to hire or buy

hi all,
we are booked again for june,this time 13 of us.(5 1st timers)we are going to a 6 bed villa in emerald island resort,kissimmee.(aoa) with a 15 seater van.
1.to hire a child seat can be costly, would it be better to buy one at wallmart etc,or would there be one in the villa.
2. how are the satnavs, are they reliable and easy to use,and would it be cheaper to buy one rather than hire from the car rental.
so many questions yet again,any help appreciated and i'm sure my party will have me here with regular querys!!!!
many thanks
bob.

Have never had a hired Sat Nav so cant help you with that one.

Regarding the child seat do you need one from the airport. If so I would be tempted to take my own - not a fan of the hired ones. We have a booster seat at the villa as your owner may also have. If you have rented direct with the owner they will be able to tell you this.

We have hired the sat nav from this site and would defnitely recommed it. The unit came with the address of our accommodation in North Carolina already keyed in so all we had to do was turn it on as we left the airport and we had no problems with it at all.

Most of our guests who need car seats take their own as the children are used to and familiar with them and they will be needed on the drive from the airport to the villa.

When our children were young we took our own car seat/booster seat with us, we had no problems at the airports etc but I don't know how much things have changed in that respect. We also took a buggy with us as well, again no probs at the airports.

Previously taken my own Tom Tom with me having downloaded the relevevant maps and its worked perfectly.

Just came back today, and as for the boaster seats we bought ours from walmart. They were $13 plus tax and they are now here we us in the uk. As for satnav didnt have one as I like navigating the routes and getting lost, but yet again walmart had some good prices on them, saw a tom tom for about $60, check their website.

Most airlines allow either a child seat or a pushchair ( but not both!) in addition to any luggage allowance.

Airlines allow both child seat and pushchair. We have been for the past 2 years with 4 kids 8,6,2,1 and have taken booster seats for the 2 older boys, a pushchair and car seat for the 2 year old and a pushchair and car seat for the 1 year old.

If you have young children then you can't really have one without the other. They need a car seat and a pushchair.

You should see our luggage trolleys with all that stuff!!!!! [msnoo]

The above was with BA and Virgin.

When my children were smaller we took our own car seats.[msnsmile2]

We also take car seat and buggy without any problems. Just make sure you wrap them in a sturdy plastic bag so as to avoid getting damaged or dirty whilst in transit.

Dave

You will have good clear directions to your rental home so shouldnt need a sat nav the first day if you did want to buy one. We bought our own Tom Tom as we are villa owners and visit regularly, it has been invaluable as also used on trips to Denver, Boston and even hand held around the streets of New York where it was easy to get lost and waste valuable time! they've come down in price a lot. You can always sell it on afterwards.

In terms of the satnav, definitely buy your own - you can get them for less than $100 which depending on the length of your stay will be less than the rental charge. Alternatively if you have a smartphone just get a satnav app - when I was in Orlando a few weeks ago I was using Copilot Live on my android phone, and actually found it to be better than my TomTom!

Some owners have child seats so well worth asking. Also sometimes people buy child seats to use on holiday and then leave them in the villas so there is a good chance there might be one there.

If buying a satnav in Florida, it is useful to check if it has enough space to install UK maps as well as the pre-installed USA maps, then it is useful when you get home. We never go without ours and we simply switch to USA maps at the airport and it is ready to go. It has many uses apart from giving directions - TomTom warns me if I am speeding and it can find the local Post Office or various shops etc.

Take your own car seat. Even if there is one in the villa you need it to get from the aiport. If you have your own seat, there are many advantages
1) You are familiar with how to fit it properly and safely, if you get one from the rental desk you will have to fit it yourself (to absolve them of liability of incorrectly fitting it in the event of any mishap)
2) Your child is familiar with it and you know it is appropriate for their size and weight.
3) Most important imo, you are familiar with the history of the seat and know it has not been involved in an accident whih could have caused a weakness.

All of the above applies to one that is supplied by a villa owner as well.

thank you all so much for your replies,they have been a great help. looking forward to the hol.now for the ticket hunt:)

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Scorpio
If buying a satnav in Florida, it is useful to check if it has enough space to install UK maps as well as the pre-installed USA maps, then it is useful when you get home. We never go without ours and we simply switch to USA maps at the airport and it is ready to go. It has many uses apart from giving directions - TomTom warns me if I am speeding and it can find the local Post Office or various shops etc.
[/quote]

We looked at some whilst browsing in Best Buy in Virginia last September and a lot of the new Tom Toms did not have the capacity to download UK maps.

Hi, that's why I suggest checking. I bought a Tomtom 125SE, with USA maps loaded and it had sufficient space for UK maps (after I deleted some spare voices). I also bought a Tomtom 300XL, which did not - but I exported the USA maps to a PC, then installed the UK maps - it only takes minutes to swap them when connected to the PC. I also bought a XXL530 for a relative and was able to install UK maps along with the USA maps.
All of these models have spoken street name capability and speed monitoring.
They were all much cheaper in Orlando than back in the UK and prices have dropped recently.

Take your own child seat as you need one from the airport anyway. Our family only once hired one and it was filthy. I have noticed people going around airports with a car seat on wheels which was being used as a buggy. Don't know where they got them but it may be worthwhile googling for it.

Andrena

If you already have a satnav I agree that to get USA maps is the best bet.
Trouuble is that they take a while to 'find' you with the new maps and you may not have that time when you first arrive- if that is a problem with strange roads.

Most owners or certainly THIS site will give you specific driving instgructions to a villa and there are sites giving help for new British Driversssssss.
Stilck witgh that and when at the villa you can put the new maps in your satnav and have time to get it up and running.

I did just that last November, it was a bit frustrating trying to get that first fix. Its amazing that the whole of USA can get on one microsd card with 2 Mb.