Florida Family Beach Vacation - w/ Diving for Dad...?

[wabbitman]

Hello all my well tanned Florida diving friends.

I would very much like to bring my family, (wife and two young children), down to Florida from Toronto for a week or so in the not too distant future -ie. Mid March. The challenge - find a destination that offers some good beaches/hotels while at the same time offering some healthy reef type diving.

I believe I am primarily interested in south Florida and will likely fly into Miami and drive to the destination.

Can anyone make any recommendations?

Thanks for your help!

Rob:huh:

 

[moneysavr]

Rob
Just a note,You will be in Spring break time and it can get nuts! FtLauderdale has some great diving and good ops,I like the WestPalmBeach area the best for some great long areas of reefs,
But man if you come into Miami at least get to KeyLargo and do a few dives,Beaches are not that great.
North of FLL =Pompano is a great place to stay and then you can drive up to BoyntonBeach a great more laid back area and man they have a great public beach area the kids would enjoy as you did some dives!
my 2-cents,
Brad

 

[mike_s]

The Florida Panhandle has some great beaches, but the diving will be better down in south florida or the keys. However in my opinion, the beaches aren't as nice (but others here I'm sure will differ in opinion). You'll want to stay away from spring break locations though like Ft Lauderdale and Panama City during spring break though.

The diving in the Keys is great, but not much in the way of beaches. A few places in the keys do have beaches though, such as Holiday Isle (near Islamorda maybe?).

 

[wabbitman]

Thanks for the pointers guys - just the kind of info I was looking for. I am investigating some Islamorda options.

The spring break timing makes things difficult. Airfares on a couple of carriers from Toronto to Miami are already sold out for days in each direction of my planned departure date...

Rob