Can't top Florida!

[teabag20048]

Had a holiday of a lifetime last year for us 2 weeks in Orlando, Florida. Children are 13 + 9. I just can't find anything to do this year, 1 week abroad in one room ends up being the same price as a 2 week villa in Florida! Any ideas? Don't want a beach holiday or anywhere too hot in the summer holidays!

Florida is the same all the time though. It’s hardly opening your eyes to anything else. Obviously my suggestions were more expensive but I’d rather go once every two years than boring Florida all the time. Holidays for us have always been about new places and experiences, not continual repeats of the same thing, however cheap it might be.

The £/$ exchange rate is a bit better now but Brexit means it’s volatile. Ditto with the £/€ - so nowhere is cheap any longer. I think if you want to see anything worthwhile around the world or even in USA, you have to expect high prices.

You can easily get cheap flights, car hire and a villa for less than £800 pp. I have just seen deals for 14 days for that! Thomas Cook have plenty of options. No food but options for theme park entry packages. Can’t think of anything worse personally. You don’t even have to think in another language!

Pretty much everywhere in the world tops Florida...I really just don't understand the obsession with the place and it seems to be a UK thing too.....

I couldn’t agree more jalpie! It must be the weather, the same language (well almost) the cheap food and the theme parks - all of which require no effort to enjoy! This long haul thread is either about Florida or New York!

I would love to travel to some of the places mentioned above, but finances and time just don't allow it. We can only holiday during the school easter break, and a lot of Europe is closed/cold at that time. I spend a lot of time outdoors at home and it's horrible out there right now - I love to have two weeks when it's hot enough to just walk outside in shorts and sandals, something that rarely happens where we live.

It's not 'a UK thing' either - about 90% of Orlando visitors are domestic, and South American visitors make up quite a large chunk of 'others'. Got to admit that Orlando is the new Benidorm, people return time after time with their whole families - doesn't mean that they don't enjoy it - although I wish they'd leave the Disney/Orlando bubble behind and see a bit more of the State.

@DiplomaticDecorum - I wasn’t having a dig - I too am faced with the the same dilemma of trying to shoehorn some much needed sun into the Easter hols without spending masses ... and the deal you describe in your earlier post is undeniably a bargain but .... I also agree that there are some destinations that are just so expensive, it puts them in the ‘just not possible’ category

But it also possible to visit many many other countries, even for your 650 pp sums, that imo offer considerably more excitement in the way of local culture, scenery, food and yes, sun. As an example, barring Singapore of course, most of the SE Asian countries fits this description.

However, my observation is that many people here in the UK (and yes it absolutely is a UK thing - while California seems to be a perennial obsession with many across the world, it is only here that seems to have such a fixation on Florida) have built Florida up to be the ultimate ‘once in a lifetime’ trip / must see destination which it simply doesn’t deserve. Rather, they’re just buying into the marketing hype and receiving packages of sanitised, ‘family themed excitement’ designed for the masses as their reward... which strikes me as a waste of opportunity and time.

Oh come on, even if you stick to the USA there are some amazing places to go in holiday.

We’ve lived in Texas for years now and still haven’t made it to Disney because there are so many much cooler places to go.

I've visited Florida 3 times and 'still haven't made it to Disney because there are many much cooler places to go' - and incidentally holidayed in Texas last year. Would love some links to the flights/accommodation in SE Asia spoken about above that come in at £650/person at Easter. I looked and found nothing anywhere near budget.