First Time To Florida
 

My wife and I live in Ontario, Canada and am planning on one week in Florida; hotel, & car.
1. Were is the place place on-line to get a good deal for this trip, we plan on travelling withing the next month.
2. When you get a package like this is all the extra insurance and taxes etc for a rental car included or is this extra paid at time of pickup?
3. Looked on-line but haven't really found much, prices seem quite high flying out of toronto or ottawa. I live in Kingston.

Where are you going in Florida? It is high season so prices will be very expensive

Looking at the west coast, looking for some nature areas also for photography. No specific, am flexible though with location as with a car rental we can easily take day trips around. The only reason I mention the west is I assume its warmer with the gulf of mexico rather than on the east side.

Where in Florida do you want to go? It's a big place.

As tchoiniere said, March is high season, so there will be more people and higher prices for almost everything, especially for air fares.

The West coast is our favorite. I recommend flying into Ft. Myers Airport (RSW). The rental cars are just down below the airport terminal, you do not take a bus or a shuttle, just an elevator. We usually rent our car thru Dollar. You can go on line or www.dollar.com call the 800# to reserve. I have found their, prices to be the lowest always. Many times we have gotten brand new cars. We use an Amex card, so we choose to not pay for insurance. You can decide at the time of pick up what type of coverage you are looking for, there is also the choice of pre-paid gas, but you can decide that at time of pick up. We always rent a convertible, which is very nice to have, especially if you are going to be in the Sanibel, Captiva area. The speed limit is 35 so it is like driving a car thru a theme park...not much traffic and very beautiful.

Airfares can be high this time of year, sometimes you just have to suck it up and try to save in other areas.

We can go any place in Florida its just for a week away from work and snow. Max flex on this one. We could leave this month before the march break starts.

Thanks annabel, good info. I will check it out, as far as air fares I'll just have to pay it, the break is a must. Thanks again.

06Honda-

Check out <http://us.lastminute.com/index.html> for last minute packages to various parts of Florida. They even do trips from Ottawa and Toronto.

06Honda, why don't you get an air/car package on Expedia, e.g., from Ontario to Tampa, then reserve at one of the Mom & Pop hotels in Indian Rocks or Indian Shores Beaches? Just for the heck of it, I plugged it March 8 to March 15, Toronto to Tampa, and the best air/economy car package came back at about $820 PP. (If you can travel during the week, might be cheaper.)

I love the Tampa-St. Pete area beaches and restaurants. Some of the old Florida-style places can be comfy and fun, and not cost an arm and a leg. (Great Heron Inn, Sunburst Inn, etc.)

If you are looking for nature, there is nothing like the Everglades in FL. Look into doing a day trip into them. Would be best if you end up staying towards Ft Myers. I did an airboat tour (outskirts of the Everglades) a couple of years ago and loved it.

Although your march break seems somehwat standard in Ontario, breaks are all over the map in the US and anything from now til mid april is considered high season in FL. One way to reduce your airline costs is to fly mid week to midweek, rather than on or near the weekends. If you have that flexibility, you can really cut your airfare. It wont work if you are renting a condo as those are usually rented by the week, and usually Fri-Fri or Sat-Sat, or month ARe Rochester, Syracuse or buffalo options for airports? I dont know about syracuse, but there are some good and direct flights out of Buffalo and Rochester to some FL cities. Enjoy the warmth and sunshine!

Excellent info from all, I am now on the right track. Thankyou.

Try this site:

http://www.mousesavers.com

It is all about cheap Disney info, but it also has great general Florida info. Their rental car codes are always the best and several include an additional free driver.

Can you drive to Detroit and fly from there? There are several very cheap discount airlines that leave from there.

http://www.spiritair.com

http://www.airtran.com

http://www.usa3000.com

You wouldn't have to deal with customs at the airport that way too.

Here is a great website www.cheapflights.com all the websites under one roof. Just a word of advice, do not fly Spirit anytime to anywhere, JMHO, they have to be the worst airline.

We've had good flights with Spirit. I think we've all had problems with all airlines once in awhile.

We have flown Spirit Airlines every year for the last 9-10 years & have never had any problems. I guess it just depends.