Florida - hub cities/stop-overs

[EightToSixer]

Tthinking of taking a redundancy trip with DH and DCs to Orlando. The kind of holiday we will only do with the DCs once (ages 5 & 9). We want them to experience Disney magic, but were also thinking of doing a stopover somewhere else in the US to ge a bit of culture and sightseeing for us adults and to show kids that all America does not equal Disney corporation!
I'm struggling to find out where to stop over, which is recommended, which airline stop where, just by using flight check sites, so wondered if anyone had experiences of doing this.
I kno we could fly direct from uk to Orlando, but thought it would be nic to see something else while there too.

Thanks in advance.

How long would you want to stopover for; a couple of days?. Would you return direct to the UK after Orlando?. How long is the total proposed holiday?.

Cities like New York or Boston would perhaps be ideal for your children to see and also are a couple of hours flying time from Orlando.

The ESTAs required for all 4 of you will cost $14 US per person and is valid for 2 years. You will need to use the US govt's official ESTA website (do not use any other website purporting to help pax with the ESTA application) to do this.

Another thing to bear in mind is that flying between cities in the US is no longer as reasonable as it once was and there are often no discounts applied on fares for children. You as international pax should not be charged baggage fees although some airlines may try to do so.

If you get really stuck with flights (and the information on some of these websites is not always accurate or up to date in terms of cost), I would use the services of someone like Trailfinders who could put a package together for you.

Thanks for that Attila. We were thinking maybe 3-4 days somewhere either on way or way back, then 2 weeks or a little longer in Florida, perhaps ten days Disney, 7 days coast. Haven't had a holiday (apart from budget camping) for a good few years so cant quite believe we may be able to do a dream trip.
I'll look into trail finders. I thought if we found an airline that forced a stop in NYC,Chicago or Boston then it'd be only a couple of hundred total more for us than a direct Virgin flight to Orlando. Much cheaper than a separate city break there next year.

We went to Florida and stopped over in Baltimore (we have family there - I wouldn't recommend Baltimore as your stopover otherwise!).
However, the way we did it was to book an 'open-jaw' ticket (with BA - go to 'multi-city' on their flight search) from London-Baltimore, Miami-London. Then I booked a separate one-way flight from Baltimore down to Florida with a US airline (Airtran). I found this was the cheapest and easiest way to do it, although we had to pay full fare for our 2 yr old, and BA gave a slight discount on the child fare on the transatlantic segments. Something else to look into!

Thanks Isla. I'll look into that.

I'm guessing that not many people do the stopover thing then? If the information is so hard to get hold of.

I wouldn't stopover but if you do, go to Chicago. Big city, sky scrapers, amazing museum. Definitely Chicago

Thanks Grockle. Your username makes me think of South Devon by the way. Any reason why you think a stopover isn't something you'd do?

I guess not many do do it (and certainly our combination with Baltimore was unusual). However if you don't plan to take the kids over to the US again then I would do it, and I would probably choose New York.

I would def do a stopover if you have the time and money. first choice for me would be nyc or boston (in the fall) and then on to orlando when its a quiet period - mid oct. miami and the keys would also be interesting and only 4 hour drive to orlando ....could do an 'open jaw' return. if you dont want to book direct, get a quote from someone like trailfinders/travelbag and then assemble it yourself from the airlines and see what you come up with price wise.

I just prefer to get where I'm going & come home again. No reason not up do a stopover & Chicago is perfect (I'm there now!):

Beaches, museums, galleries, parks, concerts (many are free), fireworks, tall buildings, great shops & it's much cleaner & more friendly than NYC. Also very easy to get downtown from the airport.