Leaving the cold weather

We have spent several Christmas’ in Largo, Florida with my son and daughter-in-law. It’s an easy drive from North Carolina and heading from cold to warm weather doesn’t hurt either! My husband runs a non-profit and works with middle school-aged boys and since they are out of school the week of Christmas, he closes down his ministry for that week. It makes that a great week for a getaway!

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Christmas in Largo, FL

The week of Christmas is a great time of year for a short vacation. Everywhere we go people seem to be “of good cheer” and I love to see all the Christmas decorations. The restaurants, hotels and main streets of each small town, are all decked out with Christmas lights. My husband and I really enjoy getting away, it helps break up the long winter. We like traveling south most of the time, the weather conditions are better, although we have taken trips to Wisconsin. There is just something magical about seeing snow at Christmas!

Christmas travel list

This is what has to be done in order to travel at Christmas.

• Let family here know that we will be gone, make alternative arrangements for Christmas with them
• Decide how many nights we will be gone and what dates.
• Set a travel budget, include; gas, hotels, food, dog boarding, house sitting/plant watering costs, attraction/event costs, and gifts/souvenirs
• Plan our travel route
• Check travel conditions for our route, both weather, and construction
• Decide how many days & nights of travel(how many hotel rooms along the way)
• Make a reservation for dog boarding for our Poppie–WAY ahead of time(months ahead)
• Ask a friend to check on our house, feed fish and water plants(we usually give them a gift card)
• Make hotel reservation along the route, sometimes we wait to see how far we can get before stopping
• Make hotel or Airbnb reservation for when we are there

Terry has family here in North Carolina. His brother and sisters usually have a get-together and we also spend time with his daughter and son-in-law. We don’t want to be selfish or hurt anyone’s feelings, but they are usually fine with seeing us before we leave or when we get back. As for our budget, Terry is a high school basketball coach and gets half his season’s pay in early December, so that is a big part of our budget. The travel route pretty much has two options. There’s a direct route that goes down some back roads and through some small towns or we can take a longer route and drive the main highways. We have taken both routes. One thing to consider if you are traveling on Christmas day is whether restaurants and gas stations will be open. We have traveled for hours without finding a place to stop! The weather is usually ok when heading south, we won’t hit any snowstorms! After all, heading toward warmer weather is part of the reason for the trip! We have friends who are happy to come and check on the house, feed the fish, and water the plants(I have a lot of plants), we give them a restaurant gift card for helping us. After dropping Poppie at the kennel, we are on the road!

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Airbnb

If you haven’t used Airbnb yet, you should try it! We have used it twice, once in Seattle, Washington and then last Christmas in Largo, Florida. It’s very easy to use, you can go to Airbnb.com or download the app. on your phone. You will enter; destination, check-in & check-out dates, number of adults/children and don’t forget to hit filters button so you can get all the amenities you are looking for. Also, it’s VERY important to make sure the host is a Superhost, which basically means they have a good standing with Airbnb. You will need to set up an account, but it is very easy to do, you can sign in with Facebook, Google or with your email. You choose the place you want from a map, you won’t get an exact address until you book it. It can be an apartment, condo, basement in a house, cottage or an entire house. Some Hosts charge a security deposit which will be held on your credit card. You will pay about 50% of the reservation amount at booking and the remainder at a later date. In Seattle, we had a cottage all to ourselves. In Tampa, we had a condo with a balcony overlooking Tampa bay for only $80/night! There was a pool and hot tub which was also included. It was a great place and a great location!

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Largo Central Park Holiday lights

The city of Largo has a great Christmas Light display at the Central Park. There are over 2 million LED lights in the 70-acre park. It is free to walk through the park and enjoy the beautiful lights on a warm Florida evening. The park has a 7 story Ferris wheel and a beautiful Carousel each cost $5 per ride. On 12/15/19, there will be a craft fair with live entertainment and concessions, Santa Claus will also make an appearance! The display runs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day from 6:00-11:00 pm.

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It is truly a Winter Wonderland! Even though there is no snow, I never felt more Christmas Spirit than when I walked through this beautiful park. Here’s a list of more Holiday events in the TampaBay/Largo/St. Petersburg areas of Florida;

• Busch Gardens Christmas Town-(Busch Gardens Admission Prices)
• Zoo Tampa-Christmas in the wild-$26.95
• Holiday Lights in the Garden-Florida Botanical Gardens-$4 donation
• Enchant Christmas at Tropicana Field-St. Petersburg-$14.99-$19.99
• Lights at Lake Park Estates-Seminole-drive through-Free
• Tampa Riverwalk Boat Parade of Lights-12/21-Free

Here’s the article regarding where to see Christmas lights, Holiday Lights Tampa It’s funny, I never thought that Florida would have so many Christmas events and celebrations! I guess I always thought that Christmas time was about cold weather and snow. Actually, the people of Florida have a lot of Christmas spirit!

Tell me your favorite Christmas Getaway! Please comment and share!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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