Cheap Florida Vacations

Vacationing in Florida doesn't have to be expensive. Cheap Florida vacations for the whole family are possible. There are two basic ways to make it happen. The first is to find a great package deal, use ticket coupons for the amusement parks, and time the trip so the hotel rooms are cheaper. You can pursue this way through websites like Discount-Tickets.us.

There really are some great travel deals to be had through discount sites and careful budgeting. You can sometimes cut the cost of a trip to Disney World in half, for example, by booking an Orlando hotel during off peak months. But this isn't the only way to have cheap Florida vacations. The other way is to change the way you think of Florida vacations.

The Beaches and Parks of Florida

The last time my wife and I were in Florida, we stayed for eight days on beautiful Lake Talquin, camping in our conversion van, which is always cheap. It is a great place for vacations in winter. There is a boat launch, hot showers and nice decks and docks that jut out into the lake. The host, it turned out, was from near where we lived in Michigan. He sold fire wood, if we wanted to have a fire.

Our day usually started with a shower and breakfast. This allowed enough time for it to warm up. Then, when the sun was high enough, we would quietly sneak down to a corner of the lake to watch for the "monster." We never did get a photo, but several times we were within a few yards of the ten-foot-long alligator, before he slipped into the dark water to hunt us properly.

Throughout the day we saw wildlife. Armadillos walked through the campground, and an owl was nesting over our heads in a tall oak tree. Squirrels, raccoons, and possums were regular visitors. We regularly watched the Great Blue Heron that came to fish offshore from our van. There were also turtles (one huge snapping turtle), fish, frogs, ducks, cranes, and more.

In the evenings we sat around the fire with new friends from Texas and England (married to each other) and their two-year-old. We drank a few beers and traded travel stories. They even made an "Alligator Hunter"- style movie of us searching for our big toothy neighbor. Together, the five of us went on short excursions, like the one to Wakulla Springs to jump off the big diving platforms, and the trip to CCs Pizza, to eat all we could eat for $2.99.

The name of the park, if you are interested, is Williams Landing. It is twenty minutes west of Tallahassee, on Lake Talquin. The cost to camp there? Zero. There is no charge, and you can stay for up to ten days per month.

So it is possible to have cheap Florida vacations in. Before we stayed at William's Landing, we had stayed a couple nights at another free campground, half-an-hour south in the National Forest. Prior to that, we stayed on the beach, in one of the state parks along the Gulf of Mexico. We thought $22 was expensive, but there was that beautiful sunset, and the thousands of incredible sea shells just waiting to be picked up.

Free and Cheap Florida Camping

There is a catalog that Woodall's puts out for RVers, that lists all the campgrounds, including the free ones. For more on that, you can go to the page "Free Camping Cataog." Also, to help you plan your cheap Florida vacations, use the link here to the Florida State Parks Website. You can find the park you want on their list, and click through to the website for that park.

Related Page: Florida Alligators

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