DW & the beach on a budget?

[liveforthemagic]

We're thinking about combining a beach vacation with our next visit to DW.

I need any and all suggestions for what beach to go for....I'd like it to be of course pretty close to Disney, and Orlando. Cause we'll fly in and out from there. Looking for a fbudget friendly, family friendly place that has rentals available rather than just hotel rooms.

TIA!

 

[pepe of ohio]

Long ago we used to do the beach first, just to unwind from the long drive and we tried Daytona, New Smyrna Beach and Cocoa Beach. Daytona motels were so run down from years of visitors and sand and the whole area was really kinda seedy, trashy and not worth the effort.

New Smyrna was alittle further south, closer to WDW and had a great Best Western right on the beach. But that was many years ago and our last visit it was being converted into condos. Scratch that beach.

Cocoa Beach is further south, no beaches around Cape Kennedy and the next beach you come to is Cocoa. Its been around for a zillion years, same appearence as all the beaches, trashed and we only stayed there once.

Since all those tries, we just skip the beach and take all our days at WDW. They have some of the best waterparks right on property, the resort pools are great too and the rooms with the theming and ambience leaves little to the imagination.

Also, either way you go from Disney, Orlando is centrally located and its over an hour either to the ocean or gulf coast, too far for us to travel, since we train to WDW and rent no car.

Hope this gives you some ideas to kick around, but either way, enjoy your stay.

 

[liveforthemagic]

Thanks Pepe of Ohio. Time before last, we drove over to Cocoa Beach for a day--I totally agree with you about the condition.

Its funny you mention spending the whole trip at Disney--or other option is something like Liki Tiki Village--condo with full kitchen just outside of Disney to save money--but they have alot of activities too.

Oh well--I have a year to plan and investigate!

 

[ruttie]

cocoa beavh os much nicer now plus it is very close to disney and teh airprt lots of people are staying at the new ron jon resort in cape canaveral or at the Raddisson in cape canaveral tey have a really nice local beach in cape canaveral called cherry down park clean has bathtooms and life guards.. I woudl give cocoa beach a try while it is not a gulf beach it is a nice beach on teh atlantic side and very family friendly and affordable...

 

[G's mommy]

The Gulf side beaches are much nicer. Try going over toward Tampa/Clearwater/St.Pete.

 

[riu girl]

I don't know how many beach days you have but if 7 nights, have you considered renting a condo for a week on or near the beach through vrbo.com or vacationrentals.com.

We couldn't imagine going to Florida and not having some beach time, the beaches are so beautiful.

We split our time between Orlando and the beach. And by renting a condo, you can then save $ on food costs etc. since they offer full kitchens.

And by renting a condo off the beach (but within walking distance) you can save money as well. Renting on the beach seems to be pricier.

We rented for two weeks in Siesta Key in Dec 2005 and have two weeks booked again for this December.

It is a simple one bedroom condo (plus pull out in the living room). The complex has no activities but does offer a nice heated pool and laundry facilities. The unit/complex is super clean and is about a 3-4 minute walk to the beach.

We also stayed in December 2004 for a week in Ormond Beach (just north of Daytona). You can't compare the beaches in that area to Siesta Key.
We stayed at the Coral Beach Resort. It was right on the beach. We had an efficiency unit with a full kitchen, ocean front balcony. It is a pretty basic hotel but does offer laundry, outdoor pool (not heated), indoor pool (heated). The heated indoor pool was a nice bonus as it was VERY cool the week we were there so we used the indoor pool each night. We only paid $45US/night for the room but looking at the web site the price now looks higher. The unit we had was quite large and the full kitchen was great.

Happy planning

 

[jann1033]

don't know how much you want to spend but we stayed a Vero Disney and really liked it ..it had a microwave, sink small fridge,( i think the larger suites have a full kitchen) a nice pool area and small beach area. with an ap discount the studio was about $109 a night so not really budget but not extravagant for beach front either( was one of the cheapest "on the beach" places in Vero) the town itself if really nice and not trashy/touristy at all. there was also a place called the islander across the street from a public beach that was nice and a little cheaper and i think a few cheaper places a little walk from the beach. i've posted a couple pics from there if you want to search in the resort or dvc boards for vero disney

they have rental properties in the area i am sure...they have a website for the area... I think i googled Vero Beach+ ( fill in what you want) and got lots of stuff

it's about 2 hrs drive from WDW. Sebastian is a little cheaper type location slightly north of vero but still not trashy, more residential family type places. i would imagine they'd have rentals too.

the beaches are kind of narrow and i think that might be why they are not so "touristy" ( which i really hate) but i was there 5 days and had lots to do.

 

[alimomof3]

I too recently stayed at Disney's Vero Beach prior to our WDW trip. We stayed 5 days and had plenty to do. We had a cottage right on the beach but there were 8 of us so we go one big condo type units - it had 3 bedrooms/3 bath, a kitchen and a living room. They also have 2 bedrooms and 1 bedroom villas. I don't know if it's budget but it was so fun. The cast members are so so nice and it has a little feel of Disney but really not much. They have a nice pool with a big waterslide and a pirate boat area for the little ones and put-put golf. They had pool games each day and tons of other activities for the kids - a campfire, breakfast with goofy and max, sports, crafts, etc. They have beach access right there and the beach was nice. We found a couple good restaurants outside of the resort, there is a great movie theatre about 20 minutes away (we went one night to take the kids to see Ice Age 2), there is a huge outlet mall again about 20 minutes away. My Dh and Father drove up to Melbourne one day - not really sure why but it wasn't too far. We were 2 hours from WDW.

You should check it out...