Hei
Takk for tilbakemeldingen. Men jeg trodde at denne gruppen var til for å
dele reise-erfaring med andre reisende. Og dette er eneste grunnen til at
jeg skriver reisebrevene som jeg legger ut på siden min. Men for ordens
skyld legger jeg ut reisebrevet direkte her.
--
Mvh
Gard Karlsen
gard@karlsen.ms
http://donar.netpower.no/~ghk/
Our vacation started on October 14th and ended on October 29th 2001. The
travellers this time was as usual my love Nikki Mooki and Gard Karlsen. We
flew from Stavanger (Norway) via Amsterdam to Miami in Florida. We rented a
car there and we spent a few days in Miami before we drove of to Orlando,
Tampa, Naples and then Miami again. On our trip we stopped by places like
Kennedy Space center, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Epcot, Busch
Gardens and much, much more.
Prelude
We always take a lot of time deciding when to go and where to go on
vacation. After hearing and seeing a lot about Florida for many years, we
decided to go to Florida and due to recommendations we decided to go in
October. As we all know there were some tragic events in New York and
Washington on September 11th 2001 but we decided to go anyway as it looked
like the world and USA were getting back to "normal". But we did think about
cancelling the trip as we heard about the bombing of Afghanistan started and
anthrax was being found in the USA.
The journey begins
But as I said, we decided to go ahead with the trip anyway and our journey
started on Sunday October 14th 2001. When we first looked for tickets the
prices was quite steep. But in the end of August we got the tickets for
about 4500 Norwegian kroner (about 500 US dollars) . We flew
Braathens/KLM/Northwest from Stavanger (Norway) via Amsterdam to Miami. We
wanted to be a little prepared when we got there so we booked a car using
expedia.com and we booked an Avis car for about 100 $ and a hotel for the
first two nights in Miami. Due to the events on September 11th, the airport
security was tight and we had to go through several checks and anyone that
had a suspicious look got extra attention. When we looked out the window on
our plane we could even see the airport workers being frisked when going
into the aircraft. But we got on our way more or less on time and the flight
to Miami took about 9 hours. We got to Miami at about 8 pm and it was pretty
easy to find the Avis bus which took us to the Avis car rental place and
soon we were driving of in a Chevrolet Cavalier. Before we left we bought a
travel guide of Florida (Eyewitness Travel Guides) and it had a map of
Miami. We combined this with the map and instructions that we got from Avis
and we were able to get to South Beach without too many problems. We had
rented a room at Dezerland Beach Resort & Spa that is located quite north on
South Beach (8700 Collins Avenue). When I first booked it on Expedia it was
quoted to be 45$ pr night but with taxes and fees of 5,63$ the cost was
about 51$ pr night. And when we got to the hotel in turned out that there
was an extra fee of 2$ pr night because there was a safe in the room and the
parking was 5$ pr night. I can't say that I'm happy about these "hidden"
costs and the hotel itself wasn't really that nice. But it was nice to
finally check in and be able to go to bed after a long journey.
Miami
We started exploring Miami the next morning and we started by taking a trip
down to Ocean drive to take a walk there and look at the Art Deco district.
I guess we got up too early because the place looked very deserted when we
got there. But it is a pretty interesting area and the contrasts are big.
You have the people that roller blades and jog through Lummus Park and you
have the homeless sleeping on benches in the park. We also saw a biking
police that I wanted to take a picture of but I was afraid that he would
book me for being sarcastic if I askes for permission. The reason that I
wanted to take a picture of him was that he was nothing like the bike cops
that you see on TV shows like "Pacific Blue". This guy was a bit fat and his
outfit didn't look like it was designed for the biking police. In the Art
Deco district you will also fins quite a few shops, places to eat and the
beach of course. Not far from this you will find places of interest like the
Lincoln Road Mall and the Holocaust memorial. The memorial was a pretty
stunning sight as you can see from the pictures. We just walk around in
silence and looked at all the individual faces and bodies that form the base
of the gigantic arm.
