Crystal Springs followed by night in Clearwater, good plan?

[sarahly]

I’ve got a trip planned for October this year, myself and my 17 year old daughter for 19 nights. This will be a one off trip for us so I was hoping to fit in a little bit of ‘real Florida’ as well as the theme parks. We won’t have a car for the full trip but the plan is to hire one for a few days to fit in a couple of trips outside of Orlando.

I love the idea of swimming with manatees and I’ve read lots of good reviews of Crystal Springs, I also would like to take my daughter on a dolphin watching boat trip and to a Florida beach.

I was thinking an early start and drive to Crystal River for a morning swim. Is there anything else recommended to do/see in the area?

Then drive down to Clearwater where we can have dinner, hopefully see a lovely sunset, stay overnight and then spend the next day at the beach before driving back to Orlando.

Is there a scenic route to take between Crystal River and Clearwater? Any nice places to stop along the way?

Does this sound like a good plan?

Would planning this for a weekend be a good idea or not? I’ve read dibbers planning to avoid the theme parks at the weekend so was thinking maybe we could hire a car to include the weekend as a way of doing this. But would Crystal River and Clearwater be less enjoyable because of more visitors at the weekend too?

Would anyone anticipate it would be an issue to drive from Clearwater back to Orlando in the dark? For someone who isn’t familiar with the area?

Any advice much appreciated!