Florida (tour)

Kalaar kururuc

Kalaar kururuc

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My in-laws want to go to Florida and while it's not top of my list there are a few places I wouldn't mind seeing (the everglades national park, Kennedy space centre etc). Long story short I get on quite well with the in-laws and if me and the wife go with them they babysit a few nights so we get some adult time too. If you were spending 2 weeks there where would you go/what would you see? From the UK the most likely landing airport is Miami and I'd say there is also the possibility of driving outside Florida if there is anything not a million miles away worth seeing but the closest states are Georgia and Alabama so not sure there is? I'm trying to decide if it's worth 2 weeks there and I make positive noises or keep quiet and let it die :)
 
Juvarisx

Juvarisx

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Lincoln Road in Miami
Harry Potter at Universal in Orlando especially for kids (need to get passes for both Universal and Adventure Island but its awesome)
Kennedy ofcourse
Everglades Airboat's
Key West for fishing and Hemmingway's house. If you have a babysitter Duval street is basically a themepark for Adults
National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola
Ringling Museum in Sarasota is cool
You can go see the USS Alabama in Mobile but I warm you the panhandle is a hell of a drive and that interstate is shit. It is close to Pensacola though so you could combine those two.
If you golf, go to Naples, it has good shopping too for the wife
Anywhere in the Keys for Scuba, however the middle keys haven't been rebuilt really since Irma so you probably will have to go to Key West / Largo again for that
 
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Soygen

Soygen

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Florida is huge. If you're arriving in Miami and your transportation is a car, you're looking at a lot of driving if you want to get to the parks and space center. That said, I would probably start off going to Key West since you're already relatively close to it. It's a very unique place and if you like doing things in the water, it's hard to beat. Lots of fishing, diving, boating, beach stuff down there. Tons of awesome bars and just a very chill place to be.

After Key West, prepare to blow a day on traveling to Orlando to get to the rest of the touristy stuff.
 
Kalaar kururuc

Kalaar kururuc

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Thanks, some things to consider. I also noticed they're discussing a Miami GP, not sure it's right time of yer for the in-laws though. I like the idea of timing the trip around a rocket launch, but with the expectation it would be cancelled after I sat there all day heh.
 
slippery

slippery

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Like someone else said, Florida is a very large state. You're talking 7 hours going straight up to get out of the state driving. If you want to cross across the panhandle you're adding even more. Keep in mind those considerations for how far you want to go.

Also something like late October is the best time of year. You'll get the least people around and the best weather
 
TomServo

TomServo

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March 1st through 2nd week in April aint to bad either for weather. Late october and early November can be quite chilly.
 
Soygen

Soygen

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Oct and Nov is still hot as shit in Miami 95% of the time.
 
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Kalaar kururuc

Kalaar kururuc

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Cheers folks, gives me something to think about. I reckon we would probably stay in Florida. Fly to Miami, spend 5 days or so there then off down to see the keys and Everglade stuff. Maybe day at a water park with the (then) 2 year old. Nothing in the calendar yet for March but already 1 Falcon launch planned fo October next year.
 
Locnar

Locnar

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Plenty of non stops from UK to Orlando and that would make a far better base of operations to do FL from. There is even fairly cheap daily nonstop flights from Orlando to Key West. I just got back from a day trip down to Miami and it reminded me why I will never live south of Martin county again.
 
Kalaar kururuc

Kalaar kururuc

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Welp, just got back from 2 weeks in Thailand/Singapore with the in-laws. Fuck Florida with them, they are by far the wort travellers you could imagine, I wanted to throttle the pair of them nearly every day.
 
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gauze

gauze

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If you're stuck doing Florida in the future, let me know if you do panhandle. New Orleans is about a 3hr drive from Pensacola and Biloxi(casinos) right inbetween, bout 1 1/2 hrs from Pcola.

Destin attracts a lot of attention in the summer time, prob the best area for the Gulf in my experience. Rent a pontoon and do crab Island. If you're interested into fishing, I can send you to Captain Mike and Firstshot.

Best thing really is kayaks and/or cabrewing, at least as a local. Could even do it on a paddle board if they rent em out. Tons of nice clear water springs.
 
N

nawcor

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Where are you at gauze? I'm in FWB myself..

I agree though Destin is a probably the best area to visit if you come near the panhandle, plenty to do and the beaches are awesome.
 
TJT

TJT

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Kalaar kururuc said:
Cheers folks, gives me something to think about. I reckon we would probably stay in Florida. Fly to Miami, spend 5 days or so there then off down to see the keys and Everglade stuff. Maybe day at a water park with the (then) 2 year old. Nothing in the calendar yet for March but already 1 Falcon launch planned fo October next year.
Click to expand...

