Need Help....

[valandemmy]

I am wanted to surprise my wife and daughter by finishing off our week at disney world with a couple of extra days on the Flordia coast. Anyone have an idea of what beach to goto... any idea's would be great.

Thanks
Charles

 

[WDWLinda]

Hi Cahrles,
I've never been to any of these places, but they're all on my "Some day..." list:

On the East coast - Disney's resort on Vero Beach (I think its about a 2 hr. drive away) or Amelia Island off of Jacksonville (this will be a longer drive, but I saw a feature on the Ritz Carlton resort there on the Travel Channel and it looked really nice).

West coast - Sannibel or Captiva island. A yr or 2 ago there was a trip report here where some guy from the UK (sorry, forgot his name) wrote about a few days they spent on Captiva and it sounded great - very relaxing, beautiful beaches. They went bike riding, kayaking in the mangroves, out on a boat ride to watch the dolphins. It sounded really nice and maybe a 2 - 3 hr. drive from Orlando.

Good luck!

~Linda

 

[Bob P]

I'll second Sanibel/Captiva with the big caveat that Captiva had a lot of damage from Hurricane Charley last August. South Seas Resort, the magnificent piece of land on Captiva, is still closed from the hurricane damage and will probably not open until early 2006.

Sanibel, which was also hit by the hurricane, was not hit nearly as badly. From what I have read, Sanibel is up and running fairly normally.

We have gone straight to Captiva from WDW several times for a few days of "decompression!"

If you've never been to Sanibel and Captiva, it is a chunk of paradise. I would fully recommend it. It's about a 3.5 hour drive from WDW on the Gulf Coast. You take I-4 West to Tampa then I-75 South to Fort Myers. Cross the causeway to Sanibel and you are in heaven!

Feel free to PM me if you want more details....

Bob

 

[PiRSquared]

I would definitely AVOID Daytona Beach. We went last year thinking it would be a nice relaxing vacation. We went to Cape Canaveral and St. Augustine (both a lot of fun) but Daytona Beach itself was boring and run down.

 

[mommic32]

HI. We will be in Disney on May 14-May 20 and then heading to St.Petes Beach on the gulf side from May 20-May22, from everything that I have read, St. Petes is more family oriented that Clearwater. ( I hope) We are staying at Tradewinds Island Grand. They have a web site if you are interested just pm me...

 

[Aidensmom]

We live on the west coast of FL, and our favorite beaches are Treasure Island (very quiet and family oriented, next beach over from St Pete Beach) and Anna Maria Island (Manatee County - another quiet beach, a little less tourist oriented - Bradenton Beach is one of the better known beaches on Anna Maria). We go to Treasure Island for a few days to a week every 4th of July. All of the beaches in the area do fireworks, so you can watch 3-4 fireworks shows simultaneously.

If you want to go to the east coast, Cocoa Beach is great.