Spring break surges in South Florida as tourists flock to Fort Lauderdale
is in full swing across
South Florida
and early signs indicate a surge in tourism, particularly in Fort Lauderdale.
According to AAA booking data, both Fort Lauderdale and Miami rank among the top 10 spring break destinations this year.
Visit Lauderdale, the official tourism agency for Greater Fort Lauderdale, said overnight stays are seeing a notable increase, fueled in part by social media trends.
For many young travelers, viral posts have played a major role in choosing Fort Lauderdale as their destination.
"It's all over social media," said Luke, a college student from Michigan.
"Really? Everyone's talking about Fort Lauderdale on social media?" CBS News Miami asked.
"Everybody is, especially TikTok," added Brian, another Michigan college student.
From ocean views to lively beachside attractions, students said they're drawn to the vibrant atmosphere.
"We're having a good time so far," Brian said. "A lot of stuff around here to do—the strip, a bunch of restaurants and bars."
Even high school seniors from colder states are taking advantage of the warm weather before heading to college.
"All the spring breakers, all the kids," said Kayla, visiting from Michigan.
"It's definitely popular," added her friend Lilly. "Walking the beach, going to the shops, going downtown."
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said this year's crowds far exceed those of recent years, with visitors filling beaches, restaurants and hotels.
"The message got out there and the weather's been great," Trantalis said.
With thousands more visitors, the city has ramped up police presence and first responders to ensure safety while businesses reap the benefits.
"It's an investment in our community," Trantalis emphasized. "It's an investment in tourism."
Meanwhile, Miami Beach has imposed restrictions on spring break crowds, a move Fort Lauderdale businesses said has sent even more visitors their way.
"South of us, they have really encouraged spring breakers not to come," said Amy Faulkner, Director of Sales for The Atlantic Hotel & Spa. "We thank you. We really have been benefiting."
Faulkner said the hotel is completely booked for spring break and Easter for the first time since the pandemic.
Visit Lauderdale reports that hotel demand is up compared to last year, though the full economic impact of the season won't be known until after spring break ends.
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Hamilton Spectator
5 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Trump once decried the idea of presidential vacations. His Scotland trip is built around golf
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — During sweaty summer months, Abraham Lincoln often decamped about 3 miles (5 kilometers) north of the White House to the Soldiers' Home, a presidential retreat of cottages and parkland in what today is the Petworth section of northwest Washington. Ulysses S. Grant sometimes summered at his family's cottage in Long Branch, New Jersey , even occasionally driving teams of horses on the beach. Ronald Reagan once said he did 'some of my best thinking' at his Rancho Del Cielo retreat outside Santa Barbara, California. Donald Trump's getaway is taking him considerably farther from the nation's capital, to the coast of Scotland. The White House isn't calling Trump's five-day, midsummer jaunt a vacation, but rather a working trip where the Republican president might hold a news conference and sit for interviews with U.S. and British media outlets. Trump was also talking trade in separate meetings with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer . Trump is staying at his properties near Turnberry and Aberdeen, where his family owns two golf courses and is opening a third on Aug. 13. Trump played golf over the weekend at Turnberry and is helping cut the ribbon on the new course on Tuesday. He's not the first president to play in Scotland: Dwight D. Eisenhower played at Turnberry in 1959, more than a half century before Trump bought it, after meeting with French President Charles de Gaulle in Paris. But none of Trump's predecessors has constructed a foreign itinerary around promoting vacation sites his family owns and is actively expanding. It lays bare how Trump has leveraged his second term to pad his family's profits in a variety of ways, including overseas development deals and promoting cryptocurrencies, despite growing questions about ethics concerns. 'You have to look at this as yet another attempt by Donald Trump to monetize his presidency,' said Leonard Steinhorn, who teaches political communication and courses on American culture and the modern presidency at American University. 'In this case, using the trip as a PR opportunity to promote his golf courses.' Presidents typically vacation in the US Franklin D. Roosevelt went to the Bahamas, often for the excellent fishing, five times between 1933 and 1940. He visited Canada's Campobello Island in New Brunswick, where he had vacationed as a child, in 1933, 1936 and 1939. Reagan spent Easter 1982 on vacation in Barbados after meeting with Caribbean leaders and warning of a Marxist threat that could spread throughout the region from nearby Grenada. Presidents also never fully go on vacation. They travel with a large entourage of aides, receive intelligence briefings, take calls and otherwise work away from Washington. Kicking back in the United States, though, has long been the norm. Harry S. Truman helped make Key West, Florida, a tourist hot spot with his 'Little White House' cottage there. Several presidents, including James Buchanan and Benjamin Harrison, visited the Victorian architecture in Cape May, New Jersey. More recently, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama boosted tourism on Massachusetts' Martha's Vineyard, while Trump has buoyed Palm Beach, Florida, with frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago estate . But any tourist lift Trump gets from his Scottish visit is likely to most benefit his family. 