 

Take the W Hotel, for example. Its premier restaurant, Steak 954, may serve two types of caviar – costing around €250 – but its terrace operates on a purely first-come, first-served basis, like your local bar. What’s more, the W’s other restaurant, El Vez, where I went for frozen blood-orange margaritas and black bean empanadas, is an affordable taqueria with polished concrete floors, beer can artwork, and couples working on their laptops as they eat with one hand.

“You’ll need some insider knowledge to find those truly secret spots only the locals know about.”

That’s the great thing about Fort Lauderdale. It may have the gleaming beachfront towers and Michelin-worthy eats like Miami, but wander a block from somewhere like the W or Four Seasons, and you’ll still find those low-key, low-rise hangouts that have been lost to over-tourism in Miami Beach. 

Admittedly some like La Fuga, in an old art deco hotel, have been given luxury revamps, and now serve cocktails clarified in duck fat beside that quintessentially Floridian courtyard pool. Others like Casa Playa, however, still ooze that laid-back local vibe, with Colombian pop music and plates of Peruvian ceviche spilling from open windows onto the wraparound terrace beyond the bar. 

At nearby Archibalds Village Bakery, I joined the regulars queueing out the door for ‘cinnamon roll coffees’, freshly baked scones, and cheese-and-agave pastries – best eaten on the beach, with the filling dripping on the sand. 

But, while there may be no shortage of quality, affordable eateries close to the boardwalk, you’ll need some insider knowledge to find those truly secret spots only the locals know about. Even my taxi driver struggled to find the cocktail lounge where I arranged to eat on my first night. Marooned in an unassuming strip mall between a Chinese takeaway and a dry cleaner’s, the appropriately named No Man’s Land Cocktail Parlor & Eatery is the sort of place you’d never find in South Beach, with creative dishes like deviled eggs and bacon jam starting from just €15. There was a twenty-something playing ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and other karaoke favorites on the piano, which the regulars sang along to between sips of flower-topped cocktails. It’s dark and intimate, like a chic speakeasy – only without the pretension. Kind of like Fort Lauderdale itself.

Adam was a guest of the W Fort Lauderdale (www.marriott.com) and Visit Lauderdale (www.visitlauderdale.com). For flight and hotel packages from Portugal, see KAYAK (www.kayak.com).