Florida holiday but not Kissimmee...

[alibeau]

Hi,

We are due to fly home tomorrow night.

This trip we did not do any parks at all, just relaxed by the pool, ate out and shopped.

We are now looking to book for next summer and the same old question springs up... why do we still stay in Kissimmee when we do not visit the parks any more?

So my question is, where could we look at staying? We would want to book a villa with private pool preferably on a gated community. We love the popular chain restaurants (Longhorn, Chuys, Panda etc) we love the malls and outlets...

We drove from Emerald Island up Avalon Road to Winter Garden Village for the first time this trip and even this was a pleasant relief from the busy-ness of the 192 and I4.

So I am not sure how far away from Disney we need to go and which areas to look at or do we just jump ship completely and start looking at west coast locations?

Also I think we would still prefer to fly in to MCO as we can fly there directly from MAN rather than having to go indirect?

I should also add that we like to dress casually whilst away and so would not be looking for 'fancy' locations, more relaxed and casual!

Many thanks in advance.

Ali x

[jdouds]

Hi have you ever though of places like Palm beach area on the coast .

[shazza1961]

Hi, we have booked for next year staying at St Pete's.
It will be our first time away from Davenport, usually we stay on 27 and do all the parks, but I feel like we have done it to death and next year rather than a large family group there will just be me, my hubby and our 14 year old son.
I wanted to be on the beach, so a villa was ruled out.
We were toying with hiring a apartment on the beach...but then my husband said he would like somewhere he could 'pop for a beer' ... I go to bed by 10 and hes a night owl, he didnt really want to be sitting up on his own at night, he dies that at home ...
So we started looking at hotels and we have decided on Rumfush Beach resort... it ticks all the boxes, we wont be spending the days on the beach, we want to drive out and see things, so looking forward to exploring... and I cannot wait xxx

[jengibbo]

Last summer we stayed at Rotunda West which is on the gulf coast about 90 mins from Orlando. It was brilliant. Gorgeous villa not on a gated community though. Nearby port Charlotte had all the usual eateries and the beaches looked amazing but unfortunately red tide had hit. Despite this I would stay in the area again.

[valegroovers]

We are on Indian Rocks beach now and our town house villa looks straight on to the beach, it’s so chill and pretty quiet just the down time needed from the hustle and bustle of the parks. Would def recommend 😁

A view from our bedroom!

[alibeau]

Thank you all, I will absolutely check out all your recommendations...

We are also wondering if there are any nice villa areas further out than Kissimmee so that if we wanted to we could still visit all the restaurants and malls etc but perhaps we have to drive a little further (up to 30 mins?) but also have local restaurants we could visit if we did not fancy the drive?

Would there be any benefit to us looking at the Haines City/Davenport area?

Thanks again.

Ali x

[Gryff]

We are on Haines City we do do the parks but also spend time away from the parks but instead visit the state parks Bok Tower Gardens
Winery’s and other places
Eatery’s we eat in Winter Haven 15 minus from the Villa where you have Red Lobster Longhorns Olive Garden Ruby Tuesday and more and several really good independents Tia Haven Tempo 1930Harrys Place
Harbour side Cherry Pocket and also the Haven branches of Mannys and Ovation Bistro as they are not as busy
But 5 mins from the villa loads to choose from
I tend to use the 17/92 to visit the malls and you have Macy’s a Peir 1Joannes etc in Winter Haven
Posner Park 6 mins away loads of shops there and more opening and the cinema
Also a great base to visit many of the attractions not mentioned much on here in Tampa or the coast

[7SeasSailor]

We have stayed at Rotonda West for the last couple of years and enjoyed the slower pace of life. We were affected for a part of the holiday last year but decided to risk it again thjis year.

[duchy]

Orlando tends to be cheaper than coastal for villas . I've often though Haines City whilst a little too far for my tastes for a parks centred holiday would be fab for a pool, chilling and shopping trip with days out beyond the parks.
I'm also toying with Airbnb somewhere like Mount Dora for a part stay.

We are lucky to have friends who have retired to a gorgeous villa on the coast in south Florida and we've had some fab stays just relaxing, hitting the beach and a bit of shopping then eating out at restaurants overlooking the sea come evening. Bliss.

[Bozza]

A couple of years ago we decided to stay somewhere else away from Orlando, and I just used AirBnB and scanned along the coastline looking at places that met our criteria for number of rooms, beds and pool.

In the end we settled on this place: airbnb/rooms/18374...3c cdeUAz2Iay

We had a great 10 days down in Port St Lucie (somewhere I'd never heard of before) chilling in and around the pool, heading to the beach and doing some of the smaller attractions in the area, such as the Florida Oceanographic Society (floridaocean/coastal-center).