Florida Guide > Planning your Trip
When to visit Orlando
If you wish to travel to Orlando and you are not restricted to the school holidays, then the best time to travel is to avoid Easter, Christmas and the first two weeks of August. At these times the parks and the stores will be heaving with people.
The best months to travel are May, which is a beautiful time, sunny and warm without being too hot or humid. January and February can at times be quite chilly but by March the weather is getting warmer and as long as you avoid the Easter weeks you will be fine. September and early October are also quite good and the air fares and villas are much cheaper and the weather is less hot and humid. But do remember, there is a half term at the end of October and many people take advantage of this.
The very worst week to be in Orlando is Thanksgiving week, which is the last week in November. Thanksgiving is usually on the last Thursday in the month. Thanksgiving is more important than Christmas to Americans and the whole of America seems to descend on Orlando and the theme parks. The queues for the rides are up to two hours long and the restaurants are packed at lunch time. The crush to leave the parks at closing time is pretty awful as thousands of people all try to get to the exits and the transport to the car parks. The parks do sometime close when they cannot cope safely with any more people.
Of course the British are now aware of Black Friday, which is the main “Sale” time in America. The stores are absolutely crammed. People have been killed in the crush in the past! We have seen queues to exit the highway and into the car parks of Florida Mall, Mall at Millenia and Premium Outlets that are miles long and could take up to an hour or more to get into.
The restaurants during that week, usually have waiting times of up to 45 minutes to get seated and you cannot book ahead. Another thing to bear in mind is that on Thanksgiving Day most of the restaurants and shops are closed. So, if you are not going to a theme park then you will need to get your food shopping done by Wednesday night if you are planning to eat at your villa on that night.
However, if you want to bag a bargain, that week is ideal. Most of the stores reduce their prices by up to 60% during that week to try and spread the load.
So the choice is yours, but what ever you choose, have fun.
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