Florida Destinations
 

We are going to be travelling from New Orleans back to Florida on our road trip in April/May. We fly back to the UK from Orlando but have visited Orlando before so want to stay somewhere else. We would like to spend around 3 days somewhere where there is enough to do for that time. We want to leave the car and get around on foot. We could spend a couple of hours at a pool, walk to nice shops and restaurants, do some sightseeing and although we are not ones for lying on a beach it is nice to be near one. We want to avoid cities as we will have done that quite a lot on our road trip. We have been to Naples before and loved that so somewhere similar to that would be an excellent choice for us. Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

Any of the villages along 30a would be great -
http://30a.com/
They are newer villages/developments but lots to do between Blue Mountain and Rosemary Beach and you bike along the way.

Apalachicola is another option. It has a small historic downtown but lots of places to visit in driving distance
http://www.apalachicolabay.org/

St. George Island may be what you are looking for.
http://www.apalachicolabay.org/index...George_Island/
A small island with a few shops/restaurants.

All of the above are on the gorgeous white sand beaches of the panhandle of Florida. The Gulf, but further north than Naples.

I would stay on Lido Key in Sarasota.You can walk to St.Armands circle which has several restaurants and shops.Take the car one day and drive a short distance away to the Ringling Musuem and Ca da Zan..the home of John Ringling..beautiful location and historic home you can tour on Sarasota Bay.You are also just a few minutes drive from Siesta Key voted one of the most beautiful beach's in the US. Great for a walk..very wide beach with sand like talcum powder.Has a little village with restaurants and touristy shops.Magnificent area and not over run by hi-rises and commercialism.

Thanks guys, will look at these places. My husband was talking about Daytona Beach. Any thoughts on that? Also do you have any recommendations for a 1 or 2 night stopover between New Orleans and our destination (albeit unknown yet)in Florida.

Not Daytona. Daytona is full of T-shirt and souvenir shops....tacky ones. Its not a nice little walk around kind of town. Don't do it.

Daytona is unique in that you can drive your cars on the beach. If that appeals...

From 1958 -
<I>"Unlike most Florida resort communities, Daytona Beach attracts more visitors in summer than in winter. Daytona bills itself as the world's speed center. The 23-mile [37-kilometer] strip of sand, so hard that cars can drive safely at surf's edge, has witnessed many automobile speed tests. Records up to 276 miles [444 kilometers] an hour were attained on the once sparsely settled strand. But rapid beachfront development has forced stock- and sports-car racing to the southern end."

—From "Slow Boat to Florida," National Geographic magazine, January 1958

Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts
http://photography.nationalgeographi...pod_image.html

</I>Your husband may be interested in a tour of the Daytona International Speedway -
http://www.daytonainternationalspeed...urs/Tours.aspx

"Also do you have any recommendations for a 1 or 2 night stopover between New Orleans and our destination (albeit unknown yet)in Florida."

Any beach location between Pensacola Beach and Apalachiacola.

If you and/your husband are interested in planes, this flight museum is free -
http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

Thanks. Point taken about Daytona Beach and good suggestions between NO and Florida. Ideally we want another Naples in Florida where we can park car at hotel and walk everywhere. Naples has a nice town centre with lovely shops. You may ask why don't we go back but have been twice so need somewhere else. Does Fort Myers have a downtown centre?

" good suggestions between NO and Florida."

The suggestions ARE in Florida.

Have you looked at a map perchance?
It seems as if you are unaware as to the geography.
New Orleans to Orlando = 650 miles and 450 of those are in Florida.

Yes I am aware it is Florida but probably have not been specific enough! Looking to spend our final 3-4 nights about 1-2 hr drive from Orlando Airport and looking to break the journey from NO to our final destination in Florida.

"...but probably have not been specific enough! Looking to spend our final 3-4 nights about 1-2 hr drive from Orlando Airport"

That information is definitely helpful.

So what did you not like about Duncandoodles' suggestion?

Hi amarone,

Have you considered St. Augustine? It's perhaps a bit out of your way, but not too much, close to 2 hours drive from Orlando. America's oldest city has a fascinating history and is quite compact, so you could park your car and walk to interesting historic sites and restaurants. (I visited without a car last year.) The beach you'd have to drive to or take the trolley. The Castillo de San Marcos, Lightner Museum, Oldest House, and Murat (Napoleon's nephew) House were all highlights during my visit. There are differing opinions about St. Augustine, but I really liked it.

Have fun deciding! Daniel

Great thanks. Nothing wrong with Duncandoodles suggestion starrs- just like to have as much info as I can and then I do further research on the places/areas to see what may suit us best.

If you want to be 1-2 hours from the airport in Orlando, you'll probably want to forget about the panhandle of FL. Apalachicola, for instance, is about 5 hours from the airport.

