Florida apartments/condos?
 

This is far from a real plan yet but we're thinking we might like to go to Florida for a couple of weeks, either Christmas week and the first week of January or the first two weeks of January. Really, the timing is pretty flexible, maybe even later in January or even February. But in the winter.

We've been to Florida a lot, mostly in hotels, occasionally at my sister's condo (no longer available) and we've enjoyed Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach. We found Boca too quiet. We've been to West Palm Beach just for an evening for the theatre but it looked like it had a fairly lively main street.

Anyway, I've been looking at hotels and they're pretty pricey. We've never rented an apartment or condo there but I'm considering that, especially since we're likely to be there for two full weeks. I was wondering if any of the Florida fodorites or those of you who travel to Florida regularly might know of a good, reliable rental site or even better, an actual apartment/condo you've stayed at.

We'd like a nice area with places to walk and stuff to do within a reasonable distance. It doesn't have to be on the beach. I'm open to ideas.
Thanks,
gtg

We've had good luck using AirBnB, vrbo, Flipkey, booking.com in lots of places, although not Florida.
Be clear on what features and amenities you want, look at the pictures, email hosts with questions.
I only choose places with a significant number of reviews and read them to make sure anything negative isn't relevant to me.

You haven't been to SW Florida?

Look in Bonita Beach, Naples, and Marco Island.

All have beautiful beaches. Naples is very upscale and has great shopping and cultural activities. Marco is perhaps more family-focused, Bonita Beach is a bit funkier.

Unless golf is a big part of your life, in Bonita and Naples you want to be west of US 41. Trust me on this. It will be cheaper east of 41, but there are reasons for this.

We have gone to rental agencies, dealt directly with places recommended by friends, and done VRBO in addition to owning in Naples for some years.

In addition to staying west of 41, the most important caution I can give you is that a lot of the better homeowner and condo associations prohibit short term rentals and have heard and seen every possible way of trying to get away with these, especially the "my cousin [brother, sister, friend] are just using the place while we are away. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR RENTAL IS LEGAL.

We've never used a rental site in Florida although we've had good luck with sabbaticalhomes.com in London and sort of with vrbo in Italy. I say sort of because although the apartment was listed on vrbo, my SO just happened to know the owner so we didn't bother going through the site.

We've stayed on the west coast once and that was in Sarasota. It was fine although at that time (don't know about now) there weren't a lot of hotels and we didn't like the one we stayed at. I don't know much about other west coast places. I think a few fodorites live in Naples and it sounds lovely but might be too expensive. And my SO would definitely want to get a couple of golf games in.

I'm going to look at more west coast options, though. Thanks for the ideas.

I'd definitely want a legal condo.

I know on the Europe board, people often recommend specific apartments they're rented and I was hoping for a couple of specific recs in Florida, if anyone knows of anything.

I like southwest Florida/Ft myers area. Avg temps high temps at that time of year is in mid-70s.

Another option to add to the mix, since you say it does not have to be on the beach, is Residence Inn or similar chains. End of Dec in Ft Myers area rates for 1 bedroom/separate LR/full kitchen is around $125/night when I looked if you stay 2 weeks. Rates go up after 1/1. If you factor in that you get breakfast, nightly beer/wine receptions and housekeeping, it sometimes is not more than a condo.

As you mentioned, West Palm Beach does offer a lot of activities.
VRBO has recently added more fees for renters that bring the prices up almost as high as a hotel. Make sure you look carefully at all the fees on the rental sites like VRBO and AirBnB.

What is your budget?

Thanks, everyone.

Other than Embassy Suites (which IMO has gotten ridiculously expensive) I hadn't thought about a suite sort of hotel so thanks for the suggestion of the Residence Inn, gail. I'll take a peek at that.

Newbe, it's hard to say what our budget is but let's just say that if I'm spending $4000 for 10 nights in a hotel in Florida, I'm going to Europe instead!

Well there's little doubt you can find a hotel cheaper in most of Europe in January compared to Florida 4 star hotels. Apples to apples, and seasons considered.

South of France? Costa del Sol?

