Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — Hard to believe it's been 46 years since the classic spring break movie "Where the Boys Are" put this playful South Florida city on the map and created a collegiate party-town image that would take decades to shake.

These days, the scene is more about where "the boy" is. Egypt's boy king, that is, none other than King Tut.

Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (ENLARGE)
Breaks in Fort Lauderdale's art deco 'wave wall' allow access to the beach, which has won awards for its cleanliness and user-friendliness.
Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (ENLARGE)
In the heart of downtown is the Las Olas Riverfront entertainment complex on the New River where you can catch a movie, enjoy a drink at a bar or dance the night away at a club.
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IF YOU GO Getting there • By air: Expect to pay about $150 round trip to fly to Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. Delta and AirTran have daily flights; Spirit Airlines begins service Feb. 16. • Driving: It's about 600 miles from downtown Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, about a 10-hour drive. Where to stay These properties are offering special packages keyed to the King Tut exhibit. For a complete listing of Tut deals, go to www.sunny.org/tut. • Greater Fort Lauderdale area Marriott Hotels & Resorts, official hotel sponsor of the King Tut exhibition, are offering a package with rates starting at $149 per room per night. The deal includes two "front of line" VIP tickets to the exhibition, two audio tours and 10 percent off any museum gift shop purchase. Packages are valid until April 23. For information or reservations, 1-800-583-0179 or www.marriottse.com. The Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa is featuring a five-course chef's tasting menu, Fit for a King, at 3030 Ocean ($65, or $95 with wine pairings). The spa is offering the royal treatment with four packages including the Sphinx ($435), an 80-minute couples instructional massage offered with the ancient perfumed fragrance of Egyptian musk and 50-minute his-and-her aroma-healing facials. • The Atlantic Fort Lauderdale: The Live Like a King package, offered exclusively through American Express Vacations, includes two tickets to the exhibition, two nights' oceanfront accommodations, two Mummy Wrap treatments at Spa Atlantic, a welcome Tut-tini cocktail at the hotel's Trina Lounge, Pharaoh's Feast dinner for two at Trina Restaurant, a King Tut souvenir amenity and luxury transfer to and from the hotel to the museum. The cost is $2,579 for the luxury suite or $1,869 for the grand deluxe lower room, double occupancy for two nights. The Exhibit Essentials package at $1,125 includes two nights in a grand deluxe lower room and exhibition tickets for two. Reservations: www.americanexpress.com/travel. • Riverside Hotel: You can walk to the Museum of Art from this historic downtown hotel between busy Las Olas Boulevard and the New River. Rates are $199 and $219, and include accommodations for one night, continental breakfast in Indigo Restaurant, a 20 percent discount dinner card in Indigo and a complimentary Riverside Hotel Las Olas shopping bag. (Tut tickets are not included; call 1-877-787-7711.) Reservations: 1-800-827-1585. Where to eat • 3030 Ocean: Casual chic bistro specializing in fresh seafood prepared with flair by chef Dean James Max. At Marriott Harbor Beach, 3030 Holiday Drive. 954-765-3030. • Mark's Las Olas: Mark Militello's culinary wizardry comes through in fanciful dishes prepared in an open kitchen that includes a wood-oven and grill. 1032 Las Olas Blvd. 954-463-1000. • Johnny V: Barbecue, South Florida-style by Johnny Vinczencz, a chef who clearly knows how to whip up some creative dishes using tropical fruits, vegetables, local fish and spicy peppers as well as game and wild meats. 625 Las Olas Blvd. 954-761-7920. • Tarpon Bend Food and Tackle: This fun spot, with a large bar and outdoor seating in the Riverwalk Arts & Entertainment District, specializes in — what else? — fresh seafood in a rustic, seafaring atmosphere. Try the shrimp margarita, chilled shrimp tossed in a tomato tequila-chile-lime sauce with black beans and avocado salsa, for a starter and then go for the catch of the day, grilled or blackened. 200 S.W. Second St., 954-523-3233. • Himmarshee Bar & Grille: You could easily walk past this restaurant just down the street from Tarpon Bend, but if you wander inside, you'll find a stylish room with concrete floors and lots of natural wood and wrought iron that looks more SoHo than downtown Fort Lauderdale. The new American cuisine is a curious yet totally delightful combination of influences from Southwest to Asian to Moroccan. More casual is the adjoining Himmarshee Side Bar, a music club by night. 210 S.W. Second St. www.himmarshee.com, 954-524-1818. Information • Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau: 1-800-227-8669, www.sunny.org. • Las Olas Boulevard: www.lasolasboulevard.com. • Riverwalk Arts & Enter-tainment Consortium: 954- 660-6307, www.stay4stars.com. Florida Special Section Mardi Gras at Universal Orlando  South Walton getaways  Ft. Myers super spa treatments  Diamond prizes in Key Biscayne  Tennis tour in Florida  Deep exhibition on Napoleon in Tallahassee  History, sea help Apalachicola reel 'em in  King Tut's treasures cast spell in Ft. Lauderdale  Birds find haven at nonprofit center in Keys  Orlando resort just lays on the luxury  Renaissance city: Ft. Lauderdale         More southeastern destinations

Hosting "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" at its Museum of Art puts Fort Lauderdale, a midsize metropolis with a population of 177,000, in the elite company of Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago, the three other U.S. cities the blockbuster exhibit will have visited through fall 2007 before moving to London.

