We would like to rent a house by the sea in Florida over the Christmas holidays (7 to 10 days) . We will be flying in from Ottawa, Canada. Can anyone out there help us narrow it down to a particular area or city? Can anyone recommend rental sites for a house in Florida?

Our criteria are as follows: warm weather and sunshine.
Not too far from an airport.
Other things to do besides swimming.
(We have thought of Sanibel or the Keys...)

And for the house:
By the sea
2-3 bedrooms
clean and quiet

Thanks all - any advice would be most appreciated!

http://www.vrbo.com/.../usa/florida/...sanibel-island

also try Captiva and LongBoat Key lots of good stuff.

Fly into Tampa

will book up quickly though... always pay with CC

never wire money check reviews carefully...

Have fun!

I would check VRBO.com all along the coast of the places you like. Re: Sanabel, Captiva, Santa Maria, Siesta Key

I agree, I would fly into Tampa and focus on Longboat and Lido Keys, which will put you within easy distance of all the things to do in Sarasota. However, you really have to be in Naples or farther south to absolutely guarantee warm weather. On the other hand, coming from Ottawa, your idea of "warm" may be different from mine!

For warm weather at Christmas, the farther south you go the better--that would be somewhere in the Keys.

We were in Sanibel (flew into Ft. Myers)one Christmas and lucked out with the weather---another visit in early February though was cool---but there was no snow either visit.