Florida or....open to other suggestions!

[mylittleyumyum]

I need your help... husband is quite keen on visiting the US, and his friends bang on quite a bit about Florida.

It's not really somewhere I fancy the idea of - I like Spain, Turkey, Greece, for the scenery, languages and the food, plus the relatively short flight times, but I normally have the deciding vote on hols and he's always wanted to go.

He's swayed me a little, but none of us want to visit Disney or International Drive. We'd maybe consider a day or two at Universal, but being inland doesn't really scream holiday to me.

His friends base themselves in Orlando, then hire cars and visit Cocoa Beach etc but again, driving while on holiday doesn't appeal to me. Nor does a two centre holiday.

Are there any great places to stay on the Florida coast with nice beaches, plenty to see and do and perhaps a fairground or amusement park for the kids?

The gulf coast of Florida has some lovely areas with great beaches: Sanibel, Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Venice Island etc.

I adore Florida, not just the parks but everything about it. The restaurants, supermarkets. We stayed at Anna Maria island for 3 days when we spent 3 days in Florida in 2015. We are going back in August, doing the parks. The Florida keys is meant to be amazing. Lots of other fab parts of the US if you’re not interested in theme parks

I'm not a fan of theme parks or Orlando but as previous posters have said, there are plenty of other nice places in Florida, especially on the Gulf Coast and I absolutely love Key West.

That said, there are also lots of incredible places to go in the US outside of Florida. Have a look at the Outer Banks in North Carolina, the California Coast, Oregon coast, Cape Cod or Maine just for starters. If you go on holiday in the US though, I really would rent a car, it makes life much easier.

I wouldn't go to Florida if you're not interested in theme parks. Some wonderful beaches in Europe - no need to fly all that way for them.

What a about Miami? Do you have kids?

We loved Florida for theme parks, beaches and shopping when the kids were younger. They are now offended by the politics of Florida and wouldn’t want to go. We’re trying Costa Rica this summer. We’re flying via Madrid but you can also change planes in Miami. There are actually lots of Caribbean destinations that you could fly onto after a couple of days in Miami.

We have two kids, like myself they'd prefer everything to be walkable, or have great public transport options. We spend a lot of time in the car at home, it's a big part of our lives (we explore Scotland almost every weekend, covering hundreds of miles) so we like our holidays to be different.

Costa Rica is on my bucket list, but I'll want to devote a few weeks to it.