beach holiday in florida

[angelfire]

Trying to go in April for about a week with DH and DS (7).
We have been to florida before and have been to Disney/IOA etc
Whilst we loved the Disney thing we were hoping for a beach holiday this year.
Ideally we would like

a really good sandy beach
watersports
family friendly i.e. quiet resort
near some other attractions - Space Centre, Busch Gardens etc etc

Have looked at St Petes Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Daytona, Clearwater, Miami

Can anyone give me the benefit of their experience and recomend a good place?

Thanks

If you're talking about this April you may have some difficulties getting the flights as these can fill very quickly.

Miami and Fort Lauderdale are about a 4 - 4.5 hours drive further south from Orlando and both cities are neither particularly quiet or family friendly.

Distance is also a factor here; Tampa and St Petes can be reached from Orlando in half that time and these are near Busch Gardens in Tampa.

Thanks
I went on expedia after this post and it seesm no direct flights left - via Chicago or PA!
Will keep looking tho and thanks for info - I had it in my head that Fort L was just down the road from Disney! Should really look at a map!

As Attila says, Miami is quite a long drive and St Petes and Tampa much closer to Orlando (around 1 1/2 hours). Also worth considering is Cocoa beach. I went there a few months ago and it was lovely.

angelfire - we have just booked tickets to orlando for this April - literally 2 days ago.

whilst looking around, Thomson had charter flights available - flies in to Sanford.

hth.

clearwater beach is lovely - i flew into tampa airport from heathrow. my folks have a place in clearwater and it is lovely (well, lovely for florida which to be honest is a bit ugly all round!). you could get to disney etc and also st petersburg which is lovely. have a nice trip

Anna Maria Island - if you want to experience 'small town America on sea!' The Tortuga Inn is the best place to stay on the island. Fab beaches and restaurants and a free shuttle bus around the island.

It's about an hour drive south from Tampa international airport. And about half an hour from Clearwater.

I would suggest spending a peaceful week on Anna Maria Island and then staying in Clearwater so you can do Busch Gardens. Don't forget to visit the Ellenton Outlet MAll

We went to Clearwater as well and it has become a bit of a building site, full of large condo blocks. Having said this there are more things for the kids to do and the restaurants are cheaper.

We also did Cocoa beach not long after Hurricane Andrew which was probably a mistake!
The beach was great and the Kennedy Space Centre was brilliant.

Another vote for Annamaria Island. We spent a week there in April and it was absolutely gorgeous. We self-catered in a really cute little cottage, the dd's played on the beaches (many of which have playgorunds), we ate at an amazing place on the beach which sells all you can eat pancakes for breakfast, spotted dolphins and a manatee in the sea, walked on the piers and spent a day at the wonderful Busch Gardens.

strandednomore we did the all you can eat sausage and pancake breakfast on the beach too! Couldn't move afterwards

thank you thank you thank you - am now looking at anna maria island - cannot wait!