Nathan in Naples – First Family Vacation
April 9th, 2014
A couple of weeks ago we took our first family vacation! We chose Florida because It’s not that bad of a drive from Ontario or a short flight and met our no. 1 criteria, it was warm! After the winter we had, I needed to feel the sun again. My parents and brother came with us. It was actually a Christmas present for my parents. I put together some pictures with each of us holding chalkboard with a message that we would all going on vacation and the last one was N showing where we were going….
As you can imagine, they were pretty excited opening this gift!
We ended up driving down because the flights were too much $$ as we picked March Break to travel. How was the drive with a 6 month old? It was fine! we drove through the night on the way down, I would recommend doing this. On the way back we didn’t drive through the night and it took much longer. We took the I-75 down, I recommend taking this route and buying the Along I-75 guide as it breaks up the drive.
We stopped at the Big Peach Antiques Mall in Georgia, bought a dish and two peach farm signs that will go in my laundry room one day.
We rented a house in Naples through VRBO. It was really easy to rent through this site. Just a tip – if you do decide to rent make sure you book well in advance. I got lucky with the house that we rented as it was added to VRBO in December, all of the other homes with a pool and at least 3 bedrooms were booked for the winter!
Our home for the week
Naples was a great spot to vacation. We loved that this was at the southern point of Florida, had great beaches, great shops (loved Waterside Shops) and it was on the gulf which is known for beautiful sunsets and calm waters.
If you are in this area, you should rent a boat from Naples Bay Resort for the day. We saw dolphins swimming in the inland waters and got to check out all of the beautiful homes along the water. We stopped for lunch at the Snook Inn on Marco Island. I would recommend getting the world-famous grouper sandwich!
When you are near the Everglades, you should check out some of the excursions in your area. Near Naples is Corrie Billie’s Airboat Rides. This was pretty fun, I have to admit. I was a little nervous at first but it was amazing, I wish it was longer than 45 minutes. We saw 2 alligators! No bears though. Still can’t believe there are bears in Florida.
Of course, what would be a vacation without trips to Vanderbilt beach or visiting the Naples pier.
It was a wonderful first family vacation, couldn’t have picked a better place to visit!
Tell me, where is your favourite spot to visit in Florida?
Great post! Love that first picture of Nathan at Christmas 🙂
Thanks Sandra! It is pretty cute, It was pretty funny seeing him dressed like that in December.
[…] We took our first family trip to Naples, Florida. We even drove!! I look back, and I am pretty proud that we did it. Driving through the night was the key to making it work. I think next time we go somewhere we are flying. […]