Boca-Raton Travel Guide
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26 miles S of Palm Beach, 40 miles N of Miami, 21 miles N of Fort Lauderdale
Boca Raton is one of South Florida's most expensive, well-maintained cities -- home to ladies who lunch and SUV-driving yuppies. The city's name literally translates as "rat's mouth," but you'd be hard-pressed to find rodents in this area's fancy digs.
If you're looking for funky, wacky, and eclectic, look elsewhere. Boca is a luxurious resort community and, for some, the only place worth staying in South Florida. Although Jerry Seinfeld's TV parents retired to the fictional Del Boca Vista, Boca's just too pricey to be a retirement community. With minimal nightlife, entertainment in Boca is restricted to leisure sports, excellent dining, and upscale shopping. The city's residents and vacationers happily comply.
Delray Beach, named after a suburb of Detroit, grew up completely separate from its southern neighbor. This sleepy yet starting-to-awaken beachfront community was founded in 1894 by a Midwestern postmaster who sold off 5-acre lots through Michigan newspaper ads. Because of their close proximity, Boca and Delray can easily be explored together. Budget-conscious travelers would do well to eat and sleep in Delray and dip into Boca for sightseeing and beaching only. The 2-mile stretch of beach here is well maintained and crowded, but not mobbed. Delray's "downtown" area is confined to Atlantic Avenue, which is known for casual to chic restaurants, quaint shops, and art galleries. During the day, Delray is definitely asleep, but recently, thanks to the addition of trendy restaurants and bars, nighttime is much more animated, a burgeoning hotbed of hipster activity, young and old. Still, compared to Boca, Delray is much more laid back, hardly as chichi, and more like a cute little beach town than the sprawling, swanky, suburban feel emitted by Boca.
