Fort Lauderdale - Backgroud - Overview

Both of Fort Lauderdale's public transit terminals are close to downtown. Greyhound buses pull in at 515 NE 3rd St, while the Amtrak and Tri-Rail train station (tel 1-800/TRI-RAIL, www.tri-rail.com ) is two miles west at 200 SW 21st Terrace take bus #22 into town. The main local visitor center is in Port Everglades at 1850 Eller Drive (MonFri 8.30am5pm; tel 954/765-4466 or 1-800/227-8669, multilingual entertainments/attractions hotline at 954/527-5600, www.sunny.org ).

Local bus #11 runs twice hourly along Las Olas Boulevard between downtown and the beach, and you can also call for a water taxi (daily 10am until late; one way $7.50, round-trip $14, all-day pass $16; tel 954/467-6677) to take you almost anywhere along Fort Lauderdale's many miles of waterfront.

A single low-budget Hollywood movie changed FORT LAUDERDALE from a mild-mannered little town that happened to adjoin seven miles of palm-shaded white sands into a byword for uninhibited beach life. Following the 1960 teen-exploitation movie Where the Boys Are , Fort Lauderdale instantly became the number-one Spring Break venue in the US, drawing hundreds of thousands of frenzied students each year. By the end of the 1980s, it had imposed enough restrictions on boozing and wild behavior to put an end to the bacchanal, and Fort Lauderdale has transformed itself into a thriving pleasure port, catering to individual yacht-owners and major cruise liners alike, that's also one of the fastest-growing residential areas in the country.