Treats for Travel Tips!
That’s right dealcheckers! We want your travel knowledge. You see, we pride ourselves on knowing a lot about a lot of places – but even we can’t cover every corner of the globe – There’s not many of us, and we’ve got our work cut out just finding all those incredible travel deals each week!
So that’s where you come in – tell us your top travel tips, and we’ll dish out the treats!
How it’s going to work:
1. We pick a destination – This week it’s the sunshine state of Florida, USA
2. You send us your travel tips for Florida – hidden gems of restaurants in Miami; the sweet spot for seeing the Disney WorldTM parade; how you occupy the kids in between the SeaWorldTM shows – we want them all!
3. There are so many ways to share:
- Tweet us using #TravelTreats
- Comment on our facebook page
- Email us at traveltreats@dealchecker.co.uk
- Or just leave us a comment in the fields below
4. Send us a good tip and you will be immortalised forever right here on dealchecker – in a special blog post full of Florida holiday advice
5. And there’s a special treat for the tip we like best – a £20 Disney Store voucher.
Feel free to back up your tips with pictures, videos, music suggestions – we want the whole Florida experience!
Hurry – you’ve got just under two weeks to send us your most witty, funny, unique and useful travel tips – we’ll pick our winner on 25th October 2011.
The T&C Stuff:
All entrants must be willing to have their submissions used at the discretion of dealchecker for social media and publicity purposes.
Competition open to all UK residents with the exception of employees of dealchecker Ltd, their immediate families, agents or anyone else associated with the administration.
The competition will run from 12th October – midnight 25th October 2011. Entries submitted after this date will not be considered. The winner will be notified in writing. No cash alternative will be offered.
Top image by HarshLight
The best steak house in Orlando, is a place called “Mannys”. its on the 27 heading out of Davenport on the Right just past, Aldis or Lidls ( cant remember which) The Steaks are the best we have ever eaten and its really cheap. BUT be prepared to wait as its very, very popular.
If you are going to Florida you should definitely visit the SeaWorld Theme Park in Tampa! And you MUST ride the Manta roller coaster!! It really feels like flying from sky to sea like a giant manta ray – the best park attraction ever!
Thanks – Did I win? :)
when travelling up and down international drive do not use the i-ride trolley as it appears to be quite irregular and often full. use the lynx public buses which are regular, you can go to and from both premium outlets, mall at millenia, florida mall, downtown disney and the airport for $2 every trip or around $16 which is excellent value if you plan to do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. all timetablescan be found on the internet before you travel or from the tourist shop on i-drive behind lobster house.
Last February was our 3rd visit to Disneyworld and to add something different we hired a car and drove to the Everglades for a day. Thrilling visit, where it appeared that the crocodiles ospreys and American Eagles were waiting to welcome us. Only recommendation is to wrap up warm (if travelling out of summer) because on a hover-boat it is PERISHING!
I have a multitude of tips but the one I follow every visit now is to book any dining reservations beforehand to eat in Disney Parks. Rules are forver changing but at the moment, you need to book in advance for everything apart from Quick Service. Good news though is that you can book online, much less hassle!!
You can’t beat Applebys for quality food at great prices. As usual, the Americans don’t hold back on the portion sizes, so make sure you’re hungry. There are lots of Applebys in and around the Orlando area, just google Applebys!
For a magical view of the Epcot light show (Last thing to see/do before the park closes at night) get a place on the bridge just along from the little Italy site and you’ll see a great panoramic view!! I’ve seen it 3 times and it is still a magical event with amazing lazers/fireworks and music. Enjoy!!
Anyone looking for a game of golf, try the Highlander course, south on I.27 (join off I.92 few miles west of Kissimee) OR the Legends Course, north on the I.27 (same junction) 2 x excellent courses and if pushed i just prefer Legends. Enjoy!
I am a pensioner and would like to take my 10 year old grandson to Disneyworld February 2012 (11 – 18) but initial contact with Disney is excessively expensive £3500+. Can you suggest anyway of reducing that to under say £2000+food for the week.
go out of high season and compare travel agents ,net and newspapers
you should be able to do it for that buy disney tickets as part of package if you can
try to have day off in between try gulf coast for beach free and salvador dali museum in tampa i think free too and kennedy space station free
The sun doesn’t always shine in Florida so bring a light plastic mac! i thought the electrical parade was going to go on fire with all the rain in July 87! A lot has changed there since, I bet, but if it’s anything like here in Northern Ireland, the rain would be worse than then. My neice went there 2 years ago. I bought her a lovely pea green light mac. Everyone thought this was so funny – going to Florida with a raincoat??? Guess what? She had the last laugh. The rest of the party got soaked!
