Ten Days in Florida - Road Trip

[Mazdarese]

Y'all

The wife and I are planning to go to Florida in September. We've been before and spent most of our time in Orlando, save for a few days in Miami.

This time, we'd like to fly into Orlando and drive straight out and maybe head down the West coast before coming back up the east coast for a few days in Orlando before flying home.

So, something like this:

Orlando
Tampa
Cape Coral
Naples
Miami
West Palm Beach
Orlando

Has anyone ever done this trip before and have any recommendations? Where to stay? What to see? We toured California for our honeymoon last year and it was amazing, so looking to have as much 'fun' as possible.

We're hoping to hire a C6 Corvette

[junglie]

Something like this:

Orlando
Daytona (Cars)
Cape Canaveral (Space Shuttle)
Ocala National Forest (Good walk to break up journey)
Clear Water (Swimming with Manattees)
Pine Island (Relaxing place)
Venice (Half way between stops - fine but nothing to write home about)
Tampa (Fun)
Everglade City (Snakes, crocs etc)
Key Largo
Key West
Miami
Orlando

We had a great time but had to roll in a Chrysler 300C rather than a 'vette!

[Thom987]

I'd pay a visit to Sarasota. Nice people, good restaurants and good beaches nearby. We stayed in Boca Grande for a few days and I would highly reccomend it.

[Mazdarese]

Brilliant, thanks chaps.

Are Key West/Largo definitely worth a visit? An ex-colleague went last year and he said it was a bit 'meh', and it's quite a trek down there.

[Crafty_]

I like Clearwater, never been down as far as St Petes but apparently thats nice too.

If your good lady will oblige may I suggest a trip to http://garlits.com/ just over an hour north of orlando

[Matt Harper]

Here's a suggestion that will capture a bit of everything...

Orlando - Blue Spring State Park (Orange City)- Manatees
St Augustine - Casa Monica hotel is awesome.
St Augustine - Ocala - Don Garlits Museum - Tampa (Ybor City - cheap and fun)
Tampa - Fort De Soto Park (fantastic unpoilt beach) - St Petersburg - Sunshine Skyway Bridge - Sanibel
Sanibel - Miami - via Tamiami ("Tammy-Ammy") Trail through Big Cypress National Preserve (not I-75 'Alligator Alley')
Miami - Islamorada - Chesapeake Beach Resort is also wonderful. Key West is scruffy.
Islamorada - South Beach (very expensive, but fun) - Kennedy Space Center
KSC - Daytona International Speedway - Daytona - Mt Dora (very arty, pedestrain friendly town)
Mt Dora - Orlando

I live in Central FL, so happy to help if you need specifics on anything.

[Mazdarese]

Thanks Chaps, that looks fantastic. Mrs A is a bit of a petrolhead too so I'm sure she wouldn't mind us popping into Don Garlits.

[alfa pint]

I wouldn't have missed Key West for the world. Top place. Really nice feel about it all and Hemingway's house was well worth a visit. The drive across all the bridges was pretty memorable too.

[yellowbentines]

Matt Harper said:

St Augustine - Casa Monica hotel is awesome.
St Augustine - Ocala - Don Garlits Museum - Tampa (Ybor City - cheap and fun)

St Augustine is a wonderful place to visit. We did the little hop on/hop off train tour around the place, the guide/driver was brilliant and it's very worthwhile as there's so much history to learn about the place, the visitor centre is excellent, the winery tour with free tasting worth a visit, and there's lots of good places to eat near the waterfront.

[chopper602]

alfa pint said:

I wouldn't have missed Key West for the world. Top place. Really nice feel about it all and Hemingway's house was well worth a visit. The drive across all the bridges was pretty memorable too.

+1 on the Keys, well worth the trip when we went

It's a really nice drive down the east coast, we avoided Miami, but think it's a lot better now than it was 20 years ago!

[Mazdarese]

chopper602 said:

alfa pint said:

I wouldn't have missed Key West for the world. Top place. Really nice feel about it all and Hemingway's house was well worth a visit. The drive across all the bridges was pretty memorable too.

+1 on the Keys, well worth the trip when we went

It's a really nice drive down the east coast, we avoided Miami, but think it's a lot better now than it was 20 years ago!

We've been to Miami before and were not completely impressed with it, but we're going to give it another go.

[tim0409]

You will have a great time! We have done this trip four times, the last being in January when we flew from Edinburgh to Miami and picked up a Mustang (the last time I upgraded to a Shelby which was fun!) for 10 days.

