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Thinking of an Independant Florida Fly Drive ? - this may help
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Murphy_The_Cat
Posts: 20,968 Forumite
I've just returned from an Independantly booked Fly Drive to Florida with Mrs Cat, our son (aged 8) & our daughter (aged 5) and whilst its fresh in my mind I thought that I would put onto MSE some of the things that helped make the last 2 and a bit weeks a cracking holiday (** I make no excuse for C&Ping from a previous thread)
Whilst some of my thoughts are very much family/child related, they may still be relevant for others.
Also, some of my suggestions aren't very MSE at all, but helped make the holiday as much fun as it was
.
Before I start, this is for a Independantly booked Florida Fly Drive type holiday, if you are planning on going to Orlando and are going to empty your wallet with Uncle Walt, for a fortnight then most of this thread will be irrelevant.
First off, prepare yourself that the holiday is probably going to cost you (a lot) more than you originally anticipated.
Start your flight planning very early (the earlier the better) and if lit looks like you will be flying with a 'full service' airline, then be sure to sign up with that airlines frquest flyer programme, before buying your tickets (& also consider getting their affiliated credit card to get a wedge of airmiles/air points)
As its going to be a family holiday, have a family get together to find what each of you would like to do. Go around the table and only give up when you have lots of things on the to do list (you may be surprised as to what your children would like to to). & then divide your list into 'must do', would really like to' & 'would be nice if we could manage it,.
Decide which time of year will fit your purpose best (especially check out historical weather records and opening times of 'must do' things -- e.g For a few months from June onwards, it is low season in Fla and it is likely to rain for at least a part of your holiday, possibly torrentially and maybe for several days.
Book your flights. In this particular case, price definitely isn't king !. Time of flights, airline choice and route choice will have an enormous impact on the enjoyment of your holiday. If possible, get as early a flight as possible from the UK, with a 'full service' airline that offers seatback entertainment (or take personal DVD's) , but seat back entertainment works better, to get to your destination airport ASAP (if transiting in the US leave a decent enough time to clear Customs, Immigration, collecting your bags & rechecking). Ideally, if you can clear your destination airport by mid afternoon, you're laughing - get ready for your children to fall asleep as soon as they hit the road in the car !
If possible, for your return trip, arrange your return trip for as late as possible in the day, to give yourself the best chance of sleeping on the return flight - & don't forget, jetlag is awful coming back ! A full service airline really helps if you are taking multiple flights.
Booking the car.
Book the largest and most comfortable car that you can get your hands on, that fits your purpose. A car with a massive boot that will swallow all of your travel luggage, hand luggage, holiday collected stiff, shopping & nick nacks without constant repacking and faffing about makes a big difference. Having a car with a cavernous interior, that gives all of your plenty of room will be appreciated by all of you, on every trip that you take. This time we booked a 7 seater SUV which did asuperb job of transportinbg us around Fla in absolute comfort. As an aside, having 3 rows of seats meant that the kittens coiuld have their own row which was very popular for them. At the rental desk, ask if they have a 'Crossover' type SUV as they will be better on fuel than a 'traditional SUV. (even better, if its a Ford affiliated rental place, ask if they have any vehicles with 'ecoboost', they may cost a bit more, but if you are eating up the miles, the extra should be offset by lower fuel bills). Cost wise, my SUV cost me £424 from US rentacar, for 2 drivers, all inc but without Sat Nav or 'Gold Package). We did 1600 miles at 23 mpUSgal (27.5 mpUKg) @ $3.30 US gal (£2.60ish per UK gal), also remember that fuel bought on a credit card can will be dearer than bought for cash, typically 10-15c per gal (plus you'll nee to prepay for your fuel at petrols stations - I didn't find any one that would let me may at the pump, they all needed a us Zip/postcode. Typically you'll ask for an amount to be 'put onto' your CC and if you don't use it all, you''ll get it refunded).
Get a biggie, you won't regret it.
Also, keep a few quarters handy, just in case you encounter a cash only toll road straight from the airport - Tampa has one !
Either update your existing SATNAV with US mapping or buy a Sat Nav system that has up to date American mapping on it BEFORE you start properly planning your trip - if you are going to buy a new SAT NAV that features US mapping from (say) Amazon.com, try to find one that has text to speech function. It costs a few more ££'s but its worth it for motoring relaxation. Or get an app for your phone (don't know how practical these are tu use whilst driving. This made our driving soooooo much easier.
