Fort Lauderdale sunset

Major South Florida cities include Fort Myers, Naples, Key West, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

If you've seen a Florida postcard with white-sand beaches, swaying palm trees and bathing beauties, chances are it was taken in South Florida.

Life of luxury or life of leisure? It's your choice. Upscale resort towns with your-wish-is-our-command accommodations, pampering spas, high-end boutiques, reservation-only restaurants and more manicured golf courses than you can shake a club at. Ramshackle fishing villages where old salts still tell time by the tides, newcomers catch their own dinner, folks sleep in chickee huts, maneuver through mangrove tunnels and go eye-to-eye with alligators. If you can dream it, chances are you can do it in South Florida.

One constant here is water, water everywhere. From the fish-filled waters of massive Lake Okeechobee, to the inches-deep river of grass that is the Everglades, to water taxi rides through mansion-lined canals and underwater adventures in coral cities, at some point you're going to get wet.

Southwest Florida is characterized by charming beach towns, shell-strewn islands (more than 10,000 of them, in fact) and unparalleled sunsets. Inland, nature preserves and Native American reservations bring you face-to-face with Mother Nature. To the east is a melting pot of culture on land and marine sanctuaries home to all manner of life under the surface. At the tip of the South Florida peninsula, anything goes along the 118-mile carefree stretch of tiny tropical islands known as the Florida Keys: fish, snorkel, swim, shop, play, party or just relax.