My wife and i after 13 trips to orlando consider our top tip is when you arrive at the theme parks go to customer services ,pick up a park guide and plan your day out ,and if its epcot go to the back [worlds] first and work you way to the front as the day goes on.
If you are going to drive a lot around Florida for 2 weeks or more you must buy an EASYPASS, this enables you to drive the TOLL ROADS such as the FLORIDA TURNPIKE and not have to stop every few miles to get through the toll booths buy paying cash or dropping your change in the cash catchers at the booths. It saves a lot of minutes over a drive and you never have to stop and stay in line until the cars in front have paid their toll
If you go to the theme parks remember to go to the rear of the parks and start from there with the rides and shows.
Also remember to take a change of clothes so you can change in the changing rooms after the water rides. You will happily get wet on these rides and you do not want dripping clothes all the rest of the day. Finally do these water rides LAST
Learn how to use the disney monorail system. Make sure you have your car in the car park you are going to visit LAST as you will be tired and there will be many many many people trying to get on the monorail to get to their vehicles in the other parks or back to their hotels at the end of the light show or fireworks. All you will want to do after a fun filled day is get in your car and drive home. You will be soooo tired. Remember to drink a lot of water.
I learnt one the other day which saved me a lot of money and kept us all hydrated. Go to food booths and ask for water in a cup from the machines that they use for coke, sprite etc. This is free and you can just either fill it up again at the water fountains or go back to the booths for refills. This costs nothing.
hire a villa you will never use the hotels again , purchase the orlando sentinel the local paper on sat/ sun and check out all the vouchers on offer pick out what you want it is what the locals do you can save hundreds of dollars on food, clothes, shows and many more things
Try to get out of the theme park area to see the real Florida – visit Forever Florida and, to see Manatees in the wild, go to Blue Springs, Manattee Springs, Crystal Springs, Hommassassa Springs, etc. Also Bok Tower Gardens and The Harry P Leu Gardens are great for a quiet day.
after visiting florida 10 times my best is staying in a villa after a long day at the parks you can relax in your own pool at night with a wee drink.my best place to eat out is at perkings and the golden coral.when in the parks i buy the refill cups and can get them refilled for 99 cents every time.
Don’t buy your gifts in the theme parks, they are MUCH cheaper at the Disney outlets stores at Premium Outlets(there are 2 on International Drive).or get them from one of the numerous Walmart stores, everything from Christmas baubles, soft toys and clothes are much cheaper and all official Disney merchandise.
If you are on a fly-drive holiday do not book you accommodation in advance.It is much cheaper to book once you are there. Go to a petrol station or burger bar and they all have discount coupon books for hotels in orlando offering fantastic prices. Just take the coupon along to your chosen hotel and show them the it. The rooms all have 2 double beds and the price is per room not per person so if you have two small children you could all use one room. We got some great deals this september, paying on average £30 per night at Country Inn and Suites and Calypso Cay and Fairfield Inn.
Go to a travel agents in any Mall and book a cruise! They go out of Tampa Miami Jacksonville and Cape Canaveral all within a couple of hours drive of Orlando. we have done this twice now. The first time we went to the Bahamas for 3 nights for 100 dollars, the second time we went to Dominican republic, St Thomas and Bahamas for 4 nights for 150 dollars,both times with carnival cruises. Much cheaper than booking here.
If you are on a fly drive be adventurous. We once flew into Sanford for 2 weeks and went to New Orleans, and Memphis and lots of wonderful places on the way. Easily doable in 2 weeks.
Buy a refillable cup in any theme park and you get free ice and water refills all day for around 8 dollars. A bottle of water is 2 dollars, so 2 of you can share one bottle and never get dehydrated!!
Hire a car and do a road trip. we have started with 2 nights in orlando to do a park, drove over to the east coast, less than 2 hours, then during different holidays been to cocoa beach daytona beach vero beach port st lucie fort lauderdale miami across alligator alley to the east staying at naples treasure island branderton treasure tampa island destin gulf shores and pesacola then back to orlando for the last 2 nights in orlando for another theme park. A great way to see small town america.
Dont take too many clothes. No-one dresses up, its not like Europe, everyone everywhere wears shorts or cropped jeans with vests or t shirts, with flip flops or sneakers day and night.
Even if you have a car leave it at your hotel and use their shuttle bus. The shuttle bus will be free but you have to pay as much as 15 dollars to park at each theme park.
The “back door” at EPCOT (near the UK in Worldshowcase)is not very well known and is a quiet way to get in and out. From here you can catch a boat to Hollywood Studios and also stroll to the Disney Boardwalk.