Make sure to do Fort Jefferson if you go to the Keys. Summon edko edko for Keys related information.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Everglades are swamp... only tour / airboat if you really have nothing better to do and like feeling danger of getting eaten by gators or pythons if you fall off the boat... I get why they are a "part of the ecosystem of Florida and its watersheds etc." but its not... beautiful

The amusement park thing is its own thing, WDW and Universal are both great in their own respects - water parks are like "action parks" it really depends on what age you are targeting - younger kids the small water park at the back of Lego Land is awesome - Lego Land in general is great because it is all targeted to younger kids, it is the Bush Gardens and Adventure Island for kids not big enough for those two. A step up from Lego Land water park is WDW Typhoon Lagoon - I would skip Blizzard Beach, they have let that place rot and it looks bad... when it first opened it looked like real snow and was really well done, now its all just dirty poorly textured cement that looks like crap and any surface that is (was...) "snow" will tear the shit out of your skin. This is why I look forward to if they keep up Avatar land in Animal Kingdom, it looks awesome now - but if it is not kept up I can see the blending of fake + real fauna etc. will age badly.

The new Orlando water park is the shit for adults and older - Volcano Bay and also Wet&Wild A++ and I like them better for more "thrill" stuff - but for kids, as stated above - LegoLand and Typhoon Lagoon.

There are a lot of historical stuffs all around, spanish forts etc.

Miami is Miami, go to the titty beach etc. and of course if you are close to Key West, go

Florida is bigger than you think, if you start "central" in Orlando its 3 hours to the west cost, 4 north or 4 south to get to the ends of Florida - then another 5 etc. to cross and go to the panhandle, but panhandle Florida should be another state, those guys.... 'Nub City': Vernon, Florida's Decade-Long Insurance Scam / Vernon, Florida (1981) - IMDb


Florida does have a lot to offer, but none of it is really...in one spot. You will get "the most" by starting in Orlando and do the theme park stuff, hit up the Space Coast for NASA stuff, then go down to Miami and do...whatever it is that is Miami, si hablo - and then Key West it.
 
Xexx

Xexx

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Miami and Key West will yield you the best foods for the state without doubt, but aside from that not much else to see here.
 
Ossoi

Ossoi

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"The aging motels along Florida’s Highway 192 have long been barometers of a fragile economy. In good times they drew budget-conscious tourists from China, South America and elsewhere, whose dollars helped to pay the salaries of legions of low-wage service workers; the people who made one of the world’s largest tourism destinations — “the most magical place on earth” — run.

In tough times, the motels degenerated into shelters of last resort in a city where low-income housing shortages were among the most severe in the nation and the social safety net was collapsing. Now they were fast becoming places where it was possible to glimpse what a complete social and economic collapse might look like in America."

I holidayed a lot in Orlando as a kid. First time was in 1988 when it snowed at Xmas, my mum got bit by a snake by the hotel pool and I got pneumonia.

Second time was in 1992, we spent the whole first week at a Kenneth Copeland convention. That holiday was also memorable for the first time I played Street Fighter 2. Then about 5-6 years later my parents bought a holiday home on the 192, so I have fond memories of it.

Is it really that bad now?
 
Locnar

Locnar

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Read the article. Yeah I suppose stretches of it are. When the theme parks started building hotels on their own properties, including budget ones, the places on 192 got marginalized. Then you had all of Osceola country becoming a majority minority county. They enriched the old Florida culture in the usual ways.


Many had jobs or were collecting unemployment insurance, he said, but were refusing to pay because they were protected by the state’s eviction moratorium.
Click to expand...

Why would any landlord want that kinda scum in their property? Getting 800+ a week in unemployment (well the ones that bothered working some in 2019 and qualified for unemployment now) and give the middle finger to the landlords because the law won't allow eviction right now because "the evil pandemic".

Bad trashy people that do bad trashy things from middle school on up then wonder why they are surrounded by trash in a flop house.

I still find myself in that part of town from time to time, and i've stopped to eat and what not. Its not like miles and miles of crack house hotels, its pockets.
 
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Lambourne

Lambourne

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I stayed in Celebration last year along the 192, was all right. Kinda wondering what those people were expecting though, it's Orlando, not Bel Air or Monaco or some other rich place.
 
Rabkorik

Rabkorik

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We are trying to plan a trip to Florida with kids late February / early March. We know absolutely nothing about Florida.

The best example I can give what we are looking for is something like Kauai (less city, more nature, clear warm ocean). I understand that Florida != Kauai but didn't know if anything like that existed or what our best options would be. I also am not sure what the water is like in Feb/March.
 
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