Help with Road trip stops

lcm23 · 10 Sep 17, 05:56 PM

Planning a trip in Oct/Nov 18. Wanting to do 2x 2 night stops on the east coast and 2x 2 night stops on the west coast and a week in Orlando. Open to flying into Miami, tampa, sandford or Orlando. Everywhere I've looked looked amazing so cannot decide where to make our stops. To help with suggestions here is what we want out of the stops:

- no more than 2.5 - 3hr drive between locations (ideally less if possible)
- great beaches (this is the main feature/point of our stops on the coast)
- towns with a bit of life, shopping, restaurants for evening but doesn't need to be incredibly lively

We must pass by the Everglades on our travels as we want to do an airboat ride.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

Ridersmom · 10 Sep 17, 06:14 PM

Do you enjoy driving? I love the keys and would try to get there but it will significantly add to your driving. Also, I find parts of the east coast a little too built up but that is me. Many people love the larger cities and night life.

tim17 · 10 Sep 17, 07:05 PM

How about - fly into Orlando for a week, then 2 nights Anna Maria, 2 nights Naples, drive across the 41 to Miami for 2 nights (airboat ride in the Everglades on the way), 2 nights Vero Beach then back to Orlando.

lcm23 · 10 Sep 17, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by Ridersmom

Do you enjoy driving? I love the keys and would try to get there but it will significantly add to your driving. Also, I find parts of the east coast a little too built up but that is me. Many people love the larger cities and night life.

I must say I'm finding it easier to find places I like the look of on the west coast for sure. East coast does seem more built up and busy but would like to see both sides. I do enjoy driving but as I'll be doing all of the driving throughout the two weeks, I'm not sure I'd want to go as far as the Keys on this trip. It's only our second time in USA, our first being our honeymoon in 2010 where, in hindsight, we crammed in too much. I want to make sure this time we get some relaxation time hence only wanting 2.5-3hr max driving between stops.

lcm23 · 10 Sep 17, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by tim17

How about - fly into Orlando for a week, then 2 nights Anna Maria, 2 nights Naples, drive across the 41 to Miami for 2 nights (airboat ride in the Everglades on the way), 2 nights Vero Beach then back to Orlando.

Anna Maria, Naples and Vero Beach are definitely places of interest that I've looked at. We were hoping to fly into Miami so we could do the week in Orlando in the middle with the beach days before and after but not many airlines fly direct from Manchester. Think only Virgin do now as Thomas Cook don't seem to be doing that route in 2018. Hubby won't consider indirect. He just wants to be there as quickly as possible and hates the whole airport experience so no chance of him having to deal with it twice in one journey!

tim17 · 11 Sep 17, 06:56 AM

Why not fly from Heathrow or Gatwick where you have a choice of Virgin, BA or Norwegian, just a 4 hour drive down the M1/M25 from Leeds?

gazza5 · 13 Sep 17, 08:57 AM

In 2012 we did a fly drive holiday and it was as follows, we had ok weather shame our drives around the keys were under cloud mainly but we saw very little rain, also remember them clearing up sand in Fort Lauderdale that was over the road:

This was in September / October 2012 for two weeks

Flew to and from Miami from London Heathrow

Car - ford mustang convertable (3.7 v6) - wanted the coupe, booked the coupe with hertz - reserve this exact model - but they didn't have any when we landed - didn't want the convertable really but we knew we had the long drive to Key West so took it.

Stayed Lexington Hotel Key West for 2 nights (so drove from Miami to the end of the keys, we stopped off at Shula Burgers along the way - a long drive if I am honest)

Stayed Bayside inn Key Largo 1 night (have to try Mrs Macs Kitchen Key Largo)

2 nights Hilton Naples (shula steakhouse on site also back then free deck chairs etc for the beach - mouth watering as we also found Tommy Bahamas - what a day that was Tommy bahamas for lunch and shula steakhouse for dinner!)

1 Night Helmsley Sandcastle Sarasota

2 nights Wyndham Garden Clearwater

3 nights International Palms Resort Orlando (before it continued the downward trend!)

