Road trip - Florida

[Sam098765]

Hi all,

Last year we did our first road trip inspired by this forum LA>San Diego>Vegas>SF>LA. We loved it and are now planning our honeymoon in October.

We've decided on 2 weeks in Florida and 4 nights in NYC on the way back. We've booked flights into Orlando international and our flight to NYC is from Miami. So we have a road trip between the two.

What I'm looking for is some help with good places to stay, recommended hotels and places to see. Tried all the usually suspects for this info but nothing is as good as the advice we received of here!

Our first go at an itinerary is
Orlando 1 night. - not bothered about Disney.
Clearwater beach 3 nights.
Fort Myers 2 nights.
Key largo 1 night.
Key West 3 nights.
Miami 3 nights.

Things to see and do

Bush gardens in Tampa for our dose of theme parks
Random exploration of beaches
Sample night life
Air boat

Any help greatly appreciated.

Any hire car company recommendations. Looks to be between Dollar and Alamo in price.

What's the deal with toll roads. Didn't pay a penny in California apart from the odd bridge. There's talk of a sun pass??

 

[Stringy]

I quite enjoyed Kennedy Space Centre as a kid, so if you're into that sort of thing see if you can swing by it.

Random car advice: Not sure how humid it is in October, but if it's anywhere near as bad as it gets in the summer get a hard top, you won't want to have the roof down on a convertible.

 

[acemastr]

SixT are cheap and fairly decent.

I'm going to Clearwater Beach tomorrow for 4th July, it's a phenomenal beach, also recommend Honeymoon Island which is just north, perfection is how to describe that beach.

You can buy a sunpass in pretty much any pharmacy (CVS, Walgreens etc) which has credit on it, most tolls now are toll-by-plate which means they take a picture and bill you 4 weeks later (in my case, $1.25 toll and $2.50 admin charge) so don't get caught with those. The sunpass is a little box you stick to your window.

If you go to Ybor City be VERY careful, amazing night life but flashing any cash is going to get you unwanted attention.

Spend more time in Key West, it's glorious.