We like science so we wanted to check out Miami Science museum and
Planetarium. We only stayed there for a couple of hours and the place was
more or less empty. They had quite a lot for the kids there but of course
one must be able to read and understand English to fully appreciate it. The
show in the Planetarium was also OK and we were informed about black holes,
pulsars and quarks. There is also a little "zoo" attached to the science
museum and they have a few birds and turtles.
We had heard quite a lot about Little Havana and we stopped there on the way
back into town. We thought the place would be pretty lively but again the
place look almost deserted.the closest thing we came to action was seeing a
few elder men sitting in a restaurant playing domino.
A trip to America must also include a trip to a mall. We decided to stop by
Aventura mall, which is located North of Miami on the way to Fort
Lauderdale. The mall is pretty big and it is a pretty standard mall where
you have chains like Sears, JC Penny that surrounds lots of smaller shops
inside the actual mall. But according to the guidebook there are many malls
in the Miami area of course and some are more "upmarket" than others.
A word of advice when it comes to driving around in Miami: bring lots of
quarters (25 cents) to put on the parking meters. In most places the price
was 25 cents for 15 minutes and it is not always easy to find parking space
at all
We also wanted to try out what some of the locals do for exercise: roller
blades. We had brought our own roller blades but I don't know if that was
such a good idea. They were a bit heavy and they took up some quite a lot of
space in our suitcases. And it was possible to rent skates in the Art Deco
district. But we used our own and we skated in Lummus Park.
On the second day of our stay in Miami we checked out of the hotel and
headed for a mansion called Vizcaya. This house was a fantastic mansion
built by a Mr. John Deering in the period of 1914 to 1916. For 10 dollars we
got entrance to the house and a tour of the ground floor was included. Once
again we were almost alone in the house and our guide Marcia talked us
through the rooms on the ground floor. She was very enthusiastic and it
turned out to be a great and informative tour. We got to learn about Mr
Deering love for Europe and how he bought antiques in Europe and later built
the house around all these items. I certainly recommend a stop at this place
because it was something really special. I had a feeling of being at
Versailles or the palaces of Vienna when I strolled trough the rooms.
On the way out of Miami we decided to take what we thought would be the
scenic route along the coast. It turned out that it wasn't all that scenic
and it went a lot slower than staying on the main highway. On the main
highway the road quality was pretty good and the speed limit varied between
55 to 70 mph. After a while we got to Fort Lauderdale and we made a brief
stop here to take a walk on the beach.
We didn't really have a proper map of this area of Florida and we managed to
get a bit lost as it became dark. We tried to find a place to stay around
Jupiter but we got lost and we ended up in a small place called Port St.
Lucie. But at least they had a Best Western hotel there were we could spend
the night.
Orlando
The drive next morning was not that long.after a couple of hours we arrived
at Kennedy Space Center. After standing a line for a while (and listening to
the same music over and over again) we got our tickets and went in. As most
people I have a certain interest in space and it was a nice place to visit.
The most impressing site was of course the building where the Saturn V
rocket is kept. The rocket is so BIG that one must really see it to believe
it. Maybe some of the photos will give a certain illustration of the size. I
think it is quite amazing that these big things left ground at all. But hey,
Kennedy said that they chose to go to the moon; not because it was easy but
because it was hard. Due to the events on September 11th some of the
facilities were closed of. On the bus ride there are normally several stops
but on this day we only got to see the Saturn V center.
The drive to Orlando from the Kennedy Space Center is pretty short and after
about one hour after leaving the center we were on International drive in
Orlando. It seems like most of the tourist "attractions" have centered on
this short road and we decided to get a room in this area since it is close
to the amusement parks. We stopped at one of the tourist information centers
to get some help to find a hotel but they seemed more interested in selling
us Disney tickets. But we did manage to pick up some brochures and in most
of the brochures there were info about hotels and also coupons. I don't
really like this coupon business but we managed to get a hotel room at
Quality inn for about 32 dollars a night. The hotel is located on 7600
International Drive and it is pretty big.
