How To Get The Best Orlando Vacation Package
When it comes time to put together an Orlando vacation package, you'll find out one of the great things about the place right at the beginning: there's an enormous amount of choice, whether it's related to the way you travel, the place you stay or the things to do there.
And one of the really important things to sort out: how you're going to work through that enormous amount of choice!
Let me explain. Orlando has:
1. Two main airports (Orlando International Airport plus Sanford) and if that's not enough, there are convenient places to fly into in surrounding cities (Tampa, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Daytona, and even Jacksonville is a couple of hours drive away).
2. Good road access. If you don't want to fly or if you find driving a less expensive but practical option, you have Interstate 95, I75 and/or I4. Orlando is practical as far as the driving option is concerned from much of the USA. Canadians even make the journey from places as far away as Toronto.
3. More than 27000 hotel or motel rooms (and that's not counting the thousands of short term rental homes available to Central Florida visitors. Short term rental homes are individually owned single family homes or condos that are licensed by Florida State and are rented out by their independent owners for days or a few weeks at a time.). Hotel and motel standards vary widely, from the high class and exotic down to the cheap and (hopefully) cheerful, so there's something to match every budget.
4. Too many attractions to do justice to in one visit. Surely everyone has heard of Disney World (you need a week to see all of that, and even then you'll have no rest in between energy-sapping days of effort) and most people are familiar with Universal and Sea World. But what about Busch Gardens, just down the road to Tampa. Is Discovery Cove an essential visit? Can you miss out on a Kennedy Space Center tour? And the beaches - St Petersburg, Clearwater, Daytona? How about Wet & Wild, shopping at the Millenia Mall and the almost countless restaurants to sample?
5. Nature on it's doorstep: the Everglades is an hour or two to the south of Orlando. The Gulf of Mexico is less than a couple of hours to the West and the Atlantic Ocean is about an hour to the East, both with excellent snorkeling, scuba diving and boating opportunities.
And that's just a start. There are many other places to go and enjoy, varying from state parks such as Lake Louisa to "eccentricities" like Gatorland, all the way through to calm and beautiful places like Bok Tower.
You'll also need to think about the climate. Seasons are variable so what suits your family's needs the most? Florida is a great place to be all of the year round but is a lot hotter in some seasons than others. Summer is the hottest and wettest time when you can almost guarantee a cloud burst some time during each day. It's also very humid for long spells and you need access to air conditioning. At least the rain is still warm rain, though!
October through to April are the driest months of the year and in particular, December, January and February are the coolest. Believe it or not, some nights are frosty (for example, at the time of writing this in February 2009 we have experienced more than one night with below-freezing temperatures in Central Florida).
Ready to start planning? If you need help, check out my Orlando vacation package website for more information.
Originally from the UK, Sue now lives near Orlando where she built and ran a property management company until recently. She has first-hand experience of what it takes to make an Orlando vacation a five-star experience, and she has created an Orlando vacation package website to help families get that vacation of a lifetime.
