recommend a cheap sunny beach?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Backstory: I got bumped off a flight from Sydney to NYC last winter, and received a coupon from United for $200 to be used by December 27, 2008.

Prefatory question: the coupon says I must be “ticketed” by that date, so I assume I can purchase a ticket but not fly until say January or February. Anyone know if this is so? If I have to fly by December 27 I need to get my ass in gear.

Problem: My potential travel companions have all finked out on me. My brother says that the economy has cost him so much he won’t be able to take a week off as we had planned. My GF is about to lose her job, and says she needs to stay by the phone in case a job interview presents itself. My daughter is booked up.

So I’ve decided to spend a few days all to myself–what I like over the winter is just to hang out on a warm sunny beach. Period. Don’t need no nightlife, don’t need no tourist spots, don’t need nothing. I’d like to wake up in the morning, get a bathing suit on, run a few miles on the beach, take a nap, get some lunch, and basically do that for a few days.

But like my brother and a few hundred million other Americans, I don’t really want to spend a lot of money just now, so please recommend a nice beach town (preferably near someplace United flies to) where I can rent a motel room that will be cheap and clean and comfortable, but nothing fancy. I was thinking Pensacola (just because I’ve never been there, and it looks idyllic in the movie CONTACT) or Jacksonville or maybe Key West (which is where my brother and I had planned to go–maybe too much night ife for my tastes) or some other point on the panhandle. What are Alabama beaches like? How about Sarasota?

If anyone wants to recommend somewhere where fellow Dopers will be able to meet and have a drink, that would be cool too, but honestly I don’t need to see another human for a few days. Of course with some Dopers that may not be a contradiction…

2

Come to da UP!

Cheap: check. We’re a working class town with enough touristy stuff to make things interesting but not expensive.

Sunny: It’s REALLY sunny here in February.

Beach: Miles of natural beach here in da UP. Very pretty, not crowded.

See, it has everything you want! Tho you might be a little cold in your swimsuit…

Whaaa? The Subject didn’t say WARM!

3

Perhaps I can help you out:

:smiley:

4

Pensacola may not be all that warm…I would get as far south in Florida as possible. I was in Clearwater/Tampa over Thanksgiving and it was in the mid-70s and a little chilly at night. There appeared to be some modest hotels (Travelodge, Red Roof Inn, etc.) just across the road from the beach. There are lots of smaller towns along that coast that might be cheaper and less busy, too.

Not sure where you’re flying from (maybe NYC), but in most cases $200 will only defray the cost of a ticket to Key West by probably 2/3 or so, where as if you consider Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, or Tampa, you’ll come a lot closer to $200. You can always drive down to the Keys from Miami…

5

I spent a month in Tampa a few winters ago. My buddy there, who has since moved, lived miles inland and I never got to the beach at all.

70s is good. As long as I’ve got access to a nice beach, I’m fine. The Keys are probably out this trip–seems like a lot of nightlife, for which I’d like to have some company along.

6

Puerto Rico might fit the bill. It will be warmer and sunnier than Florida, but not really hot and it’s past Hurricane season. The San Juan area (NE) is likely to be too crowded and touristy for your purposes, and the beaches, while OK, are mostly built up with development. It reminds me of the Jersey shore transplanted to an island.

That’s why I’d recommend western PR, near Rincon. There are plenty of nice beaches with palm trees right on them and all kinds of different sand. Winter is big surf season, and western PR has arguably the best surfing in the Caribbean, so you’ll have something to look at. Night life is kind of sparse, but that’s what you are looking for. If you get bored, you can drive into the mountains, see caves, swim in the Phosphorescent Bay, etc.

I don’t like the beach, but even I had fun hanging out under a tree reading a book. The people are generally laid back and nearly everyone speaks passable English. Between that and my craptastically poor Spanish, I was able to take care of everything necessary.

If you are in the New York area (not sure from your post), you can probably get a flight to Puerto Rico for 200 bucks.

7

That’s a shame…Clearwater Beach is about a 25 minute drive from the Tampa airport. The beach is soft white sand. Lots of restaurants within walking distance from the beach hotels.

8

Vieques (Island off PR) has lots of beaches - probably could have one to yourself. But getting there is a little harder - flying is prob over your budget. You can take the ferry but you’d have to get from San Juan to Fajardo.

http://www.enchanted-isle.com/vieques/

Brian

9

Key West. Smathers beach is big . Night life if you want it. All kinds of restaurants. Zachary Taylor park has another beach,clothes optional and a fort to explore. You can walk everywhere .,no car is needed. You can go out to Dry Tortugas, go fishing or just veg out in beautiful weather. They even have an overpriced golf course.

10

I’ve heard a lot of wrestlers say Nick Gulas (Tennessee Promoter) was a cheap sunny beach…or something like that.
:smiley:

11

Come on down to Fort Myers, FL. We’re two hours south of Tampa, so we’re pretty warm. But we have Southwest FL International Airport right here, so you can fly direct! We have Fort Myers Beach (a separate town than Fort Myers), Naples, Sanibel, Captiva, Lovers Key, etc…

It’s perfect for your needs.

12

I second Ft Myers. I live in Tampa Bay and the beaches are just a tad too cool for me right now.
But a couple hours of driving make a huge difference in temp.
Sarasota might be a good fit too…it’s not as busy. But it’s a bit of a drive from the airport.

