Miami and Fort Lauderdale - Non-Strip Club Recommendations?

Las Olas Blvd. Fort Lauderdale. There is a strip of about 20-25 restaurants that many turn into bars at night. It's relatively upscale. All the restaurants have outdoor seating. Lots of people walking around the street. Good eye candy.

Maybe Papi, 25, you, and I could meet up in the Southwest section of 8th Street and eat some Mofongo and Churrasco. I know I'm an old fogey but an oldie yet still a goodie is the world famous Versailles Restaurant.

Warrior gave you a good suggestion, I would add Miami Beach below about 25th st is full of small shops restaurants and during the daytime the beach is loaded with eye candy, but this is such a large area there’s so much to do and see, you could spend a day in coconut grove, pompano beach is a popular area Sawgrass Mills Mall is a bargain hunters paradise without any specific interests it’s an exhausting topic to try to respond to.

Coolest spots in Miami right now are in the Wynwood area. “The Oasis Wynwood” just opened last month. Its an outdoor venue with live music, a couple of bars, and shipping containers repurposed as food trucks. Seems like “the place” at the moment. But of course, this is always subject to change.

And yes, this is according to much younger, urban hipsters that I work with - not coming from a middle aged white guy who hasn’t been cool since the Reagan administration.

Rent a convertible; put the top down go out around 2: a.m. and drive around Liberty City; huge adrenaline rush........

^ Wynnwood shows up on that list of dangerous Miami neighborhoods

I havent been in a long time. I just remember great food...Haitian Nicaraguan cuban....

Only club I remember is booby trap. Didn't really like it. The beaches in fl remind me of san Diego

Thanks for the input all. I'll check this spots out. I don't mean to ask a super broad questions I just want to avoid shitty tourist traps and I'd rather spend my time with actual locals rather than shitty millionaires just visiting on vacation. I'm not a millionaire :(

^ Most of us locals are so called shitty millionaires

Youre a millionaire? Most Miami locals aren't lulz

^ I thought you had me on ignore

The trolls...san jose gay. Sirlapdancealot meat etc.

You can be stupid and act trolling at times but also offer a lot of valid insights

Just to give you a real heads up, in this part of south Florida which includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach, there are probably more millionaires than you could imagine, the lifestyle here is expensive, many people here are from other parts of the country, and it takes a substantial amount of money to buy a home or condo in a decent neighborhood. If you lived here and were on the road you would notice that there are probably more German automobiles and other high end vehicles here than is the norm in most other parts of the country except maybe Southern California. So yes there is a large contingent of us locals that are millionaires and richer.

Every city has its rich enclaves. Miami has a lot of extremes much like Los Angeles

South Florida is not a city it is a three county four if you include the keys, area with over nine and a half million people it’s not a single enclave rather many enclaves close together what is your point you’re just arguing to hear the sound of you’re own voice. Very few parts of this country are as wealthy overall like this area and yes there is a larger population of millionaires in this region than generally expected throughout this country.

Im not arguing im saying Miami is a city of extremes like Los Angeles

And I’m telling you that it isn’t just Miami it’s a very large metropolitan area that includes a half dozen other cities

When someone nmentions a large city its a given they mean the metropolitan area

“… I've also thought about moving down since I am getting older and HATE the cold but I wonder how much I'd like it and how hard is it to find a place …”

Your tagline says Texas – South FL is more expensive than TX particularly w.r.t. housing/renting; and it’s getting worse with the post-pandemic influx of folks often from up north like NY – a good # of those New Yorkers are well-to-do and it drives up housing prices (not saying they are all well-off but a fair # are) – but I assume TX is having a similar uptick effect w.r.t. housing-costs since TX may be #1 w.r.t. influx of out-of-staters many from Cali and w/ similar good-mean$.

Broward and Palm Beach counties are IMO the better alternatives (IMO better quality of life) – Miami-Dade county has a very-large population of immigrants and thus a large working-class population – of course there are pockets of nice-areas in Miami but they are kinda the minority and being the minority it is often costly – plus in Miami it can often be like being in a foreign-country where it can be hard to communicate if you don’t know Spanish; not as bad in Broward or Palm Beach counties although you can still run into this and of course Broward & Palm Beach also have not-so-nice areas.

You’re probably better-off looking at other parts of FL where you won’t feel like you’re in a foreign-country and can also have better COL and quality-of-life – only downside is South FL may have the best strip-club scene and the hotter women - if you are already retired then you can live "near South FL" (hour to 90-minutes or so away) where you can have a better quality-of-life but still be able to hit South FL and experience what it has to offer if you have the free-time to make the longer-drive.

I don’t do much going-out other than strip-clubbing; and being middle-aged IDK exactly know where the hot spots/bars/etc are.

As @warrior15 mentioned, the Las-Olas/Ft-Lauderdale-beach area is pretty-vibey – on Ft Lauderdale beach you have the beach on one side and restaurants and bars on the other side of the street across from the beach; w/ plenty of people walking-about and a good-amount of eye-candy.

South Beach (southern Miami Beach) also has a similar scene but it’s a bit more raunchy/low-class than Ft Lauderdale – similar to Ft Lauderdale Beach in South Beach you have the beach then bars and restaurants w/ sidewalk seating across the street from the beach and lots of people walking around and lots of girls walking up and down in g-strings showing ass – to see the “South Beach cction” just use the Clevelander Hotel as a landmark and you’ll be in the thick of it – a few blocks from the beach is Lincoln Mall which is a popular outdoor shopping area that is about 4 or 5 blocks long and also a good-amount of eye-candy but less raunchy than the beach-area (parking can be hard to come-by in South Beach and can be expensive; so best to do some recon/websearch upfront to know where the several parking-garages are that are more economical than street-parking near the beach).

Other than this there are some popular casinos if that is your thing (not my thing) – the Hard Rock in Hollywood just north of Miami is pretty-popular and supposedly has pool-parties although I’ve never been.

The Brikell area of downtime Miami is upscale and has some trendy restaurants and bars as well as popular happy-hours although IDK about specific spots - there is also a new upscale mall there called Brickell City Center (haven't been but I imagine it has a good # of hotties walking around; etc).

Thanks for the input papi, I don't care if I feel like I'm out of place - I've spent a time of time overseas but South Florida is very, very different from a lot of places I've been. For example, it seems that outside of Brickell downtown Miami is mostly dead at night? Which is odd for most downtown areas.