First stop Orlando Universal!

We stayed at the amazing Hard Rock Hotel Universal. This was an outstanding hotel with everything a family needs.

The location is perfect, 5 minutes walk and you’re at the gates of Universal Studios.

The complimentary Fast Passes for both Parks are worth their waiting gold! You also get early admission to both parks to enjoy the Harry Potter experiences.

The Hotel also provides transportation to other parks off-site and can arrange admission tickets at slightly discounted rates. 9/10

We spent 5 nights at the Hard Rock and then travelled down To Miami! We arrived on Easter Sunday and the place was rockin! Very busy but a pleasant drive down. We have two children 14 and 12, they were not so keen!!!!!

We stayed at the Savoy on Ocean Drive. Again this was a lovely hotel but more traditional and low key. One down side – Restaurant and Bar closed at 8pm??!!

Again a great position backs right onto the beach and just far enough away from the hustle and bustle. We hired pushbikes, they have various stands you can collect and drop off and were a great way to cover a lot of ground. We only had two nights here so not long enough to explore properly but The News Café is great place for breakfast and to watch the Miami World go by.

Burger & Beer Joint was a real locals burger bar, huge burgers and lovely staff, worth jumping in a yellow cab it’s a bit of a hike from Ocean Drive! 7/10

Right off we go!! ……. Key West.

This was a mammoth drive – much longer than google maps predicted but it is a gorgeous drive. It is just one big long road right down to the bottom Key – Key West. It took around 4 hours but we did stop off for lunch so was more like 4 ½!

We stayed at the Southernmost Hotel on Duval Street. Again another lovely hotel – which has the benefit of its sister hotel Southernmost on the Beach just across the road with its own little beach.

If you looking for a beach day head to Smathers Beach about a five minute drive from Duval Street, beautiful white sand, beds and umbrellas to hire with a couple of food vans offering snacks, sandwiches and drinks all fairly reasonable. Bliss!

Duval Street is a real mixture of some very lovely restaurants, local type bars and then some very ADULT only joints! Not much for the kids as the night draws on!! Best to go off around the back streets or chill at the Hotel – pools are open to 11 at night so my two loved their late nights swims!

Lots of water sports and boat tours offered in Key West, a little pricey but if you can afford it you get to have a go at a lot of watersports including parasailing – which my two loved! 7/10

The last leg of our trip…….we travelled back up to Key Largo and stayed at the Hilton.

This was again a lovely hotel very relaxed with its own beautiful private white sand beach on the Gulf of Mexico – the ocean was like a pool! We stayed here for 4 nights and this was our real chill out time.

There isn’t much outside of the hotel so we spent most of our time relaxing on the sun loungers out in the shallow warm waters.

They offer complimentary fishing rods from the hotel and if your lucky, very lucky, to catch the right fish their amazing Tree Tops Restaurant will cook your catch for your supper! Don’t worry if not there is plenty delicious dishes to chose from whilst gazing at the amazing sunset views.

We were lucky enough to see the Manatees come into the bay and saw some beautiful fish whilst snorkelling.

We took a drive up to the Everglades and had a go on the Airboats!!! This is well worth doing – a brilliant morning out – we all loved it.

There are lots of places in the everglades that offer the airboat ride it just depends on how far you wish to travel into the Everglades. The Hotel will recommend several places but you can also take these trips from Miami! 8/10

Time to go home!!!!!

We travelled back up to Miami airport for our flight home. Miami airport is huge, very well run but there is nothing in it. So don’t arrive too early!

April was a great time to visit Florida the weather was ideal, we didn’t have any rain for the 16 days and there is hardly any humidity = NO BUGS!!

Have fun!!!!!