Budget FL trip?

[la79al]

DH just found out yesterday that he has a vacation week the week after we get back from DW (he's not going along). We were thinking about spending that week in FL. Transportation for the kids and I is already paid for. We would have to pay for DH to fly down and fly or autotrain back. We will have our van with us and lodging (around Ocala) will be free. My question is, is there enough free/REALLY cheap stuff to do in FL to make it worth the cost of getting DH down and back or should we just spend the week at home? And yes, I realize that I can add days onto DD and I's DW tickets but I don't know what DH would do if I took the girls to DW for the day.

 

[la79al]

Okay, maybe a better question-would it be a huge hassle to have a 'home base' in Ocala and do things like Clearwater Beach, Cocoa Beach, etc? We would most likely pack most of our meals on the go and will have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Early spring, would the weather really be good enough for us to do a whole lot of outside things?

 

[budbeerlady]

We loved Clearwater Beach and parts of Tampa. The beach is free, just pay to park either on the ocean or the gulf. If you go to Cocoa area we loved Brevard zoo for the day. If you head towards Tampa/ Clearwater check out Lettuce Lake park. It was so cheap for our car to enter and we saw a few gator from the raised trail.

But do you really want to drive 2 hours each day to do these things? Maybe look for stuff closer to Ocala? My inlaws have a place there and keep harping on us to stay there. I dont want the drive to do all the things I want to see like Disney.

 

[reginaastralis]

There's a really neat state park called Rainbow Springs http://www.floridastateparks.org/rainbowsprings/ which is man-made waterfalls and it leads to a really nice tubing river http://www.therainbowriver.com/.

The weather might not be that great in March for that ... but it might be awesome. It's a total crapshoot! I don't know if that's the sort of vacation you're looking at having ... just an idea though

BTW ... we visited Rainbow Springs when my dd was 18 months old, and I had no idea there was a little town named Juliette there (which is dd's name) I did get super excited when I saw a restaurant with her name, but until I looked this up for you, I had no idea.

You'd be closer to Gainesville (not a beach, but as an idea for where you're located) You more into the middle of the state than on the outer sides. Cocoa Beach would be about 2hours and 22 minutes away , while getting to Gainesville would be 44 minutes (according to google.) You'd be closer to St. Augustine (around 1 and 50 minutes), though 30 minutes might not kill you. St. Augustine is really neat and kind of like an "older" version of Florida (to me, personally) than Cocoa Beach.

HTH