Cheap Flydrive Holidays To Florida: Second rate option – or First Rate Adventure?
Cheap Flydrive Holidays to Florida – our experiences with cost-cutting luxury in America’s Sunshine South
We discovered the secret of cheap flydrive holidays to Florida and we want to pass on some of our experience to you. We found that although they may be cheap (and we’ll be showing you some unbelievable cheap-cuts), if you do it right, they are far from nasty.
With the current pound-dollar exchange rate, plus a few useful tips and contacts (which we’ll be passing on to you), we have had some of the the most amazing cheap flydrive holidays to Florida and the South for a fraction of anything you might imagine.
Did you know that you can you do a flydrive to Florida for the same price as a holiday in Spain? It’s true!
There are just so many ways to keep it cheap in Florida!
– Cheap flights (especially to Orlando);
– Some of the cheapest car hire rates in the world;
– Very competitive villa and motel rates;
– Thousands of cheap restaurants and fast food outlets;
– Petrol prices you haven’t seen in England for 20 years!
When we go, we love to drive for miles and get off the tourist trail. Of course you don’t need to travel far. There is a year’s worth of things to do right in Orlando. But with petrol (or gas as they call it over there) at a fraction of inflated British prices, cheap flydrive holidays to Florida allow you to travel far and wide if that’s what you like to do.
And accommodation is plentiful and very reasonable wherever you go.
On our first flydrive holiday, we actually travelled 4,000 miles in a convertible. We had booked the ‘cheap and cheerful’ compact saloon and got a FREE upgrade.
Tip no. 1: always ask if there is an upgrade available – the worst they can do is say “no”; but you’ll be surprised how often they say yes. We have a 100% success rate so far.
Our Furthest Drive on a Flydrive
We started in Orlando and drove to Daytona Beach where we got up early to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic. We had breakfast on the balcony of our hotel room as we watched the wings of the morning – SPECTACULAR!
We actually had to remind ourselves that we were on a CHEAP flydrive holiday to Florida because we felt like a million dollars.
That seaview balcony room was one of our minor extravagances – it cost $60 (around £30) for the two of us. That was the room price, and if there had been four of us it would have cost the same. We rarely paid anything like this for accommodation.
From Daytona we travelled to Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia (again), Alabama and Misissippi. When we hit the Misissippi River – the western boundary of the State – we turned north up to Memphis, Tennessee. Then, after seeing Elvis in concert (or someone very like him!), we drove across the Mississippi into Arkansas.
We stayed at Little Rock and Hot Springs and finally crossed at Texarkana into Texas and travelled the 200 miles down to Beaumont. Then into the Louisiana swamps and on to New Orleans – just a few weeks before Hurricane Katrina devastated the area.
The three days we spent in New Orleans were some of our best.
I had expected these days to stretch the budget to breaking point but we proved that, even in a historical city like New Orleans, cheap flydrive holidays to Florida and beyond are alive and well.
We paid a total hotel bill of $128.00 or about £65.00 for 2 people for three nights in a stunning French-colonial style hotel with a four poster bed!
Then we drove through Mississippi and Alabama again (this time their Gulf coasts), along the Florida panhandle and back to Orlando for the grand finale of our holiday at Disney World.
The entire holiday lasted three weeks and although we did some hard driving on a few days days, it didn’t feel at all rushed. We spent two or more days in several places and really got the feel of them.
That is the magic of these really cheap flydrive holidays to Florida! Starting from Orlando, you can explore Florida, the neighbouring States and even end up wandering, as we did, right across Dixieland.
Or you can stay put in Orlando enjoying the many attractions; or just confine yourself to central Florida.
Flydrive gives you the choice. That is why we fell in love with it.
The availability of cheap flydrive holidays to Florida opens up the modern adventure of the Great American Highway.
