Florida with young kids at xmas

I've read a lot on AAM about Florida before asking this. We are thinking of going there at xmas but not to the theme parks, think kids are too young, is there a location where you can rent a villa by a nice beach which also has shops and restaurants within walking distance or not too far. Also if you rent a villa with a pool does anyone think it's dangerous with young children (constant supervision) etc. (Children from 1 to 10). Also are there any charter airlines from Ireland who do direct flights to Florida.

Hi As An Owner of a Florida (Orlando) villa here are a few pointers.

Orlando is in the middle of florida so no beech within 90 mins so if you want a beech you will have to try Daytona, Miami, West Palm beech or on the other side Clearwater, St Petes. If you try www.holiday-rentals.co.uk or www.vacationrentals.com you should be able to find villas in these locations.

Most pools should have pool screens which prevents children from accessing the pool without the aid of an adult to open the screen. the villa should also have an internal alarm system on the external doors that beeps when an external door opens or closes so you know it has been opened.

Hope this helps

Keith

I think the only direct flights you're likely to get would be to Orlando, so if you want to go to another part of Floriday you're looking at getting another flight or having a long drive after a long flight. Also, will you be able to get an individual seat for your 1 year old, or will you have to hold him/her on your lap for 8 hours or so?

If you're able for that then there are many lovely places in Orlando to go to. You may get some ideas from jamesvillas.ie or oht.ie . I have to say though that I'm surprised you think the kids are too young for the parks as I would think that Disney and Universal are probably the most family oriented places you can go to! And if they're able for a long flight then they should be well able for a couple of days in a theme park, strollers can be rented and the parks aren't all about high-octane rides.

There's a very useful book called "A Brit's Guide to Orlando" (or something like that) by Simon Veness which gives lots of useful tips for people travelling from this side of the Atlantic. Also have a look at www.disboards.com which has lots of useful information.

That all said, personally if I thought my kids were too young for Florida parks, I would think that long flights with them would be more than I would want, and opt for a villa in the Canaries instead.

Sarasota is lovely and nice for shopping. There are no direct flights but you could fly into Orlando and drive down, its about 2.5hours to 3 hours. We did it a couple of years ago because our kids were very young for the parks and we stayed in Orlando for 2 nights and went to Disney for 1 day which was great. It can be hard to get a home outside of Orlando but there are plenty of apart hotels. We stayed in the Colony Beach Hotel in Longboat Key which was nice because it was on the beach and had good facilities.

You can only go direct to Orlando. If you're looking for somewhere near there i can highly recommend St Augustine - oldest settlement in Florida, right on the sea and very pretty. Otherwise you could rent a car and head for Fort Lauderdale, there's a huge amount to do in Fort Lauderdale, visit the everglades, boat trips on the intercoastal and its a beautiful city.