A nice place to stay on Internation Drive

philjayj

philjayj

philjayj

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Hi Guys/Girls, some time next year, I am off to Florida with a load of mates. We would like to stay on International Drive, but looking at some of the hotels on TripAdvisor etc, they seem quite run down.

Can anyone recommend a nice place to stay?

Thanks
 
Erm.. International Drive isn't that nice really. Stay further out and rent a car or something.There isn't anything worth seeing around ID though..
 
Quality inn is good cheap place quite near to things.

I stayed there a few times since it was 35$ a night + tax.

Rooms were very clean if a bit run down.
 
Viper² said:
Erm.. International Drive isn't that nice really. Stay further out and rent a car or something.There isn't anything worth seeing around ID though..
Click to expand...

This is the truth. It's also not really that interesting along the drive too. Some stores and a lot of tourist stuff.

Although it depends on what you call "nice" As people have said the Quality and Holiday inn are there if you want cheap but certainly not nice, there is a burger king, mcdonalds and golden corral close to the quality inn if you like fast food too.

There are nice places not far from International drive if you want to pay for them but if you are planning on saving money it's nothing special but most things along international drive will suffice.
 
Just wanna add that I had a car and preferred to spend my money on eating and parks since I was only in the hotel from 11-8 each night (sometimes later) so luxurious hotels or villas would have been a waste of money IMHO.

Since you are going with a bunch of lads I imagine it will be the same.

Thing is if none of you are driving make sure you have a hotel which offers FREE shuttles to disney and universal and make sure they are also at decent times.

Some hotels run the last shuttle home at 5pm (parks are open to 11pm)

Also note Tripadvisor is now owned by expedia and I find some of the comments are really laughable what people want and what they will pay for is sometimes huge.

Complaining about at 40$ per night room that sleeps 4 because it isn't ultra modern etc.
 
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Here is what a couple of ex Scousers living there say about Florida (it may be of some help)

John's the man for advice. But I would say get out of the Miami Lauderdale area and stay at any number of hotels in the
Titusville Cape Caneveral area. Further north Cocoa Beach right up to New Smyna Beach are beautiful and all within a drive of Orlando. Perfectly possible to stay in a beach hotel up there and still be in an hour/1.5 hour drive of Orlando without having to suffer Orlando.
Have fun
Prices are negotiable right now as the whole of Florida is for sale !!


Downtown Miami is a nice place to look around by day but is very dangerous after dark.
Pay special attention to the route to Interstate 95 or the Turnpike as you head north.
Several tourists who left the beaten track found themselves in bad areas such as Liberty City and were robbed and killed.
As Bob says, once you leave that area you are more or less safe.
As far as Florida goes, from Miami to Orlando, only the coastal strips are developed and the centre of the state is rural and mostly used for farming. Florida is #2 behind Texas for the number of cattle. A fact that surprised me.
Both coasts are very nice and there is plenty to see and do.
The west coast has beautiful white sand but the east coast, where I live, does not but still very beautiful. August/September is still in the off season for everywhere outside the Disney area so prices for golf etc. is cheaper than the main season, which is October through May.
As you are driving everywhere you will find petrol much more reasonable than UK.
I paid $2.45 per gallon yesterday and it had gone up 30c last week.
 
If you want actually nice on I drive you could try the Peabody or may be Rosen, not sure what budget you are after. If you want cheaper but still on Idrive try the International Plaza (I've used it several times when going to conventions at the conventions centre on I drive) the old rooms are looking a bit tired but it's ok and they have upgraded some of it. Try roomsnet.com for some good prices have used them several times with great prices.

Remember orlando is really struggling so don't even think about paying rack rate
 
The closer you are to the Peabody, the nicer I-Drive gets but after ten trips of being in hotels on I-Drive I've had enough and will be staying at a Disney resort next year, the additional £300 will be well worth it.

When I first visited Orlando (1991), there wasn't even an off licence on I-Drive let alone a pub outwith of the hotels. After a few years, they built Pointe Orlando which is a shopping area with two floors that had shops on the ground floor and a cinema and a few pubs on the first floor (FAO Schwartz was brill) but now the shops are almost all closed down and in their place there are nightclubs. That wouldn't be much of a problem except it has led to I-Drive being very noisy at night and loads of drunks staggering around in the early hours making too much noise and thinking it's funny to kick doors as they stagger to their hotel rooms.

It's not much of a problem if you like that kind of thing but with young kids in tow, it's a real pain and can (and does) lead to confrontations with drunken idiots. If you want to go to Orlando for the theme parks, stay at a park hotel. If you are there for the beaches, St Augustine on the West Coast puts you within easy reach of Daytona and Cocoa. If you want both, again, stay at a park hotel as that will keep you central and both coasts are easliy reached with 90 minutes of driving. Have fun.
 
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