Florida Planning May 2014

[SamCharlesBaker]

Hi,

New to this forum and also new to planning a trip to Florida.

We are a young couple travelling to Florida for the first time and are stuck where to start with the planning.

We cant decide if we should book the holiday ourselves or a package through a travel agent. We also cant decide if we should stay in a hotel or villa considering it is just us two.

If it is a villa which area is best and how much are we looking at for 2 weeks?

Thanks in advance
Sam

[Big_Momma]

Hi! Have you looked at Condos- they're a halfway point between a villa and a hotel. You really can't beat a villa with your own pool but its an expensive option for only the two of you! Prices will vary hugely- depending how big, facilities etc and who you book with. The villa owners on here will advise you about prices.

[Sandra M]

Welcome to the forum, you'll get lots of help here.

I would say book it all yourself, that way you know exactly what you are getting and it tends to be a better price.

We often have just 2 people staying in our villa, it's not unusual Try to book direct with an owner, no one knows their villa better than them and you can ask as much as you need to, get previous guest comments etc.

There's no particular 'best community'. Most communities are within 10 or 15 minutes to Disney and it's very easy to drive in Florida, wide lanes and no road rage. Just go by what you like the look of and maybe get a shortlist of what you are looking for and go from there.

This forum is so great, ask away, planning is part of the fun so don't be shy

Sandra

[gpullan]

Hi and welcome.

For reference, i have booked everything myself and separately and for 10 people it came out at £12,500 for flights, villa, car and all park tickets. That's an average of £1,250 per person.

My sister went into a Virgin Holidays shop and booked pretty much exactly the same as us and for 6 people it was £9,200 including 5% NHS discount. This is an average of £1,533 per person

but......

They will have an allocation on arrival villa
Possible extra insurance to pay on hire car

The benefits they will get and limited to.....

Access to VRoom at Manchester Airport
Free Downtown Disney check in
Early access to WWOHP at Islands of Adventure

All that said, i think to save nearly £300 per person and get to choose your exact accommodation and tailor everything to suit your needs makes DIY definitely the way to go!

For your information, our costs breakdown as follows:

£4800 Virgin Flights
£2300 Villa
£650 Car
£1600 Discovery Cove
£3200 Disney and Universal Tickets

Have fun planning and when you need more info, this is the place to ask

[Katys Grandad]

First of all, welcome!!

I'd definitely recommend independent booking and you'll get good advice on here on doing that. You could save on a condo if there's just the 2 of you but a house with pool might come within what you're looking to spend. On the downside, accommodation and car rental is more expensive for 2 of you because you aren't sharing the cost across a few people.

If I was you I'd first check flight prices which have risen a lot over recent months but you seem to be outside school holidays so you will save money there. You don't want to book accommodation and then discover the flight prices take you over your overall budget.

Happy planning!

[SDJ]

Welcome to the forum. You will find all sorts of tips on here which will help you plan your trip.

Before we had our own villa we used to stay in a hotel. Boy oh boy. I wish I had looked at the many villas on this forum, and I would definitely have gone with a villa. Size is not important as we have a 5 bed but have many guests book when there are only 2 of them. Sometimes the price difference isn't that much different between a 3 - 5 bed. If you send out a general enquiry to the 3 different sites above and make sure you list the things that you would like e.g. pool - do you want it to be south facing in the sun all day?, bbq, free international telephone calls, wifi, within a certain distance of Disney/Universal, etc.etc. You will then receive quite a large selection of properties for you to peruse and short list. Happy planning and don't forget, there are a lot of people on here that are very experienced in visiting Florida - both owners and guests. Good luck.

[SteveandJan]

Welcome Sam and enjoy planning your holiday

[Madabouttigger]

Hi Sam, there are just 2 of us and we stay in either condos or on our last visit in Canary Pam's villa. As others have said, put out a request to villa owners and see what come back. We quite like the condos because they usually have an on site bar - restaurant that we go to without one of us driving, and quite enjoy going down to the pool and chatting with other people. But saying that there is also a club house and pub with in walking distance from Pam's villa too.
I usually start with booking flights (I've just booked ours for March 2014) then book the accommodation, and finally car hire, park tickets etc. Have fun with organising your holiday and I'm sure you will get lots of help and advice from this site.
Diane.

[brownm]

Hi Sam your in good hands on this forum so keep asking as many questions as you like,

Regards, Mark & Natalie.

[burtonl]

Hi Sam,

Welcome to the forum and enjoy planning your first Florida trip.

You will have a great time wherever you choose to stay as it's such a great place.