If you're looking for a small-ish city closer to Orlando:

West Coast: St. Petersburg -- shops, restaurants, interesting Dali museum, and other attractions in the city and nearby.

East Coast: Vero Beach: Really small downtown, with shops and nice restaurants. Lots of nice public beaches in the area, including Sebastian Inlet, and close enough to the Kennedy Space Center if you're inclined to take a day trip there.

I would suggest either Sarasota or St Pete. Sarasota is probably closest in flavor to Naples, with St Pete a close second. Neither of these is "on the beach", but beaches for both are minutes away. Downtown St Pete has become a vibrant city center in the past decade, and getting better and better every year. Downtown is on Tampa Bay, with patisseries and al fresco dining, as well as the museums (art and a Chihuly museum). If you prefer to stay on the beach, downtown is about 15 minutes from St Pete Beach

Sarasota is very similar with good restaurants, Selby Gardens, great shops on St Armands Circle. Downtown is on a bay, with beaches just a quick drive from downtown. Either St Pete or Sarasota are an easy drive to the Orlando airport, BUT traffic on I-4 can be a hassle certain times of day, and certain days of the week, so leave yourself plenty of time!

Thanks for all the feedback. Sarasota looks like our kind of place however I also like the look of St. Augustine and Vero Beach. Prob one of these three will be our choice.

Vincenzo - we were looking at staying somewhere between New Orleans and our final destination before flying home so that is why Apalachicola was mentioned.

Have visited St. Petes, Clearwater and Treasure Island many years ago so will go somewhere different.

One last question - is it better to stay in Lido Key or Sarasota?

Depends if you prefer beach or town. The beaches are so close, and you have a car, so it's only a matter of preference for what you see when you are in, and not pursuing some activity. If it were me, I'd go for the beach rather than town Depending on where on Lido you stay, you can walk to the shopping and restaurants on St Armand's, and it's a short drive to Selby Gardens, or Mote Marine, or the Ringling Estate.

I'm not trying to dissuade you, not in the least, but if you haven't seen St Petersburg in the past 5-7 years, you simply haven't seen it! :)

Yes OO probably prefer to be able to walk to shops and rests. on St. Armand's so Lido Key may be the place. Thanks for all the advice.

I like Sarasota and have stayed at the Sandcastle on Lido Beach, it's nice because it's right on the beach and has its own pool, etc. YOu can get rooms facing the ocean, also.

But there really are not many places you can stay on Lido Beach where you could walk to St Armands circle, unless you don't mind walking a mile or more. There is only one hotel within a half mile, a Holiday Inn. If you want to stay there, that would work, but otherwise you probably won't be walking.

Seaside Beach really is exactly what you're looking for. You could stay there for several days and then move over closer to Orlando before your flight

http://www.seasidefl.com/shop-dine/

Ft. Myers does have a sort of downtown center. If you really tried you could stretch out a visit there to maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

Christina we don't mind walking a mile or so but will have a look at hotels etc.

Starrs Have had a google map look at Seaside. It looks a lovely place so will definitely consider there.

Wondered if we could have done Seaside and Sarasota but quite a drive between them. Will see how many days we have left on our trip. We (or rather I) don't like to waste a day travelling in the car but sometimes you have to do it to get from A to B on occasions.

amarone, I can't think of a place on the "peninsula" part of FL that replicates what you are looking for. I'd give serious consideration to OO's comments about St. Pete.

The panhandle of Florida has gorgeous, white "sugar sand" beaches. Pensacola Beach is nice. Panama City Beach is called the "redneck Riviera". Avoid. Destin and Sandestin have high rises like PCB. A couple of decades ago there wasn't much in between, other than sleepy Seagrove beach with family cottages on stilts. Then this guy had the land and the opportunity to create something new. One of the first (if not the first) New Urbanism community built in the country. A teacher I know drove past when there were two short sections of paved road and bought a lot on the corner. We thought she was crazy. We were the crazy ones.

<I>Seaside, Florida, the first fully New Urbanist town, began development in 1981 on eighty acres (324,000 m²) of Florida Panhandle coastline. It was featured on the cover of the Atlantic Monthly in 1988, when only a few streets were completed, and has become internationally famous for its architecture, and the quality of its streets and public spaces.[citation needed]

Seaside is now a tourist destination and appeared in the 1998 movie The Truman Show. Lots sold for $15,000 in the early 1980s, and slightly over a decade later, the price had escalated to about $200,000. Today, most lots sell for more than a million dollars, and some houses top $5 million.[citation

</I>Other planned communities have been built on either side of Seaside with some original communities interspersed. But the beauty of that stretch of 30a is that 1) the beaches are gorgeous 2) there are no high rises 3) there are quaint "downtowns" with shops and restaurants 4) you don't need your car and if you get bored with your village you can get on a bike and ride to the next. Seaside is the priciest, but it's exactly what you are looking for.

