12 Day Driving Tour starting & finishing in Orlando
 

We are flying from the UK to Orlando arriving late afternoon on 15th February and and leaving early evening on 27th February and would like to spend some time taking in what we can of Florida, S Carolina & Georgia. I know that sounds ambitious but we don't want to spend any time in Orlando (the only direct flight destination from Manchester, our home airport) as we were there in November and did the theme parks then. We also have done Miami, the Keys and the Clearwater, Naples area in the past. Any suggestions would be most gratefully received. I am happy to drive to our first destination immediately after arriving in Orlando.

St. Augustine is only about three hours (maybe a little less) from MCO and would be a good stop. You are going in the wrong direction, weather-wise, but it should still be pretty comfortable, and it's been a mild winter on the east coast.

St Augustine looks nice, I think it will probably be our first stop

Charleston,SC is a great place to visit. We've been there many times. Also highly recommend Savannah, GA.

I agree. St. Augustine, Savannah and Charleston are perfect for your interests and available time. However, hurry with your rental car reservations. This is peak season and demand is high.

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Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Thanks for the responses; that's three places to stop, if I could find a fourth that would be perfect

Your fourth could be Beaufort, SC. It's in between Savannah and Charleston. While you're there visit Hunting Island, my favorite place on earth.

If you can still get a room in the Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral area, I'd suggest heading due east your first night. Since your flight gets in late afternoon, it would be an easy drive-about 1 hour on good highway.

Enjoy the beach for a little bit that night, or early the next morning, then head to the Kennedy Space Center. The tours there end at 5:00 pm (if you end up staying all day), which is early enough to make St. Augustine that night.

Beaufort is nice, but our last trip there was on a Sunday, and most of the shops and restaurants were closed, so not the best day to go. Sue advised us to visit the Sheldon Church ruins, which we finally did, and it is worth a stop.

Maybe the Brunswick Islands? Also you say you've just been to Orlando, but there is more going on in the area than theme parks. You could spend a day or two at the end of the trip and visit the Leu Gardens and/or the Charles Hosmer Morse museum. It is also the only stop on this trip that there's any real likelihood of it being warm enough to swim in late February.

To continue persimmondeb's train of thought, here are more non-park ideas for Central Florida. Of these, Blue Spring State Park might be the best one because of the opportunity to see manatees in a natural habitat..

Wekiwa Springs State park
http://www.floridastateparks.org/wek...gs/default.cfm
http://www.canoewekiva.com/
http://wekivaisland.com/

Blue Spring State Park
http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/default.cfm

Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour
http://www.scenicboattours.com/

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum Of American Art
http://www.morsemuseum.org/home.html

Leu Gardens in Orlando
http//:www.leugardens.org

The Orange County Regional History Center
http://www.thehistorycenter.org/

Orlando Science Center
http://www.osc.org/

Gatorland
http://www.gatorland.com/

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Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

I am really impressed with all the ideas, thanks for your efforts. Having looked at Savannah & Charleston they seem very similar (we still plan on 2 or 3 days in each) & we were wondering if going inland in S Carolina or Georgia we could find somewhere scenic to stay for a couple of nights - I accept that it will get colder if we go into the hills but I am sure we could cope with that. Leu Gardens look a possibilty for our last port of call before flying home. Brunswick Islands look beautiful but I feel they are a little too far north and will add too much driving time

I wouldn't "bother" going inland much--you will find a LOT to do on the coast. From charleston you might go up to Georgetown for a look--it has a lovely historic district that dates from the Revolutionary War, and there are some interesting and different plantations en route.
It will be nippy on the coast also, so bring layers. You really have enough to fill your 12 days and have a very enjoyable tour. Have fun.

What about Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge? It sounds interesting & we do like wildlife

We have our car hire & our first three nights booked in St Augustine, looking at hotels in & around Savannah for the second stay but getting confused by the number on offer. Any ideas?

What number?

The number of hotels from which to choose, not even sure whether staying just out of town (no parking fees) is preferable to being at the heart of things

I'd tend to want to stay right by the historic district. It's a great walking city. and lively at night. From Savannah you could go to Tybee Island to look at the ocean. You will not want to swim in it in February, but it's still a nice beach.

The temperature difference between the coast and inland can be really dramatic, especially if you are on an elevation.

I also think you should stay in the HD. It's great to walk out the door into the heart of things, instead of wasting valuable touring time finding a parking place. We stayed at River Street Inn a while back and really enjoyed it.

Many thanks to all, I have now booked 3 nights St Augustine, 3 nights Savannah, 3 nights Charleston, 2 nights Beaufort (if only to visit suewoos's favourite place on earth); all that remains is to book a last night somewhere en route to the return home

Coming to the end of our trip. On our second night in Beafort; thank you suewoo for recommending Hunting Island, we spent a couple of hours there today and now understand why it is your favourite place on earth!

I am SO HAPPY you enjoyed it. Islands like that are rare. I love the driftwood and the beautiful maritime forest.

Please tell us how you liked the rest of your trip!

Back in gloomy England now at the end of a wonderful trip.

St Augustine, the only stop that we knew absolutely nothing about, was really interesting and easy to walk around though to start with we took the hop on hop off trolley to get our bearings. The highlight was undoubtedly the interior of Flagler College, well worth the small cost of the tour led by students.

Savannah was a surprise with all its green squares in the historic area. I would describe it as an interesting place without being too splendid. Again we took the hop on hop off trollwy which was well worth it, we also did a ghost tour which was amusing, if not convincing. We also did a river cruise which was a waste of time and money - the waterfront of Savannah is not at all pretty and we saw more commercial docks than anything else.

On our way to Charleston we stopped off at Magnolia Gardens which I would thoroughly recommend, though were there just a little to early for most of the azaleas - having said that the camelias were in full bloom.

Charleston is a delightful city. We had been there previously for a day off a cruise ship when we did a city tour so we tried to do different things. The highlight was a walking tour which took us to places that we would not have discovered otherwise; then we were able to do our own thing which involved a lot of walking. Whilst in Charleston we ate in easily the best retsaurant we have discovered in a while - if you get a chance to dine in the Fig Restaurant you will not be disappointed.

Beaufort was a nice restful place to stop at the end of our trip. We were pronouncing it Bo-fort, just as wellwe didn't get directions to there from a local as the one with that pronunciation is in North Carolina whilst our stop, in South Carolina, is pronounced Byoo-fort though both are spelt the same. And of course Hunting Island was probably the most relaxing place we found during our short tour.

Finally one night in rainy Jacksonville en route to our return flight from Orlando where it was raining too, & I thought Florida was supposed to be the Sunshine State!

Many thanks to one and all for your recommendations

That sounds like a lot of fun! That whole Beaufort-Beaufort thing IS confusing but people are happy to correct anybody who needs the help haha.

FIG is a current favorite of mine. I need to get there soon. I'm really glad you had such a good time and saw some sun.