Is a day beach trip worth it?

[rsmithx]

This will be our 4th Disney World Trip in about 5 years, our first trip with our 18 month old. We have always stayed on property and have never done anything outside Disney World. This time we plan on taking it easy with our LO. We plan to do Dive Quest and GF Spa. We'll be there 8 full days and a half and were thinking we'd like to go to the beach. We were going to rent a car somewhere in DisneyWorld, maybe the car care center and go to the beach just for the day, coming back by late afternoon. We'll be there early September, and are not foreigners to "beach" and ocean, but from the northwest so tropicalness is a welcome treat. We just aren't sure that it's worth the expense of money as well as time as the closest beach is about an hour and a half, and I think the beaches we'd most enjoy are on the gulf, which are even farther. Would love anyones advice. Perhaps a day spent at the Polynesian resort beach would suffice and save us tons of driving time?

 

[LauraAnn630]

We usually take a trip to the beach. This time we are not. DH said we are only going for free dining and make it simple!

Im so disapointed. I waaannnaaaa go to the beeeaaach!

Id go if I could. To me it seems crazy not to go when your right there!

Closest beach...hmmm...Cocoa about 45 minutes
Daytona an hour

 

[~Brandy~]

We have decided to make a day trip to the beach a regular part of our longer trips. Although we made some stops along the way and didn't hurry, I don't think the total driving time was an hour and a half - maybe more like an hour? We went to Fort De Soto beach - it was absolutely gorgeous, not terribly busy, and easy to park. It was a welcome break from the hustle of the parks and my then 2 year old had a blast. We stopped at a drugstore and got a cheap bucket of sand toys to pass the time. I highly recommend it if you have a car (and the time).

 

[rsmithx]

I can't believe that Fort de Soto is only an hour to drive from Disney World. If it were it would make our decision very easy for us and we would be going to the beach for a day, but as far as I can tell it's slightly over 100 miles taking nearly 2 hours to drive...who has a faster route?

 

[~Brandy~]

I can't believe that Fort de Soto is only an hour to drive from Disney World. If it were it would make our decision very easy for us and we would be going to the beach for a day, but as far as I can tell it's slightly over 100 miles taking nearly 2 hours to drive...who has a faster route?

My husband did the driving, but as I recall, it was almost entirely freeway and we got somewhat lost (trying to find the actual beach within the park area) and stopped more than once and it wasn't two hours even with all that. We even left midweek during the morning rush hour.

 

[TupperMom7]

Last time we went to FL, we rented a house for two weeks so we had some extra days. It took us two hours to get to the beach and two hours to get back and to me, it really wasn't worth it. We had a pool at the house we were staying in, and if I want to do a beach vacation, I want to stay at the beach not spend half the day driving.