We decided to get started with the fun stuff the next morning. The first
thing on our list was a visit to Universal Studios. We got there at about 9
am and we didn't have any problem finding it because it was only like 5
minutes away from International Drive. The parking houses at Universal are
huge so when you park remember to note which floor and section you are in J.
OK, I have to admit that we did have trouble finding our car again but the
parking people were professional and they helped us locate the car. We
bought a two day pass ticket to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
This allowed us to switch between the two parks during two days.
Before you read any further please note that there might be spoilers about
some of the rides. As I mentioned we came to the park at about opening time
and there were not that many people there. So we ran of to start with Back
to the future. It was a pretty good ride but it is basically a simulator
ride but the set-up around the whole ride makes it great. I like what the
Americans do when it comes to lines. Instead of standing in line just
waiting, they use the time to build up a story, to build a concept and that
makes waiting in line almost a part of the ride itself. After this we ran
over to the Men in black attraction and this is more interactive compared to
Back to the future. In MIB you get to help the agents shooting at aliens and
you get a score for this. One of the attractions that I was looking forward
to was the Terminator 2: 3D. I have heard a lot about it and I have to say
that my expectations were met. It is a unique mixture of onscreen action,
live stage performance and 3D and that was really fun.
After this the lines started to grow a bit and we had to wait a while to get
into the Twister attraction. Compared to the other stuff that we had been
through this was not much of an attraction. But it was still kinda neat to
see how they have been able to create this natural phenomenon inside a
building.
Kongfrontation was unfortunaly closed due to maintenance so we never got to
see that but we moved on to Earthquake - The big one. This was also a fun
attraction and the climax comes when you ride in a subway tunnel and you
reach a station and that is when the earthquake hits. Apart from that we got
to do the Jaws attraction, go the Gory, Gruesome and Grotesque Horror
make-up show and Beetlejuice's Rock 'n' Roll Graveyard Revue. The park
itself is not all that big but of course we didn't cover all the stuff that
are made for the small children. We even had time to get our caricature
painted and go to Islands of Adventure towards the end of the day to try to
Hulk but I'll say more about that later.
I'd like to mention that there is a big 20-screen cinema located on
CityWalk, which is sort of the entrance to Universal Studios and Islands of
Adventure. We tried it out this cinema and it was pretty good.
It took quite a lot of walking to cover Universal Studios so we took the
advice from the guidebook (and our feet) to put in resting days in between
visiting the big parks. So the following day we played Adventure golf on
International Drive (Pirate's Cove) and we drove of to Gatorland. The golf
was pretty good and they had two golf courses to choose from and we took the
advanced one since we try to play adventure golf wherever we go J. Just for
the record.I did beat Nikki J.
Then we drove of to Gatorland, which is listed as a good half-day
experience. The place itself was not all that impressive but we got to see
alligators up close, we got so see a guy "wrestle" a gator, we got to try
gator nuggets and rib and we got to pet snakes and small alligators. The
shows were worth catching because the gators are pretty calm when they lie
in the water.
The park is open until 6 pm and we stay almost until closing time. On the
way back we stopped by Florida mall, which is located on the way to Orlando.
We also managed to make a few turns that we shouldn't have when we came to
International Drive. The result was that we ended up on the highway and the
next exit was 5 minutes of. So it is advisable to get a good map over the
Orlando area. We only had the bad maps that are presented in many of the
tourist folders.
After resting for a day we were ready to try out the next amusement park:
Islands of Adventure. Once again we got there at about opening time (9 am).
We rushed over to the Spiderman attraction first but that was closed because
of technical problems. So we moved on to the Duelling Dragons. As the name
might indicate this is actually two individual roller coasters (Fire and
Ice) and we started with Ice. It was a great ride and since it was so early
there wasn't much of a line when we got of so we went straight into Fire.
And we tried each one twice before we moved on.
