Sports and Recreation >>

• Best Major League Bargain
  Florida Marlins
  Marlins fans are the most spoiled in baseball. A few years ago, Big Wayne built them a World Series champion on a huge mountain of cash and then yanked it away. Fans whined and cried. They wanted their multimillion-dollar stars back. Get real. A greedy garbage tycoon giveth and a greedy garbage... More >>
• Best Group to Run With
  Palm Beach Hash House Harriers
  This local chapter of the Hare-and-Hounds- style chase is no different from any of its global counterparts. (The races originated in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1938 and has followers worldwide.) It's a drinking group with a running problem. Every weekend, bands of Harriers and Harriettes chase... More >>
• Best Picnic Spot
  Colee Hammock Park
  Catching a quick bite in this quaint park on the New River, locals can become a tourist attraction. While you're gnawing on a sandwich, visitors to Fort Lauderdale may well wave and point as they float by on any number of tour boats that pass. The small park sits on a lot between two waterfront... More >>
• Best Urban Walk
  Riverwalk
  Urban implies something in the city, and in a couple counties where beaches form the eastern boundary, we thought a favorite beach stroll might have been cheating a little. The Riverwalk, however, keeps to the city definition -- being set in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale and all -- ... More >>
• Best Place To Gamble
  Gulfstream Park
  It's a Saturday in mid-April, eighth race of the day, and the small crowd is ready for the Hialeah Park races at Gulfstream. A few old-timers play to stereotype: linen suits, fedoras, and stogies, hovering over their racing forms at the rail. A handful of families drink Cokes and eat hot dogs,... More >>
• Best Bowling Alley
  AMF Davie Lanes
  Never had a 300 game? No problem. At Davie Lanes almost anyone who joins one of their many bowling leagues is guaranteed a better average. Try the Fun League, where for 22 weeks you can play three games one night a week with a weekly payout of $100 per week. If that doesn't thrill you, try the... More >>
• Best Pool Hall
  Corner Pocket Billiards
  You lookin' for some action? You found the right place. This 16-table hall has offered hustlers from around the globe a shot at winning big for nine years running. Four billiards tables attract Brits and other Euro players, as does management's care of its wares. Balls are cleaned and polished... More >>
• Best Place To Play Darts
  Lord Nelson's Pub & Eatery
  Think of it this way: Lord Nelson himself threw "darts" in the form of cannonballs, and the 16-pounders flew into the French fleet, which is why he won the battle of Trafalgar and which may be why the British love this pub game so much. Owned and operated by a couple of expatriate British... More >>
• Best Beach To Bathe In
  Bathtub Reef Beach
  Once you've experienced Bathtub Reef Beach, you'll understand how it got its name and why it's the perfect place to bring kids (or not). Every day at low tide, water collects between the beach and the live Anastasia Worm reef that sits about 75 yards away, creating, yes, a natural bathtub to... More >>
• Best Beach
  Dania Beach
  So what if some steel-and-glass-happy developer plopped a Goliath-size condo just outside the southern end of this beach? Don't look over there. Instead shuffle over the always clean and gold sand and stretch your terry towel under a chickee hut, or for a measly buck, stroll 920 feet due east... More >>
• Best Hike/Palm Beach County
  Jonathan Dickinson State Park
  If variety is the spice of life, then the nine and a half-mile loop trail at Jonathan Dickinson is one flavor-filled hike. Wending along its way, the trail itself varies from loose-packed sand to dirt to downright bog (especially during the rainy season, from June through October). The path is... More >>
• Best Gym
  The Fitness Company of Fort Lauderdale
  When they need a respite from the hubbub of the city, lawyers, journalists, and other downtown Fort Lauderdale workers zip into this health club inside the Auto Nation Tower, Broward County's tallest building. Enter through the marble-floored lobby and take the elevator to the seventh floor.... More >>
• Best Place to Jog
  Hugh Taylor Birch State Park
  What makes this rectangle of tropical lushness with a paved loop exceptional? Its prominent location facing Fort Lauderdale's beach and its relative obscurity for a park in a city. (You can bet some green space-hating developer sees lost millions every time he looks at it.) Pull in off Sunrise... More >>
• Best Tennis Courts
  Jimmy Evert Tennis Center at Holiday Park
  Named after Chris Evert's dad, Jimmy, who coached here for decades, these city-owned courts are a testament to municipal beauty and utility at prices affordable to most, if not all. That's what we like about public tennis courts -- everybody can get in to play. This facility in Holiday Park,... More >>
• Best Hunting
  West of U.S. Highway 27
  NEWSFLASH! SNIPE EXIST! And you, too, can go snipe hunting, which is no joke, unless you think it's a joke. Most land west of U.S. Highway 27 is public, managed in part by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. You'll find about 672,000 acres of excellent habitat for migrating... More >>
• Best Fishing
  The Flamingo
  Freshwater or salt, catch-and-release or catch-and-eat? Questions, questions. Florida is about saltwater, so we'll answer by sending you to sea. For convenience, quick access to the ocean, and virtually certain catches, try the 65-foot Flamingo. This boat beats the competition in part because of... More >>
• Best Mountain-Climbing Shop
  Coral Cliffs, Inc.
