Fort Lauderdale is easygoing and easy to get to. Let’s hear it for Miami’s little sister.

On a recent visit, inspired by cheap airfare, we found that price tags were lower than those of Miami, from drinks to transportation. While you can find excellent restaurants (Fort Lauderdale was recently added to Michelin coverage), posh hotels, and lively nightlife, it’s a more low-key feel. “Even the luxury side feels more casual here,” says Ebony Tyre, PR manager for Visit Fort Lauderdale . “It’s a calmer vibe. You can relax.” It’s not the glitzy, celebrity-studded scene of Miami’s Ocean Drive; you’re more likely to spot one of the Florida Panthers drinking at a touristy dive bar (they celebrated their 2024 Stanley Cup win at the Elbo Room ) than Shakira. Although we did meet a cast member from season 7 of Bravo’s “Below Deck” tending bar on the water taxi.

With tips from Tyre and others, we set out to discover what makes Fort Lauderdale … Fort Lauderdale. Here are some highlights.

Where the action is, and isn’t

We visited at the end of spring break season, and by night, Las Olas Boulevard — the city’s hot zone for dining and nightlife — was hopping. It wasn’t the beer-pong-in-the-street scene you’ll find at some breaker destinations, but the streets were full of college-age revelers, shades of “Where the Boys Are,” the 1960 movie that put Fort Lauderdale on the map with this demographic. The city doesn’t encourage this — “We’re more about families on school break,” says Tyre — but that’s the reality. By day, while the students are sleeping, Las Olas is more sedate. We had a great lunch at Casa Sensei ( https://casasensei.com ), an award-winning Pan-Asian Latin-fusion restaurant overlooking a canal.

We boarded an elevator filled with young women in slip dresses, platform heels, and lots of competing perfume on a Wednesday night at the W Fort Lauderdale ( www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/fllwh-w-fort-lauderdale/overview/ ; average rate $350 including $55 resort fee), feeling woefully underdressed (or maybe overdressed, in more fabric). But around the WET Deck rooftop pool, we lounged with lobster rolls and Prosecco in hand in a comfy daybed and watched families splash around in the water. It is definitely an elevated poolside experience, even if you don’t opt for the private Veuve Clicquot lounge.

With its upscale, modern feel, the beachfront W resort offers luxurious digs and nice amenities, including Steak 954 , by James Beard award winner Stephen Starr. The restaurant has a cool feature, an aquarium full of undulating live jellyfish. Instead of bread, they serve puffy golden popovers that rival those at Jordan Pond House at Acadia National Park, the standard for all popovers. People were dressed up. It felt like a Miami Moment.

A quick bike ride (the hotel has bikes) or 20-minute walk away along the beach reveals something entirely different: Hugh Taylor Birch State Park ( www.floridastateparks.org/HughTaylorBirch ). No crowds here, in spite of its location right across from Fort Lauderdale Beach. For two bucks (as a pedestrian or cyclist) you get access to 180 acres of green Florida, laced with 3 miles of nature trails and mile-long freshwater Long Lake. We rented a kayak for an hour ($30) and saw a medley of wildlife, including gopher tortoises and red-headed Muscovy ducks.

Quintessentially Fort Lauderdale

Unabashedly touristy and fun, the Mai-Kai draws folks from far and wide, Tyre told us. Not your typical tiki bar, Mai-Kai Restaurant & Polynesian Show ( https://maikai.com ) is a recreated Polynesian village. Think tiki torches, tropical gardens, island artifacts, and drinks served in coconut shells and pineapple skins. Launched in 1956, and recently reopened after closing for renovation, Mai-Kai’s nightly dinner show features costumed Polynesian dancers performing the Hawaiian wedding dance, a Samoan dance with fire and knives, and more. A nearby table of Rhode Islanders adopted us, celebrating birthdays with several shareable $100 “mystery” drinks made with fruit juices and rum.

Fort Lauderdale is called “the Venice of America” and the “yachting capital of the world” for good reason: It boasts 300-plus miles of inland waterways, including the Intracoastal Waterway and the New River. Get a peek at mansions and mega-yachts on a narrated water taxi tour ( https://watertaxi.com ; day pass $40) of the canals. (You’ll see Sonny and Cher’s pink house. Enough said.) With 20 stops in Fort Lauderdale, the water taxi can actually be a handy way to get around if you figure out the lay of the land — er, water. There’s also a free water trolley, operated by the city, that makes eight stops along the river.

By land, the city is served by Circuit, offering on-demand rides on all-electric vehicles for free (or cheaply) via the Circuit app. We didn’t have great luck with this service, but maybe that was due to spring break. In any event, we didn’t rent a car but had no trouble using rideshares to get around.

Ye Olde Florida lives here

It’s always fun to stumble upon something unexpected when you travel. In the Riverfront neighborhood, we discovered a pocket of Olde Florida, a complex of historic buildings operated by History Fort Lauderdale ( www.historyfortlauderdale.org ). Guided tours reveal the backstory of the city, including the construction of the New River Inn in 1905, where rooms went for $3 per night. Now the former inn houses the main museum. Exploring the exhibits there, we encountered artist-in-residence Florencia Clément de Grandprey ( www.ArtbyFlorencia.com ), in a room filled with her acrylic paintings of human eyes on vintage Persian rugs. Yes, you read that right. Unexpected, and quite remarkable.

We returned to the historic neighborhood later that night, for dinner at the House on the River ( https://thehouseontheriver.com ), a charming restaurant set inside two connected circa 1903 white-columned homes. The food is lovely, but the setting is the best part, inside the house with vintage furniture and mixed-and-matched dinnerware, or outdoors on the patio along the river (great for people-watching).

Within the stretch of sleek, modern hotels along Fort Lauderdale Beach, another “olde” bit of the city exists. The Casablanca Café ( www.casablancacafeonline.com ) we mentioned earlier in this story was once known as the Jova House. Built in 1927, it was the first home constructed on Fort Lauderdale Beach, and it is the oldest remaining structure on the beach, a quirky mélange of Spanish and Middle Eastern design. Sensing our interest in old things, the café’s manager, Chris Garafola, directed us to the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens ( www.bonnethouse.org ; $25). Chicago-born artist Frederic Clay Bartlett created Bonnet House, a whimsical, 35-acre subtropical estate filled with art and surrounded by gardens, in 1920.

Confession: We never made it to Bonnet House. On our way, walking along the ocean, we succumbed to the allure of the beach and plopped down on a seawall to enjoy the sun-drenched scene. Because, no matter where you go, it’s the beach that makes Florida … Florida.

For information, visit www.visitlauderdale.com .