A few things we found -

1) We love Naples - it's a nice, quiet place especially if you have been to Miami and want to take it easy for a bit. It also has best steak restaurant I have ever been to (Chops) although it's not cheap.
2) Driving down the Keys with the roof down is a great experience although I don't think I could have spent more than a night at Key West (it's also an expensive place to stay). A better option for us was to stop at Key Largo and drive down in a day and back - we found a great place to stay in Key Largo (Hampton Suites) which had great service and a nice pool (we originally stopped for 1 night but ended up staying for 3 after OH cut a good deal [she works in hotels]) There are restaurant nearby, but having eaten out for a week we got some salad/ribs from nearby Winne Dixie and ate it on the balcony.
3) This was the third time I have went without a suitcase/clothes - well worth buying Levis/Polo etc (and a samsonite suitcase!) stuff there (although I was questioned about this on the way in!) Also bought a Macbook Air as well!
4) I am jealous!

[Mazdarese]

tim0409 said:

You will have a great time! We have done this trip four times, the last being in January when we flew from Edinburgh to Miami and picked up a Mustang (the last time I upgraded to a Shelby which was fun!) for 10 days.

A few things we found -

1) We love Naples - it's a nice, quiet place especially if you have been to Miami and want to take it easy for a bit. It also has best steak restaurant I have ever been to (Chops) although it's not cheap.
2) Driving down the Keys with the roof down is a great experience although I don't think I could have spent more than a night at Key West (it's also an expensive place to stay). A better option for us was to stop at Key Largo and drive down in a day and back - we found a great place to stay in Key Largo (Hampton Suites) which had great service and a nice pool (we originally stopped for 1 night but ended up staying for 3 after OH cut a good deal [she works in hotels]) There are restaurant nearby, but having eaten out for a week we got some salad/ribs from nearby Winne Dixie and ate it on the balcony.
3) This was the third time I have went without a suitcase/clothes - well worth buying Levis/Polo etc (and a samsonite suitcase!) stuff there (although I was questioned about this on the way in!) Also bought a Macbook Air as well!
4) I am jealous!

Thanks Tim, all noted!

Just booked the flights

[Mazdarese]

Ok, here is our proposed route and itinerary:


1 Orlando St Augustine
2 St Augustine St Augustine
3 St Augustine Ybor City
4 Ybor City Tampa/SP
5 Tampa/SP Sanibel
6 Sanibel Naples
7 Naples Miami
8 Miami Orlando
9 Orlando Orlando
10 Orlando Orlando
11 Orlando

We've had to cut a few places out because those ten days soon get swallowed up

[Mazdarese]

[Jez m]

Mazdarese said:

Ok, here is our proposed route and itinerary:


1 Orlando St Augustine
2 St Augustine St Augustine
3 St Augustine Ybor City
4 Ybor City Tampa/SP
5 Tampa/SP Sanibel
6 Sanibel Naples
7 Naples Miami
8 Miami Orlando
9 Orlando Orlando
10 Orlando Orlando
11 Orlando

We've had to cut a few places out because those ten days soon get swallowed up

too much time in Orlando! (can't say im a massive fan of the place!)

4. Stay in Siesta Key instead. Beautiful beaches up the top end.

Sanibel is lovely. Im not too keen on Naples, id carry on to Marco Island and stay there a night or 2. They do good boat trips... saw loads of dolphins and you can go to deserted island beaches, very picturesque!
Id also spend more time in Miami, love the place.. sun, sea and fantastic nightlife!

[so called]

Key West = Sloppy Joe's
South Beach Miami = Mango's

[Matt Harper]

Good call on Mango's - but Key West is nothing like as nice as it looks in the ads. Check out Sloppy Joe's web cams - they will give you an idea of the variety of nancies, swingers, tourons and shoeless/shirtless drifters that occupy Key West.
Some of the keys further east, Marathon, Bahia Honda and Islamorada in particular, are much more idyllic, attractive and clean.
Marco Island was also mentioned - nice but the median age of the populace is about 1000 - there are many, many crocadilian snow-birds in horrible concrete beach condos. Captiva and Sanibel are so much nicer and less commercialised.
Don't dismiss Orlando - there's a lot more to the place than theme parks and 99% of those that visit Orlando, never actually make it to the city itself. Consider Orlando SpeedWorld Drag Strip for Friday night bracket racing that has just as much quality as a National meeting at Santa Pod - every weekend. Olde Towne Cruise in Kissimmee, is also good if you haven't seen it before.
The Mall at Milenia is probably the classiest in the whole state now - and Del Frisco's steak house in Longwood is one of the best in the USA.

[Mazdarese]

Very much enjoying St Augustine. Staying at the Casa Monica which is very nice.

Had our first full day here today, and heading off west tomorrow towards Tampa. Not sure where we will be staying, but Ocala is about 100 miles away which is fine, but there doesn't seem to be much there...

[Y282]

Tried orlando, couldnt see the appeal, it was bloody awful apart from the space centre.

Miami was cool, but only for a couple of days.