1 night Il Iguano Hotel Fort Lauderdale

2 Nights Albion Beach resort Miami

Fly home.

If I am honest - done miami wouldn't bother again, we did one of the bus tours which was good, preferred the west coast to the east coast personally, didn't think much of fort lauderdale, stopped off at coco beach to see the biggest Ron Jon surf shop.

Pretty sure the mustang averaged about 29 us mpg so think thats about 33 mpg over in UK, didn't think it was bad at all.

gazza5 · 13 Sep 17, 08:59 AM

Forgot to say, we did the trip through american sky - highly recommended - also did best of the west with them too.

Guest · 20 Sep 17, 08:40 PM

Hey we travel to Orlando every year have done since I was 6 years old we spend a week or so in Orlando then drive down to a town called Stuart it's a lovely drive I can let you know where we stay if interested then on to Sarasota 😍 Absolutely brilliant can recommend a stunning hotel on the beach front in Sarasota we attended a wedding there last year and the venue was a old vine yard simply beautiful ❤️

10 Sep 17, 06:14 PM	#2
	10 Sep 17, 06:14 PM Ridersmom Imagineer
Ridersmom Imagineer Join Date: Apr 06	Do you enjoy driving? I love the keys and would try to get there but it will significantly add to your driving. Also, I find parts of the east coast a little too built up but that is me. Many people love the larger cities and night life.

13 Sep 17, 08:57 AM	#7
	13 Sep 17, 08:57 AM gazza5 Proud to wear my Ears
gazza5 Proud to wear my Ears Join Date: Feb 15	In 2012 we did a fly drive holiday and it was as follows, we had ok weather shame our drives around the keys were under cloud mainly but we saw very little rain, also remember them clearing up sand in Fort Lauderdale that was over the road: This was in September / October 2012 for two weeks Flew to and from Miami from London Heathrow Car - ford mustang convertable (3.7 v6) - wanted the coupe, booked the coupe with hertz - reserve this exact model - but they didn't have any when we landed - didn't want the convertable really but we knew we had the long drive to Key West so took it. Stayed Lexington Hotel Key West for 2 nights (so drove from Miami to the end of the keys, we stopped off at Shula Burgers along the way - a long drive if I am honest) Stayed Bayside inn Key Largo 1 night (have to try Mrs Macs Kitchen Key Largo) 2 nights Hilton Naples (shula steakhouse on site also back then free deck chairs etc for the beach - mouth watering as we also found Tommy Bahamas - what a day that was Tommy bahamas for lunch and shula steakhouse for dinner!) 1 Night Helmsley Sandcastle Sarasota 2 nights Wyndham Garden Clearwater 3 nights International Palms Resort Orlando (before it continued the downward trend!) 1 night Il Iguano Hotel Fort Lauderdale 2 Nights Albion Beach resort Miami Fly home. If I am honest - done miami wouldn't bother again, we did one of the bus tours which was good, preferred the west coast to the east coast personally, didn't think much of fort lauderdale, stopped off at coco beach to see the biggest Ron Jon surf shop. Pretty sure the mustang averaged about 29 us mpg so think thats about 33 mpg over in UK, didn't think it was bad at all.

13 Sep 17, 08:59 AM	#8
	13 Sep 17, 08:59 AM gazza5 Proud to wear my Ears
gazza5 Proud to wear my Ears Join Date: Feb 15	Forgot to say, we did the trip through american sky - highly recommended - also did best of the west with them too.

20 Sep 17, 08:40 PM	#9
	20 Sep 17, 08:40 PM Guest Guest
Guest Guest	Hey we travel to Orlando every year have done since I was 6 years old we spend a week or so in Orlando then drive down to a town called Stuart it's a lovely drive I can let you know where we stay if interested then on to Sarasota 😍 Absolutely brilliant can recommend a stunning hotel on the beach front in Sarasota we attended a wedding there last year and the venue was a old vine yard simply beautiful ❤️