Originally a fort built by the U.S Army in 1838, during the Second Seminole War, Ft. Lauderdale has little left of its warlike past. Instead the city welcomes visitors with broad beaches and an easy pace of life, plus convenient air and water connections that make the city a perfect place to begin or end a cruise.

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. Having fueled its economic boom on underage drinking and lascivious excess, however, the city promptly turned its back on the revelers. 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.