Six of the best family-friendly attractions near Florida’s Fort Lauderdale …

Tropical paradise: Flamingo Gardens (www.flamingogardens.org) is one of Florida’s best attractions: 60 acres of botanical gardens and an Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary where you can see alligators, bobcats, otters, panthers, flamingos and more – all birds and animals that have been injured and can’t be released back into the wild – amid native and subtropical plants.
 
State park: The John U Lloyd Beach State Park (www.floridastateparks.org) offers canoeing, boating, surf fishing and swimming from a long sandy beach that is home to loggerhead turtles.

Each year the beach has around 2,000 turtle nests with 150,000 babies emerging from the sand to reach the sea.
 
Space travel: Just in case you prefer to be inside, the Museum of Discovery and Science (www.mods.org) has more than 200 interactive exhibits as well as a genuine otter habitat, the largest Atlantic coral reef in captivity, a hang out for bats and a space exhibit with a simulated trip to the Moon or Mars.

There is also the biggest IMAX 3D screen in Florida.