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Beach Resort Vacation Rentals Information |
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Orlando Vacation Homes - Comparing Homes to Hotels
When staying in Orlando, you really do have a lot of choices ... sort of. One of the big decisions that the travel sites and the travel books will alert you to is whether to stay on property or off. And to be perfectly honest, Disney hospitality can be very nice. We like the hidden Mickeys and the themed swimming pools, but on our last trip to Disney World, my wife and I looked at each other and asked, "We paid $250 a night for that?" A Little Perspective Did you know that you can get a room at the The Waldorf-Astoria® for less than $250 a night? It comes with neato robes, too! Florida Lemons The fact of the matter is, you have many choices, and not all of them put you into 250 sq feet or so of living space. I compiled this chart for a 1st week in March stay for a family of six ... Price/night Sq. feet Sleeps Doubletree $ 168 608 4-6 Holiday Inn $ 190 485 6 Caribe Royale $ 166 500 4-6 Caribe Royale (big suite) $ 316 1,260 8 Sheraton Vistana $ 218 497-910 8 Disney Value Resort $ 218 (2 rooms) 260 8 Disney Moderate $ 338 (2 rooms) 314 8 Disney Deluxe $ 578 (2 rooms) 400 8 Beach Club Villas $ 350 1,080 8 3 BD/2 BA Vacation Home $ 150 1,600 8 When you look at how much you pay, the hotel option leaves you wondering what the differences are. Hotels - Tried and True Hotels offer a standard quality of accomodation. They're centrally located - and this is especially true in Orlando. Disney's hotels are right on their property, and therefore the closest you can get to the "Magic." However, they're small, don't offer cooking facilities, and it can be difficult to get off of Disney property easily (say, to visit another park). The Vacation Home Alternative Orlando boasts an amazing number of vacation homes. These are detached homes that are individually owned. They have full size kitchens, several bedrooms and bathrooms, and many have private pools and/or hot tubs. You do need to have a rental car. The homes in Orlando are between 10 to 15 minutes away from the parks at Disney World. My vote is that it's nice to get away in the evening to your own private home and pool, but some people prefer to be surrounded by the theme parks 24/7. In addition, there is no room service at a vacation home. However, most homes are within several blocks of a grocery store, so stocking up on your favorite foods (both fast and not-so-fast) is easy. For a family of six, these two differences add up to serious savings, both in terms of time and money. Having a car means we have choices in terms of getting to and leaving the parks. On a busy evening, we may choose to have dinner at one of the resort restaurants and pay for valet parking (or skip dinner and just pay for parking anyway). At the close of day, we can then skip the long monorail/bus/boat lines, and take the much shorter resort monorail. In the morning, having a ready supply of breakfast foods means the younger members of our family don't have to wait until everyone is showered and ready to go before being able to eat breakfast. Conclusion If you're looking to take a group or a family larger than five people on a Disney vacation, and if having a rental car and a full size kitchen appeals to you, then you owe it to yourself to try a vacation home. Steve Black is a Disney nut and owner of Fezziwigs, a luxury, golf-course Orlando Vacation Home. See a 360° virtual tour of the home at http://www.4kidsnus.com/orlando/tour/tour.shtml Or get more information, pictures, and rates at: http://www.4kidsnus.com/orlando
MORE RESOURCES: Marriott in MiamiLast year for our anniversary I decided to take my wife to Miami. We had been there several times before and itrsquos a really enjoyable city with things to do around every corner. I made reservations at this upscale South Beach Miami hotel. It was a Marriott and is probably the most luxurious hotel we have ever stayed at before.The rooms were filled with an art deco splendor an A few years ago we stayed at a Best Western in Wilmington NC near Cape Fear. We love the movie and wanted to see that actual place plus friends had informed us of how nice the place was in the spring. So stayed there for a weekend. Very nice place. Not much for vegan friendly restaurants even though a lot of people there seem to be into eating healthy. Virginia Beach RestaurantLast year I took a business trip up to VA for the company I work for. They put me up in a decent Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotel. I had to go speak at a convention and this hotel was close to the meeting. It was really boring. Experts going on and on about how they will improve production and streamline the process. It just meant more software and hardware to purchase.Afte Old Town San Diego HotelThe first time we went to San Diego was back in 2001. We got a room at a hotel near Sea World in San Diego. It was a discount hotel that had low prices low amenities but was located near some great attractions and areas of San Diego. Eating vegan in San Diego is easy. Lots of restaurants to choose from and a variety of options. Columbus Ohio Airport HotelEverything I remember of Columbus OH is gentle rainy days and drinking vegan coffee with my wife at our Port Columbus International Airport hotel room. It was several years ago and we were in Columbus looking for a home with hopes of moving there. Most of the days were rained out and little property that we really liked. The rain gave us very little things to do in Co York Open HouseAbout two years ago we biked up to Carlisle PA to check out some of the local bikers. It was a