I can answer that.  Check this great site out for all the information
you need:

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Kind of a general question, but here goes.

There are tons of hotels and motels, from quite reasonably priced, to
outrageously expensive.  While proximity to the beach does tend to affect
price, it's not an absolute.  There are some nice places within easy waking
distance of the sand that are not all that expensive.  I don't usually stay
in motels in this area, so I'll leave hotel recommendations to those that
have.

The beaches are pretty spectacular.  The younger crowd tends to congregate
along the Ft. Lauderdale public beach.  There are several blocks of motels
right across the street from it.  The Canadian crowd generally concentrates
further south, in the Hollywood Beach area.  There's a boardwalk with a
number of bars and restaurants that cater to French Canadians.  A nicer
area, in my opinion, is up around Lauderdale by the Sea, north of Ft.
Lauderdale.  Things are laid back and a bit higher class without being
significantly more expensive.

There are restaurants everywhere.  I tend to prefer relatively casual
dining.  If you're into gourmet food, way so and someone else will surely
respond.  I like the Islamorada Fish Company, in the Bass Pro Shop building
in Dania and the Rustic Inn, not far away, for seafood.  If you're a beef
eater, it's hard to beat The Knife, an all you care to eat Argentinean steak
house near the Sawgrass Mills Mall.  Tropical Acres on Griffin Road is an
older, but quite good family steak house and, if all else fails, there's
always Outback.  We have a couple Japanese Hibachi houses.  Beni Hana is the
better known, Nami is the better restaurant, in my opinion.  I don't spend
much time up by Lauderdale by the Sea, so I can't tell you what's good or
not except that there are some good restaurants and lounges up that way.

Lauderdale by the Sea and John Lloyd Park, south of Ft. Lauderdale, at the
north end of Dania Beach, are the better known places for diving from shore.
In both areas, there are shallow, low profile reefs close to shore and
somewhat higher profile reefs at 30 - 40 feet, within swimming distance.  If
you dive from shore, you must tow a flag.  If you want to snorkel, just off
John Lloyd park is a better place to do it.  Boats are less likely to come
into the shallower areas.  I don't recommend snorkeling in Lauderdale by the
Sea.  There are too many boaters on the water that lack a clue about
watching for divers.

While the reef diving is OK, it's not the best diving in the Ft. Lauderdale
area.  The best diving is on the wrecks.  There are lots of wrecks
everywhere from about 40 feet deep (not real exciting) to well beyond
recreational diving depths.  You have a lot to choose from.  There are dive
shops everywhere you look and they all run, or are associated with someone
that runs a dive boat.  Conrad Nix and his boat Miss Conduct
http://missconduct.tripod.com/ are well thought of, but just about any boat
down here will get you out to the wrecks.

If you like reefs, Boynton and the Sea Mist marina is about an hour north.
There's about a half dozen dive operators that leave from there.  All of
them are pretty good.  Most of the rec.scuba crowd do their reef diving up
there.  Traveling about an hour in the other direction, will bring you to
the northernmost Keys.  If you like, you can drive down, do a couple of
morning dives, a couple of afternoon dives, and get back to your motel in
time for bed, which will look good to you.  You'll be tired.  The obvious
dive not to miss in Key Largo is the Spiegel Grove.  It's big.

While you are down here, there's one must do tourist activity.  You must
take an airboat ride in the Everglades.  There are two choices, both about
the same.  Holiday Park is at the west end of Griffin Road.  You take I-595
out to US-27, which is on the far west side of Ft. Lauderdale, get off and
go south to Griffin Road.  Turn right into the park.  Airboat ride tickets
are available in the concession building.  Take a camera.  The other choice
is Sawgrass Recreation Area.  To get there, you go north on US 27.  It's on
the right.  Holiday Park used to be the better attraction.  They had a
Seminole village and alligator wrestling show included in the ride.  It
turns out that the village was on someone else's property, or was flooded
out, depending on who you talk to.  Either way, it's gone.  I like Sawgrass
recreation area a bit better because the guy that drove our boat the last
time we visited, was a college biology professor.  Both operations know
quite a bit about the Everglades.  He knew quite a bit about everything in
them.

As a last item, if you're coming down, try to make your reservations well in
advance, both for lodging and for a car.  I recommend against staying
without a car.  There's just too much here, scattered over too large an
area, to tie yourself down without transportation . . . unless all you want
is to lay on the beach and look at pretty people in small bathing suits.

Lee

1.  Try not to be a Damn Yankee.  Remember to go home after your vacation.
2.  Never stare at the driver of the car with the bumper sticker that
says, "Keep honking. I'm reloading."
3.  If someone actually has their turn signal on, it is probably a
factory defect.
4.  If you are in the left lane, and only going 70... people are not
waiving when they go by.
5.  The best parking spots are determined by *shade*, not *distance*.
6.  We eat catfish, carp, and crawdads. You really want sushi and
caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.
7.  If asking directions in Miami, you must have knowledge of Spanish.
8.  All old ladies with blue hair in Cadillac's think that they have the
right of way.  They will stop on train tracks and expect the train to
stop.  This doesn't always work though...
9.  Be advised: The "He needed killin'" defense is valid here.
10.  Get used to hearing, "You ain't from around here, are you?"