Further Away from Disney

Part of this year's theme was to try life further away from Disney. Sure, it sounds like a great idea to live the Disney life just minutes away from The World. But those who have tried it have reported frustrations with traffic and tourists. And I must admit, those two issues do become annoying even with our relatively short stays near Disney.

Our first villa was in Davenport. This was close enough to Disney (30-45 minutes to be almost anywhere) but was far enough away so that trips to the less touristy Haines City was possible. The second part of our trip was to go even further away. He had heard and seen wonderful things about the Melbourne area. In fact, several years ago we spent a couple of days at the beach. We decided to rent a condo at the beach just north of Melbourne.

Beach real-estate is much more expensive than the Kissimmee area, so, our dollars didn't go as far. We gave up a five bedroom pool house for a 1200sqft two bedroom condo with a shared pool. However, what this place lacks in space, it makes up for in views and outside enjoyment!

From this location we can see cruise ships and rocket launches from Cape Canaveral.

 And we are approximately 90 minutes away from Disney - far enough to make daily trips impractical, but not so far that we couldn't go whenever we wanted to.

The Rt. 192 area near Disney is very commercialized with all kinds of chain restaurants. The beach area still has a local flavor with many local restaurants, yet is a short drive to some of our favorite chains. We grocery shopped at a Publix and were blow away by how expensive everything was! We have been shopping at Walmart (and probably should have done so again) which has prices that we are used to seeing at home.

For the rest of this trip it is sand, surf, and relaxation. Check out the video here.