How to spend a perfect family week in Florida

We have been lucky enough to visit Florida the past 3 years, and it's slowly becoming one of our favourite spots. Especially at the age the girls are at (8, 7 and 5). The weather is always perfect this time of year and there is SO much to do. We've also found the best places to stay and things to do. I'll share all the details about our day at Universal, our stay at Villatel Orlando, and our days by the ocean! I got asked if we rented a vehicle, and we did, because we planned to head to the ocean for a few days of our trip so we knew we'd need it. We just used Hertz in the airport. You could get away without it though if you stay in Orlando! Overall we had such an amazing vacation. Obviously kids will be kids and the girls still fought sometimes, but they honestly played SO well together most of the time. They swam for hours every day and we played at the beach and we just made the best memories. I'll also break down the cost of our trip at the end of the post!

Villatel Orlando

This is our second time staying at this resort, and this time around was SO much better. The amenities are now completed and they are incredible. The villas themselves are perfect. They have 4-9 bedroom villas, and even 2-3 bedroom apartments if you are just going as your family. The villas have huge stocked kitchens, large living spaces with big tvs, themed bedrooms and private pools. I think playing in the themed bedroom is one of the girls first things to do on the trip. It's so nice to be able to grocery shop and cook at the house as it saves a lot of money. We also spend a ton of time swimming and just hanging out. The new amenities are also incredible. It feels like a true resort. A lazy loop, waterslides, kids splashpark, large main pool, tons of loungers, a restaurant & bar, covered playground, pickelball courts and a basketball court! You honestly never have to leave if you don't want to. They also have free shuttles to the parks, so you don't even need to rent a car if you stay here your entire trip. Honestly if you have little kids, the covered playground is super nice because it's open 24/7 so if your kids wake up early you could make yourself a coffee and walk to the park to let them burn off some energy. The whole vibe was amazing and I can't wait to go back with some friends to fill a big house!

Universal Islands of Adventure

We did Universal Studios last year, so decided on Islands of Adventure this year. We asked the girls if they wanted to do a Disney park, but they said they'd rather do big rollercoasters. There were only 2 rides that Zara couldn't do, and they let you do child swap on rides so it wasn't bad at all. Honestly she had the best attitude having to wait through those rides. My biggest piece of advice is get the Express Pass. I honestly wouldn't recommend the parks if the express pass isn't in your budget, especially with little kids. You'll spend your whole day waiting in lines and your kids will get whiney and you'll regret spending your money lol. The longest we had to wait in line was 30 minutes for Velocicoaster because it's super popular. You also can't use the express pass on Hagrid's ride (they do this at every park for the most popular ride), so we had to wait an hour in line, but the girls did great. We bought them churros to help with the line and played a lot of rock paper scissors. We've watched a few Harry Potter movies with the girls to prep them for Universal last year, so Harry Potter world was our highlight of the park. It's just so magical, it feels like you're in the movie. The Hulk is also a favourite and I remember it from when I was a kid! The park day was overall great. We rented a stroller, mostly for Zara, but all of the girls used it at some point. We haven't had a stroller in years at home, but no kid is used to being on their feet for 10 hours, so I always say get the stroller if your kids are young to avoid whining. There's nothing worse than spending thousands of dollars and having your kids whine lol. They're young and it's all very overwhelming, so I do whatever I can to make sure we avoid that. That includes all the snacks. To save money we also pack lunch and snacks in backpacks. We bring little lunch kits and icepacks to keep things cold. We usually get one special treat for the girls at the park, this time we stopped at the candy store in Hogsmeade and we did the churros just to help with the long line for Hagrid's. We got to the park right at open at 9 and stayed until 6:45pm. We did all the rides we wanted to, and the girls were tired. We headed back to the house and made a late dinner and then swam and put the girls to bed. It was such a fun day!

Clearwater Beach

I live for the ocean, so I wanted to spend a few days of our trip by the beach. We'd never been to Clearwater and I heard it was beautiful, so we booked a hotel right beside the beach. I decided on Springhill Suites on Coronado. It was right across the street from the beach and was perfect. It was a lot less expensive than the beach front hotels, plus it had an amazing breakfast included. It also had a great pool with lots of loungers and a great view of the Marina from the pool area and from our room. The room was also huge. We got the 2 queen suite with a trundle bed. The girls didn't use it though, they just all slept in the other queen. The only downside to a hotel is that we kind of just had to stay in the room once we tucked the girls in. I didn't mind, but that's the huge benefit of renting the Villatel houses, you can tuck your kids in and still hang out in the rest of the house. Last year we went to Melbourne Beach and stayed in the Villatel houses there, and honestly that was amazing. I would probably pick that over Clearwater just because it wasn't packed and having the house with the kitchen was so nice for food and so nice for sleeping. Restaurants we tried and loved in Clearwater: the Spotted Donkey, Badfins Food, The Mint Fox Cookies & Icecream, King's Pizza (the BEST), Kaia Bowls, Draught Haus, Crabby's and Gelato cafe. The beach was beautiful, probably the softest whitest sand I've ever felt. We saw dolphins one night on the beach watching the sunset, it was so magical! Also where we stayed was super central and we could walk everywhere we went. To the beach, to dinner, shopping, etc. There was also a great playground right by our hotel and in the evening there were always buskers out performing and the girls loved watching that.

Little Toot Dolphin Tour

We booked this last minute and I'm so glad we did. This was the best dolphin experience we've had! Dolphins swam and jumped in the wake of the boat so they got super close to us. It was just over an hour and you also got a great view of Clearwater Beach from the ocean. Highly recommend doing this!

Costs

Flights: $1900CAD

Rental Car: $417USD

Universal Islands of Adventure w/ Express Pass: $2800CAD (this is honestly so expensive. I'm not sure Jason would have agreed to it if he knew how much it was lol, but I just love going to amusement parks!)

Villatel Orlando: $3000USD we were gifted this stay in exchange for content (we had a 5 bedroom house, you could go down to a 2-3 bedroom apartment or go with another family to save! You can also use code Stacey10 to save on any bookings over 4 nights!)

Groceries: ~$300USD (this is on the more expensive side because I love buying all the food we can't get at home and special drinks lol)

Eating Out: ~$500USD (this really added up in Clearwater as we had to eat out all meals except breakfast)

Springhill Suites: $2900CAD (we used Aeroplan points for this)

Little Toot Dolphin Tour: $220CAD (also used points for this)