4 day break from WDW

[jimmie2daughters]

We are planning a 4 day time out in between disney,disney,disney etc.
We fancy Clearwater (2DDs age 8 and 4).
not a lot of info about .
Any suggestions for hotels/ alternative places on the gulf coast to have a 4 day breather.

ATB
Jimmie L
Lancaster

 

[WDWfan uk]

Hi Jimmie,
We stayed at the Clearwater Beach hotel for four days - their site is down so I don't know if that's a temporary blip or a change of ownership, but it still in the Virgin brochure - I booked it independently. ( I'll check back on it from time to time)
The beach there has wonderful powdery sand, and the sea is warm and gentle. Another hotel there that has been recommended is the Sheraton Sandkey - here is their website - great photo of the resort's location on this page too :-

http://www.sheratonsandkey.com/indexb.htm

A little further down the coast is Sarasota where we stayed on Lido Key in the Half Moon Beach. The hotel has a nice pool and a small beach - a lot of the hotels and condos on Longboat Key and Lido have their own private beaches, so to visit a large beach, we drove from Sarasota to Siesta Key, where there is a really great public beach with miles of that lovely sand!
Visit www.clearwaterbeach.com for a 'taster'!

 

[jimmie2daughters]

Thanks for that Shirley.

With 2 DDs I was looking at the raddison suite resort but it is megadollars.

What did catch my eye was the radisson beach resort at Marco island. It says it almost guarantees seeing real dolphins in the sea and everything.
Any opinions.

On a slightly different note,
I have discovered that there are some really good unique discounts on accomodation outside WDW available if you have a "losing" Florida lottery scratch card (Play FLA USA).
would it be a bit rude to ask if anyone already in Orlando whether they might bring one home to the UK and forward it to me as my DW is not keen on looking for one frantically to present to reception at our hotel the moment we land in Orlando. ( your 2 dollars back and postage and a thank you).

ATB
Jimmie L
Lancaster

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Jimmie - we stayed at Radisson couple of years ago - great place and great location.

We've stayed on St Pete's beach last few years at the Holiday Inn - superb hotel, quite fantastic location and there's loads to do there as well.

From this particular hotel you have water views whichever room you're in. The cheaper ones are 'bayside' - the internal waterways - and you have fantastic views of dolphins EVERY day. We were lucky last year - our room looked over both the beach and the bay, so saw dolphins from both!

In Clearwater you have opportunities for trips on Captain Memo's pirate cruiser - brilliant - and the Screamer - the largest speedboat. Also loads of different dolphin sighting cruises - also available from St Pete's and along that part. About half hour down from Clearwater is St Petes.

We're staying on Naples beach this year so looking forward to a visit back to Sanibel - truly beautiful.

 

[BevS97]

I've found quite good discounts at the beach using www.hoteldiscounts.net and no lottery ticket is required!
Also www.flausa.com has special offers listed on it quite often/.

Bev

 

[jimmie2daughters]

Bev
Thanks for the tip about FLA usa website.

It has a crscking rate for the Holiday Inn as St Petes.
This is looking promising.

Ta Much
Jimmie L
lancaster