We went back to The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man after this and it was
operating again. We had to get in line for quite some time to ride it and
when we finally got on it it turned out that there still were some technical
problems. But we got to ride it again later that they and it was good. Again
it was a mixture between a ride and 3D film and it was impressive. I
mentioned earlier that the lines could almost be a part of the ride. Well,
on this ride the line was too long but the creators are pretty clever and
you never get to see the full line that is ahead of you. I guess they have
made it this way to avoid stealing the hope from people J
We also had to try the Incredible Hulk coaster. We tried it twice and it is
a good ride. The cool thing is that you get "launched" on top of the first
hill and within two seconds you go from 0 to 40 mph and you're hanging
upside down. It was a great ride and I recommend it.
We also waited in line for quite some time to try out the Doctor Doom's
Fearfall. It is a ride where you get catapulted about 150 feet in the air. I
have taken stuff like this before and the best version of this is located on
top of the Stratosphere tower in Las Vegas but that is another story.
Apart from this we enjoyed The Eight Voyage of Sindbad, Poseidon's Fury,
Jurassic Park River Adventure, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw falls and so on. We
stay until closing time at about 7 pm.
My advice is to come early because the lines got pretty long in the middle
of the day (60-75 minutes). There are some free lockers in connection with
some of the rides where you can keep your bags and stuff for about 45
minutes. Having these free lockers is s pretty good system in my opinion.
The next day we decided to go for a resting day again. First of all we went
to WonderWorks on International Drive. It is not possible to miss this place
because it is a building that is upside down. The place contains lots of fun
stuff for kids and adult and there are many interactive things that one can
try out. We tried Virtual reality games, we tried creating a roller coaster
and then we got to ride it in a simulator, we got to make giant soap bubbles
and so on. After this we went over to Wet'n'Wild to try out the slides
there. I don't think that we picked the right day (or maybe we did) because
we got lots of rain while we were in there. But we still got to try most of
the slides that were open and once we got cold we went into the water to
warm up. They had quite a lot of rides there and we had fun for a few hours.
It costs about 30 $ per person but this is not the real cost. If you want to
park there you have to cough up 5 $ and once you get in it costs 5 $ to get
a small locker.
We also did some shopping this day. We went out to a place called Belz
outlet center and we walked around for a while in stores with names like
Nike, Adidas, Levi's and so on.
Epcot
Again it was time to do an amusement park and we decided that we wanted to
try Epcot. The size of the Disney area is pretty amazing. When we got of the
highway to get into the parks we more or less got on a new 6-lane highway.
We got there are about 9 am and it turned out that they didn't open until 10
am. They had done this to save money because there had not been that many
visitors after the September 11th attack. But we got in eventually and the
first thing I have to say is that it is a BIG park.
We started out by doing attractions like Honey, I shrunk the Audience, Body
wars, Cranium Command, Spaceship Earth ride, Test track and so on. And when
the world showcase opened at noon we went in there. First of all I wanted to
visit the Norwegian area. We took the ride here (called Maelstrom and it was
funny to listed to the narrator telling about Norway in English with a
Norwegian accent J. The film about Norway after the ride is badly in need of
an update by the way. Apart from that it was fun to walk into the
"Norwegian" stores and buy Norwegian chocolates. So if you stop by this
place be sure to buy some Melkesjokolade (Milk chocolate) because it is a
"little piece if Norway".at least according to the TV commercials back home
in Norway.
My impression of Epcot is that it seems a bit "out of date" compared to the
other new parks that we went to. Sure, some of the rides are good but, as we
saw in Universal Studios, it can be done a lot better with today's
technology. And that is kinda ironic when a part of the Epcot center is
called Future World.
And there is something else I don't like about Epcot and that is the use of
brand names on the different attractions. You have Universe of Energy
presented by ExxonMobil, The land presented by Nestlé and so on. This is
advertising and it is right in the face of young and adult. But maybe that
is what it takes to get bigger companies to invest money into places like
this.
Most of the stuff that you'll find at the Epcot center is educational in one
way or the other and that was great.
We stayed until 9 pm and in the darkness we got to see a great fire works.