All of the villages along 30a offer gorgeous beaches from Blue Mountain to Rosemary Beach, 14 miles of easy driving and lots of options. If you want to, you can bike from one to the next - or drive your car. But if you want to park your car, walk to a downtown with shops and restaurants and concerts next to a gorgeous beach, you can't do better in Florida than Seaside.

It would be a good option if you wanted to visit for a few days and then drive closer to Orlando before your flight.

Starrs, we first saw Seaside before it had gotten a start too, undoubtedly its first year, 30 or so years ago. The Post Office was there, the tented shopping area, and perhaps 3 or 4 of the Victorians. We hadn't known it existed even, were just driving along the highway and suddenly, there it was. It was like walking into someone's dream with the white tents housing little shops, and the few softly colored Victorians. It was almost unbelievable.

It would be great to have rental property there, but now I wouldn't want to live there full time (and probably not many do). IMHO, the quaint Victorians became too much of a good thing. It's a bit reminiscent of Celebration now, but oh those first days. Truly dreamlike! And I'd still like it, but only for short stays now, or vacation property that I went to a few times a year. Those beaches and the water are the best in FL.

"It was almost unbelievable."
It was unbelievable!

That was my territory and it looked like a mirage as you drove down the little country road through the scrubland. We really did think the teacher friend had made a big mistake. Duh! I admit to scheduling work trips to the panhandle to synch with Coastal Living and Southern Living Idea House open houses as Watercolor, etc. were being built. It had been a while since I'd been there and Alys Beach was a big surprise. I remember when there were only a few shops in old sharecropper type cottages at Grayton. It's been a wild thing to watch. A co-worker had one of the family cottages on stilts at Seagrove and she was more shocked than I. The pretentious boss* I couldn't stand would show up at meetings with Seaside monogrammed polo shirts, and I knew full well he didn't pay Seaside prices - and this was in the early 90s. Sure enough, he had bought a condo (the only high rise in miles) at the curve at Seagrove. Other co-workers had condos at Sandestin and they pooh-poohed the Seaside "copycats". As much as I love Indian Pass/Cape San Blas, I have to admit that the 30a folks (marketing and developers) have done a very nice job. It could have easily gone bad, but it's very nice.

I liked Celebration when it was new too. We (my boss and I) would go down and stay in the hotel when we were hiring for Florida. It may be gimmicky and Disneyesque, but it was nice just strolling to good restaurants. We were at the Columbia on every trip.

Who knew those were the good old days?
Man, does that make me feel old. ;)

*the one who hosted our events at your hotel, and put us up for the spring months at the Holiday Inn Westshore, with all the bowling teams visiting from northern states. It was a hoot - four women to a room, with doors open and parties in the hall. It was like living in a dorm for three months. ;)

St. Augustine would be perfect for what you want to do.

I wish there was a like button here starrs. :) We once saw a boy in rolled up jeans riding his bike down the main street in Celebration as he held his fishing pole in one had. DH wondered if he'd been hired to do that job, day in day out. LOL

LOL! Perfect!
Sounds like he could have been a "cast member" :-)

There was a seafood restaurant there (don't see it on a current list) that was our other go-to restaurant. A rep, originally from Boston, said she hadn't had littlenecks better since she was "home".

It makes me want to come back down for a visit. I also want to see the changes you've described at St. Pete. My parents honeymooned at Treasure Island and I've never made it to Caladesi State Park. Hmmm.... I need to start a list.

New Smyrna Beach,http://hamptoninn3.hilton.com/en/hot...SHX/index.html

I list this hotel because it is on Flagler ave and still walkable to the beach. Grreat places to eat and shop, very funky, laid back and my fav.

close enough to Daytona to take look.

You should look into Flagler Beach. This town has received all sorts of awards for being a great small town and has great restaurants, tons of beach activities and is generally just a beautiful and fun place to be. The funky pelican restaurant at the pier is the perfect place to grab breakfast before heading to the beach. Only an hour and 10 minutes away from Orlando.

Thanks everyone. Glad you mentioned two places to avoid starrs as going by all the advice from everyone we will have to extend our holiday to visit all these great sounding places!!!

Most times we book our hotels etc in advance but on occasion we just travel along until we see somewhere we fancy and stay. We usually are armed with information on hotels etc in advance so we don't spend all the time looking for the accommodation. Because of all the positive advice this is something we may do along the panhandle. As we are going to be there end April beginning of May we may be okay to book last minute.