13

First, only $200 for a bump on an international flight? You really got screwed.

Second, another Tampan checking in. For the time of year that you’re looking at, most of Florida is a bit cool. If you don’t mind water in the 60s then come on down, but you can’t guarantee warmth here that time of year – it could be great, it could be cool or cold. The farther south you go the better, but Ft Myers is not that much warmer than Clearwater on any given day.

Anna Maria Island / Holmes beach area is nice, clean water and quiet. This is the Bradenton area, just north of Sarasota. There are a couple of places you can get a beer.

Not sure any area around here qualifies as “cheap”, though.

I’d check Puerto Rico. Or buy the ticket for March/April when the weather here is usually fantastic.

14

Costa Rica! Or southern Mexico. Both sunny warm and (potentially) beachy. And cheep.

15

How about hitting travel sites like Travelocity to look at hotel and flight packages that a $200 off would make more affordable>

Or maybe one of those island getaway deals, like sandals or one of those resort+flight packages, or even use it to fly down and pick up an ocean cruise … a cruise looks affordable if you dont count in a plane ticket…with that voucher, might make it affordable=)

16

Puerto Morelos, Mexico

17

Pensacola, Florida. The other Florida. The prettiest by far of all the beaches in Florida, and some of it is still in a pretty natural state. Big enough airport to have direct flights from Atlanta, Charolette, and some of the other big citys/hubs.

Not exaggerating about the beaches either.

Water gets pretty chilly in the dead of winter, but if you are from a cold climate, probably no big deal. That time of year our beaches are nearly deserted, so if you like to get away from crowds thats a plus.

The big thing is the weather that time of year. It can be a cloud free day with no wind, bright sun, and highs in the 60s to 70s. Or it could be cloudy, windy as heck, drizzly, and highs in the 40’s. Just depends on you timing in relation to when cold fronts come through.

Not big city like Miami nightlife, but enough interesting and different places to keep you busy for a handful of nights.

50 miles west of here, battleship park in Mobile, Alabama. Has a battleship, submarine, and a few other things to tour.

100 miles east of here, Florida Caverns. Very pretty, but small cave system. The park itself is very pretty and tropical above ground as well. Well worth taking a few hours to hike around above ground as well. There are some other neat state parks over that way worth dropping in for a few hours to see.

Our local canoe and kayak club is very active. We have some VERY nice streams to paddle. Paddlers from ALL over rave about how nice a couple of em are. Do a web search for west florida canoe and kayak club, ( wfckc ). If you come, I am sure someone could hook you up with a boat and a good trip, and all it will cost you is your time.

If you have any interest in the navy, military history, museums, aviation, or spaceflight, then we have the must see. The Naval Aviation museum. It is world class. I’d bet there are only a few aviation museums in the world that are better. Tons of aircraft and aviation related stuff, most of which you can get close enough to touch (but dont!). Usually one or two IMAX movies playing at any given time. You can easily spend a full day there being awed and amazed, with some patriotic tearage thrown in for good measure.

If you dive, they recently sank the Oriskany, a BIG aircraft carrier. It attracts divers from around the world. Dive charter boats go out there often. Also lots of fishing charter boats if the weather is nice and thats your thing. Deep sea fishing is much different than freshwater fishing. You can usually catch something thats big enough to be fun as well as be big enough to make nice meal.

Local sailboats to charter for the day as well. Always fun to do, particularly if you’ve never been sailing.

Our local sea food market, Joe Patties, is often rated in the top few in the whole US.

Downtown Pensacola has some pretty historic buildings and interesting shops and places to eat. Pcola is americas oldest city, despite what jacksonville says.

Pcola is a pretty cheap place to visit. We have a low cost of living (and low wages which tends to drive prices down, not up), and the place the tourist visit are pretty much the same places the locals frequent, so you don’t get that lets stick it to the out of towners sticker shock everytime you turn around to pay for something.

Also downtown is the T T Wentworth museum. Imagine an odd rich uncle that collected all kinds of things for decades. It like a cross between the smithsonian and a flea market.

Plenty to do here, and much of it on the cheap as well.

hope that helps

18

It does. For me, temps between 40s and 70s are perfect–I’m not a swimmer but I do like to run a few miles along the beach, and if they’re beautiful and uncrowded so much the better. I’ll look into it. Thanks.

19

If the voucher was issued by United it likely has to be used to purchase a flight (or maybe a vacation package) from United.

20

Update:

I booked a room in Fort Myers, at a cool-looking motel for five days. The only risk there was a 50 dollar cancellation fee if I cancelled any time after I hung up the phone.

Then I got United on the phone and found out that, yes, United did fly to Fort Myers from the NYC area, but only one flight each way per day, the flight down there leaving late at night and the flight back leaving first thing the morning, thus effectively screwing me out of two days on the beach. I wasn’t happy, but I thought I could deal with that, and I would also deal with the flights themselves being much longer than I’d thought possible, since both planes were flying with a stopover in Chicago.
Then they told me how much my seat would cost: slightly over $1200.

With my discount coupon, that would come to slightly over $1000.

Having a cheap flight with a deadline was my initial motivation in the first place, so now I’m thinking that $50 cancellation fee lets me off cheap.

Grrr. Pit thread brewin’.