The place is as I say pretty big and we were on the move most of the day and
we didn't really get to look at all the countries in the World Showcase.
Tampa
The next day we drove down towards the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. The
highway is pretty good and it is not all that far (about 70 miles to Tampa)
so it doesn't take very long. We have heard that the beaches on the coast
were good but we didn't want to get to far away from Tampa because we wanted
to check out Busch Gardens later on. So we ended up driving just past St.
Petersburg and then we went on to Treasure Island. In a tourist brochure we
found a coupon for a place called Buccaneer Beachfront Resort Motel and we
went to the motel and they had a room. I think most of the places on the
beach had a vacancy by the way because there were not many people on the
beach.
The first thing we tried was of course to take a dip in the Mexican gulf.
The water had a pretty good temperature compared to what I'm used to from
back here in Norway (the water is normally freezing on the beaches outside
Stavanger) but there was a certain fish stench that was not very appealing.
So we went back to the hotel and took a nice swim in the heated pool J
Our main reason to stop in the Tampa area was really to visit Busch Gardens
that is a combined zoo and amusement park. As usual we were up pretty early
and we got there until opening time at 10 am. I have to admit that I was
very disappointed when I saw a sign at the entrance that stated that the
roller coaster Kumba was closed. This is one coaster that I had heard of and
that I was looking forward too. But we were pretty lucky because the coaster
did open later that they and I got to ride it and it was good. The other
main coasters are pretty good to. Gwazi is a wooden roller coaster and they
always have a different feeling compared to the steel coasters. And it was
kinda rough on us, so rough that Nikki had to go to the first-aid station to
get some aspirin for a headache. Montu is an inverted steel coaster that
also gives a great thrill.
But as I said this is also a zoo and it was great combination. We started
with the rides and then we moved on too the zoo part of the park. The Edge
of Africa has zebras, Antelopes, Giraffes and so on on display and we also
got to see lions, hyenas, elephants and monkeys up close. The Rhine Rally
was a fun experience combining a drive through of the park and a
thrill-ride.
The day we went there was a pretty hot day so we had to try out the water
rides as well. We got absolutely soaking wet on the Congo River Rapids and
we just continued with Stanly falls and Tidal Wave. Remember to bring some
dry clothes if you plan to visit the place J
Naples
Our next destination was Naples but on the way there we had time to stop at
Fort Myers to visit Thomas Alva Edison's winter home. I have read books
about the guy when I was younger but it was fun to hear stories about him
again. The 16 $ that it costs to get in gives you access to the gardens, his
house, his laboratory, a museum and a tour. The tour was more of a botanical
tour to start with as the guide took us through his big garden with plants
and flowers from all over the world.
The ride from Fort Myers to Naples is a short drive and the first stop in
Naples was at the tourist information. Based on the info we got there we
found a room at Sea Shell motel. Naples seems to be a very quiet place
because we took a drive in the evening and there were hardly any people out
at all. But we only stayed at this place for a night because next morning we
were off to the Everglades.
The ride from Naples to Everglades City is also pretty short. Everglades
City is a starting point for different rides in the Everglades area. A cold
front was moving in at this time and the weather turned cooler and we got a
few raindrops. But we wanted to go on a boat trip to check out the wild
life. But we only went for a short 90-minute boat ride that took us out
towards the gulf coast. The ranger that took us out there told us about the
fish and the bird life in the area and pointed out the different birds for
us. The highlight of the boat trip was when dolphins decided to swim along
with the boat.
Back in Miami
The trip through the Everglades is a pretty short trip and before we knew it
we were back in Miami. When we got to Miami we stayed at the Dezerland hotel
but that was a bit out of town so we decided to try and get a place closer
to the Art Deco district. The first place we tried was the Riviere hotel.
