What are your favorite towns, cities, places to see on the Gulf Coast side of Florida (other than Mickey Mouse land?) Planning to arrive in Fort Lauderdale and rent a car for a week, and drive up the Gulf Coast side of Florida, maybe stop in Key West?.... Thanks!

Fort Lauderdale is on the Atlantic side of Florida (East coast) not the Gulf side (West Coast). Disney World is in Orlando area which is kind of in the middle east to west.

If you're on the gulf side Fort Meyers / Sanibel & Captiva are beautiful as is the Tampa / St. Pete area. There are many Floridian Fodorites who can help, but you may want to clarify where you'll be as your post is a little confusing.

Did I miss a hurricane blowing Orlando to the Gulf coast from its well-inland location...? And did Key West get blown up there as well? It's nowhere near being on your way (in fact, it's way south of FLL).

A feasable drive would be FLL to Key West on US1, back up US1 and the Florida Turnpike to Tamaimi Trail to Naples and up the West Coast.

Sorry for the confusion on my earlier post. Will be coming back from a cruise in Fort Lauderdale, so that will be our starting point. I think we will do the Keys, then work our way up to Tampa......

I'm confused. . . do you mean you want to rent a car and drive SOUTH from Fort Lauderdale? Toward the Keys?
It would be not be fun IMO to do that and then drive towards Tampa in one week.

First place to stop would be a store to buy a map.

Gail, can I recommend that you get a map of Florida and measure the distances between the places you'd like to visit? I think you'll find that Florida is a much larger state than you think. For one week's time, I'd probably just drive from FLL to the Keys and back. Quality time at a destination is always better than spending most of the week in a car IMHO.

The Edison site in Ft. Meyers and Corkscrew Swamp near Naples are two of our favorite places to visit on the west coast.

I agree with the others...too much driving, too little seeing! I would spend a day or so poking around South Beach and some spots in Miami, make the drive to Key West for that funky town, spending a few days (providing you are not going for beach, which Key West doesn't have), then drive back only as far as the Naples area for some nice beach time in a beautiful small town.

Are you flying in and out of FLL? If so I certainly wouldn't make the trip to Tampa, but only as far north as Naples/Ft Myers!

We're flying in to FLL (for cruise), and out of Tampa. My husband MUST go to Busch Gardens!

Aha! Now we have some more info. In this case, I would drive across from FTL to Fort Meyers, check out Sanibel & that area, and then drive north toward Tampa. Not so bad for a week. Keys are nice, but a long way in the opposite direction! Save that for another time.

didn't Sanibel have damage from the hurricanes? we stayed on this island called Anna Maria Island. very cool spot! and not commmercial like all these other islands that everyone is use to. check it out.