My wife and I are driving through the Keys for vacation, but we are spending our last night in the Miami Fort Lauderdale area. Which hotels and/or restaurants are good for looking at boats?

In Lauderdale, if you want to look at yachts, then Bahia Mar hotel has the best view as it is in a marina. Not the best hotel but probably boat wise one of the best views.

Miami

Hotels- I like the Mondrian, great location, cool rooms, and usually plenty of eye candy. If you get a good bay view room you can see Government Cut, the Intracoastal, and the start of Biscayne Bay. Chances are you'll see a few performance boats coming and going from TNT Marine through the ICW to get to the cut or the bay.

Restaurants- This is a crap shoot, maybe Montys or Chart House in Coconut Grove. There are some nice boats in the rack at Grove Isle Marina which is right there.

Ft Lauderdale

Hotels- I would try the W Hotel on Ft Lauderdale beach. Depending on the room you can see the Intracoastal which runs behind the hotel and/or any boats running up the coast close to shore. Last time I stayed here someone was running a big-power Cig close to the beach, I swear it shook the windows on the 22nd floor. That was cool. Plus the girls laying out by the pool here will make you want to drop your wife/girlfriend off at the bus station.

Restaurants- Any of the restaurants in the ICW you have a decent chance of seeing a performance boat. I would try Shooters, 15th street Fishery or China Grill.

I will say that its not like the good old days when you were guaranteed to see fast boats tooling around no matter where you went. Don't expect to go anywhere and see fast boats docked up 3 deep like its Shooters in 1990. Doesn't seem like guys are getting much use out of their boats these days, and he fact that everyone is buying center consoles doesn't help.

Thanks for the info! Just booked the W with an intracoastal waterway view.