They had a vacant room but there were no parking in the area so we turned it
down. But then they said that they had studios or flats (called the
Mediterranean) that we could rent not far away. And for about 39 $ we got a
room at the corner of 15th and Pennsylvania which is pretty central. The
place itself was not all that nice because people were coming and going from
the flats so it was pretty noisy. The place had a few parking places outside
but there was not enough space for all the cars of the tenants. So when I
parked at night I just parked on the pavement closing the entrance for the 3
cars that were parked there. That was obviously a big mistake because next
morning I had gotten two parking tickets: 1 for parking on the sidewalk and
1 for blocking the exit for the other cars. In total this added up to about
60$ so it was a pretty expensive parking. So the moral of the story is that
the people that check these thing are always around (I got the tickets at
5.30 on a Saturday morning) and if you will get a ticket make sure you only
get one not two tickets like I did J
The rest of the time on our vacation was spent looking around Miami. We went
downtown to try out the Metromover and we also tried a drive in Coral Gables
that the guide recommended. The drive itself was pretty boring but at least
it too us to places like the Venetian pool that looks like a wonderful
place.
And we stopped by Ventura mall, Miracle Mile and Bayside in downtown Miami.
Going home
On the 28th of October it was time for us to get back and we got to the
airport about 4 hours before the flight left. Turning in the Avis car was
quick and painless. But when we got to the counter to check in we were told
we were too late. It turned out that Northwest had change the timetable
during our vacation and all of a sudden the flight left 4 hours earlier than
usual. Northwest was able to get us on a Martinair flight to Amsterdam later
that night but we had to wait for about 8 hours. So I guess the lesson is
that it can be smart to re-confirm tickets when you are travelling. The
flight home to Europe was pretty quick as we had strong tailwinds. But I was
not very impressed with the comfort and standard of the Martinair flight
that we took. After a few hours in Amsterdam we got back to a rainful, windy
and cold Stavanger.
A few tips and recommandations
Car rental
As I mentioned earlier we rented a car from Avis and we used Expedia to book
it. When I rented the car I got a price of 100$ per week and I knew of
course that there would be extra cost because you need insurance and so on.
I thought that I would have an option to choose different insurances but
when we got to Avis in Miami we only got one question "Do you want collision
insurance?" And I said yes because saying no would be irresponsible. And
this insurance was about 22$ per day and the total cost for renting the car
was in the end 600$. In my opinion it should have been clearer what the
total cost for renting the car would be and I have also shared this point of
view with Avis.
Driving in the States
Apart from that driving is pretty easy in the states but there are a few
rules that are different than what I'm used to. You are allowed to turn to
the right when the signal is red (unless there is a sign saying something
else). Cars were pretty quick to remind us of this rule (by using the horn)
if I stopped on a red light. We saw quite a lot of police cars around on the
highways and people were pulled over all the time. So I guess the moral is
that we should keep the speed limits J
The gas was pretty cheap (about 1.15$ in the Orlando area) and driving 1200
miles did not really dig into our wallets. When you fill gas remember that
you have to pay in advance.
I guess I also have to mention the coupons that are everywhere. It is
possible to save quite a lot if you use the coupons for all the different
attractions in the Orlando area. But I can't understand why it should be
like this.
Language
It was not always easy to communicate with people in Miami because many only
speak Spanish. Or as Nikki put it: we heard more English spoken on our
vacation to Mexico last year then in Miami.
Maps
As I have mentioned above we more or less only had maps from tourist folders
when driving around. That was not very easy at times so I recommend that you
bring along a good map of Orlando and Miami at least. I'm very pleased that
I had Nikki as a map-reader by the way because there is quite a lot to focus
on apart from the map. So I did the driving and she said left, right and so
on.
Food
The Americans seem to love their food and there is a great selection of
fast-food restaurants. I don't eat that much fast-food at home so it was
great to try out Wendy's, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC and so on. We also
went out to have steaks a few times and the portions are BIG so we soon
found out that there was no need for starters. In general the portions are
big so Nikki and me often shared a meal at least for lunch. Apart from that
I just have to say that I love Dairy Queen and especially the Blizzard. It
is basically the same as the McFlurry from McDonalds but only better J And
there is a great selection of stuff that you can get inserted into the ice.I
fell for chocolate chip cookie dough grin. And smoothies were also sold on
different locations and that is a really healthy and great way to cool down.
