How much for Florida

butterbear

Hi All

I would really like to go to Florida- have wanted to since I was a kid- my son is 10 now so have decided to start saving and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to how much a holiday like this would cost roughly?

There is myself, my partner and our son. I am the only driver and am a little nervous at the idea of driving abroad how realistic is it to do it without driving?

I want to go for a few weeks and obviously do universal, disneyland etc

Any thoughts/ suggestions would be gratefully received

Butterbear

butterbear

PS

Should probably mention that I have been in to travel agents and asked but they all want dates of when you would like to go etc at the moment I don't have any idea as need to get some money together first.....

John259

Have you had a look through this thread?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1820085
Unfortunately it's a huge thread but there's tons of valuable information there and you can trying searching within it for specific questions. There's a discussion fairly early on in the thread regarding whether to hire a car or not. IMHO there's absolutely no reason to be scared of driving in the USA, except perhaps on freeways in big cities but you can usually avoid that, especially in the Orlando area.

Regarding costs, you'll need to do a fair bit of research yourself because so much depends on what style of holiday you'd prefer. For example:
Do you want an all-inclusive package or are you happy to book the various elements separately (flights, accommodation, car rental if any, park entrance tickets)?
Do you want accommodation within the Disney area (expensive but very convenient), or outside (in which you can choose the price level you prefer)?
Do you want accommodation with its own restaurant or are you happy to use budget motels and outside restaurants of which there countless numbers in the area but in most cases probably well beyond walking distance.
How much do you want to explore outside the immediate area, for example Kennedy Space Center (not far away), or the Florida Keys (considerably further), or the Great Smoky Mountains (much further)? For the last two you'd definitely need a car and be prepared to adopt a road trip style holiday using multiple motels instead of staying in one place all the time.

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, only your own personal preferences. However, your choices will affect the overall cost quite considerably.

Sorry not to be more specific, but perhaps somewhere in that thread someone has listed some costs.

zagfles

The problem with taking kids to Florida is that there isn't really a good time to go in the school holidays (not the standard English ones anyway). Christmas and Easter will be packed and August is hot and humid and in the peak hurricane season (and also packed).

Look at organising it yourself rather than getting a package, these are often a rip-off. The main costs will be the flights which will vary a lot, check skyscanner (but book direct with the airline - usually for around the same price with better cancellation/alteration terms). Accomodation and eating out etc are cheap especially off-peak, easy to get rooms under USD50 per night, a bit more for a place with a pool. Not sure of the cost of theme parks but there's a separate thread on Florida which covers that sort of thing.

There's so much more to Florida than theme parks though, don't be scared of driving, the US is one of the easiest places in the world for driving (there's another thread here about driving in the US, have a read).

Idiophreak

I second that there's no reason to be scared of driving - I was a little apprehensive my first time, but it's a doddle...it's like driving in this country, but without corners

Oh...and remember to only drive with one foot

If you're going for several weeks, think about trying to get to the coast for a bit - you don't need 3 weeks at the parks. The east coast is great (Can do KSC and Cocoa Beach etc), but the west coast is just spectacular, white sand, clear warm water...just fantastic.

John259

This dashcam video on YouTube gives you a good idea of driving in the immediate area of the main entrance to Walt Disney World:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vQ8M1N-GEU

This one is out in the country on a couple of interstate highways. It's very lengthy so you'll probably only want to sample a few bits of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFj70na8O6s

This one is Trucker Josh and Diesel (his dog) on the road in Florida:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XtrsxtjBsk

Katem

Ball park figures here

I think flights for 2 adults and a child will set you back around £2k.
Park tix (to do everything) about £700 (including water parks etc) - but there are loads of sites that will price match so worth shopping around.

Accommodation - can be anything from dirt cheap to quite expensive, I think you'd get a very decent hotel for all of you for 2 weeks for around £1250, with transportation to parks from the hotel included.

However it's always worth looking at package deals with Virgin/Thomson and the like, you can put suggested dates in online and they will give you a figure.

Like someone else said, there's not a good time to take kids in the school hols. Too hot/humid and busy in the summer, too busy at Xmas and Easter. October half term is the best bet, and as we've always had inset days then, we have added a couple of extra days (used to be authorised but not now ) to make up the two weeks.

Miles easier to drive and driving is easy in the US, just a few odd things to look out for like being able to turn right on a red light (or something similar, worth looking up before you go!)

Spending money - I have always found it is FAR cheaper to holiday in the US (after the initial cost of getting there obvs) meals are cheaper, days out cheaper etc.

If you want to make it as cheap as possible, an excellent site is the Dibb - loads of ideas and helpful, enthusiastic people on there who know all there is to know about Florida - so worth a look.

In terms of value for money Florida is far better than Disneyland Paris - you get much more for your money if you definitely want to do it for two weeks.

eta - I am sure you can do it much cheaper than I have quoted if you haggle and compromise on things. This is for a really decent blow out holiday for you all.

John259

I just had a quick look at some motel web sites and they quoted rates for 2 adults + 1 child in August of $50 to $75 per night in Kissimmee. That won't get you the ultimate in luxury, nor will it in most cases get you a courtesy bus to the parks, but it will get you a safe, comfortable and perfectly adequate room and probably a pool. Whether that's good enough or not is of course a personal choice.

Map with some possibilities listed:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=motel&hl=en&ll=28.337097,-81.591039&spn=0.019793,0.034418&sll=28.339288,-81.592627&sspn=0.019793,0.034418&t=m&radius=1.26&hq=motel&z=15

butterbear

Wow thank you all - I hadn't realised there was so much choice, guess I had just assumed that it would have to be a packaged thing

Will spend some time researching.... am getting very excited at the prospect that it could become a reality :0)

Thank- you so much for your replies, they are very much appreciated :0)

John259

More on YouTube:

Phil, Emma and Ben
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChgpwXzFRV3PG8g81aJF1ew
Several trips to Walt Disney World in Florida, and one to California.

TravelingRobert
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLM5XNynW9u1_usGYL98YKw
Various trips, including some within Florida but not to the theme parks.

IMHO both of these creators have made some extremely well produced and informative videos which are well worth watching.

meer53

butterbear wrote: »

Hi All

I would really like to go to Florida- have wanted to since I was a kid- my son is 10 now so have decided to start saving and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to how much a holiday like this would cost roughly?

There is myself, my partner and our son. I am the only driver and am a little nervous at the idea of driving abroad how realistic is it to do it without driving?

I want to go for a few weeks and obviously do universal, disneyland etc

Any thoughts/ suggestions would be gratefully received

Butterbear

First time we went, i went on my own with 3 kids, 2 15 year olds and a 3 year old. I booked a villa, flights and car.

After my initial panic about getting out of the airport in the hire car, dark, raining and the kids all promptly fell asleep, i found driving so easy there.

I'm the only driver too, we've been back 5 times and i love driving there, it's so much easier than here. Don't worry about driving, after half an hour, you'll be fine.