Villa recomendations.

[Michelle3000]

Hi

I am in the very early stages of planning a Florida holiday for Dec 2010.

Its a special holiday to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary and it will be our daugthers first trip, she will be nearly 4...

We have always stayed in villas before and whilst they were nice, I am looking for something a bit special this time as its a family celebration!

Does anyone have any recommendations? I would prefer to be in the Kissimmee area (192) as this is where we have stayed before. I have seen a few villas on the James Villas website, Windsor Hills looks good?

Any recommendations on who to book with would also be appreciated!

Thanks!

Michelle

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Hi Michelle

I am sure you will get plenty of help from others.

I can only tell you about WH as we have stayed there twice now. It is a lovely gated resort with a mix of condos, TH and villas with private pools. It is nea the Sherbeth Road shortcut and I think it took us 7 minutes to get to AK from there!

When I was looking for a place to stay I tried VRBO and the WH website. You can also find plenty of recommendations on the US boards.

We are off again in December to WH - so it can't be too bad!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Hi Michelle,

Staying in Kissimmee is a good choice because you are well located for Disney, supermarkets, restaurants and the I4 for Universal etc too.

There are 2 main areas - Formosa Gardens and Poinciana Boulevard.

My preferred villa communities are Windsor Hills, Windsor Palms, Indian Creek and Emerald Island - all at FG.
Terre Verde (where we stay next year) and Cumbrian Lakes - both at PB.

Of the above all bar Indian/Cumbrian are 'resorts' with communal pools, internet cafe's etc
However, they are all very nice.

There are 1000s of villas to choose from so it's a good idea having a list of what you require, some of the common requirements may be:
south facing pool - gets the sun all day
gated resort - for extra privacy/security
fenced or private pool - do you prefer not to be overlooked by other properties?
internet access - many villas offer this
number of bedrooms - generally range from 3 to 7 , obviously depends on the number in your party
games room - again many offer this, usually in the garage
location - is the time it takes to the parks a factor? some developments are further away than others.

One thing you will have to remember, I presume you are renting a car? , is for virtually all or certainly most villa locations you will need to drive 'everywhere' , generally there is nothing within walking distance.

some websites I have used over the years:
www.villas2000.com
www.vr360homes.co.uk
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk

A useful map:
http://www.thedibb.co.uk/villa-map.php

Any questions ask away, I have viewed many of the villa locations.

 

[Michelle3000]

Hi,

Thanks for all that! Certainly a lot to think about...

There will be 5 Adults and 1 child in our party so we would need 4 beds as a minimum. Def want to be close to the parks and yes, we will be hiring a car.

Def want a pool and a screened one sounds good and even better if its south facing!

Does it generally work out cheaper to book a villa direct and then flights or do it as a package with Virgin or James Villas?

I will have a look at those sites you mentioned later this evening!

Thanks again,

Michelle

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Hi again Michelle,

It would probably work out slightly cheaper if you book your own villa independantly, owners prices vary but tend to be more expensive at peak times of the year such as Easter and Christmas.
Developments with communal facilities can also work out slightly more expensive too - at the end of the day though it all comes down to the owners.

The main advantage in booking your own is purely the fact you choose where you stay, if you booked the villa with Virgin for example they allocate the home to you, so you have no control over it.

 

[alibeau]

Hi Michelle,

We stayed at Formosa Gardens in Jan this year and loved the location. Really close to the parks, close to the 192 which has loads of places to eat etc and easy access to the I4 for getting to shopping malls and Universal. No communal facilities but that suits us fine We haven't stayed at any other communities though so I can't compare it to any others

We liked it so much that we have booked again for Feb 09.

We booked thru villatorent.net and found them to be really helpful during the booking process and the management company were more then helpful when we had a slight hiccup on arrival regarding a lack of baby monitors

HTH,

Ali

PS. We book everything separately purely so we can book the exact villa we want, the exact flights and seats etc not that I'm a control freak you understand!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[psharrock]

We booked thru villatorent.net and found them to be really helpful during the booking process and the management company were more then helpful when we had a slight hiccup on arrival regarding a lack of baby monitors

Hi Ali

Which villa did you book on their site?

The same guy owns most of the homes on the villatorent site, and he is great, we used Philip when we rented our first villa in Dec 2005 (Formosa Boulevard is where we stayed)

As you can see from our signature, we likes the community so much we alway stay there now.

Paul

 

[eyckmans]

We love Emerald Island. We have stayed in various places there and all have been wonderful. We always go out of season and if we leave it until a couple of months before we go the prices drop right down, you just need to write for quotes to a few places and choose the best deal.
Val

 

[minnie29uk]

Hi!
Have PMed you a friends e-mail who own a lovely villa.
Happy holidays,
Lynn

 

[Michelle3000]

Thanks everyone for all the info and recommendations!

Certainly has given me somewhere to start with my research and eventual booking!

Michelle