Start doing your research on where you are going. Use the usual resources both in written form and online.. Tripadvisor is a great source, but be aware that a lot of reviews may be several years old and things do change - they didn't let me down this year.. Plan on 2-3 things that can be done for each day, plus things to do whilst travelling from A-B. Obviously you aren't going to do 2-3 things per day, every day, but give yourself plenty of options. Now input ALL of the things into your SAT NAV device. It'll be a lot of work, but it'll be worth it.
Realise that the holiday is probably going to cost you (a lot) more than you originally anticipated.
Book your accomodation.
My preference is to prebook all of your accomodation several months in advance. Its going to cost you more doing it this way, but your not going to turn up into one of your destinations to find that there is no room at the inn, or you are staying in a part of town/city that you would prefer not to be in. Especially if you are travelling with small children I cannot stress enough how preferable it is to have a suite with a seperate bedroom, so that at nights your little'uns can settle down to sleep and you can relax in a seperate area. Also, remember that on the first 2 or 3 days your children will be affected by jet lag and will be up very early (any time from 5.00am onwards) and having a seperate room for them will be invaluale. We found Homewood Suitess to be perfect for us. Plus you get a full breakfast from them to start the day and an evening cooked meal (including beer/wine, dpending on State) at Homewood Mon-Thur. This can save quite a wedge if your buying 4 breakfasts each morning. If it suits your purposes, stick to one Hotel brand/chain and enrol into their loyalty card. If at all possible, make sure that your hotel has a pool (& even better a jacuzzi). Your children will love you for it. Consider taking a rugby ball/football to have a throwaround with your children. Quite often, they started playing with the locals once a ball (especially a rugby ball) apeared. Get your hotels into the SAT NAV.
Booking a villa/house is a fantastic alternative to a hotel, especially if you'd like to base yourself in one place for more than 3.-4 days.
Start your itinerary.
Florida is about the size of England and it is easy to be unrealisic about your daily driving mileages. If you are doing Urban mileage at rush hours the going can be VERY slow going, ut if your travelling 'off peak' on the Interstates, you can really much up the miles. If you are heading down to the Keys, its a long old trip !)
There are quite a few Toll Roads in Florida and the easiest (but not the cheapest) way to use them is to activate the 'SunPass' that comes with your rental.You'll get charged $2.95 per day, upto a maximum of $14.95 per month, PLUS the applicable road toll. The SunPass gets activated the first time that you use a SunPass lane, so if you only use a Sunpass lane on day1 of your holiday, you'll still rack up the $2.95 daily charge/$14.95 monthly charge.Alternatively, use the 'Cash Only/Change Given lanes at the Toll Booths and you'll avoid the daily/monthly charge. However, be aware that down in Miami, some roads are 'SunPass' only and have had their cash booths taken away. If you are in the Miami area, be sure to turn your SunPass ON !
Sort out your money.
Take 2-3 credit cards (see the MSE guide for the best ones) and get about $100 in cash to get you going.
The penny will have dropped by now about how much your holiday will cost -- a lot more that you originally thought. At least with booking early and paying your CC off early, you'll be spreading the pain.
Things like ESTA's, Passports, Tipping etc,etc are discussed at length elswhere on MSE, so I've not mentioned them on here.
After you've done all that kick your chair back and put your feet up. You will have put in one hell of a lot of preperation work, but the benefit of doing so much will come back to you in spades when you are travelling from A-B-C and it all goes seamlessley.
If you are currently planning a independantly booked Florida Fly Drive, I hope that this thread is useful and hopefully adds to the pleasure of your holiday.
Murph.
P.S, i don't know if I mentioned it, but its going to cost you a lot. If you are of the 'can I get to New York for $250' or 'which credit card will charge me 0.005% less for usage' persuassion, then prepare your wallet for a shock.
p.p.s
Kindles/Nooks are brilliant. A method of getting online whilst abroard is really useful (is available FOC with the likes of Homewood Suites. & keep the children away from Ipads etc -- keep them involved with what you are all doing, not absorbed in some brain deadening tosh
Whilst some of my thoughts are very much family/child related, they may still be relevant for others.
Also, some of my suggestions aren't very MSE at all, but helped make the holiday as much fun as it was
.Before I start, this is for a Independantly booked Florida Fly Drive type holiday, if you are planning on going to Orlando and are going to empty your wallet with Uncle Walt, for a fortnight then most of this thread will be irrelevant.
