DH and I will be spending 3 months in FL this summer to evaluate whether we want to relocate and establish residency there. Most of that time, we will be doing house/pet sits through TrustedHousesitters, but we will have almost a month of that time on our own to explore as we wish. We want to focus mostly on South FL - Melbourne or below on the East Coast, Sarasota or below on the West Coast. The reason we aren’t considering areas further north of these cities is that we want beaches that are comfortable for swimming most or all of the year with water temperatures of 75+. We will make one exception to spend a few nights in The Villages.
For SE FL, we want to explore the area from Ft. Lauderdale up to Melbourne and we have 2-3 weeks to do that. Questions:
- Are we missing anything if we don’t explore any towns south of Ft. Lauderdale? We are thinking the Keys are way too remote and Miami is too busy and urban for us.
- What is a good town to stay that would allow us to easily explore Broward and Palm Beach counties? Thinking of spending time in some of the beach towns - Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, Boynton Beach, Jupiter - as well as some of the 55+ communities that seem to be further inland. We could stay in multiple towns if need be although we don’t mind driving a bit to avoid constantly changing accommodations.
- Are Stuart and Port St. Lucie nice? The real estate prices seem lower there and I’ve read concerns about pollution from Lake Okeechobee, but developers seem to be investing a lot in these areas.
For SW FL, we plan to explore the area from Sarasota down to Marco Island. Initially we were leaning towards SW FL as we thought we’d fit in better with the more laid back culture there, but after researching sea temperatures and red tide, we are thinking SE FL might be better. If we check out the areas listed below, are we missing anything notable?
- Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch, Venice, Englewood, Bonita Springs, Punta Gonda, Port Charlotte, Cape Coral, Ft. Meyers, Estero, Naples, Marco Island
For both SE and SW FL, during June and July, are many accommodations full such that we should definitely prebook, or are there usually vacancies readily available? Since we don’t really know how long we want to spend in each town, it would be ideal to travel “on the fly” but we don’t want to end up sleeping in our car or having to drive an hour out of our way to find places to stay. I know the snowbirds will be gone, but don’t know how crowded S FL is in the summer with tourists.
If anyone has done a “lifestyle visit” to The Villages, did you contact them directly or go through a realtor to arrange it? How long did you stay to get a feel for it? We are thinking 3 nights should be sufficient but not sure what they typically offer.
For SE FL, we want to explore the area from Ft. Lauderdale up to Melbourne and we have 2-3 weeks to do that. Questions:
- Are we missing anything if we don’t explore any towns south of Ft. Lauderdale? We are thinking the Keys are way too remote and Miami is too busy and urban for us.
- What is a good town to stay that would allow us to easily explore Broward and Palm Beach counties? Thinking of spending time in some of the beach towns - Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, Boynton Beach, Jupiter - as well as some of the 55+ communities that seem to be further inland. We could stay in multiple towns if need be although we don’t mind driving a bit to avoid constantly changing accommodations.
- Are Stuart and Port St. Lucie nice? The real estate prices seem lower there and I’ve read concerns about pollution from Lake Okeechobee, but developers seem to be investing a lot in these areas.
For SW FL, we plan to explore the area from Sarasota down to Marco Island. Initially we were leaning towards SW FL as we thought we’d fit in better with the more laid back culture there, but after researching sea temperatures and red tide, we are thinking SE FL might be better. If we check out the areas listed below, are we missing anything notable?
- Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch, Venice, Englewood, Bonita Springs, Punta Gonda, Port Charlotte, Cape Coral, Ft. Meyers, Estero, Naples, Marco Island
For both SE and SW FL, during June and July, are many accommodations full such that we should definitely prebook, or are there usually vacancies readily available? Since we don’t really know how long we want to spend in each town, it would be ideal to travel “on the fly” but we don’t want to end up sleeping in our car or having to drive an hour out of our way to find places to stay. I know the snowbirds will be gone, but don’t know how crowded S FL is in the summer with tourists.
If anyone has done a “lifestyle visit” to The Villages, did you contact them directly or go through a realtor to arrange it? How long did you stay to get a feel for it? We are thinking 3 nights should be sufficient but not sure what they typically offer.