Welcome to the Sunshine State's new "It" city. And it's not just because the original King of Bling is in town for the winter.

Prosperity reigns here year-round. Waterfront mansions and private jets. Mega-yachts and cigarette boats. Stretch limousines and sleek foreign sports cars. Five-star hotels rising on the beach. Designer boutiques and posh spas. Scuba diving and championship golf. A professional hockey team. Grand opera and cabaret comedy. Hot new nightspots. Celebrity chefs.

For years, South Florida's see-and-be-seen scene has been 30 miles south in Miami Beach. But if hip SoBe gave its more casual neighbor an inferiority complex, that's in the past. Today, the sun-drenched city promotes its growing sophistication and cultural explosion with brash self-confidence.

"We opened our doors to King Tut and now there's gold everywhere," says Nicki E. Grossman, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Little wonder tourism officials are crowing. In 2004, Broward County welcomed 9.4 million visitors for the first time, up from 8.9 million in 2003, making it one of the nation's fastest-growing year-round vacation destinations. And while the final tally for last year isn't in, visitors topped the 10 million mark, according to the convention and visitors bureau.

Among those visitors were foreign ministers from 34 countries who attended the 35th General Assembly of the Organization of American States in June. Hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and attended by President Bush, the event was a first — never before had such a delegation chosen the city for a meeting.

And in February 2007, Fort Lauderdale will co-host the Super Bowl with Miami at Dolphins Stadium, just south of the Broward County line.

Grossman says the rebirth was two decades in the making after the city's hospitality community became determined to shed the party-hearty reputation.

"We did it out of self-defense, and it's paid off royally," she says. "It's just been one exciting addition to the destination after the next. All the right people are looking us over to add more luxury properties to the area. It's the best we could have hoped for 20 years ago."

The national media are certainly taking notice. The January Condé Nast Traveler notes "still-affordable" Fort Lauderdale's "new high profile," calling its two miles of beaches "as tempting as (but friendlier than) SoBe" with "a more flattering image." A New York Times article last fall acknowledged that the city's "... fun-in-the-sun ambience is rapidly giving way to something more luxurious."

Along the 2 1/2-mile Las Olas Boulevard — the city's tree-lined corridor of restaurants, trendy shops and art galleries that stretches from the beaches to Andrews Avenue and the Las Olas Riverfront development on the New River — there's an excitement about the changing face of the city.

Strolling along Second Street in the Riverwalk Arts & Entertainment District — home to the Museum of Art, the Las Olas Riverfront, the Museum of Science and Discovery and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts — you can feel the energy. No surprise it's a mecca for young professionals.

The sidewalks are filled with diners at cafes. By night, the club scene cranks up (a Coyote Ugly is opening soon in one of the historic buildings in the district). The new Laffing Matterz comedy dinner cabaret in the old McCrory building on Andrews, across from the museum, features musical satire.

Ambling along the Riverwalk, a 22-block brick-lined park promenade on the New River, you'll see gleaming new high-rises as well as vestiges of Old Florida at the 1910 pioneer-style Stranahan House, the city's oldest structure, and the Old Fort Lauderdale Village and Museum. (Oddly enough, the only reference to the spring-break era was in a small display at the museum in the historic New River Inn: an orange hard hat with beer can holders and siphoning straws set amid postcards and other ephemera.)

Hop a Water Taxi or get a narrated tour with Riverfront Cruises to find out why the city is called the "Venice of America." The banks of the river, the Intracoastal Waterway and fingerlike canals are dotted with mansions owned by the likes of self-made billionaire Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Miami Dolphins, who has been one of Fort Lauderdale's major benefactors.

The city's evolution into one of the country's most vibrant destinations is moving full-tilt into the 21st century.

Luxury hotels

Upscale lodgings, supplanting mom-and-pop motels and chain hotels, are giving Fort Lauderdale Beach a caché it could have only dreamed of 20 years ago. The Atlantic, a member of Starwood's Luxury Collection, started the trend in the summer of 2004 when it opened its 123 suites and European-style spa and fitness center. Florida's first St. Regis Resort and the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach join the posh palace this summer with Donald Trump's Trump International Hotel & Tower scheduled to be completed in February 2007. Also coming in 2007 is W Fort Lauderdale Hotel and Residences. Older properties have undergone renovations to keep up with their spiffy new neighbors. The 1936 Riverside Hotel downtown has updated its rooms and added a $25 million tower. Starwood Capital Group, the new owners of the Sheraton Yankee Clipper and Sheraton Yankee Trader on the beach, will embark on a $4 million renovation in the fall.

Staying ahead of the game, the four-diamond Marriott Harbor Beach Fort Lauderdale Resort and Spa underwent a massive renovation in 2000. The sprawling resort features 637 guests rooms, 16 lushly landscaped acres, 20,000-square-foot spa and chef Dean James Max's acclaimed 3030 Ocean restaurant overlooking the Atlantic.

