I spent considerable amounts of time both in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach from March to May of 2001. One of the coolest things to do in Lauderdale is the Water Taxi which will take you around town and drop you off wherever you want to go eat or drink or shop or whatever...all by boat. Very cool. In Miami Beach, I stayed a few blocks north of South Beach, where it's supermodels galore, and the parties and the night-clubbing do not end until 5am every day (after three weeks of that, I am almost surprised that I made it home alive).
I'll have a lot more to say about SoFLA eventually...I'm just too lazy to write about it now. In the meantime, you can see the pics.