great time. I booked us a stay at this Carlisle PA hotels that was close to a lot of the festivals. Carlisle restaurants are lacking in vegan food though. We hardly had any vegan places to eat at during our weekend trip. Baseball Spring Training FloridaLast spring a friend of mine invited me down to Sanibel Island to hang out while his wife was in London. I had some vacation time so I took it plus I hadnrsquot seen him in a long time. I booked a Fort Myers hotel at the Best Western and called him up. He informed me that some baseball teams were training in Fort Myers so he headed over to my Best Western rooms My wife reminded me of a trip we took 2 years ago. She had just gotten laid off from her job of 8 years so I thought I would cheer her up by taking her to south Florida for some rest and relaxation.We stayed at this Sanibel Island rental properties called Sanibel Siesta. Luxury condos that you rent and itrsquos on the beach. Really nice Sanibel Island accommodations with some nice vegan restaur Super Motel 8I remember this one time we got stuck in Orlando after a Disney World vacation. Our car broke down and we ended up staying at a Super 8 in Orlando so we could hit the repair shops in the morning. I had never stayed in a Super Motel 8 before but it wasnrsquot as bad as my friends made it out to be. Our cars was fixed that day and we were able to leave Orlando and the Super Motel 8. Wichita Kansas HotelsThe first family reunion I ever went to was my last family reunion. Each year on Cinco de Mayo my distant relatives all get together and celebrate our family history and catch up on everything. My father had never wanted to go to these things when I was younger and I never understood why. When I got the invite on my 28th birthday I was intrigued and so was my wife. She wanted Naples Florida ResortAbout a year ago a friend of my wife asked us to stay with her at this great resort down in Naples Beach. We stayed at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club which is luxury and comfort for the well to do. We spent a weekend there with her friend visiting the sights and just walking the wonderful beaches of Naples. If you have the cash I would definitely recommend this hotel. Honolulu Hawaii HotelHonolulu is a beautiful island surrounded by beautiful beaches and great restaurants. We went to Hawaii back in 2003 for vacation and stayed at a great hotel called Honolulu Airport Hotel. We thought dining in Honolulu would be hard since every movie we saw always showed pigs on sticks being a local favorite but oddly enough Honolulu has more vegetarian friendly restaurants t Harvard Square Hotel CambridgeLast summer we went to Cambridge Mass to visit an old college friend. He wanted us to come up and he even paid for the plane ticket for us to see him but wouldnrsquot let us know what the trip was for. He reserved a great room at a Cambridge inn called Mary Prentiss Inn which was also the name of the street it was on. It was a nice Inn. Kind of felt like a Bed an Hotel Downtown ChicagoWhen people tell you that Chicago is the windy city they arenrsquot joking. A couple Octobers ago we were stuck at Ohara International waiting for a connecting flight to DC to visit family. We never made the flight that day due to bad weather so we had to find a place to stay in Chicago and wait out the storm. I was lucky to book a Chicago hotel suite at the Whitehall Hote California Wine Country EventLast year we took a wine country tour through central California but the thing is we donrsquot drink. The footage of the rolling hills and lovely climate enticed us to take a visit out to Wine Country to see how beautiful it can get.I booked a stay at a Paso Robles Bed and Breakfast called Villa Toscana. With only 8 suites therersquos lots of privacy and a sense New York City Hotels Conan OrsquoBrienBack in 2003 we were up late watching some Conan OrsquoBrien and saw the ad for ordering tickets to the show. I went to the Web site and ordered the tickets. This was in the spring of 2003 and the closest date we could get was December of 2003. We were excited about going to the show and booked a stay at a budget New York hotel called Riverside Tower Hot One anniversary I took my wife to a vacation rental spot in Key West called Keys Luxury Resort. They have two properties that you can select from depending on what your taste is. We chose the Coral Hammock Vacation Homes since we werenrsquot much of boaters and wouldnrsquot get much use out of the docks at Oceanside Condos and Marina. The Coral is set up like a little community with condo rent Trump Resort MiamiA friend of ours in Miami recently purchased a new condo in Miami after making a killing on some stock market trades. He invited us down to Miami for the house warming party and I was highly impressed. The resort has Trumps name attached to it so you think world class amenities and feature but itrsquos beyond what I thought would be. This Miami condo was loaded with appliance Marathon Florida HotelI recall a vacation once where we stayed in the Keys. We stayed in Marathon which is on the way to Key West. We stayed at a Marathon hotel called Key Colony Bay Hotel. It was a nice little accommodation in Key Colony right by the water. If you get a chance you should stay there. St Martin Beach ResortDuring a 3 day stay on the St Martin island we stayed at a nice resort called Grand Case Beach Club. Itrsquos one of those resorts thats fenced off so people canrsquot just walk into the resort. It was really nice with first class accommodations all around. We did have a hard time finding a place to eat. Some of the restaurants there would make us vegan dishes while at |
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