'Every president is forced to weigh politics versus fun on vacation,' said Jeffrey Engel, David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who added that Trump is 'demonstrating his priorities.' 'When he thinks about how he wants to spend his free time, A., playing golf, B., visiting places where he has investments and C., enhancing those investments, that was not the priority for previous presidents, but it is his vacation time,' Engel said. It's even a departure from Trump's first term, when he found ways to squeeze in visits to his properties while on trips more focused on work. Trump stopped at his resort in Hawaii to thank staff members after visiting the memorial site at Pearl Harbor and before embarking on an Asia trip in November 2017. He played golf at Turnberry in 2018 before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland. Trump once decried the idea of taking vacations as president. 'Don't take vacations. What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job,' Trump wrote in his 2004 book, 'Think Like a Billionaire.' During his presidential campaign in 2015, he pledged to 'rarely leave the White House.' Even as recently as a speech at a summit on artificial intelligence in Washington on Wednesday, Trump derided his predecessor for flying long distances for golf — something he's now doing. 'They talked about the carbon footprint and then Obama hops onto a 747, Air Force One, and flies to Hawaii to play a round of golf and comes back,' he said. Presidential vacations and any overseas trips were once taboo Trump isn't the first president not wanting to publicize taking time off. George Washington was criticized for embarking on a New England tour to promote the presidency. Some took issue with his successor, John Adams, for leaving the then-capital of Philadelphia in 1797 for a long visit to his family's farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. James Madison left Washington for months after the War of 1812. Teddy Roosevelt helped pioneer the modern presidential vacation in 1902 by chartering a special train and directing key staffers to rent houses near Sagamore Hill , his home in Oyster Bay, New York, according to the White House Historical Association. Four years later, Roosevelt upended tradition again, this time by becoming the first president to leave the country while in office. The New York Times noted that Roosevelt's 30-day trip by yacht and battleship to tour construction of the Panama Canal 'will violate the traditions of the United States for 117 years by taking its President outside the jurisdiction of the Government at Washington.' In the decades since, where presidents opted to vacation, even outside the U.S., has become part of their political personas. In addition to New Jersey, Grant relaxed on Martha's Vineyard. Calvin Coolidge spent the 1928 Christmas holidays at Sapelo Island, Georgia. Lyndon B. Johnson had his 'Texas White House,' a Hill Country ranch . Eisenhower vacationed in Newport, Rhode Island. John F. Kennedy went to Palm Springs, California, and his family's compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, among other places. Richard Nixon had the 'Southern White House' on Key Biscayne, Florida, while Joe Biden traveled frequently to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, while also visiting Nantucket, Massachusetts, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. George H.W. Bush was a frequent visitor to his family's property in Kennebunkport, Maine, and didn't let the start of the Gulf War in 1991 detour him from a monthlong vacation there. His son, George W. Bush, opted for his ranch in Crawford, Texas, rather than a more posh destination. Presidential visits help tourism in some places more than others, but Engel said that for some Americans, 'if the president of the Untied States goes some place, you want to go to the same place.' He noted that visitors emulating presidential vacations are out 'to show that you're either as cool as he or she, that you understand the same values as he or she or, heck, maybe you'll bump into he or she.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
San Francisco Chronicle
5 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump once decried the idea of presidential vacations. His Scotland trip is built around golf
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — During sweaty summer months, Abraham Lincoln often decamped about 3 miles (5 kilometers) north of the White House to the Soldiers' Home, a presidential retreat of cottages and parkland in what today is the Petworth section of northwest Washington. Ulysses S. Grant sometimes summered at his family's cottage in Long Branch, New Jersey, even occasionally driving teams of horses on the beach. Ronald Reagan once said he did 'some of my best thinking' at his Rancho Del Cielo retreat outside Santa Barbara, California. Donald Trump's getaway is taking him considerably farther from the nation's capital, to the coast of Scotland. The White House isn't calling Trump's five-day, midsummer jaunt a vacation, but rather a working trip where the Republican president might hold a news conference and sit for interviews with U.S. and British media outlets. Trump was also talking trade in separate meetings with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump is staying at his properties near Turnberry and Aberdeen, where his family owns two golf courses and is opening a third on Aug. 13. Trump played golf over the weekend at Turnberry and is helping cut the ribbon on the new course on Tuesday. He's not the first president to play in Scotland: Dwight D. Eisenhower played at Turnberry in 1959, more than a half century before Trump bought it, after meeting with French President Charles de Gaulle in Paris. But none of Trump's predecessors has constructed a foreign itinerary around promoting vacation sites his family owns and is actively expanding. It lays bare how Trump has leveraged his second term to pad his family's profits in a variety of ways, including overseas development deals and promoting cryptocurrencies, despite growing questions about ethics concerns. 