A hot dining scene

Chef Max, whose recently published cookbook is "A Life by the Sea"(DJM Publishing, $39.95), has managed to do the typically unthinkable: open a destination restaurant in a resort and draw not only hotel guests but locals and other visitors. Naturally, the emphasis is on ultra-fresh seafood simply but creatively prepared. During the Tut run, he's offering a rich five-course Feast for a King menu that changes nightly but always includes selections from the raw bar and can be enjoyed with wine pairings as an option.

Prefer something lighter? Chef Max's three-course Chefs Selection Menu will do nicely. On a recent evening, the dishes included romaine with Caesar dressing and shaved Parmesan-Reggiano; Australian sea bass with white beans, shiitake mushrooms, arugula, eggplant, piquillos aioli; and a dessert of Valrhona chocolate pots de creme with tiny orange doughnuts.

Celebrity chefs are at the helm of two must-do restaurants on Las Olas Boulevard: Mark's Las Olas and Johnny V.

Mark's Las Olas is owned by James Beard Award-winning chef Mark Militello, who pioneered new American cuisine in South Florida with the opening of Mark's Place in Miami in 1988. The Las Olas spot features an inventive changing menu that includes items like mango scotch bonnet BBQ pizza, Ingrid's diver sea scallops with Jamaican spice oxtail, wild mushrooms and boniato mash; and crab-crusted black grouper with wild mushroom-salsify ragout.

Johnny V is the namesake restaurant of Johnny Vinczencz, the so-called "Sultan of South Florida BBQ" who's scheduled to tape an "Iron Chef" challenge for the Food Network this week. A perfect example of his blending of sweet and spicy is the signature grilled BBQ salmon, glazed in a sauce of applewood smoked bacon, mangoes, star fruit, chipotle chiles, molasses and fresh herbs and spices. A tapas menu is available only at the chic bar.

Downtown's looking up

Fort Lauderdale is on the rise — quite literally. Look no further than the striking blue glass towers of Las Olas River House, rising 42 stories on the New River. The distinctive structure became the city's tallest building when it was completed in 2004. The 284 condo units, each with floor to ceiling glass, sell for $430,000 to $4 million for the two- and three-story penthouses. Former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino is the condo's most famous resident.

Last year four new condo buildings joined the skyline: the twin 22-story Symphony buildings, the 30-story 350 Las Olas Place and the 38-story Las Olas Grand.

Throughout downtown, bulldozers rumble and building continues. A half dozen high-rise buildings are under construction with another 16 approved and 12 proposed, according to Emporis, which gathers data on the global building market.

Award-winning beaches

The beer-fueled frat boys and bikinied coeds may have moved on to the Panhandle's Panama City and Cancun, Mexico, but Broward County beaches are still a big attraction. Stretching 23 miles from Hollywood/Hallandale Beach north to Deerfield Beach, the strand has earned Blue Wave Beach certification from the Washington-based Clean Beaches Council, which recognizes the nation's cleanest, safest and most user-friendly beaches. Last year, the council presented its first Most Innovative Beach award to Broward County. There's an art-deco "wave wall" beachfront promenade and casual outdoor cafes.

The rainbow connection

Fort Lauderdale rolls out a rainbow carpet for gays and lesbians. Out & About magazine editor Ed Salvato calls the city "a shining star on the gay travel horizon." A survey of 1,500 participants by Community Marketing Inc., which does research on gay and lesbian tourism, found Fort Lauderdale to be Florida's most popular gay destination, ahead of Miami and Key West.

In addition to more than 30 gay-owned guesthouses and gay-friendly properties, the city is home to the country's second largest Metropolitan Community Church, whose inclusive congregation is primarily gay.

The CVB Web site, www.sunny.org, has a special section that identifies the most gay-friendly places to stay, eat, shop, work out and relax. The CVB also offers a free Rainbow Vacation Planner.

A world-class port

Port Everglades, one of the busiest cruise ship ports in the world with more than 4 million passengers annually, has added two newly built ships to its home fleet this season: Costa Cruises' Costa Magica and Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Liberty. Nineteen major cruise lines generate more than 2,200 cruise vessel calls by 52 ships each year.

High-tech airport

Free wireless Internet access in all terminals and concourses is the latest innovation at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, minutes from downtown and Port Everglades. The Rental Car Center, the largest consolidated rental car facility in the country, celebrates its first year this month. The nine-level building brings most major car rental companies to one 4-million-square-foot location.

Power shopping

In March, Sawgrass Mills, billed as the world's largest outlet mall with more than 300 shops, will be joined by the Colonnade Outlet, a $28 million high-end fashion district. The Galleria at Fort Lauderdale, which has both Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, is home to Elizabeth Arden's Red Door Spa and a dining/nightlife scene that includes the Capital Grille Steakhouse, Blue Martini nightclub and Seasons 52, recently named a "best

newcomer" in Broward by the Zagat Survey.