First off, prepare yourself that the holiday is probably going to cost you (a lot) more than you originally anticipated.
Start your flight planning very early (the earlier the better) and if lit looks like you will be flying with a 'full service' airline, then be sure to sign up with that airlines frquest flyer programme, before buying your tickets (& also consider getting their affiliated credit card to get a wedge of airmiles/air points)
As its going to be a family holiday, have a family get together to find what each of you would like to do. Go around the table and only give up when you have lots of things on the to do list (you may be surprised as to what your children would like to to). & then divide your list into 'must do', would really like to' & 'would be nice if we could manage it,.
Decide which time of year will fit your purpose best (especially check out historical weather records and opening times of 'must do' things -- e.g For a few months from June onwards, it is low season in Fla and it is likely to rain for at least a part of your holiday, possibly torrentially and maybe for several days.
Book your flights. In this particular case, price definitely isn't king !. Time of flights, airline choice and route choice will have an enormous impact on the enjoyment of your holiday. If possible, get as early a flight as possible from the UK, with a 'full service' airline that offers seatback entertainment (or take personal DVD's) , but seat back entertainment works better, to get to your destination airport ASAP (if transiting in the US leave a decent enough time to clear Customs, Immigration, collecting your bags & rechecking). Ideally, if you can clear your destination airport by mid afternoon, you're laughing - get ready for your children to fall asleep as soon as they hit the road in the car !
If possible, for your return trip, arrange your return trip for as late as possible in the day, to give yourself the best chance of sleeping on the return flight - & don't forget, jetlag is awful coming back ! A full service airline really helps if you are taking multiple flights.
Booking the car.
Book the largest and most comfortable car that you can get your hands on, that fits your purpose. A car with a massive boot that will swallow all of your travel luggage, hand luggage, holiday collected stiff, shopping & nick nacks without constant repacking and faffing about makes a big difference. Having a car with a cavernous interior, that gives all of your plenty of room will be appreciated by all of you, on every trip that you take. This time we booked a 7 seater SUV which did asuperb job of transportinbg us around Fla in absolute comfort. As an aside, having 3 rows of seats meant that the kittens coiuld have their own row which was very popular for them. At the rental desk, ask if they have a 'Crossover' type SUV as they will be better on fuel than a 'traditional SUV. (even better, if its a Ford affiliated rental place, ask if they have any vehicles with 'ecoboost', they may cost a bit more, but if you are eating up the miles, the extra should be offset by lower fuel bills). Cost wise, my SUV cost me £424 from US rentacar, for 2 drivers, all inc but without Sat Nav or 'Gold Package). We did 1600 miles at 23 mpUSgal (27.5 mpUKg) @ $3.30 US gal (£2.60ish per UK gal), also remember that fuel bought on a credit card can will be dearer than bought for cash, typically 10-15c per gal (plus you'll nee to prepay for your fuel at petrols stations - I didn't find any one that would let me may at the pump, they all needed a us Zip/postcode. Typically you'll ask for an amount to be 'put onto' your CC and if you don't use it all, you''ll get it refunded).
Get a biggie, you won't regret it.
Also, keep a few quarters handy, just in case you encounter a cash only toll road straight from the airport - Tampa has one !
Either update your existing SATNAV with US mapping or buy a Sat Nav system that has up to date American mapping on it BEFORE you start properly planning your trip - if you are going to buy a new SAT NAV that features US mapping from (say) Amazon.com, try to find one that has text to speech function. It costs a few more ££'s but its worth it for motoring relaxation. Or get an app for your phone (don't know how practical these are tu use whilst driving. This made our driving soooooo much easier.
Start doing your research on where you are going. Use the usual resources both in written form and online.. Tripadvisor is a great source, but be aware that a lot of reviews may be several years old and things do change - they didn't let me down this year.. Plan on 2-3 things that can be done for each day, plus things to do whilst travelling from A-B. Obviously you aren't going to do 2-3 things per day, every day, but give yourself plenty of options. Now input ALL of the things into your SAT NAV device. It'll be a lot of work, but it'll be worth it.
Realise that the holiday is probably going to cost you (a lot) more than you originally anticipated.
Book your accomodation.
