Several years ago the owners of the riverfront hotel didn't renew leases for several restaurants as

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After our cruise, which arrives at Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, we have 1.5 days before our flight home. We can fly out of FLL or MIA. This will during the holiday season in December. Which is a better area to spend our short time at? I've looked at sunny.org for the Fort Lauderdale area and miamiandbeaches.com for the Miami area to get ideas but am quite overwhelmed. Never been to either of these places.
If there is one airport I hate it is Miami. I fly into FLL when I visit my mother, it is smaller and much easier to negotiate. To tell you the truth, MIA might have gotten in the last seven years but I am afraid to find out.
I only stayed two nights in Miami ~2008 and three nights in Fort Lauderdale this year, so limited experience. In this short time however, the nearby cities struck me as having madrid cheap hotels different characters...one may appeal more than another I think depending on interests.
Miami I felt had more soulful character, a more Cuban/Latin American/Caribbean/US hybrid; I'll never forget the energy of folks dancing salsa at Bayside Marketplace in downtown Miami or the fast-paced rhythms emanating from some of the restaurants on South Beach. Fort Lauderdale seemed more sedate (busy beach scene though!), middle-American-like except with $$$ (mega-yachts docked in the Intracoastal Waterway, Las Olas Blvd. with pricey boutiques). Lincoln Road in Miami seemed to have a lot of uber-wealthy folk as well, judging by the number of designer label everything I'd see people wearing.
madrid cheap hotels i prefer FTL, but that is because i'm more into a laidback atmosphere. miami is too much of a sense overload for me. FTL beach is great, but you are going to be here in december, so it might actually be too cold to swim. Last year's winter was pretty cold, so if the beach isn't an option, there really isn't much to do but go to a mall. both places will have nice little restaurants where you can drink coffee outside and sit under a heater and people watch. that might be a nice thing to do while you're here. hope you figure it out.
The Riverfront Mall seemed remarkably deserted when I went (right after New Years), but I would not describe Las Olas Blvd. as a whole as being anything close to run-down. madrid cheap hotels Las Olas closer to Stranahan House/8th Avenue and toward the beach seemed upscale to my eyes (pricey restaurants and boutiques).
You can see most of the main attractions in Ft. Lauderdale in a day. That's not the case with Miami, though if you focus on just one area of Miami (say, South Beach or Coral Gables), you can pretty fully experience what there is to see in a day.
I'd recommend doing a guidebook madrid cheap hotels search to see what the attractions are in both cities and see what appeals most to you. If you're looking madrid cheap hotels for trip reports here, click on my name, as I've done ones for both places recently.
Several years ago the owners of the riverfront hotel didn't renew leases madrid cheap hotels for several restaurants as they intended to expand the hotel again. Well, between the recession and financing, etc it's now an empty lot. At least it was sodded madrid cheap hotels and they have movies on the side of the building sometimes.
Riverfront is very close but not the same as Las Olas. I think it's closed now. I don't know what happened but something went wrong there. It's on a beautiful location but I guess the formula wasn't right.
I would always avoid flying into or out of Miami airport. FLL isn't perfect, but it miles better. If you're renting a car anyway, where you stay is really up to you. You can still stay in Miami Beach or South Beach if you want and fly out of FLL. What you want to do/see will determine which is the better option for you.