Travel

Your South Florida survival guide

Perry Como famously crooned that there was “no place like home for the holidays,” but it’s a safe guess he wasn’t singing about your Nana’s condo in Pompano. For many a New Yorker, however, gathering with family at some point stopped meaning a trip across town or an easy ride on the train. Now, you’ve got to fly down to West Palm, or Fort Lauderdale, rent a car and sleep on a pull-out sofa. (Fun!) While you could sit around and mope / argue politics with the uncles, you could also jump in the car and go have a good time — with or without relatives, depending. Here, eight great stops to get your adventure-within-an-adventure started.

#1 EAT A REAL MEAL Hitting Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, on a weekend, to avoid drama? We’re serious, yes. Tudor House, brought to you by newly crowned Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, launched a Rosé brunch earlier this month, and it is already the talk of South Beach. For starters, there’s the cart full of dessert pastries, including mini cinnamon rolls and cupcakes that are drawing comparisons to the crazy sweets at the famous Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink brunch in the Design District. Then there is also buttermilk fried chicken. And a Bloody Mary cart. If none of this appeals, you could also just go for dinner; through Dec. 31, sample specials based on dishes Zakarian made to win “Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs” which concluded this past Sunday night. Executive chef Jamie DeRosa has a deft touch with Tudor House’s modern American menu. P.S.? Love the Florida grouper cheeks (1111 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; [305] 435-8455).

#2 GO FOR A RIDE Route A1A is always nice for an afternoon drive, but why not slow your roll a little — and, as a bonus, get in a spot of cardio? At M. Cruz Rentals inside Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in Fort Lauderdale, you can rent two wheels and hit the dedicated waterfront trail that extends for miles in either direction. The company, a park concession, also stocks Segways (join their daily guided tours, which include training so you don’t fall off). Another vendor nearby inside the park rents canoes for a leisurely paddle through a freshwater lagoon, surrounded by banyan trees. Nice (Enter park off Sunrise Blvd., just west of A1A; more at mcruzrentals.com).

#3 TAKE A MINI-CRUISE If you really need to put some distance between yourself and various warring factions of the tribe and want to truly leave no forwarding address, book last-minute passage on one of the handful of short cruises to The Bahamas that depart South Florida during the holiday period. For only $239 and up per person, you could be on board the Norwegian Sky this Friday when it floats out of Miami — check out the itinerary and book at cruisesonly.com. So it’s not exactly a floating Four Seasons Hotel, but hey — beats another game of putt-putt with the cousins.

#4 FIND YOUR OUTLET If you’ve never seen the Sawgrass Mills shopping center, prepare to be overwhelmed. One of the biggest and baddest malls in the Southeastern United States, you can find pretty much anything you need here, from low to high-end. For serious shoppers, a full day here is the bare minimum. Your first stop should be the adjacent Colonnade Outlets, where amazing values can be found at stores like Neiman Marcus Last Call, Barneys New York Outlet, Escada, Prada, Armani and dozens more. For a civilized break from bargain hunting, Patisserie Paul, in the Colonnade section, is a local branch of the famed Parisian bakery and cafe (12801 W. Sunrise Blvd., Sunrise).

#5 GET FRUITY Located on 37 acres in Miami-Dade’s fertile Redlands region, the county-maintained Fruit & Spice Park brags more than 500 different tropical fruit trees, among them jackfruit, guava, mamey sapote (from South America), coconuts, and the very unusual jaboticaba, which looks like really purple grapes, but grows along the bark of the tree itself, instead of the edges. If there’s enough fruit available, they do sell it on site; either way, there are always tastings of whatever’s ripe for the picking on the day of your visit (24801 SW 187 Ave., Homestead; fruitandspicepark.org).

#6 KEEP IT CIVILIZED Need some “you” time? Throw the kids into the famous fountain at Clematis Street in West Palm Beach (maybe leave somebody to watch them, you know, just so you don’t get arrested for being terrible parents) and head over the bridge into grown-up land — Palm Beach, that is. At Cafe Boulud, located inside the historic Brazilian Court Hotel, order some mussels, a bit of pate and — of course — two glasses of bubbly. Sip, repeat (301 Australian Avenue, Palm Beach; thebraziliancourt.com).

#7 GET FRESH Perhaps you would rather starve than take another trip to the antiseptic Publix supermarket? Don’t do anything drastic — instead, hit Hollywood Beach on Sundays between 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., when Josh’s Organic Garden powers up for its weekly showcase of stellar organic fresh fruit and vegetables. Even if you aren’t doing any cooking, a full-service juice bar is a highlight for many a Garden aficionado — choose from more than 40 different drinks. Afterwards, the adjacent boardwalk stretches out for miles and makes for a great morning or afternoon of (perhaps much-needed) exercise (Hollywood Boulevard at Route A1A; [954] 456-3276).

#8 GET SERIOUS (ABOUT SHOPPING) You can tool around Mizner Park in Boca or hit the shops of downtown Delray, but for seriously high-energy shopping, you’ve got to head south. Most repeat South Florida visitors need no introduction to the Bal Harbour Shops; just in case you’re not familiar, here’s the deal: It’s Rodeo Drive meets Madison Avenue, in a stunningly-landscaped, indoor-outdoor tropical setting, packed with beautiful people, both local and in town visiting from Europe and Latin America. The v.-now Brunello Cuccinelli, a spectacular Hermes boutique, Italian fragrancer Santa Maria Novella and the chic, locally-owned Books & Books shop are all musts; the Audemars Piguet branch here, just so you know, is one of the highest-grossing in the world. Relax with a coffee at the are-we-in-Buenos Aires Santa Fe Newsstand & Café, or lunch with the local who’s-who at Carpaccio (Italian) or La Goulue (French) downstairs (9700 Collins Ave., Bal Harbour; [305] 866-0311). Still got energy? Nearby, the Aventura Mall stands out merely for being one of Florida’s best general-interest shopping centers, featuring a massive branch of Bloomingdale’s and Lord & Taylor, plus an Apple store and more than 250 other names, for instance All Saints Spitalfields and Adolfo Dominguez (19501 Aventura Boulevard, Aventura; [305] 935-1110).

with reporting by Andy Wang and Laurie Heifetz