Everybody does a bit better when they have a trip in their future. I know I always deal with a grumpy person just a bit better when I am going somewhere warm. Since discovering
Vacation Rentals By Owner (or VBRO as it is known) trip taking has opened up a bit more for me and my family. We have literally rented a 3 bedroom wheelchair accessible home for less (per night) than we would have paid for a single hotel room or suite. With this in mind my wife loves to scour the internet for cool places and see if they might have an accessible rental (or enough for our needs). She has come across some real cool places that we add to our list of spots to visit in the future.
One such find was
Sanibel Island, Florida. Located off the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico this area is rated high on our want to visit meter. There are plenty of wheelchair accessible houses and condos that can be rented for a reasonable rate. There are plenty of beaches perfect for frolicking, snoozing, swimming, or what they are known for sea shell hunting, and other
activities. From what information we have gathered it is a very
family friendly island that according to several sites "you won't need your car" on. Along with the beaches the island offers miles of bike paths perfect for a certain hand-cycler and his family. There are
shops, and
restaurants, and plenty for you to go
tourist on. From what we have been able to see this is not Daytona Beach or Panama City. Not much of a Jell-O shot kind of a place. But that kind of speaks to me and I cannot wait to go.
Our family decided to take a big trip to celebrate my wife's 40th birthday and her graduating from grad school. We wanted to take a cruise, and we wanted to go to Walt Disney World too. We figured we couldn't do both. Lets face it these kinds of vacations are expensive, or at least I thought we would not be able to save enough to do both. I was wrong. We discovered that we could take a cruise to Nassau, Bahamas that would be four nights AND have some time at Disney World. It was a tricky and we compared several travel agent quotes, online deals, rental houses, and even looked at using Costco travel. I am going to try to blog our process so that you can skip all the hard stuff and do the trip that works for your family. By the way we are taking this trip as a surprise that my son will not know about until we get on the airplane. If you know my son please do not spoil the fun by telling him. Thanks.
First step, where to stay. Once we decided we wanted to visit Walt Disney World, we had to figure out where we wanted to stay (on property or off). We had very good luck using Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) and thought about looking to rent a condo or vacation house in Orlando. We were surprised by the amount of homes that are accessible near the parks and some of the great amenities that were included with some of them. Things like a pool with a lift were very common in most of the places that we looked at, as well as roll in showers, and free cable and WiFi. the prices were amazing too. We were considering a 4 bedroom house that was 10 minutes away from WDW that was 132.00 a night (if you wanted the pool heated) which included the taxes. We came across many deals like that, which if you have a mobility impairment is very, VERY rare. This is a great option if you are on a tight budget because you can cook meals at home, have the flexibility to go to other parks if you rent a car, and did I mention private pool which is great if you have kids who are difficult to get out of the park. We saw many amazing properties but after crunching some numbers we decided that staying on property made the most sense for us since we changed our vacation to include a cruise. I believe when we eventually go back to Orlando (and we will once my son realizes that there are other parks besides Disney World there) we will definitely keep this in mind as an affordable and restful option. Stay Tuned.