My favourite is the boring banana, strawberry, orange juice and crushed ice
mix.
Cost
I have spoken about the cost quite a lot already and I hope that I don't nag
too much about it. But it is important to know how much a trip will cost so
you can plan a vacation and set-up a budget. Here are some of the costs for
our trip:
Activity
Cost
Universal Studios/Islands of adventure
190 $ + 16$ parking
Epcot
102 $ + 8$ parking
Kennedy Space center
53 $
Wet'n'Wild
60 $ + 5$ parking
Busch Gardens
102 $ + 7$ parking
Avis car rental
595 $
Gatorland
32 $
Wonderworks
30 $
Edison's winter home
24 $
Boat trip in Everglades
32 $
Vizcaya
18 $
Museum of science and space transit planetarium
16 $
Hotel/Motel
Address
Price
Dezerland beach resort & spa
8701 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach
2 nights about 120 $
Quality inn international
7600 International Drive, Orlando
6 nights, 223$
Sea Shell motel
82 9th Street South Naples
1 night 42,5$
Best Western
7900 South U.S. 1, Port St. Lucie
1 night, 76$
Buccaneer Beachfront Resort Motel
10800 Gulf Boulevard, Treasure Island (near Tampa)
2 nights, about 70$
Riviere hotel
Miami
2 night, about 80$
As I said earlier, I was not very impressed with the Dezerland hotel. First
of all I didn''t like the location and second, I don''t like these hidden
expenses that came on top of the bill. The Quality inn that we stayed at in
Orlando was located very central and it was pretty cheap. The Riviere hotel
(or Mediterranean studios) were not all that great. The location was nice
but the place was noisy and it seemed a bit worn down. The rest of the
places were OK hotels and I don''t really have much more to say about it.
Planning material
When planning the trip we did use both books and the internet. First of all
we bought Eyewitness Travel Guide to Florida by Dorling Kindersley. But most
of the other information came from the net. Best Regards
(
http://home5.inet.tele.dk/hans-h-c/) includes a travelogue from a Danish
guy who went to Florida a few years back and that was a nice reference. We
booked the Avis car and the first hotel by using
www.expedia.com and you can
read a lot of general information about Florida on
http://www.flausa.com/index.php.
Summary
I think that we had a great time in Florida and I guess Florida turned out
to be what I expected it to be: a very entertaining place to spend a
vacation
We got to see quite a lot in the two weeks that we were there
and we could probably have spent a lot more time in the states because there
were a lot more to see. We got to see more or less all the things that we
had planned to see. The only thing we missed out on was a Jai Alai game in
Miami. But maybe we will go back to the Sunshine State one time in the
future.
"Martin Toulstrup" <toulstrup@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9tja07$bbu$1@news.cybercity.dk...
> Hej Gard. Pas på med at reklamere her, du bliver bare beskyldt for at
> spamme!!
>
> --
> Check Min Hjemmeside:
>
http://www.florida-usa.subnet.dk
> Gard Karlsen <gard@karlsen.ms> skrev i en
> nyhedsmeddelelse:R3KK7.222$eZi.179404800@news.telia.no...
> > Hei
> >
> > Jeg var nettopp på to ukers ferie til Florida og det var deilig med litt
> sol
> > og sommer igjen
Jeg har lagt ut et reisebrev fra turen på min
> hjemmeside
> > og bilder vil bli lagt ut snart. Adressen til hjemmesiden er
> >
http://donar.netpower.no/~ghk/. På siden ligger det også bilder og
> reisebrev
> > fra turer til Mexico, Sør-Afrika, Thailand, Singapore, Paris, London,
> > Amsterdam osv.
> >
> > Kommentarer og spørsmål kan sendes til undertegnede på gard@karlsen.ms
> >
> > Mvh
> > Gard Karlsen
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>