  Even Yosemite's great cliffs aren't much more of a stretch than the 4000 feet of climbing surface you'll find inside Coral Cliffs, where Florida's subtropical, flatter-than-Kansas geography doesn't matter a whit. Owner Robert Christenson used to climb in Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, and he... More >>
• Best Place To Rollerblade (1 Comment)
  The Broadwalk
  Whether you're the Brian Boytano of the pavement or decked out in more pads than an American Gladiator, this one and a half-mile stretch of beach is the perfect place to strap 'em up and wheel. The ride begins just south of Garfield Street at Hayes Street, where, if you don't own your own... More >>
• Best Place To Spot Urban Wildlife (Reptiles)
  Snyder Park
  As you enter keep to the right and wind around the shore of the large lake in the center of the park. If you want, wear earplugs to protect yourself from the roar of jets taking off and landing at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, which is barely a half-mile south. The noise... More >>
• Best Place To Spot Urban Wildlife (Birds)
  Rose Drive
  From downtown Fort Lauderdale, take Andrews Avenue south to Davie Boulevard, and park at the gas station on the northeast corner. Or better yet, ride a bike. Proceed east on Rose Drive, and listen for a sound that resembles a cat's meow -- only a lot louder. The sound is coming from four pairs... More >>
• Best Golf Course
  Emerald Dunes Golf Course
  What's the best sight from the highest point in Palm Beach County? We believe it's a drive rocketing off the head of your golf club and sailing over the fairway, all easily seen from the tee high atop the Superdune at Emerald Dunes. It may be only a little more than 50 feet high, but the... More >>
• Best Fitness Instructor
  Scott Manning
  When you're six feet, 220 pounds of sculpted muscle with a shiny, shaven head, you should have a nickname suitable to your look. This hometown hunk has been filling up kickboxing and hip-hop aerobic classes in gyms in Broward and Palm Beach to the point where he is known by simply one name,... More >>
• Best Place To Mountain-Bike
  Markham Park
  Look around and you'll notice we're a wee bit short on mountains round these parts. You'll also gather that the automobile reigns supreme -- otherwise why would we have given so much territory over to it? Tucked in here and there, however, are some very challenging places to get your wheels in... More >>
• Best Place To Canoe
  North Fork of the New River
  For a place that bills itself as "The Venice of America," there aren't very many good places to paddle a canoe. There's a lot of water around, but on most bodies you'll have to dodge yachts and personal watercraft and deal with their wakes when you decide to hit the water under your own power.... More >>
• Best Place To Rent Go-Karts
  Grand Prix Race-O-Rama
  Precious few things in life are as much unbridled fun as go-karts. You may be going only 15 miles per hour, but when you're an inch from the ground, it feels like 60. Driving quickly with so little power requires a certain skill, however; the idea is to cut the corners right at the apex, turning... More >>
• Best Place To Ride A Bike
  A1A (North Ocean Drive between Camino Real and Atlantic Avenue)
  Once you've finished this ride, it may be tough to go back to the real world. The path of paved asphalt that stretches along A1A (North Ocean Drive) is lined with so many beautiful houses and beaches that you may just want to turn around and do it again. Beginning at the south end, near... More >>
• Best New Bike Path For Masochists
  Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
  The crushed-rock-and-shell roadbed is straight and flat, running for 12 miles atop the L-40 levy, which separates the Everglades from this stretch of southern Palm Beach County. The dike road, which opened to bikers and hikers last October, connects the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge... More >>
• Best Hike/Broward County
  Florida Scenic Trail, Section Two
  We ain't never seen the varmints with our own eyes, but there's been tell of panther and black bear sightings along this section of the Florida Trail. There is no guarantee, but a shot at seeing these once-thriving Everglades species in their natural habitat adds extra excitement to hiking this... More >>
• Best Day Trip
  Koreshan State Historic Site
  Working late in his lab one night in 1869, Dr. Cyrus Teed of upstate New York saw God. And she was a hottie. Better yet, she showed him that the Earth is a hollow ball with the universe crammed inside, how to interpret the Bible, and how to turn lead into gold. So maybe the good doctor was... More >>
• Best Place To Play Competitive Sports Without Getting Sunstrok
  Sports Mall
  Two years ago Robert Todoroff's dream came to fruition. An athlete who didn't want to give up his favorite sports, including inline skating, during the most brutal stretches of Florida's heat and humidity, he envisioned an indoor center where entire sports fields could fit in one... More >>