Road Trip advice

[Helen & LittleD]

H all,

Hoping for a little bit of advice, we are off in October for 3 weeks, 2 of which will be on Disney property and then the third will be driving exploring Florida. We have the following planned, we know its a fair bit of driving, we will stop on route at the location stated for 1 night each and as i work for IHG i will book cheap discounted rooms 3 months before we travel.
Can anyone give me any advise or recommendations on what to do or see and where to eat at these places?
Day 1
Drive from Old Key West resort to Vero Beach - going the scenic route across to Cocoa Beach and down the coast, which is more scenic the Interstate 1 or the A1A? Stay over night in Vero Beach area.
Day 2
Up early and drive to Miami. We were planning on doing the hop on hop off bus and maybe a boat tour of the city. Stay over night in Miami
Day 3
Drive across the everglades to Naples, stopping on the way for an air boat ride. Stay in Naples area
Day 4
Drive to Sanibel Island explore a little, hopefully some shell collecting continue on to Venice Beach and maybe some shark tooth collecting. Stay in Venice Beach area
Day 5
Drive to St Petersberg and Clearwater area. explore a little. Stay overnight in this area.
Day 6
Up early and drive back to Olrando. We plan on doing a 1 day at Universal so we can see all the Harry Potter things, we aren't bothered about any of the other parts. Stay in Orlando area and then fly home the next evening.
What do you think?
Thanks in advance

[Hornet1976]

Wow, that is a lot of driving and moving around! Have you booked flights yet? Really difficult to advise as everyone has different views but based on my own experience I’d try to cut a couple of locations out. A good option would be to fly into Miami and back from Orlando. Stay in Miami 1 night, and from there go to Naples and have an extra night there - it’s beautiful and the hotels are lovely. Then work your way up the gulf coast taking in Venice and Clearwater. Naples I’d recommend The Dock restaurant. Naples Bay & Marina is a nice hotel (need a shuttle or drive to beach). Try Naples pier to watch the dolphins. Caspersen Beach near Venice is best place for sharks teeth.

[Helen & LittleD]

Originally Posted by Hornet1976

Wow, that is a lot of driving and moving around! Have you booked flights yet? Really difficult to advise as everyone has different views but based on my own experience I’d try to cut a couple of locations out. A good option would be to fly into Miami and back from Orlando. Stay in Miami 1 night, and from there go to Naples and have an extra night there - it’s beautiful and the hotels are lovely. Then work your way up the gulf coast taking in Venice and Clearwater. Naples I’d recommend The Dock restaurant. Naples Bay & Marina is a nice hotel (need a shuttle or drive to beach). Try Naples pier to watch the dolphins. Caspersen Beach near Venice is best place for sharks teeth.

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That's great thank you, I'll take a look at the restaurant and hotel 😊 Yes our flights are booked already I'm afraid 😊

[archibald]

We've done a similar route and usually drive about 2500 miles each trip, and these are my thoughts.

Drive from Disney to Vero Beach - it' only a couple of hours, spend the day there, then drive on down to Miami - again just a couple of hours. Spend 2 nights in/around Miami.

Do the airboat ride, spend a long afternoon in Naples, drive up to Venice Beach. Stay a couple of nights for a good day at Caspersen.

Spend two nights in Clearwater and drive to the airport from there.

The day at Universal can be done in the two weeks that you spend in Orlando before your road trip. Driving is easy, we do a lot of it, but staying at a different location each night sounds like hard work. We travel light - hand luggage only, and it's still a lot of stuff to haul around with you.

My main advice would be take less stuff, but make it easily packable - we take a big laundry bag with handles, and an over door shoes organiser that holds shoes & toiletries and move it fully laden, saves a lot of packing/unpacking.

We also stay in motels and request a first floor room close to the pool. This means the kids can swim while we sort the room, and you car is never more than 20 feet from your door!