East coast FL stay

[Egon]

Good afternoon,

So when we rebooked our trip for next year, we didnt take into account that my son starts a new school and no longer has the additional week off in May like he used too. Unfortunately it means we will have to push our May trip into the summer holidays and my cheap deal with BA of £3000 for 3 adults and child is now edging closer to the £7000 which for the summer holidays isnt too bad, but im sure you can understand me not wanting to pay more than double. .

Anyway, ive managed to reduce the costs dramatically by flying into Miami and im not sure if i want to stay the night in miami or at least reduce the driving time for the following day and driving an hour or two outside of miami and seeing some place new.

So my question to you lovely people is. . . are there any little hidden gems on the east coast of florida which will be ideal for a night or maybe even 2?

Cheers

[cornishfrogboy]

Would it not be better to look at the West Coast?

Without lengthening the journey too much, you get to drive through the Everglades on the Tamiami Causeway. You could stop at Naples with the lovely Delnor Wiggins State Park for the first night.

You could then drive up towards Anna Maria Island or similar for a second night.

If you have Busch on your tickets, then you could stop at the Hampton Inn for a third night, thus avoiding a day return journey later in the vacation from Orlando… or if you haven’t got Busch, then plough on to Orlando for your third night. You would also get to drive the Sky Bridge!

Sorry to throw in a ‘low ball’, but I simply think that the Gulf Coast is nicer!

[Lola]

There are a number of smallish places along the east coast such as Delray Beach, Vero beach. All have some good places to stay

[Ball81]

We Stayed at Fort Lauderdale on the way back and was very impressed with the Pelican Grand Hotel , Big Rooms and beach was nice, pool and lazy river.

Have to say though as above West Coast is Brilliant, anything Marco Island, Naples, Sanibel, Lovers Key, Anna Maria, Siesta Key .


Drive is easy and we stopped at a Nature Reserve on way to see some Wildlife

[nick.66]

Delray beach has a village feel, Deerfield beach is a good place to spend a night or 2 either post or preflight. Embassy suites Deerfield beach as a nice pool area. We've stopped in both places and loved both. Things are a little slower paced when you get past North Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

[Egon]

Oh i completely agree, the west coast is nicer. My original trip consisted of a few nights on the west coast later in the holiday and with flying back out of Miami that would suit us well for the return leg i guess, but flying into Miami has thrown us a curve ball on planning the first couple of days but with it being half the price MAN-LHR-MCO £ 6345.44 MAN-LHR-MIA £3287.36 or around £3600 for premium economy. it'll have to be that route unless prices into MCO reduce dramatically.

ideally, I would want to do the orlando part of the holiday first and then relax a few days on the west coast later on. I did contemplate going west on arrival but im thinking the first two or three days would consist of 6-7hrs worth of driving and im not sure id really want to do that.

obviously my other option is to floor it all the way up to orlando that night but we wouldn't land until around 9pm so it would be an extremely long day.

my mind is all over the place at the moment as we're still actually booked for may and we will need to change it. im not sure if BA will allow me to use the deposit to now book a flight only or whether we will lose it completely unless we change it to another package.

[OLS]

We have stayed in Hollywood a few times, first time the hotel was lovely and right on the beach but the second time in the same hotel it wasn't great, they had gone downhill and it was very tired and not the cleanest which wasn't ideal but they do have a Margaritaville resort there as well right on the beach - beach is nice and they have like a boulevard to walk up & down with shops & eateries - after the second visit with the bad hotel we stayed in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea which was really nice, loads of lovely hotels on the beach or just set back from the beach a little if you want to lower the cost a bit - again really nice beach and felt very safe to walk around on an evening, with lots of shops and restaurants situated together - we are looking to go back there for a few nights this year if we end up in or out (or both!) of Miami.