17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Hand Family Trip Report - We Got To Pet Dolphins!, February 26, 2001
This review is from: The Unofficial Guide to Florida with Kids (Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)
After our family's great success with The Unofficial Guide to Disney World, we eagerly snapped up The Unofficial Guide to Florida With Kids when the 2nd Edition was published in January, 2001. What a terrific book!
We decided to take a weekend trip to St. Augustine, FL this past Wednesday, and left after work on Friday. With very little time to plan, I dug out this book and quickly flipped to the chapter dedicated to St. Augustine. There, the author gives a quick and interesting history of the city, as well as a map with recommended family resorts, attractions, and restaurants clearly marked. This section is followed by impartial reviews of each.
The family resorts section goes over a number of cozy historical hand-picked bed & breakfasts and inns, with an eye towards children. It is very helpful in telling you what aged children are welcome, whether breakfast (and what type) is included, accurate rates, distance to nearby attractions, etc.
The restaurant section focuses on dependable family-friendly local restaurants. This list is a godsend when you cannot stand the sight of another fast food restaurant, yet are afraid to try anything else.
The place where this book really shines, however, is in the attractions section. Here the author and actual readers list and rate each attraction's appeal by age group! This feature is extremely handy in trying to sort through Florida's myriad of attractions with limited time on your hands and with an even smaller budget! We really liked the fact that the author points out lesser-known and less crowded attractions that are often overlooked by unprepared families.
For instance, although we normally would never have stopped at anything called the St. Augustine Alligator Farm (I still grin at the name :)), we took the advice of the book and gave it a chance. It turned out to be terrific, one of my 3 1/2 year old's favorite parts of the trip! Another attraction that we would have certainly overlooked was Marineland, listed at the end of the chapter under side trips. Normally we wouldn't have given the park a second look, but we followed the book anyway and spent a fantastic Sunday afternoon there. Much smaller crowds meant that we got great seats at all of the shows, and we also got to spend a good bit of time talking with the animal trainers. My daughter even got to pet, feed, help train, and have her picture taken with a live dolphin! She was ecstatic, and I quietly whispered a thank you to author Pam Brandon for sending us here instead of the ultra-crowded Sea World where we could never have gotten that much time so close to the animals.
I overrode the book's warnings about taking a preschooler to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum (rated in the book as 1 star out of 5 for that age group, although higher for older kids and adults). Sure enough, Ripley's was way too scary for my daughter, and I regretted not listening to the author's good advice. We could have saved $20 right there - more than I paid for the book!
The Unofficial Guide to Florida With Kids saved us so much time and money in one weekend that it has already more than paid for itself. We are currently pouring through our copy working on our next trip. We spend a lot of time and effort on our family vacations, and we want to get our money's worth. We won't go back to Florida without this book. Highly recommended.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a must-have book for traveling to Florida with kids!, April 8, 1999
By A Customer
Ms. Brandon takes the guesswork out of vacationing in Florida, with her common sense approach to this book. Information is organized in a user-friendly fashion that makes it easy and fun to include the whole family in the planning process! Her vast knowledge of the subject matter is apparent; she has given clear and concise descriptions of specific attractions throughout Florida, from a perspective rich with personal experience and humor. Indeed, it is an enjoyable book to read, even if a trip to Florida is not on the horizon!
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