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USA · Florida

Florida

The biggest family holiday there is, and the one most often booked badly. Orlando is extraordinary and exhausting in roughly equal measure — pair it with a beach ninety minutes away and it becomes the holiday people remember instead of survive.

9h direct · MCO / TPAESTA requiredYear-round · Nov–Apr bestGuide price from £1,349pp

The short version

Never book fourteen nights of theme parks

The parks are relentless: 25,000 steps a day, 32°C, queues, and children who are having the time of their lives right up until they aren't. Seven nights in Orlando is the ceiling for most families. Then drive ninety minutes to the Gulf coast — Clearwater, Siesta Key, Anna Maria — where the sand is white, the water is warm and calm, and nobody has to be anywhere. That split is the single most useful thing an agent can tell you about Florida.

A path leading past a lifeguard hut to the sea

The second week

The Gulf coast, which most British visitors skip

The Atlantic side near Orlando — Cocoa, Daytona — has surf and brown-grey sand. The Gulf side, ninety minutes west, has white quartz sand, water that stays flat and 28°C, and sunsets over the sea rather than behind you. Clearwater and St Pete are the busy end; Siesta Key and Anna Maria Island are quieter and lovelier. It's the same drive time and a completely different beach.

The parks

Four parks, and how not to ruin them

Disney's four parks and Universal's three cannot be done in a week without misery. Pick five park days across seven nights, book the queue-skip system on the day you land, and treat every third day as a pool day. Also: rain in July and August arrives at four in the afternoon almost daily, which makes an early start and a mid-afternoon break the right shape anyway rather than a compromise.

An aerial view of trees along a Florida shoreline

Split the trip

Orlando, the coasts, and the far south

Orlando is inland. Everything else is a drive — and hiring a car is not optional in Florida, it's how the state works.

Roads between trees and buildings from above

7 nights · MCO

Orlando

The parks, and the sprawl around them. Where you stay decides how much of your holiday you spend in a car.

Walt Disney World: On-site hotels, park transport included, and early entry. Convenient, and priced for it.
Universal: Three parks, walkable to each other. Express Pass free with the top hotels — a genuine time saver.
Lake Buena Vista: Between the two, cheaper, and where most UK package hotels sit.
Kissimmee & villas: Private pool homes for a fraction of hotel prices. The family default for two weeks.

90 min west

The Gulf coast

White quartz sand, calm warm water and sunsets over the sea. The second-week destination, and much the better beach.

Clearwater Beach: Wide, white and well-served. The easiest Gulf choice with children.
St Pete Beach: Slightly quieter, with the Dalí museum and a proper city nearby.
Siesta Key: Sarasota. Sand so fine it squeaks and stays cool underfoot. Consistently rated America's best beach.
Anna Maria Island: Low-rise, no chain restaurants, and a free trolley the length of it. The quiet one.

45–60 min east

The Atlantic coast

Closer to Orlando and better for a short add-on. Surf, space launches and a very different feel from the Gulf.

Cocoa Beach: Forty-five minutes from Orlando. Surf, a pier, and the closest beach to the parks.
Kennedy Space Center: A full day, and better than most people expect. Check the launch schedule against your dates.
Daytona: Wide hard-packed sand you can still drive on in places. Busy and brash.
Amelia Island: Far north, near Georgia. Oaks, Spanish moss and no theme parks at all.

South · 3h 30m

Miami & the Keys

A different holiday entirely. Art deco, Cuban food and a road that runs a hundred miles out to sea.

South Beach: Art deco, Ocean Drive and the beach behind it. Two or three nights, not a week.
Little Havana: Cuban coffee, cigars and dominoes. The best eating in the city.
Key Largo & Islamorada: The first Keys. Diving, sport fishing and the start of the overseas highway.
Key West: A hundred and sixty miles out. Hemingway, Duval Street and the sunset at Mallory Square.

Our speciality

Parks, beach, and the drive south

Three weeks does the whole state comfortably. Two weeks does parks and a Gulf beach very well. Trying to do Orlando, Miami and the Keys in fourteen nights means most of it through a windscreen.

Orlando7 nightsFive park days, two by the pool.
Drive · 1h 30m
Gulf coast5 nightsSiesta Key or Anna Maria. Nothing scheduled.
Drive · 3h 30m
Miami & the Keys5 nightsSouth Beach, then the overseas highway to Key West.

Florida is a driving state and the roads are easy — wide, straight and signposted. We book the car with the holiday, and we'll flag the toll transponder, which is the thing that generates surprise charges months later.

