An englishman's dream holiday...in Florida!

Since I was a kid I've always wanted to visit Florida and anywhere in the US of A in general. As UK citizen and as anyone from the UK on this site would agree the charms and appeal of the 'bigger, better, sunnier, cheaper' society the americans appear to live in in contrast to the 'smaller, shoddier, rainy-cold, expensive' society we brits live in has mass appeal. Everyone I know from the UK that has holidayed in Florida and elsewhere in the US all say the same - it's amazing, they wnt to live there permanently. So BEFORE the oil catastrophe that occured I made the decision to pay for a holiday next March 2011 to take the kids and wife and see how are american cousins lived, take in a bit of american culture and visit the usual tourist destinations Disney land, Palm beach, universal studios etc etc... What I would like to know is before I set off on the dream holiday of a life time with my wife and 2 kids next year, a holiday I have personally wanted to do for the majority of my life, is what state/condition is FLorida going to be in realistically next March 2011?
Can anyone answer that with a realistic and soundly thoughtout prediction please?
The rumours I am reading are possible evacuation (wtf?) beaches ruined, toxic fumes, dead sea life washing up on the beach, military personell on the street, tourists trapped in some post-apocolyptic scenario with no way out and anarchy on the streets or have I read to many doom and gloom threads?
(Man, I seem selfish I know worrying whether my holiday is going to be ruined while lives and communities are at stake but I'm asking anyway).

I wouldn't recommend Florida or the coast as vacation destination. Not even before the oil spill. Go at least a couple states in for a better flavor of American Culture. Florida is for tourists.(or was)

I live in Miami. So far everything is ok down here.
My cousin just went to disney with his kids. everything was fine up there.

You picked a good time to come to florida. March isn't too crazily hot. Normally the heat and the humidity are dreadful in the summer months. The lines for disney world and the other orlando theme parks aren't too long. So you should have a good time.

With the west coast filling up with oil I'd stay on the east coast if possible. If you like history you can also visit St Augustine. It's very touristy.
cool stuff.

Ok I was going to hire a car anyway.

Originally posted by ohioriver
I wouldn't recommend Florida or the coast as vacation destination. Not even before the oil spill. Go at least a couple states in for a better flavor of American Culture. Florida is for tourists.(or was)

? he is a tourist.

Why is everyone always down on florida?

Mark eg.....techno techno techno techno !!!!! only kidding...
Like you I wanted to go to America all my life and luckily enough in 2008 the wife and I went to Orlando for 2 weeks, absolutely amazing holiday, stayed on international drive.
We took a couple of trips.....Sea world and Universal but apart from that never went near the sea.
I know things will be different now..eg. economy etc, but im sure they will be trying even harder to make your stay enjoyable.
Obviously if your planning on going to the beaches you could be in for a shock.
Anyway I hope your holiday goes well....peace out

East coast of Florida is unaffected. Even most of the west coast is unaffected as of now. Spent the weekend in Naples and everything was fine. The beaches and water were clean. It was just hot as hell. If anything this disaster will allow folks to enjoy Florida as a discount. I would avoid the panhandle.

I gew up in Florida, Tampa area. Lived there most of my life.

My friends here are always saying how lucky I am and how they wish they had grown up in Florida, blah blah blah. I then proceed to encourage them to skip the whole Disney thing and see some of the other stuff Florida has to offer.

I encourage them to go to the Everglades.
I encourage them to go to the Ocala Forest.
I encourage them to go to St Augustine.

They never do though. It's all about the parks and the all you can eat buffets. Too bad really. Florida has some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and I've travelled quite a bit.

As for the whole Florida is dead BS floating around ATS, well..I'm not saying it won't happen, but let's just say I wouldn't be changing my holiday plans.

I highly recommend a visit to the Ocala area, it's not an impossible drive form Orlando.

Originally posted by Merigold
I gew up in Florida, Tampa area. Lived there most of my life.

My friends here are always saying how lucky I am and how they wish they had grown up in Florida, blah blah blah. I then proceed to encourage them to skip the whole Disney thing and see some of the other stuff Florida has to offer.

I encourage them to go to the Everglades.
I encourage them to go to the Ocala Forest.
I encourage them to go to St Augustine.

They never do though. It's all about the parks and the all you can eat buffets. Too bad really. Florida has some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and I've travelled quite a bit.

As for the whole Florida is dead BS floating around ATS, well..I'm not saying it won't happen, but let's just say I wouldn't be changing my holiday plans.

I highly recommend a visit to the Ocala area, it's not an impossible drive form Orlando.

Was definately visiting the everglades anyway and will check out ocala forest and St Augustines on the net. Doing the park thing for the kids but want to see something different for me and the wife as we want to make the best use of our fortnight.

Gotta recommend the La Quinta on International Drive. A short walk to Sea World, a short drive to Disney. We got an amazing room above the pool for $25 a night for the four of us with a coupon.

Go to Florida! The coasts (so far so badly) are on the Gulf of Mexico side. Not the areas you want to visit.

I know what people mean about touristy stuff, but, heck, visit and do what YOU want.

In case anyone in your family might be interested in rockets or the space shuttle, there's Kennedy Space Center.

You know, yes, the gulf oil leak to me is beyond disaster to catastrophic, but I can't help but thinking that for the affected states, there were always more than the beaches. For a visitor like me, I never did set one foot in the gulf waters, as we spent time crisscrossing the rest of the state. There was history, beautiful land, good people, touristy things, and local food (sadly just not seafood anymore for the foreseeable future).

No one should stay away from those gulf states when considering a vacation. There is just too much you'll miss.

Spring and fall are the good times to be there, it's actually enjoyable outdoors. Winter weather can be really random (one day near freezing and the next at 80F and lots of rain), and Summer is just too darn hot and humid (unless you like the indoors and A/C.) The tourist trap spots are fun enough though, although the coastal towns can have their own charm. And also around Orlando watch out for the blind intersections. There are people that will pull out into the highway from a standstill without looking. (Which is fun when you're closing on them at 70MPH.) And then there are the people that will drive like they don't know where they're going (even those with Florida plates.)

And most of the towns and city residential areas are cul-de-sacs and not grids. So if you go off the main roads, you'll want a GPS. Trust me, there's no conveinient cutting through from A-to-B. (Although in some areas, I'm not too surprised if 4x4s break that rule.)

Other than that, if you stay out of the seedy spots (just about any city has 'em) you should have no problems. Enjoy yourself!

It's been a while, but I was stationed there in A-school back just before they closed the Navy base in Orlando. That goes back a bit, huh?