'You have to look at this as yet another attempt by Donald Trump to monetize his presidency,' said Leonard Steinhorn, who teaches political communication and courses on American culture and the modern presidency at American University. 'In this case, using the trip as a PR opportunity to promote his golf courses.' Presidents typically vacation in the US Franklin D. Roosevelt went to the Bahamas, often for the excellent fishing, five times between 1933 and 1940. He visited Canada's Campobello Island in New Brunswick, where he had vacationed as a child, in 1933, 1936 and 1939. Reagan spent Easter 1982 on vacation in Barbados after meeting with Caribbean leaders and warning of a Marxist threat that could spread throughout the region from nearby Grenada. Presidents also never fully go on vacation. They travel with a large entourage of aides, receive intelligence briefings, take calls and otherwise work away from Washington. Kicking back in the United States, though, has long been the norm. Harry S. Truman helped make Key West, Florida, a tourist hot spot with his 'Little White House' cottage there. Several presidents, including James Buchanan and Benjamin Harrison, visited the Victorian architecture in Cape May, New Jersey. More recently, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama boosted tourism on Massachusetts' Martha's Vineyard, while Trump has buoyed Palm Beach, Florida, with frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago estate. But any tourist lift Trump gets from his Scottish visit is likely to most benefit his family. 'Every president is forced to weigh politics versus fun on vacation,' said Jeffrey Engel, David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who added that Trump is 'demonstrating his priorities." 'When he thinks about how he wants to spend his free time, A., playing golf, B., visiting places where he has investments and C., enhancing those investments, that was not the priority for previous presidents, but it is his vacation time," Engel said. It's even a departure from Trump's first term, when he found ways to squeeze in visits to his properties while on trips more focused on work. Trump stopped at his resort in Hawaii to thank staff members after visiting the memorial site at Pearl Harbor and before embarking on an Asia trip in November 2017. He played golf at Turnberry in 2018 before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland. 'Don't take vacations. What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job,' Trump wrote in his 2004 book, 'Think Like a Billionaire.' During his presidential campaign in 2015, he pledged to 'rarely leave the White House." Even as recently as a speech at a summit on artificial intelligence in Washington on Wednesday, Trump derided his predecessor for flying long distances for golf — something he's now doing. 'They talked about the carbon footprint and then Obama hops onto a 747, Air Force One, and flies to Hawaii to play a round of golf and comes back,' he said. Presidential vacations and any overseas trips were once taboo Trump isn't the first president not wanting to publicize taking time off. George Washington was criticized for embarking on a New England tour to promote the presidency. Some took issue with his successor, John Adams, for leaving the then-capital of Philadelphia in 1797 for a long visit to his family's farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. James Madison left Washington for months after the War of 1812. Teddy Roosevelt helped pioneer the modern presidential vacation in 1902 by chartering a special train and directing key staffers to rent houses near Sagamore Hill, his home in Oyster Bay, New York, according to the White House Historical Association. Four years later, Roosevelt upended tradition again, this time by becoming the first president to leave the country while in office. The New York Times noted that Roosevelt's 30-day trip by yacht and battleship to tour construction of the Panama Canal 'will violate the traditions of the United States for 117 years by taking its President outside the jurisdiction of the Government at Washington.' In the decades since, where presidents opted to vacation, even outside the U.S., has become part of their political personas. In addition to New Jersey, Grant relaxed on Martha's Vineyard. Calvin Coolidge spent the 1928 Christmas holidays at Sapelo Island, Georgia. Lyndon B. Johnson had his 'Texas White House,' a Hill Country ranch. Eisenhower vacationed in Newport, Rhode Island. John F. Kennedy went to Palm Springs, California, and his family's compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, among other places. Richard Nixon had the 'Southern White House' on Key Biscayne, Florida, while Joe Biden traveled frequently to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, while also visiting Nantucket, Massachusetts, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. George H.W. Bush was a frequent visitor to his family's property in Kennebunkport, Maine, and didn't let the start of the Gulf War in 1991 detour him from a monthlong vacation there. His son, George W. Bush, opted for his ranch in Crawford, Texas, rather than a more posh destination. Presidential visits help tourism in some places more than others, but Engel said that for some Americans, 'if the president of the Untied States goes some place, you want to go to the same place.' He noted that visitors emulating presidential vacations are out "to show that you're either as cool as he or she, that you understand the same values as he or she or, heck, maybe you'll bump into he or she.'
