Airports in Central Florida

Orlando International Airport: large and central to the area - mostly schedule flights and a few charter such as Britannia Airways.

Sandford International Airport: situated north-east of Orlando and is for charter airlines only, it is a lot smaller than Orlando International and is about 25 miles away, taking approximately 30 minutes to drive via the 417 toll road.

Tampa International Airport: is approximately 70 miles from Orlando and takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes to drive up Interstate 4 (toll-free)

Miami International Airport: is approximately 200 miles from Orlando and takes about 4 to 5 hours to drive on the Florida Turnpike - toll road.

Flight Information

Schedule Airlines fly from major airports; with some of the best prices from Gatwick and Manchester (odd days are possible to suit your stay.) They fly direct into Orlando Airport (MCO), this is the easiest route. Some airlines go "one stop" - they fly you into America then fly you down to Orlando on another plane, this can add 4 hours or more to your journey time.

Charter Airlines can pick up from one or two places to fill the plane, so it pays to ask to see if they use your local airport and suit your holiday periods of 7 - 14 - 21 days, (normally it is 14 days). Most of the charter flights land at Sanford (about 30 miles north of Orlando , it’s an easy route to drive down to Orlando ). Sanford Airport is a small, quick and easy specialist airport for charter flights. The disadvantage of charter flights is set holiday periods, i.e. 7 days or 14 days etc; you have to book to suit their available flights.

Fly-Drive: It’s ok to book your plane ticket and car hires this way, but it can be expensive. The charges are normally per person, so if you have a large group of people traveling in your party the costs can be higher than just booking the plane tickets and car hire separately.

Airlines: They appear to control how many seats can be sold at a given time. They also appear to allocate block bookings of seats to different sales outlets. Therefore, it is advisable to phone around to find the best prices / deals. We have found it can be more expensive to book directly with the airline than through an agent. An agent usually gives you a better price/deal and uses the same choice of airline (we have proved this time and again, the airline confirm the flight we want to travel on is fully booked only to find when booked through an agent that we are allocated a seat on that very same plane/flight).

Flight Booking: Links

Travel Insurance

Assess your requirements; if you travel twice in one year an annual (12 month) policy might be a better option. If not a family policy might suit you, but try to steer clear of Holiday Companies own products, they can be expensive. Try the following list and use information from your local paper, or the yellow pages or a local Insurance Broker.

      If you require insurance for a person over 60 years of age, try World Wide Travel Insurance.