Travel Blog

Yesterday the New York Times Travel section carried an article on Fort Lauderdale that missed a lot. In fact, it missed the main story, focusing on the city's move from Animal House to luxury hotel (spring break hasn't been big here since the '80s), while the most interesting development in recent years has been the burgeoning arts community.

The Ritz Carlton was recommended as a place to stay (rooms starting at $269) as well as eat brunch, but there was no mention - not even under "Seaside Dusk" - of the hotel bar with its giant mural of a wave and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the ocean, a combination of seascapes - frozen and living - that makes it one of the state's great watering holes.

Also, at dusk a lot of people like to see the sun set, especially over water, and for that there is no better place than the wonderfully rejuvenated old standby Coconuts.

Two other hotels, Pelican Grand Beach Resort and the W, were suggested as places to stay, but not everyone who comes to the beach wants to sleep in a hotel. The Pillars, the erstwhile motel that is now an elegant boutique lodging, should have gotten a mention.

Likewise, ethnic restaurants were completely ignored (except for Italian, which in the U.S. doesn't really count). Yet if tourists want to go where the locals go - and most do - they should be told about Sukhothai (a few blocks away from the recommended - and much more expensive - restaurants at The Galleria) and, even closer to the beach, Basilic Vietnamese Grill. If they want to venture west of I-95, there is excellent Indian, Peruvian, Korean cuisine.

And if they would like to see a good movie after their meal, the miraculous Cinema Paradiso shows foreign, independent and classic films in the heart of downtown.

Himmarshee Village got dismissed for rowdiness, making me think the writer of the article saw it on a bad night. SW Second is still a livelier and less pretentious (not to mention less touristy) street than Las Olas. And just off it is Brew, an artsy coffeehouse that is situated, as all coffeehouses should be (yet so few are), along railroad tracks.

On Las Olas the writer didn't catch the Vibe (literally, though she may have been here before it opened). But she didn't even get the chocolate right, missing Galler and going to Kilwin's, which can be found on the main street of almost any tourist town in Florida. Nor did she mention the Gran Forno cafe next to the Riverside Hotel, which is becoming the place to sit on warm winter afternoons. In fact, a wonderful visit to our city could be had by ignoring the New York Times' recommendations.