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Miami Herald
Don Soffer, who sketched an idea for Aventura on a napkin, dies at 92
Aventura began as a sketch on a napkin. Now it's home to the biggest mall in Florida, one of the five biggest in the country. Aventura is also one of Miami-Dade's poshest — and busiest — neighborhoods. Real estate mogul Don Soffer, developer of Florida's Aventura Mall and the city's 'godfather,' died Sunday morning at 92, his son-in-law Craig Robins and The Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center said. The synagogue was founded by Soffer. In a statement to CBS News Miami, the city of Aventura called Soffer a 'visionary developer and philanthropist whose leadership and foresight transformed South Florida swampland into the thriving, vibrant community we proudly call home.' The condo community, once an unincorporated slice of Miami-Dade, became a city 30 years ago. 'Mr. Soffer's legacy is etched into the very foundation of Aventura,' the city said in a statement. 'His development of what would become the city's heart — from Aventura Mall to residential communities and the Turnberry golf course and brand — laid the groundwork for Aventura's incorporation in 1995. Without his vision, the city of Aventura would not exist as we know it today.' In addition, there's a charter school, Don Soffer Aventura High School that was named after him in 2019; the Don Soffer Clinical Research Center, a part of UHealth, the University of Miami Health System on Northwest 14th Street in Miami; and a three-mile Don Soffer Exercise Trail on West Country Club Drive that rings Aventura. In June, Aventura Mall, under the stewardship of his daughter Jackie Soffer, chairman and CEO of Turnberry Associates, the real estate development group that has principle ownership of Aventura Mall, was voted the best in the country in USA's Readers Choice Awards. MORE: This Miami area mall was just voted best in the country. Here's why it's No. 1 Real estate developer Robins, who developed Miami's Design District and co-founded Design Miami, is married to Jackie Soffer. He called the family patriarch his 'hero' in an Instagram post on Sunday. 'He had the vision and fortitude to take swamp land and transform it into a city,' Robins wrote. 'Following such a dynamic and visionary parent can be especially hard for their successors. Jackie has managed to brilliantly take what Don did and carry it forward.' Soffer was a 'builder of community.' He turned Aventura into 'a model city that continues to grow and flourish. Though Don Soffer never held a formal title in Aventura's government, he was, in every sense, the godfather of the city,' the City of Aventura told CBS News Miami. Famous folks like tennis champ Jimmy Connors and his wife Patti Maguire Connors, John McEnroe and Princess Caroline once owned Aventura condos. Cirque du Soleil hosted its first big show in South Florida at Turnberry in 1989. Pop superstar Elton John, a frequent guest at Turnberry Isle in the 1980s, lit the torch for the venue's Whole Earth Run in 1986. Actors James Caan and 'Where the Boys Are' co-star George Hamilton dined with Soffer in Turnberry Isle. The Monkey Business Soffer's success also afforded him the opportunity to own a mega yacht. Alas, that yacht's name became infamous after the Miami Herald exposed a scandal concerning Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart in May 1987. Hart was aboard the Monkey Business yacht he'd leased from Soffer. So was his date Donna Rice. They weren't married. A photo of the pair — Hart clad in a white T shirt reading 'Monkey Business Crew' and Rice perched atop his lap — ran in the National Enquirer in June 1987, weeks after Hart ended his campaign. The Herald's reporting on the affair led Hart to suspend his campaign as a Democratic candidate in the 1988 presidential race. After the Coast Guard seized half a marijuana cigarette on The Monkey Business in June 1988 — no one said to whom the roach belonged but the feds were into 'zero tolerance' at the time of television's 'Miami Vice' — Soffer had had enough. 'I'm thinking very seriously of changing the name,' Soffer told a Miami Herald columnist in 1988. 'They handcuffed the crew and confined them to the fly bridge under armed guard. Then they came up and said, 'Look what we found.' They could have brought the thing on with them. They just wanted to see where Donna Rice and Gary Hart slept. If this hadn't been the Monkey Business, it never would have happened.' Soffer teased the new name for the Monkey Business could be 'The None of Your Business.' Instead, he sold the yacht. Building Aventura from a napkin sketch MORE: What did Aventura Mall look like when it opened four decades ago? See for yourself All of this fame, success and admiration from associates, friends and family stemmed from notes scribbled on a cocktail napkin. In the 1960s, the Pittsburgh Soffers, including Don, loved visiting Miami 'to golf, boat and swim in the ocean,' his family said. The Aventura and Turnberry neighborhood began when Soffer visited Northeast Miami-Dade with his father Harry Soffer, a Pittsburgh mall developer, in 1967. The father-son duo were scouting sites for a possible shopping mall. 