Paradise Local
It’s 7.30 on a beautiful August morning and we’re first in the check-in queue, surprising really, as officially the latest time for check-in is only an hour away.Anyway, the troops arrive, some smartly dressed ThomsonFly agents and a team of other people with blazers and trolleys all festooned with laptops and brightly coloured stickers. The latter are there to make sure we are who we say we are and that we’re all going to be good girls and boys when we visit Uncle Sam. The formalities are, however, short-lived and we’re given our boarding passes, luggage tags, and everything else we need. We’re on our way from Cardiff International Airport to Orlando, Florida to spend a week escaping from any semblance of work and work-related issues. Travelling from the local airport has so much going for it: No ridiculously early mornings, no major parking hassles and probably most importantly, far less stress; none of the mayhem often associated with some of the bigger airports.
After a delicious full cooked breakfast and an amble around the shops in the departure lounge, we were braced for the boarding call when there was another call summoning us to the ticket desk. Oh no! They’ve overbooked… there’s an error on one of our tickets… they’ve discovered something suspicious in our bag and it’s been destroyed in a ‘controlled explosion’ (don’t you just have to laugh at that expression!). No, it was none of the above. Unfortunately, ThomsonFly in their error had overbooked economy class and, as we were first to check in, would we mind sitting closer to the pilot in Premium Class? Oh, if we have to then!
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The flight was on-time, uneventful and pleasant. We were fed some of Aldo Zilli’s best specialities on a premium-class tray, and offered some unusual, but nevertheless quite nice “Blinis” to whet the palette. Before we knew it we were landing at Sanford Airport on a very warm and humid Florida afternoon. The pre-booked hire car was ready to go, but most importantly, so was the air conditioning.
This was not our first visit to Florida, nor was it going to be our last! We’ve done Orlando and the theme parks before, with all their Disney and Universal garnish, but this is a different beast altogether. This is a side of Florida that many visitors miss while they’re that side of the pond. A beautiful and relatively undiscovered side that keeps drawing us back. On a previous visit with our kids, they all said, without a shadow of doubt, that this was the part of the holiday they enjoyed most.
St Pete Beach is only a couple of hours drive from Orlando and is our little piece of Paradise. We have visited several times and each time seems to be better than the last. This year, same as last, we chose to stay at the Howard Johnson on Gulf Boulevard, only yards from the pristine white beach and close to shops, bars and restaurants. They even have their own beach bar, Ricky T’s, which serves beautifully refreshing cold drinks when the clock says it’s time to take a break from the beach and do something else. Beer o’clock, as we affectionately refer to it!
The Howard Johnson is a clean, bright and fresh hotel, situated right in the heart of St Pete Beach. The rooms each have their own little balcony and are all big and roomy, with plenty of air-conditioned space to relax in when you feel sufficiently cooked after your day’s play in the sun. It doesn’t have its own restaurant, but is within a stone’s throw of some delightful restaurants and bars that offer anything from a simple sandwich to Oriental, Cuban, Mexican, Indian and Contemporary Western menus. There is a pool right next to the beach bar and of course the beach itself, which is one of the nicest we’ve ever been to: clean, warm, white and most importantly, quiet. It isn’t one of those beaches where you’re all packed in like sardines. It gives you a bit of space and most of the beach has cabanas that can be hired by either the day or the week to help prevent you from getting sizzled by the tropical sun. Well worth the investment!
The staff at the Howard Johnson’s are all polite and friendly. In fact, when we checked in, they immediately recognised that we had stayed there the year before and asked if we wanted the same room. An offer that we gladly jumped at, knowing how nice it was last year.
St Pete Beach, quiet and delightful as it is, is just across the bridge from Tampa, the West-Coast of Florida’s main city, with all the attractions, shopping and nightlife you would expect from a big city. Some of the Shopping Malls are vast and impressive. If you’re looking for attractions to keep the kids (and the grown-ups who pretend not to be kids) happy, there’s Busch Gardens and Adventureland just a short drive away. All-in-all you need never look far for something to keep everyone happy at any time.
The week was nothing short of heavenly and our flight back to Cardiff as uneventful as the outward leg. The HUGE plus point about this part of the trip was that we were only half an hour from home when we landed and felt almost as fresh as when we left. There is something about the local aspect that makes it all so appealing, and ThomsonFly can provide that, with their regular departures to Florida from the regional airports, thus avoiding the hassles and stresses of getting to the big airports.
Would we do it again? You bet! And again… and again!
Nigel Crawford
August 2007
We travelled with ThomsonFly from Cardiff International and stayed at The Howard Johnson Hotel, St Pete Beach.
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