My preference is to prebook all of your accomodation several months in advance. Its going to cost you more doing it this way, but your not going to turn up into one of your destinations to find that there is no room at the inn, or you are staying in a part of town/city that you would prefer not to be in. Especially if you are travelling with small children I cannot stress enough how preferable it is to have a suite with a seperate bedroom, so that at nights your little'uns can settle down to sleep and you can relax in a seperate area. Also, remember that on the first 2 or 3 days your children will be affected by jet lag and will be up very early (any time from 5.00am onwards) and having a seperate room for them will be invaluale. We found Homewood Suitess to be perfect for us. Plus you get a full breakfast from them to start the day and an evening cooked meal (including beer/wine, dpending on State) at Homewood Mon-Thur. This can save quite a wedge if your buying 4 breakfasts each morning. If it suits your purposes, stick to one Hotel brand/chain and enrol into their loyalty card. If at all possible, make sure that your hotel has a pool (& even better a jacuzzi). Your children will love you for it. Consider taking a rugby ball/football to have a throwaround with your children. Quite often, they started playing with the locals once a ball (especially a rugby ball) apeared. Get your hotels into the SAT NAV.
Booking a villa/house is a fantastic alternative to a hotel, especially if you'd like to base yourself in one place for more than 3.-4 days.
Start your itinerary.
Florida is about the size of England and it is easy to be unrealisic about your daily driving mileages. If you are doing Urban mileage at rush hours the going can be VERY slow going, ut if your travelling 'off peak' on the Interstates, you can really much up the miles. If you are heading down to the Keys, its a long old trip !)
There are quite a few Toll Roads in Florida and the easiest (but not the cheapest) way to use them is to activate the 'SunPass' that comes with your rental.You'll get charged $2.95 per day, upto a maximum of $14.95 per month, PLUS the applicable road toll. The SunPass gets activated the first time that you use a SunPass lane, so if you only use a Sunpass lane on day1 of your holiday, you'll still rack up the $2.95 daily charge/$14.95 monthly charge.Alternatively, use the 'Cash Only/Change Given lanes at the Toll Booths and you'll avoid the daily/monthly charge. However, be aware that down in Miami, some roads are 'SunPass' only and have had their cash booths taken away. If you are in the Miami area, be sure to turn your SunPass ON !
Sort out your money.
Take 2-3 credit cards (see the MSE guide for the best ones) and get about $100 in cash to get you going.
The penny will have dropped by now about how much your holiday will cost -- a lot more that you originally thought. At least with booking early and paying your CC off early, you'll be spreading the pain.
Things like ESTA's, Passports, Tipping etc,etc are discussed at length elswhere on MSE, so I've not mentioned them on here.
After you've done all that kick your chair back and put your feet up. You will have put in one hell of a lot of preperation work, but the benefit of doing so much will come back to you in spades when you are travelling from A-B-C and it all goes seamlessley.
If you are currently planning a independantly booked Florida Fly Drive, I hope that this thread is useful and hopefully adds to the pleasure of your holiday.
Murph.
P.S, i don't know if I mentioned it, but its going to cost you a lot. If you are of the 'can I get to New York for $250' or 'which credit card will charge me 0.005% less for usage' persuassion, then prepare your wallet for a shock.
p.p.s
Kindles/Nooks are brilliant. A method of getting online whilst abroard is really useful (is available FOC with the likes of Homewood Suites. & keep the children away from Ipads etc -- keep them involved with what you are all doing, not absorbed in some brain deadening tosh
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Comments
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3.48am Murph? Guess the jet lag is in evidence
Great advice, as always. Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip
2.22kWp Solar PV system installed Oct 2010, Fronius IG20 Inverter, south facing (-5 deg), 30 degree pitch, no shadingEverything will be alright in the end so, if it’s not yet alright, it means it’s not yet the endMFW #4 OPs: 2018 £866.89, 2019 £1322.33, 2020 £1337.07
2021 £1250.00, 2022 £1500.00, 2023 £1500, 2024 £13502025 target = £1200, YTD £690
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur0 -
Sometimes people just want to go with the flow rather than plan a full scale military style operation
Seriously though, some useful info there.
One to remember 7P
Proper Prior Planning Prevents P i s s Poor Performance0 -
This is awesome advice, as usual...I bet all the detail will be really useful to a lot of people even if just to pick and choose what is relevant to them...we don't have kids, but love the tip about a vehicle with 3 rows for 2 kids...as I was once a kid, I can absolutely see how that is a fantastic tip.Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »If possible, for your return trip, arrange your return trip for as late as possible in the day, to give yourself the best chance of sleeping on the return flight - & don't forget, jetlag is awful coming back !
