By Tara
Sometime in January 2015
Travelling to Florida Part 5 – I know that it’s been a while since I’ve written about travelling to Florida. This time I’ve decided to talk about finding a place in Florida to stay. Once again I’m using Florida as the place that I’m picturing when talking about these tips and tricks. But these could be used in a lot of different travelling arrangements, and are in no way limited to Florida.
1. Decide if you’re going to stay in a hotel or vacation rental – First to clarify when I say a vacation rental I mean renting a home\condo\apartment.
- There are good things and bad things about both of these options. First when you stay at a hotel you never have to worry about making the bed, cleaning the sheets, clean towels, buying toilet paper, etc. You just have to worry about going out and having fun. You usually get internet, television, and you can find hotels with some great amazing swimming pools, especially the hotels that are associated with the theme parks. Having said all this though, most of your meals you’ll be eating out, and if you get a normal hotel room it’s usually just 1 room with 1-2 beds and a bathroom. If you’re travelling with kids it can be hard to sometimes all share the same living space for 6-7 whole nights.
- Now when you stay at a vacation rental it’s usually the exact opposite. If you want to come home to a freshly made bed, you better do it before you leave for the day. You want clean towels after you’re down to the last one? You better get a load started. And sometimes yes you even have to run out and get your own toilet paper lol BUT what is great about a vacation rental is they can come with a fully functional kitchen where you can make your own meals. You can find houses with multiple bedrooms so kids and grownups can have their own space. Also a lot of houses you rent in Florida have their own personal pool, cable television, internet, and a games room for the kids! This can also be a money saver because a lot of vacation rentals are cheaper to rent per night, plus you can buy your own groceries to make a lot of your meals and that can give you a huge savings. But all of this comes with possibly more work, because you are cleaning up after yourself the whole time while you’re away.
- With all of this information there is something else I would like to add, depending on where you stay, you might not need a car rental. A lot of hotels will have a shuttle bus that will take you directly to the theme park of your choice. And if you stay right on the Disney property there are multiple ways to get to each theme park during all times of the day. If you stay at a vacation rental I’m sure most of the time you will need to rent a car. I’m sure there are exceptions to that rule, but most of the time you will need a car to get around and get to where you’re going.
2. After choosing hotel or vacation rental finding the right one for you – After you’ve looked at the pros and cons of both options, and coming to your own conclusions of which type of place is best for “me”, you will have to find your dream location.
- There are many websites you can use to help find different places to stay. I’ll list a couple here to get you started:
- Hotels: www.expedia.ca, www.travelocity.ca
- Vacation Rentals: www.homeaway.com, www.airbnb.com
- Sometimes there are reviews right on the site for the place you’re looking for, but you can also check out http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ to see if anyone has placed any reviews there.
- Ask family and friends to see if they have visited Florida and if they have any suggestions on some great accommodations, or places you should most definitely avoid.
Florida is one of my favorite places to visit. I love all of the different options of places to stay, and I think there is something for everyone as far as budget and what you’re ideal vacation looks like.
Tara
3birdsonearth 