by Samantha Diss

Created on: February 06, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

There is more to Florida than Disneyworld!

We had planned our week in Orlando with military precision, Magic Kingdom -Monday, Epcot -Tuesday Followed by dinner and Fireworks at MGM on Wednesday Etc, Etc, Etc, a year of planning, which tickets to buy, Which character meals to do, the list was endless and constantly amended as friends and families (Disney veterans) bombarded us with tips. So with so much time and energy spent on our week in Orlando, planning our second week in Fort Myers was slightly ignored, until the time actually came when it was time to leave Disney world, toss the lists in the bin and head for the beach, but little did we know that we were soon to discover a Florida full of character, history and a breathtaking landscapes that we would never have discovered and loved Had we only stayed in Orlando

We programmed The Diamond head beach resort Fort Myers Beach into our sat nav and off we went, it was a fairly easy drive with a fairly bland view of Florida along the way, pretty wild growing palm trees lined the I4 but part from that, the scenery stayed much the same for the 3 hour drive. When we finally reached our destination thanks to sat nav Bruce, we were excited and relieved to see our hotel Looked lovely and was in a great location.

Our hotel the Diamond head beach resort is on Estereo Boulevard which is an extremely long road that runs the whole length Of Fort myers beach, along this road there are numerous restaurants and hotels mainly centred around the lively times square area where you can find plenty of cheap no frills (fresh from the sea) fish restaurants and beach gear shops.

Many of the shops and bars are aimed at the younger crowd as at certain times of the year, most obviously during spring break (anytime through march to the end of April) there are lots of college kids in the town and so can get quite lively, the rest of the time it is a fairly quiet family resort with plenty around to do to keep all the family happy.

Our first full day had to involve doing not much after our busy week in Orlando so we headed for the beach which was thankfully on the doorstep of the hotel.

The beaches all along the gulf coast of Florida are beautiful, clean and uncrowded and Fort myers was no exception. The sea is calm and more importantly warm and you can wade out for quite a while without it getting too deep, so it was nice and safe for the kids. The only warning is beware of the stingray, we never saw any but there are plenty of signs telling you

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