Hotel/Car hire advice....Orlando

mark_eire

Hey all,
We're planning to go to Orlando for our honeymoon at the end of may for 16 days, neither of us has been to the Usa before! Can't wait! lol
Anybody got any suggestion's on where is nice to stay, go etc and also the best way of hiring a car e.g. organise before travelling or just get one in the airport?
The schedule we were thinking of was 7 nights in Orlando, taking in theme parks and whatever else there is to do, then head to Clearwater/Key west etc for a relaxing 8/9 night's!
Anybody have any do's and dont's for me!
Thanks

save_our_socks

Just did the same holiday with my boyfriend back in September, ye are going to have a great time!

In relation to where to stay etc. we spent 5 nights in Disneyworld in their All start Movies resort including park tickets and room it was about 700 euro or there abouts, even though our base was Disney all the other theme parks were so close we just jumped in the car when we fancied a change of scenery.

Do you have your heart set on clearwater? If not go a further 30minutes down the coast to Redington beach area....we stayed at the hilton doubletree hotel, got a fantastic deal on hotels.com for it and believe me the hotel is worth so so much more than what we paid....10 nights for 900 euro when the hotel itself charges about twice that. Its right on the beach so you literally walk out your room and youre on the beach. Also have a pool/beach bar and all the staff were fantastic, it was a slightly older crowd, were 23 and 27, most were in their 40's but a few honeymoon couples were there, but since it was for pure relaxation purposes we didnt care! The staff are brilliant, any problems they will help you out and will give you a map of all the hidden wonders of the area and spend as much time as you want going through the map with you. People loved the hotel and staff so much they came from other hotels in the area for the bar and view at night!

Hope this helps! Most importantly enjoy, its a brilliant way to spend a holiday!

Enii

You will love Key West!!!! It's a fantastic island!

Try www.carhire3000.co.uk for cheap car hire, I have always found them to be very reasonable.

pebbles21

just back from a similar hol myself it was my fifth time in florida

www.yescarhire.com
these are about 20 quid more than carhire3000 but i found them much better (long story but well worth the extra couple of quid)

http://www.bluegreenonline.com/explore/resortDetail.aspx?ResortID=14
this was easiest the best place ive stayed in orlando you get a two bed apartment with all the facilities of a hotel and only 5 mins from all the attractions and only about 100 euro a night


http://www.oceankey.com/
this is the best place in key west to stay bar none !the sunsets are atmospheric with everyone gathering at dusk and the rooms are to die for
btw key west is 100 times better than clearwater only problem its a good 6/7 hour drive from orlando

hope this helps

ncmc

Congrats on the upcoming nuptuals, that sounds like a really nice honeymoon you're planning.

With regards to booking a car, I would recommend doing it before you go, I have used Dollar and Hertz in the past and found them both good, I would swing toward Dollar simply because for no extra charge, you can sign up for 'Dollar Express'. This allows you to join a seperate (much shorter) queue in the airport.

With regards to hotel, it would all depend on what parks you plan on visiting. If you are planning on mainly Disney, then I would second the recommendation to stay onsite at one of their own hotels. There are bonuses such as extra hours in the park and they are all themed, some of them are quite romantic. I would recommend the Port Orleans Riverside, it is themed on a 'Southern Plantation' and is a really beautiful resort. The Disney hotels do tend to be more expensive than comparable resorts off-site. If you plan to split your time between Disney/Universal/Sea World, then I would recommend a hotel on International Drive. It is slap bang in the middle of everything with lots of restaurants withing easy reach. I have never stayed in International Drive so can't recommend a specific hotel, sorry!

mark_eire

Thanks for all the advice!! I'm getting really excited now after spending the last few days researching place's to go/stay!!
So far the schedule is looking like this....
5 night's in a hotel on international drive,
1 night in Fort Lauderdale
2 night's in Miami
2 night's in Key West
We'll spend the rest stopping wherever look's nice on the way back to Orlando for the rest of the trip!!

I'm a truck driver here and have driven all over the continent so the driving doesn't bother me, (bus man's holiday... lol) I'm a bit of a car nut aswell, so was looking into hiring a nice car, The Ford Mustang's are not that expensive so might get one for the laugh!! Might as well do it in style...I'm really looking forward to it all!!

ncmc

mark_eire wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice!! I'm getting really excited now after spending the last few days researching place's to go/stay!!
So far the schedule is looking like this....
5 night's in a hotel on international drive,
1 night in Fort Lauderdale
2 night's in Miami
2 night's in Key West
We'll spend the rest stopping wherever look's nice on the way back to Orlando for the rest of the trip!!

I'm a truck driver here and have driven all over the continent so the driving doesn't bother me, (bus man's holiday... lol) I'm a bit of a car nut aswell, so was looking into hiring a nice car, The Ford Mustang's are not that expensive so might get one for the laugh!! Might as well do it in style...I'm really looking forward to it all!!

We hired a Mustang convertible from Hertz for our US Holiday this year, it was a fantastic car. It was surprisingly comfortable and we did some seriously long drives (one was 9hrs!) I thought we'd be in bits from sitting in bucket seats for so long, but we found it great. We rarely actually drove with the roof down, but it was hubby's dream to have a convertible so who am I to argue with a mans dream!

I think we paid something like €430 and it was definitly worth it. We actually called them and booked it over the phone rather than online, make sure you tell them that you def want a Mustang, because they might saddle you with a Seabring instead as they are in the same class, but not near as nice. They can't gaurantee any specific car, but will note your request and do their best.