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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Flori-deals galore

Orlando offers Canadians special savings

By: Rick Cropp and Barbara Braidwood

14/11/2009 2:49 PM | Comments: 0

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Daytona Beach will be back in action for the college crowds. (CANWEST NEWS SERVICE)

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A surfer walks toward the waves under a demin blue sky spattered with clouds in Daytona Beach, Fla. (CP PHOTO)

THE Orlando Convention & Visitors Bureau is hoping to entice you to visit with its new Made for Canadians (1-800-551-2006, www.V isitFlorida.com/Canada) promotion valid through Apr. 30. This is the first time the Orlando CVB has had a specific savings program just for us. There are more than 70 offers that range from discounted or free accommodation to deals on attractions or eateries. Here are some examples.

When you book a three-day golf school at the Faldo Golf Institute by Marriott, you receive free lodging in a one-bedroom villa at Marriott's Grande Vista Resort for three nights.

The Hampton Inn & Suites Orlando/ South Lake Buena Vista is offering a discounted rate of US$55 per night and the Pirate's Dinner Adventure is giving US$20 off per adult. Be prepared to show Canadian ID and blackout dates may apply.

While in Florida, roller-coaster fans may want to visit SeaWorld Orlando's (www.seaworld.com) new Manta ride that claims to give you the sensation of being a giant ray. And Universal Studios Florida (www.universalorlando.)

com) new Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster lets you select the music you'd like to shriek to as you coast around.

If you can, make the trip (about an hour's drive) to one of our favourite places: Daytona Beach (www.daytonabeachcvb. org, click on Canadian Sand Dollars for accommodation discounts).

It was the novelty of driving on the seemingly endless beach and the relatively cheap off-season prices that first attracted us, but we have since found other attractions to draw us back.

Daytona boasts a gargantuan flea market (www.daytonafleamarket.

com) and the beach is a terrific spot for viewing night launches at Cape Canaveral.

North of the strip is where you can catch a glimpse of old Florida. The hotels have been kept to a maximum of a few storeys and are mostly located on the non-water side of the two-lane highway. The beach is miles of untrammelled wide sand where you can fish without snagging a swimmer or sunbather.

Best of all are a series of historic attractions hidden down some of the roads off the beach (www.ormondscenicloopandtrail. com). We love the Tomoka State Park (www.

floridastateparks.org/tomoka), where we once happened upon a couple of Norman Rockwell-type boys fishing blue crabs out of the meandering creek. They shyly showed us where the alligators like to sun and told us about the manatees that munch through the aquatic forest that waved hypnotically under the tiny bridge.

On an aimless meandering, we also came across the Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park (www.

floridastateparks.org/bulowplantation). The narrow winding drive along Plantation Road is a step back in time with overhanging live oak branches.

The ruins themselves are fascinating but the serenity of the salt marshes and creek and absence of anyone all afternoon made it just another day in the 1800s.

-- Canwest News Service

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