Florida road trip - where to stay and best beaches

sulley34 · 22 Aug 17, 09:37 AM

I'm so excited! I love Florida holidays but the husband whilst he enjoys them has never been as keen as me. However after a lovely but quiet holiday in Spain this year he has agreed to a 3 week trip to Florida next year so long as we see more places outside of Orlando! We will definitely have a week or 10 days in Orlando and then visit Miami but after that we're unsure. We are thinking the keys or gulf coast. Does anyone have ideas of nice places to visit, good beaches, things to do etc? We will go last 3 weeks in August and have our kids with us aged 17 and 14. Thanks

WillowFae · 22 Aug 17, 10:28 AM

We loved staying at Vero Beach Resort. It is Disney's resort on the East coast, about 1 hour drive south of Port Canaveral.

Yanto · 22 Aug 17, 10:53 AM

Hi,

I would recommend the Gulf Coast personally we did a similar trip 2 years ago down to the Keys. We did it in a week there and back its a lot of driving but found it well worth it.

Our itinerary looked something like this: -

Bradenton x 1 night with a trip to AMI
Naples x 2 nights (can't recommend this place highly enough)
From Naples traveled through the Everglades on the Tamiami highway stopped off for an air boat ride
Key West x 2 nights
Traveled back up to Fort Myers beach x 1 night

We loved the Gulf Coast that much went back last year and are going again this year do not think we would stay anywhere else now.

jacimac · 22 Aug 17, 07:52 PM

Hi
We travel to Florida nearly every year and always do something else as well as staying onsite in Disney, this year myself, my husband, my DD(14), DD and her boyfriend (21&25) and my parents, have just come home from a 3 week trip which started with us travelling approx 3.5 hrs from MCO to spend 6 nights in a Villa in Cape Coral which was lovely, we hired a boat whilst there and visited Sanibel Island, we also visited Fort Myers and Naples, had trips to the beach, shopping etc (prefer Orlando for shopping), from there we drove across the Everglades on the Tamiami trail for approx 3.5hrs down to the Keys and stayed for 3 nights in Islamorada in the middle of the keys, whilst there we spent a day travelling further down the keys and visiting Key West which was great, the Keys are lovely to see but if I did it again I would probably stay in Key West as there is much more to see and do and lots more going on, we then made the long journey non-stop approx 5.5hrs up to our Disney resort for 11 days. Whilst it was great to see other parts of Florida it was very tiring doing so much in 3 weeks and a lot of driving all done by myself, by the end of the Gulf Coast and they Keys the kids couldn't wait to get back to Disney and start their 'real' holiday.

COL41 · 22 Aug 17, 08:32 PM

My children are 13 and 16 and are not long back from 4 nights in Miami and 12 nights in Cape Coral. DS16 loves seeing the amazing cars in Miami-we stayed on South Beach, and also visited Wynwood which features in quite a music videos your children may have seen. We loved the Gulf Coast beaches of Sanibel, Naples, Lovers Key and Barefoot. Still some good bargains to be had at the outlet malls and huge variety of restaurants

Kirky123 · 23 Aug 17, 10:54 PM

We left Vero Beach yesterday after three really great days. We stayed at the kimpton Vero Beach which is directly on the beach. Fantastic hotel, possibly the nicest we've ever stayed at. Vero beach itself was very small but had some great restaurants and shops. The beach was in our opinion much better than the gulf coast beaches, plus vero beach itself was much cleaner more picturess than treasure island where we stayed last year. Just a ten minute drive away was a mall, all the usual chain restaurants and a large cinema ( which we needed due to a day of rain).

WillowFae · 23 Aug 17, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by Kirky123

We left Vero Beach yesterday after three really great days. We stayed at the kimpton Vero Beach which is directly on the beach. Fantastic hotel, possibly the nicest we've ever stayed at. Vero beach itself was very small but had some great restaurants and shops. The beach was in our opinion much better than the gulf coast beaches, plus vero beach itself was much cleaner more picturess than treasure island where we stayed last year. Just a ten minute drive away was a mall, all the usual chain restaurants and a large cinema ( which we needed due to a day of rain).

We stayed at Disney's Vero Beach resort. Lovely area

Teejay229 · 24 Aug 17, 03:17 AM

We're in Orlando now following 1 week on the gulf coast.
Did brief stop in Miami as flew into here, then 3 nights Naples and then 4 nights Anna Maria island before driving over to Orlando for 2 weeks doing parks.
Did Everglades mangrove and grasslands airboat trip whilst in Naples as only 40 min drive too which didn't fancy myself but actually loved it.

alannamr · 24 Aug 17, 09:45 AM

We are currently staying on Marco Island (near Naples). Fab place . Highly recommend.

Young Pooh · 25 Aug 17, 09:14 AM

We have just got back from almost 3 weeks in Florida - we stayed at the Skipjack Resort in Marathon (Middle Keys) and used this as a base to explore the Keys.

We then moved onto Naples and stayed at the Charter Club in Old Naples - fantastic location within walking distance to Tin City, 5th Avenue and 3rd St shopping/eating areas and Naples pier. We much prefer this location to most of the bigger resorts which are further out.

We then moved onto a villa in Cape Coral and used this as a base for exploring the area - Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel etc plus shopping in the area.

Last year we spent a few nights in Hollywood Beach (next to Fort Lauderdale) at the Margaritaville Resort and would recommend this as well.