Having made a lot of trips to the US over the last 11 years (as being American we are lucky enough to visit 2-3x each year) I may have found a way around the jetlag thing, at least for me...testing it now having arrived in the UK at 10:45pm Friday night after departing ORD at 9:10am...got home, got to sleep fairly quickly, up at 7:00 to start catching up with the mundane home stuff...and didn't go back to sleep (save for a couple of minutes dozing on the sofa mid-afternoon) until after 11pm. It is like magic...today I feel fine too.
Some would say that you lose a day's holiday and maybe you do, but by the time we would have walked in the door Saturday early afternoon if we took our normal 9pm or so flight from ORD I had been to the supermarket, done 4 loads of laundry (3 dried and put away), unpacked the cases and some other stuff...in addition to having about 5 hours sleep...so while maybe we lost a day's holiday in the US (though a day we would have had a flight at the end of, which is not a proper 'day' to me - we really lost maybe 8 hours of holiday time I think)...we gained the best part of a day back home to relax more before heading back to work.
Only drawback I can see so far relates to your flight booking tips...we knew we would be on a crappy old 767 on the way home - which we normally avoid - so we prepared for it and had our own entertainment, etc. and it wasn't awful...I wouldn't chose it again if there was an option but so far, the recovery has been nothing short of miraculous.Does remembering a time that a certain degree of personal responsibility was more or less standard means that I am officially old?0 -
This is awesome advice, as usual...I bet all the detail will be really useful to a lot of people even if just to pick and choose what is relevant to them...we don't have kids, but love the tip about a vehicle with 3 rows for 2 kids...as I was once a kid, I can absolutely see how that is a fantastic tip.
Having made a lot of trips to the US over the last 11 years (as being American we are lucky enough to visit 2-3x each year) I may have found a way around the jetlag thing, at least for me...testing it now having arrived in the UK at 10:45pm Friday night after departing ORD at 9:10am...got home, got to sleep fairly quickly, up at 7:00 to start catching up with the mundane home stuff...and didn't go back to sleep (save for a couple of minutes dozing on the sofa mid-afternoon) until after 11pm. It is like magic...today I feel fine too.
Some would say that you lose a day's holiday and maybe you do, but by the time we would have walked in the door Saturday early afternoon if we took our normal 9pm or so flight from ORD I had been to the supermarket, done 4 loads of laundry (3 dried and put away), unpacked the cases and some other stuff...in addition to having about 5 hours sleep...so while maybe we lost a day's holiday in the US (though a day we would have had a flight at the end of, which is not a proper 'day' to me - we really lost maybe 8 hours of holiday time I think)...we gained the best part of a day back home to relax more before heading back to work.
Only drawback I can see so far relates to your flight booking tips...we knew we would be on a crappy old 767 on the way home - which we normally avoid - so we prepared for it and had our own entertainment, etc. and it wasn't awful...I wouldn't chose it again if there was an option but so far, the recovery has been nothing short of miraculous.
We found this worked for us too. We were on a (delayed overnight) flight that left Orlando at 9:30am arrived home in Berkshire around midnight or just after. Quick drink and off to bed - up at a reasonable time in the morning and we were fine - no jet leg.
Wish we could do it every time - and as for sleeping on the plane - well we had a row of seats each in May and still just catnapped.0 -
Having never flown on a 767, what makes it awful?we knew we would be on a crappy old 767 on the way home - which we normally avoid - so we prepared for it and had our own entertainment, etc. and it wasn't awful...I wouldn't chose it again if there was an option
I think the return leg of our flights next year are by 767 (BA) - what do I need to prepare myself for?2.22kWp Solar PV system installed Oct 2010, Fronius IG20 Inverter, south facing (-5 deg), 30 degree pitch, no shadingEverything will be alright in the end so, if it’s not yet alright, it means it’s not yet the endMFW #4 OPs: 2018 £866.89, 2019 £1322.33, 2020 £1337.07
2021 £1250.00, 2022 £1500.00, 2023 £1500, 2024 £13502025 target = £1200, YTD £690
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur0 -
jackieblack wrote: »3.48am Murph? Guess the jet lag is in evidence
Great advice, as always. Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip
the 8.40 pm flight from Miami ended up as being the 2.00 am flight - then we had to get a connecting flight to MAN. Fortunately, we were with BA and it all worked out seamlessly.
