Florida villa, websites or advice please

[Wills]

Hi,

I'm currently considering going to Florida over christmas. Ideally we thought of spending the Christmas week in Orlando and then making our way further south for two weeks of sun sea and relaxation. I've never been before but have a dd of 3years (nearly 4 by then) and (fingers crossed) bump will be 4mnths. Any advice on where to go in the South. Also any good websites anyone can recommend? I've just tried a search but the websites that were mentioned no longer exist/work.

St Pete's Beach is nice and about 2.5 hours from Orlando. Naples is lovely too but further down -about 2.5 hours from Miami. Sanibel Island is gorgeous, especially if you like looking for shells on the beachand is maybe an hour up from Naples I think.

Wills, do not trust Florida for sun between Nov and Feb, you may be lucky, but mostly we have frozen our butts off. I'm never going again as we have had some very miserable trips at that time of year.

I recommend the Bougainvillea Hotel in Barbados (self catering). On the beach. Fantastic. Hire a car and go and nosey round Sandy Lane.

I was sort of expecting it to be naff in Orlando but we'll spend most of the time there doing things, but are you saying that even down south near miami area it could still be cold and horrible?

we went to florida 28th dec last year for two weeks. we organised a british airways flight to Tampa and then spent one week on ana maria island which is between st petersburgh and sarasota. We stayed at a cottage - a group of 4 with a pool called Shady Trees. There were beautiful beaches and nice eateries. We had a few trips to the SArasota area which was a lovely city with lots of things for the kids. The weather was mostly around 65 degrees. It was mostly sunny but we had one terrific storm on new years eve. We spent the second week on Sanibel island- Sunshine Island inn. There was loads of outdoor things- cycle trails, wildlife and some wonderful restaurants. Both places were extremely safe. We did Orland two years ago. Had a great time . Personally I think its a bit better for older children as its very tiring.
helen

Wills

Have you tried the website for James' Holiday Villas?(www.jamesvillas.co.uk, I think)

May be some useful info there.

Thanks for the advice so far and the James website was brilliant for Orlando. Considering some of the comments we're now thinking of adapting our original plans. We're now considering the option of Orlando for a week and then flying to the Bahamas. The flight is only 1.30 hours and its a very small cost from Orlando but I'm a little stumped in terms of organising accomodation and may resort back to southern Florida after all. Most places appear to be All inclusive - which I'm fine about, but I don't want to have all four of us (me, dh, dd and newborn) in a single room). Can you get self-catering? Can you get all-inclusive apartments? The reason I'm not keen on a single room is that my dd is a light sleeper and once she goes to sleep so would we as we'd have nowhere else to go. For me the solution has always been a villa etc but I'm keen to hear what others have done.