Waking up to that amazing Floridian sunshine has got to be one of the best ways to start a holiday!
What makes it even better is starting the day slowly with an amazing breakfast and boy does The Diplomat do a mean breakfast!
Like seriously, it’s the kind that makes you sneak extras out so you can just keep eating in your room (even though you were already pretty stuffed at the table). Even now just thinking about the doughnuts and pastries is making my tummy rumble… *licks lips*
Anyway, once we were done with breakfast, we decided to head out to Flamingo Gardens for a lazy mooch about.
Now, although the Flamingo Gardens has a fair few flamingos, there’s so much much to it than just that! There are lots of other birds roaming around and it’s essentially like a huge park for you to kick back.
The gardens are a fun little way to embrace Florida’s more natural side…
After a couple of hours here, I decided it was time to cool off back at The Diplomat. We had a private poolside cabana booked for the day and massages later on and boy was I looking forward to that. 😀
First things first though – lunch! 😀 Actually, before lunch, we got to try something totally Floridian and one which honestly gave me the giggle for ages (I found it way funnier than it probably was). Said thing was F-Rosé; pronounced ‘Froze-a’! It’s basically a frozen rose wine slushie and in that heat, was soooo welcome!
F-Rosés were swiftly followed by cocktails and mounds of delicious food!
Ceviche, nachos, salads, chicken wings… and so much more to share! (*I love sharing plates like this – the perfect opportunity to try as many things as possible on the menu).
After lunch, we headed down to the beach for a bit before heading off to the spa for massages. I maaaay have fallen asleep about halfway through my massage though (I blame lunch! Lol! Putting me in such a relaxed state after having eaten as much as I had was bound to lead to a fair bit of drowsiness…)
The rest of the afternoon (post-massage) was just spent poolside (or on the beach) wine-in-hand! If I wasn’t already in love with Fort Lauderdale, I was definitely head over heels by this point.
I actually think it was here that I realised we hadn’t left enough time in our plans to be in Fort Lauderdale. We were here for 5 days or so (some of which was spent travelling) and I wish we had at least a week (maybe even two) to just kick back and relax here. Ah well, all the more reason to re-visit soon methinks… 😀
Once the sun had set, we put on our glad rags and headed over to rooftop at The W for rose hour! We’d heard about this after arriving in Fort Lauderdale and seeing as we’d already started the day with rose, it made sense to carry on as we started. 😀
Dinner plans saw us change venues and head over to Las Olas Boulevard, which in Fort Lauderdale is where you want to head – not just for food but for a good night out.
Louie Bossi’s restaurant was where we were headed specifically for and judging from the queue when we arrived here, I’m so pleased we made reservations in advance!
We started with cocktails, before going for a burrata for Lloyd and octopus for myself. (*Heads up – the portions here are very generous, so arrive hungry or be prepared to share).
For the main meal, Lloyd went for an amazing pizza (yes, it wasn’t my meal but I had to taste it… y’know, for research) and I went for the carbonara (which was also pretty spectacular).
We decided to skip desserts for more of the amazing cocktails here, arriving back at The Diplomat nice and merry and absolutely pleased and even more intent to return to Fort Lauderdale at some point soon, friends in tow and to definitely stay for much longer.
The whole trip had turned out to be just the perfect break away for some winter sunshine (I love London but there’s only so much cold and grey one can handle in winter! Hehehe!).
See ya again very soon Fort Lauderdale.
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