The first of two warm-weather stopovers on this trip is a place I've been a half-dozen times or more in previous winters: Fort Lauderdale Beach in Florida.
Why this resort area in particular? First and foremost, because Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale is the Florida terminus of my favourite cruise line, Princess Cruise. I've sailed to Port Everglades from Rome, from Quebec City, from Southampton, and... from Port Everglades. On nearly every occasion, I've made time either before or after the cruise (or both) for some time here.
More years ago than I can count, I latched onto the hotel which has remained my go-to destination in Fort Lauderdale ever since -- the Bahia Mar Resort, A DoubleTree by Hilton. Right away, notice that the brand name "DoubleTree" doesn't appear before the specific hotel name, Bahia Mar, but after it. That, I assume, is because Bahia Mar is a historic landmark of sorts. The original low-rise hotel was built in the late 1950s, when I was still a toddler. The 16-storey tower was added in 1961, and loomed in solitary splendour over a neighbourhood of wooden cottages and a few single-floor motels.
Today, Bahia Mar creates a rather more modest impression in between clusters of bigger, taller, bulkier, and more costly high-rise resorts. It's as famous now for its sizable marina and yachting centre, one of the key venues of the annual Fort Lauderdale Boat Show.
So why do I keep coming back? Bahia Mar manages a great balancing act between big hotel services and small property friendliness. Like any major resort, it has multiple food and drink outlets, banquet facilities, a large pool area with a bar & grill right there on the deck and musical entertainment, and its own private footbridge access across Highway A1A to the beach, which is especially spacious at this point. And yet, it remains casually friendly. I got a big welcome back from the server in the main restaurant last night, who'd seen me three weeks ago on a one-night stay after my cruise. More surprising, I got another big welcome this morning from a breakfast server who would have seen me last in 2019. That, to me, speaks volumes.
So, to start with, a picture of Bahia Mar's distinctive trademark, here shown on the key card. The unique letter face of the name, complete with banner, also appears on top of the tower, drawing the eye as you drive towards it. The string of ship signal flags spells out the name "Bahia Mar."
Next, here are a few photos of the view from my room, which faced north. By the way, every room in Bahia Mar's tower has at least a partial ocean view -- there are no rooms facing west (away from the ocean).
Here's a look at the pool deck, which has been significantly upgraded since my 2019 visit, with new cabanas, new cushions for all the lounges, and a DJ stand for use in busier weekend or holiday periods.
The pool deck is on the upper level of a separate building, and can be reached by the connecting footbridges from the low rise and tower wings, as well as from the beach. Here are a couple of views from the pool deck of the two main hotel buildings.
As for what one can do in Fort Lauderdale, I've written more than one previous blog post about that subject. Here are links to two of the most detailed, from almost five years ago.
On this visit, I spent my first full day just lounging -- waking up late, taking my sweet time over breakfast, hanging out by the pool with multiple swims and lunch at High Tide, the poolside bar and grill. I also ate dinner in Breezes, the lobby restaurant, since the evening decided to be rainy, which for me is a good excuse to stay put. I had a lobster roll which was easily twice the size of the previous largest one I'd ever eaten, and a great side salad. I'm pretty sure I got the meat of a whole lobster in that roll.
The second day was devoted to a day's adventures on the Water Taxi, Fort Lauderdale's unique hop-on-hop-off bus tour on boats.
I've taken quite a few good photos on this tour before, but here are a couple that help to fill in the gaps.
In town, I walked the full length of the beautiful Riverwalk from the Stranahan House....
...to the Broward County Arts Centre and back.
On the return walk I waited patiently for a few minutes and caught this video of a Brightline passenger train crossing the New River Bridge on the Florida East Coast Railway. Brightline is a fairly new private sector operator which runs more or less hourly from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, bi-hourly to West Palm Beach, and several times a day all the way up to Orlando.
Once I got back to the hotel, I had a quick swim and then adjourned for a pre-dinner cocktail at High Tide. While I was enjoying that drink, a rain shower passed over but I didn't even notice, thanks to the broad roof over the bar. By the way, the hotel gives you a coupon for two free drinks every day as part of the daily resort fee. And no, they don't have to be alcoholic.
For dinner, I got back on the Water Taxi and rode to a favourite and fabulous seafood restaurant, the 15th Street Fisheries. It's in the Fort Lauderdale Marina, and one of the designated Water Taxi stops is right on the pier in front of the restaurant.
The lower deck pub is right on the dock, over the water, and you can see the fish swimming by as you eat -- plenty of smaller amberjack, and a fair selection of much larger tarpon. The restaurant will even give kids a cup of fish food if they want to feed the ravenous hordes.
As for feeding me, the server quickly set me up with a big bowl of steaming hot, spicy, Bahamian conch chowder. If you ever get to 15th Street Fisheries, this is a must-try. Unlike Boston clam chowder, it's based on tomato broth, and has ample chunks of tomato, potato, and other veggies as well as conch and fish. The closest I've ever experienced to it is the Bermuda fish chowder, which is similar but rooted in beef broth rather than cream or tomatoes. I followed the soup with a main course of the catch of the day, basa, which I had blackened -- and it was terrific too. For the quality of the seafood, 15th Street Fisheries is a bargain of bargains. The live music most nights is an added bonus. By the way, the upstairs restaurant is much more upscale and hoity-toity -- fine dining. But the dockside is so awesome that going upstairs is superfluous, unless you really require an upscale experience. The two restaurants have largely different menus.
That pretty much covers it for this visit to Fort Lauderdale, since I was on the road again the morning after that spectacular dinner. As for the destination, well.... all in good time!
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