My holiday

[RogerC]

(06-01-2015, 01:03 PM)Kingy Wrote:

(06-01-2015, 12:35 PM)RogerC Wrote: but definately NOT full english breakfast and wide screen footy in those awful 'home from home' pseudo pubs.

... With English red top newspapers and constant 'happy hours'. Couldn't think of anything worse!

We are (if all goes to plan) off to the Gulf Coast again in August. Love the beaches there as with some you (literally) wave to the nearest people to you a few hundred yards away. And you have to search high and low for a bar showing football aka soccer.

Holiday for us means 'no papers'.......no TV unless we run out of books......definitely no 'full english' unless we are in the motorhome and I'm cooking it.

So where on the Gulf Coast? Any particular favourite?

[Kingy]

(06-02-2015, 08:43 PM)RogerC Wrote: So where on the Gulf Coast? Any particular favourite?

Yes.
We fly into Tampa and pick a 'truck' (as the Americans call them ) up and drive to our hotel. We've tried a beach hotel (at St Petes), and as lovely as it was - with our own cabana on the beach, pools and jacuzzis we got bored being in one location so prefer to stay on the very outskirts of Tampa. That way we are 15 to 30 mins from all of the beaches on 'Gulf Boulevard' from Clearwater down to Pass a Grille.

Every day is then a different beach, with new places to eat and new things to see. Although its one area of the coast/Gulf, each beach is very different. Some are ones the locals use and not obvious to find - like India Rocks. The kids loved that one and made loads of American friends there as the kids play there like they do at Parks in the UK.
We love the fact that (apart from Clearwater - which we wouldn't rush back to) the beaches are so vast that you have loads of space and are never near anyone else. Sometimes we were the only ones there for hours which was great.

We are also within 20 mins from some good Malls which we can either drive to in the evening (for a wander and some nice food) or use the hotels complimentary transport to drop us off and pick us up - If I fancy a beer. I rarely drink on hols as I drive (which I enjoy as I always pick a nice big comfy car with plenty of gadgets on to play with! )

We will do the one obligatory trip to an attraction for the kids. Orlando is just over 2 hours drive - which is nothing when the roads are all very wide and straight and we are in a big comfy 'truck'. I loathe Orlando, but the kids want to go to Universal this year so one day of the holiday will cover that.

We do have aspirations to buy a property out there for when we retire. Once 65 you can spend 6 months over there without a Visa which, at present is bloody appealing! Yaz will also have her 'BA Benefits' which mean we get flight concessions even if she no longer works there - so getting there and back should not be a problem.
You can only spend three months out there before 65, so we are in no rush as we can't get the holidays yet due to my work and I'm not overly interested in buying something to rent out as I can see that just being a hassle.

[RogerC]

Very nice too Kingy.........if property prices there are as low as I remember it could be a good retirement for you. We did the Gulf coast decades ago with out younguns......they loved being able to walk to the beach and back without us and better still was finding all the shark teeth on the beach. IIRC we stayed in Venice beach south of Sarasota.

[Kingy]

I was looking at Venice Beach* holiday lets as an alternative to the hotel in Tampa, but got out voted! I don't mind as I love it over there so am happy anywhere. The beaches are brilliant - clean white sand, clear warm sea and very child friendly with being man made. They stay shallow for a long time.

You are right property is still great value. We were tempted to buy sooner rather than later, but the sums and potential hassle of renting over the nine months we cannot use a property don't really add up for a while so we can wait. Plus, there is no way we'd get three months use if we did buy for a long while yet.
It's a nice thing to be considering though. It gives an added depth to holidays as we weigh up areas we visit and a focus to where we want to be as the years click on. I need that as I pay no attention to (my) age, so can see age related events arriving far sooner than I expect!


*I was watching an episode of 'Bosch' (detective thriller series on Amazon Prime) and the main characters girlfriend lived in a house at Venice Beach and both Yaz and I thought the place looked fantastic.

[jollyjoiner]

(06-03-2015, 06:41 AM)Kingy Wrote: We do have aspirations to buy a property out there for when we retire. Once 65 you can spend 6 months over there without a Visa

Just 5 more years to go then matey

[Kingy]

(06-03-2015, 02:27 PM)Jollyjoiner Wrote: Just 5 more years to go then matey

Ha ha ha. If only you cheeky bastid.

Have you been out in your hairdressers car yet this week? Baaaaaaaaaarrrrp, Baaaaaaaarrrrrp

So funny this .....
https://vine.co/v/emZWTgZeEnn

[jollyjoiner]

Pmsl at that vid mate hahahaha