This time. its MY sleeping patterns that have been affected worst of all, the rest of the family aren't so bad.0 -
we flew AA and knew that the 767 wasn't going to be as nice as the 777s we normally go for - may be completely different on BA...smaller plane so feels slightly more claustrophobic than the 777s we're used to, no seat back IFE (just screens over the middle row of the middle section), slightly narrower seats...but pairs on both sides of the centre aisle which is always our preference.Does remembering a time that a certain degree of personal responsibility was more or less standard means that I am officially old?0
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This awesome advice, as usual...I bet all the detail will be really useful to a lot of people even if just to pick and choose what is relevant to them...we don't have kids, but love the tip about a vehicle with 3 rows for 2 kids...as I was once a kid, I can absolutely see how that is a fantastic tip.
It was also handy when we needed to seperate the 'warring factions'
Having made a lot of trips to the US over the last 11 years (as being American we are lucky enough to visit 2-3x each year) I may have found a way around the jetlag thing, at least for me...testing it now having arrived in the UK at 10:45pm Friday night after departing ORD at 9:10am...got home, got to sleep fairly quickly, up at 7:00 to start catching up with the mundane home stuff...and didn't go back to sleep (save for a couple of minutes dozing on the sofa mid-afternoon) until after 11pm. It is like magic...today I feel fine too.
Nice one, any method that works is a goodun. For us, we've found that flying out/in on a Friday gives us (especially the children) that little bit longer to get back into the swing of things.
Some would say that you lose a day's holiday and maybe you do, but by the time we would have walked in the door Saturday early afternoon if we took our normal 9pm or so flight from ORD I had been to the supermarket, done 4 loads of laundry (3 dried and put away), unpacked the cases and some other stuff...in addition to having about 5 hours sleep...so while maybe we lost a day's holiday in the US (though a day we would have had a flight at the end of, which is not a proper 'day' to me - we really lost maybe 8 hours of holiday time I think)...we gained the best part of a day back home to relax more before heading back to work.
Only drawback I can see so far relates to your flight booking tips...we knew we would be on a crappy old 767 on the way home - which we normally avoid - so we prepared for it and had our own entertainment, etc. and it wasn't awful...I wouldn't chose it again if there was an option but so far, the recovery has been nothing short of miraculous.
Who was your flight with ? In the past we've flown with BA 767's which had the full IFE systems installed and AA 767's which unfortunately don't. As a direrct result, we now choose to fly MAN to LHR/LGW and then to America, rather than MAN to NYC/ORD on a AA shed 767 and then onwards. Whoops, I cn now see that it was with AA. Their unrefurbished 767's aren't the best.Sometimes people just want to go with the flow rather than plan a full scale military style operation
Seriously though, some useful info there. cheers
One to remember 7P
Proper Prior Planning Prevents P i s s Poor Performance
I know that it sounds like I've gone OTT, but I'm a belioever that you only get out what you put in
On our hols we always seem to pack in one hell of a lot, but its always done in a relaxed way, because I've done the 7 P's beforehand. If the children are happy, then Mrs Cat is happy and if Mrs Cat is happy, then I can be happy as well.0 -
Having made a lot of trips to the US over the last 11 years (as being American we are lucky enough to visit 2-3x each year) I may have found a way around the jetlag thing, at least for me...testing it now having arrived in the UK at 10:45pm Friday night after departing ORD at 9:10am...got home, got to sleep fairly quickly, up at 7:00 to start catching up with the mundane home stuff...and didn't go back to sleep (save for a couple of minutes dozing on the sofa mid-afternoon) until after 11pm. It is like magic...today I feel fine too.
Thanks for that advice, it is something I shall try to remember if doing a Transatlantic journey in the future!0 -
When we went, many years ago, we found it quite cheap.
If going off-peak, pre-booking everything is a bit OTT for a fly-drive, there is so much accomodation everywhere in Florida, especially round the touristy parts, you can virtually name your price! We stayed in Kisseemee for $15 per night, although around $30-35 was more usual. We didn't pre-book anything, though we didn't have kids (I think now I'd book the first/last nights at least!).
Not booking, as well as being cheaper gives you extra flexibility, however many P's you can't plan for the weather, or that you find a place boring and want to move on before you originally intended, or want to stay an extra night somewhere because it's great and you haven't seen everything:).
Sometimes it's the detours off the original plan which turn out to be the best bits - originally we'd intended to go snorkelling off Key Largo but it was too windy so we took a trip to Key West instead - long drive (spectacular though) and what a place! Party town!:beer:
We're going to have to go back there with the kids one day 0
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