Florida/Disneyworld Advice Please!!!

[Clayhead]

Not for me, for my cousin...

She plans to go next year, April time, to Disney world. She wants to tag a few days on the end of the holiday and was wondering if there is anywhere anyone can recommend. Preferably somewhere quiet, a small town with a beach that sort of thing. Also needs to be within a couple of hours drive of Orlando.

Also, are there any national/state parks in the vicinity which are worth a visit?

Lastly, she plans to book Virgin flights, does anyone have experience of these? Kids will be 3 and 5. Do you need to book well in advance? (flying from Manchester)

Thanks.

We did 2 weeks in orlando, and the final week in the keys.... wow! it was fantastic! I highly reccomend the south keys.... it does take a while to get there, but we flew into orlando and out of miami, so saw some of miami the day we were travelling home... miami beach - big wow factor!

Would suggest your cousin books up her holiday to Florida by mid summer at the latest as flights to Orlando do get full quickly. Virgin are okay with children.

If she only wants to drive a couple of hours at most from Orlando she could look at resort areas like St Petersburg, Sarasota or Clearwater to name but three.

HTH

usparks.about.com/cs/stateparks/a/bestparksfl.htm

The above site is useful for info on State parks near Orlando

Thanks jessicasmummy & MeerkatsUnite, will pass info on.

.

any more ideas?

Hi,
We are hoping to return to orlando next April and so far all the dates for the first 2 weeks in April the flights are already full thats with Virgin, I have been trawling on here to get something else but it is too early it seems. We flew Virgin last Oct and would recommend them. We had 13 nights in Orlando and 8 nights on Anna Maria Island which was Heaven! Its just over 2 hours drive from Orlando out towards Tampa way, very laid back and has a sweet free Trolley that constantly goes round the island so you can hop on and off when you want, brilliant. Loads more info if you want.

we went in Oct and flew Premium economy with Virgin - my boys are 5 and 3 too. The flights were fine - the cabin crew were great - found 5 different types of sandwiches to tempt my fussy ds1 by raiding the staff supplies.

The kids were completely entertained by the individual TV/film/games console in each seat. They also liked the free backpack full of pencils notebook and other bits and pieces.

All in all a pleasant experience on the flight and a fab holiday in Orlando

Have stayed in St Petersburgh after a disney trip but that was pre kids (so about 100 years ago). From what I can remember beautiful beaches and loads of child friendly restaurants.

.

hopeful evening bump