No, I'm not actually going to Europe (especially since we just got back from the UK) but my income is not such that I'm willing to spend $4K (and that doesn't even count airfare, car, food and entertainment) on a couple of weeks in Florida.

I've stayed in a few units in Miami Beach and Sunny Isles booked through vrbo and AirBNB -- they've all been great. The condos I stayed at are were within walking distance to restaurants, grocery stores, delis, bakeries, cuban cafes. The complexes were ocean front or across the street with nice pools. I paid $180-250/night in Feb and May.

You are traveling in high season and many of the "good deal" MIA rentals for Dec and first week of Jan are already booked. If you can push your travel from Jan 7 onwards this eliminates traveling families and availability might be a little better.

For instance this well-reviewed FLL apt is only around $150/night (including fees) but it's already booked during your timeframe -- some availability in mid-Dec. If you can finesse your dates a bit, there are lots of great condos that are very affordable.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9676084

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU BUT PROBLEM SOLVED!

I just booked the Embassy Suites hotel at Deerfield Beach for $227/night which is a good rate for us. We're going for 10 days at the beginning of January which, I guess, is low season for them. Coincidentally, it's the first hotel we ever stayed at in Florida 13 years ago (and I know it's been renovated since then). And it is cancelable should anything better come up.

Thank, everyone, for your ideas. Going to copy this now for the other thread.

fishee, I love the look of that apartment and I'm going to hang on to it for future trips!

fishee, have you actually stayed at that apartment? We're taken care of for the January trip but I really like it and might consider it for a longer term stay later in the year.

I thought if I knew the exact address, we could walk by it in January just to get a feel for the location and building.

The only thing that makes me hesitate is that it doesn't have a pool but when I think about it, I rarely use the pool itself when we're at a hotel. Mostly what I want is a place to sit outside and read by the water and that apartment has lots of spots for that.

I haven't stayed at that FLL unit but I've known the owner (through a forum not IRL) for a couple of years and she is a wonderful host who gives great advice to new hosts about making guests happy.

The price is so reasonable and they get rave reviews but I have 2 toddlers so we won't be able to stay there. If you go to the bottom of the listing, there's a circle on the map -- the apt is located within that circle so maybe just drive down Las Olas Blvd in Jan & get a feel for the neighborhood.

Thanks, fishee. I know the main streets pretty well. Maybe we'll just take a walk and try to narrow it down.

There are other great looking, well-priced condos on the bottom of that page but I've heard about some bad bnb experiences so I'm a little gun-shy unless I've got a personal rec.

I've rented 10 places on AirBNB over the past 3 years and I've found that as long as there are a good number of positive reviews, it's very safe and predictable. Accommodations have always been at least what I've expected and most of them turn out to be better than how the listing appeared. I took a chance on one rental near Hood River, Oregon that had no reviews (and a join date of that month) and it was one of the nicest units (and nicest owners) I've had.

One of those bookings was in a non-tourist residential area (Walnut Creek) and my reservation was canceled because the owner's HOA sent her a cease and desist letter. So I'm a bit more wary now of condo situations in non-touristy hoods (basically, I'll only rent a house now in Walnut Creek). In Miami or Hawaii, I rent condos with no concern since short term vacation renting is standard practice in these areas.

Thanks, fishee. I've had good experiences renting the two times I did that but they were both long before I started hearing about scams, etc. My friend rented an apartment in NYC that turned out to be so bad she had to move but later on, when I saw the pictures, I couldn't imagine why on earth she rented it in the first place!

Our place in London looked exactly like the beautiful pics and the one in Italy was as nice as we were lead to believe. Of course, we knew the owner of that one.

I'm fine with the hotel for this upcoming 10-day vacation (but that doesn't mean I won't keep looking) but as my SO is on my sabbatical next year and looking at retirement a year or so after that, I'd love to get hooked up with a regular apartment. We won't be 6-month snowbirds but would probably want to get away for the worst of the winter, maybe February and March.

Goddess, go to Googlemaps and type in Hendricks Isle so you can get a better notion of exactly where that particular neighborhood is in relation to other parts of town, the beach, etc.

IMO, you could do worse but as I said on your other thread, depends on where you prefer to be.