FLORIDA FLY DRIVE - Ideas, routes and tips

stphnstevey

Me and my wife are looking to do a fly drive in 2013 in Florida. We did one last year in California and now a bit hooked!

*We DON'T have kids*

Been looking into weather and peak times - April/May or Nov looks comprimise between decent weather and off peak prices. Is this what others have found?

Flights seem to be the main costs - how do I find out about the sales?

Car Hire - Dollar seem quite good price wise £400 for 2wks Ford Mustang (want to go with this as had rubbish car in California and it is important to us (me anyway!). They also do free one way rentals, so we don't have to do a round trip.

Looking at Theme Parks - We're more thrill seekers, so the Disney ones don't really appeal, but we will at least do one just for the experience. Busch Gardens doesn't look bad either. As these parks are mainly child focused, is there enough for adults? My wife loves Disney, so should be ok. Any other thrill parks in Florida?

Looked at the Kennedy Space Center - anyone been? Any good?

So far we want to do Orlando, head down to Miami and then to Key West, back up to the Everglades. Not got any further than that at the moment, so any suggestions welcome. Looking for nice driving route roads/highways with scenary if possible. I drive for a living, so the time in the car is not an issue.

We are looking to go for 2 weeks and don't mind moving around, every day if needed, but would like to spend a day or so in major cities/areas. A couple days relaxing is all we need.

Any thoughts/suggestions welcome :j

jlc57

Just come back from 2 weeks in Florida and the weather was mid to late 80s - we would only go in April because from May way too hot for us. We didn't do the parks this time but last time we went (4 years ago) definitely preferred Universal to Disney. We thoroughly enjoyed Kennedy Space Centre although not sure if it has changed since USA closed Space Programme probably not yet. You can get a Go Orlando card which gives entry to quite a few other attractions around Orlando. We did search of car hire on comparison sites and then booked direct with Budget which as the cheapest - there was quite a queue when we arrived in Orlando though, and they upgraded us for no extra as well. We stayed in a hotel (outside of Orlando because we were racing RC Cars!) and again I checked out comparison sites but also Trip Advisor and we ended up in a Marriott Residence Inn which was really good.
We got out flights with Last Minute.com but we did only book about 5 weeks before we went and paid £483 per person with Air France (so went via Paris), however I noticed £353 was taxes so probably couldn't get it much cheaper). I think I looked at all the comparison websites for flights and then saw the Lastminute ad.
Don't forget the ESTA which you can do on-line and costs $14 each.
can't say much about moving around because we didn't do much travelling about on either of our trips there.
I have registered with Netflights, TravelZoo and Cheapflights for newsletters - just in case they send something for our next trip
Hope this helps
Janice

Gilly_flower

Re: Car hire. Most firms will give you free 1 way rental within Florida.
We've just returned and I would never use Dollar again. The car was awful and they wanted to charge $6.99 (plus tax) PER DAY for road tolls, regardless of whether you actually go through any tolls that day, and you have to take it our for the whole rental period. I'd check the other rental agencies (I think Hertz is about $3/day (only charged if a toll activated) + the cost of the toll) OR set up your own toll-per-plate account when you get there (very easy, freephone number).

We are also child free and did a week road tripping as the second leg of a 2 week break. We did a day/night in Miami (...should have spent longer) then drove out along the Tamiami Trail, stopping at all the National Park visitor centres. Stopped in Naples (fab sunset) for another night, then drove to Orlando for another 4 nights.
We did the 2 Universal parks (I think they have more appeal for adults than the Disney ones). A 14 day unlimited 2 park hopper ticket was about £95 per person; this worked out better value than just buying day tickets. I remember liking Busch Gardens on a previous trip - it had some good rollercoasters and (ehem) free beer, though I'm not sure if they still do this!

Re: time to go - if you are not bound by school holidays, I'd go just after Easter; or mid to late September/early October. I couldn't cope with the Summer temp. or humidity.

Have fun. I am so jealous!

Limana68

We did this fly drive trip a few yrs ago in Oct( before Kids) went for 3 wks, flew into Miami, drove down to Key west etc, then across through Everglades to Naples, Clearwater, Tampa then Orlando and Cocoa Beach and back down the East Coast. We didnt even book hotels just went with the flow.
Luckily my Aunt lives near Miami so we stayed with her for some of the time, but a brilliant trip!
We booked the flights with US Airways and the car hire through USCAR HIRE, both were sspot on.

Good luck with it all!:p

bleepandbooster

We have done a couple of trips. The first one started in Miami then picked a car up and drove up to the Kennedy Space Centre, then across to Tampa/Clearwater (visit Tarpon Springs/Dunedin/St Petersburg) You can then head south over Sunshine Skyway bridge and visit Longboat Key, Venice Captiva, Sanibel, Fort Myers and Naples Do the Everglades trips go deep sea fishing. Then we drove via Alligator Alley Fort Laurderdale and back to Miami to fly home !
We didn't do any of the parks and we have not yet been to the keys.
Phew !
Cofion
David
PS We Loved it.