Florida with older teens - where to go?..

[tokentotty]

Am looking for some guidance/recommendations for where to spend some time in Florida this summer. We’ve got A-levels and GCSE’s being sat this year, as well as a 50th, 18th and Silver wedding celebrations, so we’ve decided to have a ‘splurge’ holiday with our 3 teenagers, 18, 16 & 14.

We’re going to Disney & Universal for the very first time and looking for some sort of week’s holiday after the madness of doing the parks. We have absolutely no clue whether we should look at the Keys, or St Pete’s (different places suggested by friends as examples), or anywhere else. A nice balance of things the kids would enjoy such as maybe water park, water sports, places to visit/see, and relaxation.

Any great experiences people would recommend?

Many thanks

My tip would be do not have a car when you’re at Disney - resort fee, valet parking and parking at the parks is mad money and there are cheap Ubers

Disney resort hotel guests have free parking.

Not left field at all I don’t think! As we’re staying ‘on resort’, we can do the early morning hours, then duck out to a water park (or just a siesta) and go back for the late afternoon as you say. Makes sense to me!!

it works really well. Animal Kingdom closes early-ish, which is a shame. We rope-dropped a couple of days to do Flights of Passage, zipped around the other big ticket rides and were away by 10.30! But the other parks have shows/fireworks. A good tip is to join a ride queue close to the official park closing time if you’re not watching the show. Try to stay late in MK one night for the Kiss Goodnight. It’s cooler at night and the parks are so pretty when lit up. try to ride Tiana’s Bayou at sunset or during the fireworks.

Clearwater sounds like what you’re after. Are you renting a car and driving to your second destination? Miami is around a 5 hour drive from Orlando just to give some perspective. Clearwater is about 3.

So yes, we’re looking at renting a car from our Universal departure. We have our return flights booked from Miami, so may spend last 2 nights prior to departure there. After another visit to travel agent today, it’s been suggested we look at Vero Beach and Delray Beach areas, and even around Fort Lauderdale as well as Clearwater to make our decision- if anyone has any thoughts on these?