When to go

Year-round, with a hot wet middle

November to April is the season: warm, dry and comfortable in the parks. June to September is 32°C with high humidity and a daily afternoon thunderstorm, and it's also hurricane season, peaking in September. The parks are busiest in the school holidays regardless.

Jan22°

Feb23°

Mar26°

Apr28°

May31°

Jun32°

Jul33°

Aug33°

SepHurricane

Oct29°

Nov26°

Dec23°

Late April, May and October are the sweet spots — warm, before or after the worst humidity, and outside the busiest park weeks. Avoid September if you can: peak hurricane month and the wettest of the year.

Worth leaving the resort for

What we'd actually book

Magic Kingdom

Rope drop, and be at the gate thirty minutes before opening. The first two hours are worth the rest of the day combined.

Universal & the Wizarding World

Two parks joined by the Hogwarts Express, which needs a ticket for both. Express Pass changes everything.

Siesta Key

Quartz sand that squeaks and never gets hot underfoot. Regularly voted the best beach in America.

Everglades airboat

An hour from Miami. Alligators, sawgrass and a very loud boat. Choose a smaller operator inside the national park.

Kennedy Space Center

A full day, and genuinely moving — the Atlantis and Saturn V halls especially. Check for a launch window.

Ocean Drive

Miami's art deco strip. Walk it in the morning for the architecture, not at night for the restaurants.

The Overseas Highway

A hundred and sixty miles of road across open water to Key West. Stop at Bahia Honda for the beach.

Manatees at Crystal River

November to March, an hour north of Tampa. Snorkel with wild manatees — the only place it's legal.

The practical bits

Things that catch people out

ESTA requiredApplied for online at least 72 hours before travel, valid two years. Use the official site — the copycat ones charge four times as much.

Two airportsOrlando (MCO) for the parks, Tampa (TPA) for the Gulf. Open-jaw between them works well.

Hire a carNot optional. Florida has no meaningful public transport outside the parks, and distances are American.

Toll roadsElectronic tolling with a transponder from the rental company. Decline it and you'll get admin fees by post.

Time zoneFive hours behind the UK. Westbound is easy; the flight home is the hard one.

TippingExpected and substantial — 18–20% in restaurants. Budget for it; it isn't included in menu prices.

Park ticketsCheaper bought as multi-day packages before you fly, and we'll price them with the holiday.

Hurricane seasonJune to November, peaking September. Parks close rarely, but travel insurance matters.

Before you book

Five things worth knowing

Split the fortnight. Seven nights of parks maximum, then a beach. It's the difference between a great holiday and an endurance event.

Go to the Gulf, not the Atlantic. White quartz sand, calm warm water, sunsets over the sea. Ninety minutes from Orlando and a far better beach.

Book the ESTA on the official site. Fourteen dollars on the government site; four times that on the copycats that outrank it on Google.

Villas beat hotels for two weeks. A private pool home in Kissimmee costs less than two hotel rooms and gives you a kitchen and somewhere to put the children.

Decline the toll transponder at your peril. Florida's tolls are electronic. Skip the rental company's device and the admin fees arrive months later, per toll.

Next step

Tell us your dates and we'll split the trip

Send your dates, party and rough budget and we'll come back with an Orlando-plus-beach itinerary — park tickets, car hire and the payment plan written out in full.

Your money is protected. Trip Tides is a travel agent — we book your holiday with a travel company, and that company is named on your quote and confirmation. Your contract is with them. If your holiday is a package including flights, put together by an ATOL holder, you'll get an ATOL certificate naming that company. We confirm in writing what protection applies before you pay.

Florida packages

Flights, accommodation and transfers as one package. Every one can be reshaped — different dates, different board, a different airport, or a stopover on the way.

7 nights in Florida

All inclusive · Nov–Mar

Return flights and private transfers
All inclusive throughout
Financial protection confirmed in writing before you pay

from £1,199per person

Get a quote

10 nights in Florida

All inclusive · Nov–Mar

Return flights and private transfers
All inclusive throughout
The extra nights cost proportionally less — fixed costs don't change

from £1,529per person

Get a quote

14 nights in Florida

Half board · Nov–Mar

Return flights and private transfers
Half board throughout
Best value per night, and worth it on a longer flight

from £1,819per person

Get a quote

Guide prices, per person, based on two sharing, including return flights, accommodation and transfers. They indicate what a holiday of this type has typically cost and are not an offer or a quotation. Your price depends on dates, party, board basis, departure airport and availability, and is confirmed in writing before any payment is taken.