How much for Florida

davetrousers

Look at British Airways for Flight & Car, also consider flying to Tampa rather than Orlando (or Sanford). We bought a TomTom in a Walmart then used in subsequent US holidays.

Consider travelling around a bit to include Kennedy Space Center, Daytona Beach and Raceway, Miami, Everglades, Clearwater Beach. Florida is much more than just Orlando and the parks.

Motels can be had easily and are pretty cheap in Florida.

John259

Here's another YouTube dashcam video. This is a drive from Universal Studios to downtown Orlando and IMHO it's rather instructional.

Some things which you might like to look out for in the video:

The typical layout of roads and freeways in the USA.

The yellow line on your left to indicate that you're on the correct side of the road / driving in the correct direction.

In signposting, the highway marker shield designs for interstates (white on blue), US highways (black on white), and Florida state highways (outline of the state's map). I even spotted one county road (pentagon) but that's unusual.

The use of geographical directions (north, south, east or west) as well as (or in some cases instead of) place names in signposting.

Exit only lanes on freeways.

Blue signs before freeway exits indicating the services (gas stations, motels and restaurants) available at that exit.

This is a "warts and all" video - there's a lot of traffic and even some traffic jams, and a few drivers making dubious manouvres. Still, that proves it's real I suppose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7sLCHJDkdE

rochja

I was really intrigued by the title of this thread 'how much for Florida?' and decided to try and work it out. In 1867 the USA paid 2 cents per acre for Alaska. Allowing for prices to double every 7 years that would equate to about $4000 dollars per acre today. Assuming Florida land to be of equal worth [no snow but too much sun; no polar bears but too many gators] then given that it has an area of 37,478,400 acres Florida can be yours for a cool $149,913,600,000.

Bruich76_2

it's a good holiday. A lot of how much it will cost will depend on what you do... if you want to go to all the parks etc, then be prepared to spend double what you would otherwise. The parks are good, but expensive and you'll find eating in them especially for a family etc, can cost a lot more then you would expect and budget for.

littlereddevil

You don't have to drive. Some of the hotels on International Drive have buses go everywhere

zagfles

Bruich76 wrote: »

it's a good holiday. A lot of how much it will cost will depend on what you do... if you want to go to all the parks etc, then be prepared to spend double what you would otherwise. The parks are good, but expensive and you'll find eating in them especially for a family etc, can cost a lot more then you would expect and budget for.

Or take your own food - we hardly ever buy food in theme parks.

John259

Two ideas if you want to combine the Orlando area with a road trip to see more of the USA:

North through Georgia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which straddles the North Carolina/Tennessee border:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVq5Vu3J2sY
Orlando to Gatlinburg is about 630 miles:
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Orlando,+FL,+United+States&daddr=33.1046478,-83.2600826+to:Gatlinburg,+TN,+United+States&hl=en&ll=32.249974,-82.770996&spn=9.859163,17.819824&sll=32.178619,-82.029213&sspn=9.86719,17.819824&geocode=FeB1swEdXEAm-yl3vM3-2HPniDGev6U8BrLDCg%3BFQcj-QEdTo0J-yl707cQcrj2iDE6MPfTVKDPVg%3BFdP0IAIdbLwF-ymJpQjL6lNZiDGoebd-rtexSg&oq=gatlinburg&mra=dpe&mrsp=1&sz=6&via=1&t=m&z=6

South to the Florida Keys and the Overseas Highway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh5n4fu1Pp0
Orlando to Key West is about 400 miles:
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Orlando,+FL,+United+States&daddr=27.1155715,-81.3314393+to:Key+West,+FL,+United+States&hl=en&sll=26.546783,-80.954411&sspn=5.217,8.909912&geocode=FeB1swEdXEAm-yl3vM3-2HPniDGev6U8BrLDCg%3BFTPAnQEdEfsm-yllnYPR8m_ciDHkTf12Ndmn1A%3BFTOudgEd7SIg-yl3I5WtNLHRiDFeO0Z3L-nOPw&oq=key+west&mra=dpe&mrsp=1&sz=7&via=1&t=m&z=7

aaron90

May is a really good month to go. I went a few years ago and it only rained once. I've been in March too but it wasn't as warm.

Book a hotel on I-Drive then you don't have to hire a car, we did this because I was 20 and couldn't hire a car out. It's really easy to get about using the free transport from the hotels and I-Trolley.

Depending when you want to go flight and hotel for 2 weeks can cost between £800-1500 for 3-5*. Then theme park tickets for all parks cost around £300-400.

Happy saving

nuttyp

we usually go for September, majority of kids are back at school and its less hot, although there is often a shower of rain - so hot steam comes up from the pavements.
We flew with monarch before, cheaper of all the package deals. Was k, nothing special, just remember to buy your theme park tickets before you go. If you fancy staying on site at Disney they often do free dining.
As a ballpark figure we took 2 adults, and 2 teenagers for approx. £1200 each for flights, hotel and tickets. Food for 4 was under $70 a day.


Go on thedibb website, everything is there and you will learn lots.
happy planning x

GedlingRed

We've been a few times and inc. spending money, park tickets, car hire the last trip cost approx. £5k for 3 of us. This was with Thomson's in August and we flew on the Dreamliner. I would recommend having a look at www.theDibb.co.uk it's a brilliant Disney/Florida forum.
Our ideal time to travel is the last 2 weeks of October, the weather is lovely and warm and it's not crazily busy but due to school holidays we went during the last 2 weeks of August last year and it was hot but fab and surprising not too busy - most US kids go back to school early August.