Spending Money & Car Hire

[digitalskittles]

Hi

Me and my other half are off the Orlando for two weeks for our honeymoon on 31st May.

We have booked flights, accomodation and bought tickets from ATD.

We have just realised we have no idea how much we would need for spending money? Any suggestions of what would a minimum to take away with us.

We are self catering and will eat most of our meals out.

Also does anyone have any recommendatiosn of where to hire a car?

Thanks in advance.

[dmrevis]

As for car hire i'd try all the big names like Avis, Alamo, Dollar, National etc etc and also try sites like Expedia. I've never hired a car out there so wouldn't know more than that.

As for spending money on my last trip with my (now ex) partner we only spent around £600 in two weeks. This included shopping, eating out every day apart from breakfast becuase we bought a box of cereal to eat in the hotel. Of course we didnt have full meals every day as sometimes we'd just snack through the day and have one meal at night. It also incuded shopping and buying shoes/trainers. A few cabs too, although we used I-ride and Lynx mostly when outside disney.

For sure i'd say £1000 would be plenty to have a good time and not have to watch the pennies too much. With the exchange rate that gives you *around* $2000 depending where you exchange your money.

Hope you have a great time. :purplejum

[LeonieM]

You don't have to eat all your meals out - you can buy stuff ready to eat and bring it back to where you're staying! Wal-Mart do enormous filled subs for $5 - and one of them will do 2 meals!!! You can also buy the basics and do it yourself without actually having to phyiscally cook if you don't want to. It's amazing what you can buy to shove in the microwave these days!

If you don't want to buy breakfast every day - although I'd ask why not, because for $3.95 plus $2 for your refillable tea/coffee, you can really stuff yourself silly - you can buy sliced bread or rolls and a small pack of butter or spread (peanut butter or whatever) and do it yourself. That'll also save you money.

We usually spend about $1600 between the 3 of us, and that includes everything (gifts, food and other stuff). You should budget, I suppose $10 a head to eat at the parks, dinners out can start at about $12 a head (plus tips), but you can also eat out a lot cheaper, eg Cicis pizza buffet is $6.00 only a head including drink!

It depends what you want to spend your money on, really.

We're taking $1000 in cash this time, and will use the credit cards for the rest - but we buy clothes and I buy craft staff.

Regarding hire cars, there are several threads about car hire at the top of the forum. I use www.floridacarhire.net myself, and they search all the hire companies. I've used Dollar, Alamo and Budget in the past. Car hire seems very reasonably priced at the moment, too.

[Tiggers Friend]

Hi digitalskittles and welcome to the forum. :)

What a great place to spend your honeymoon. As dm says you would be fine with £1000, my wife and I take around £1500, but generally bring some back (thank goodness!!). I've always found that a mix of cash and dollar Travellers Cheques works for us (you can spend the TCs as if they are cash). You need the cash when you arrive for tips and tolls etc. I always take a credit card (Nationwide is a good option as they don't charge) for emergencies and also when you hire a car.

We've nearly always had a breakfast, the size of which gets you through to dinner.

For car hire, I'd recommend booking in the UK before you go. As dm says try the main car hire companies, but also try USrentacar - http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/

Driving in the States is very easy and enjoyable and in my opinion adds to the holiday (not everyone agrees).

If we can help further, just ask.

[loobylou]

Welcome to the friendliest forum :purplejum

You'll have plenty with £1000 for 2 of you. We are a family of 5 and take £1000. We eat out nearly every night, buy lots of clothes,shoes etc and buy snacks. We do take our own sandwiches into the park and have brekkie in the apartment. So we spend quite a bit in Walmart!! We also take our nationwide credit card as back up just in case!!!!

As for car hire try www.usrentacar.co.uk, we have used this company twice and found them to be cheaper than booking direct with the different companies. We go for the gold insurance to include extra drivers and the tank of fuel and have used Budget both times. Once in Sanford and once in Orlando airport. Don't use Budget if you are flying into Sanford, thry are not onsite.

We also went to orlando for our honeymoon 10 years in August!!! It was our first of many visits :happy-thumb

[digitalskittles]

Thanks a lot for the help.

I am so excited. I've never been before but other half went when he was a teenager.

I don't drive so I will tell him to look on the sites suggested so that he can sort the car out.

Thanks again.

[RogerP]

I’ll be taking $1500 worth of dollars with us in April.

I tend to use my Thompson Credit Card as you don’t get charged for money conversion charges likes Barclays.

Hotel, car and tickets are already paid for now :)

Tickets via ATD :happy-thumb

[Tiggers Friend]

Rogerp welcome to the forum. Where are you staying and when are you travelling?

[RogerP]

Rogerp welcome to the forum. Where are you staying and when are you travelling?

Hi

We are travelling out on the 12th of April for 2 weeks in Orlando.

Am booked in at the Quality Inn Plaza, on I drive.

Have since read some mixed reviews on this hotel though, but as long as its clean and tidy I’m not too worried. We wont be spending much time in the room anyway.

Last stayed at the QIP 12 years ago when I was a young teen.

[flumpsmum]

Hi, we stayed at Quality Inn Plaza last March/April & it was absolutely fine. I also read mixed reviews before we went but we didn't have a single problem with it at all. Have a great time.

:thumb:

[RogerP]

:mr-cool:
Hi, we stayed at Quality Inn Plaza last March/April & it was absolutely fine. I also read mixed reviews before we went but we didn't have a single problem with it at all. Have a great time.

:thumb:



:happy-thumb Thats great to hear thank you :mr-cool:

Trip report when i get back ;)

[marksarahL]

We normally budget for $100 a day for food we probably never spend that much but if we go to a top restuarant as a treat we know it will not affect the budget.

if you use alamo and use this link www.alamo.co.uk/brits (kindly donated by Simon & Susan Veness on another thread) you will get a 10% discount.

Also just like to add, we stayed at the Quality Inn Plaza last May and it was clean tidy and we had no problems, we did however request a room that was not on the side of the I4 as it can get a bit noisey. so facing International Drive is better.

[RogerP]

Also just like to add, we stayed at the Quality Inn Plaza last May and it was clean tidy and we had no problems, we did however request a room that was not on the side of the I4 as it can get a bit noisey. so facing International Drive is better.

Cool, thanks for the tip :happy-thumb

[KeriandSophie]

It depends on how much shopping you want to do i guess as eating and getting around is cheap. The two of us took $2000 last year and felt it wasnt really enough, this year we're taking $3000 :happy-thumb

[digitalskittles]

Thanks everyone :)

[bootytooTy8]

Hi
Can any one tell me if I can use a Nat west maestro card while I am there as I have £2000 for the five of us for 3 weeks , but need to no if I can use this card as I get paid while I am away so need to no if I can access this card just in case:redconfus

[andr3wjillings2]

Not sure if you will be able to use the card to pay for items but you can definately use it to withdraw cash. I used mine last year. I would think you probably can use it to pay for items though.

[bootytooTy8]

Hi thanks for that Ill just check with the Nat West first. Just to be sure you never knoew in case I might need more cash:purplejum lol