'The first thought was to build a mall here,' said Soffer, then a principal of Turnberry Associates in a 1988 Miami Herald story. 'Most of the land was under water. I sketched out on a napkin what I thought would fit into this property beside the shopping center.' Soffer kept that napkin for years. More than 20 years after scribbling on it, and about 16 before Aventura Mall opened in 1983, and seven years before the city of Aventura was officially incorporated in 1995, Soffer told the Herald reporter in 1988 that he'd found the cocktail napkin. 'It's remarkable how close it is to the actual development,' Soffer said. Early life and education Donald Morley Soffer was born on Sept. 20, 1932, in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. In 1954, Soffer graduated from Brandeis University in Massachusetts with a bachelor of arts in economics. He attended Brandeis on a football scholarship. After graduation, Soffer weighed a few choices. He had an opportunity to join the San Francisco 49ers, the military or the family business. He chose the latter two options, his family said in an obituary. Soffer served in the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division, today known as the 'Screaming Eagles.' He then returned to nearby Pittsburgh and went into construction and real estate with his father to develop suburban shopping centers. Aventura means adventure In 1967, Soffer and his business partners co-led a groundbreaking deal to acquire 785 acres of swampland in Miami-Dade. He founded Turnberry Associates to realize that vision, his family said. Not everyone was on board. Environmentalists and controlled growth advocates didn't share Soffer's vision for the land. Through a friend, Soffer secured a five-minute meeting with then Florida Gov. Claude Kirk in Tallahassee. Soffer, his family said, often shared the story that he convinced Gov. Kirk that his idea to employ 4,000 people in a $100 million construction project to create a modern city where 100,000 people would visit daily was actually Kirk's own idea. 'That way, Kirk could pitch it to his cabinet and take full credit. That salesmanship sealed the deal,' his family wrote in his obituary. In 1969, the county approved Soffer's ambitious 23,900 condominium unit master plan. Over the 1970s and 1980s, Soffer and his business partners would go on to create what is now the City of Aventura, building everything from high-rises and golf resorts to libraries, fire stations and Aventura Mall. According to a January 2012 Biscayne Times article, local author and historian Seth Bramson said Soffer came up with the city's name after telling his father, who died in 1972 at 63, that developing the city would be an 'adventure.' Aventura is Spanish for adventure. Soffer expanded his footprint with other real estate projects like Turnberry Isle Resort and the purchase and restoration of Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Turnberry is currently led by his daughter Jackie Soffer, who used to lead it with her brother Jeffrey as co-chief executives before they split ownership in 2019. Jeffrey Soffer currently leads Fontainebleau Development and owns the Miami Beach Fontainebleau hotel and the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Aventura Mall secured South Florida's first Macy's when it opened in 1983. The Northeast Miami-Dade mall, under his daughter's leadership, recently welcomed Florida's first Eataly Italian marketplace. Other Florida first recent arrivals include Massimo Dutti wardrobe store, the fashion boutique Cinq à Sept, Dolce Vita footwear and Kim Kardashian's Skims store. Philanthropy and honors Outside of construction and real estate, Soffer, who championed an outdoors lifestyle through frequent fishing, boating and camping excursions with his children, was a philanthropist. He donated $15 million to Brandeis University. He was given an honorary doctorate at Brandeis in 2023 and inducted into the Brandeis Athletcis Hall of Fame in 2009. Soffer also supported the University of Miami, Mount Sinai Medical Center and helped establish the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center in honor of his parents, Ida and Harry, as well as helping to build the New Hope orphanage in Haiti, his family said. His other contributions include City of Hope, Best Buddies, Breast Cancer Initiative and the Humane Society of Greater Miami. He received the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award in 2024. Survivors and services Soffer's survivors include his wife, Michele King Soffer; his sister Rita; children Marsha, Jackie, Jeffrey, Brooke, Rock and Abigail; 13 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. His funeral service was held on Monday, July 21, in the Harry & Ida Soffer Sanctuary at the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami contributed to this report.
