No trip has ever offered us so much stress before we even got on the plane. Yet we have traveled quite a bit during the pandemic. We booked Rhodes at the last minute in the fall of 2020, waited until late at night for test results before flying to Gran Canaria in February 2021, then we had to re-schedule our flights to Jordan, and in January we were stressed over tests and vaccines before going to Italy. However, this is nothing compared to what we have gone through the last months with the organization of this trip.
Originally, we were supposed to fly British Airways via London. However, after changing the time of the flights between Copenhagen and London to not very favorable ones, we decided to cancel this flight and buy new tickets. This, of course, took a long time as we waited for the cashback to arrive and the prices went up in the meantime. As a result, we bought tickets for Turkish Airlines with a transfer in Istanbul. But a few weeks later, we were notified of flight changes again and we were forced to extend our holiday by 1 day.
On top of it the situation with passports in Sweden was quite challenging. As many people did not renew their passports during the pandemic (Swedish passports are only valid for 5 years), everyone suddenly jumped on them earlier this year. And that meant very long queues to get time at all (we ordered the August time in March). In the meantime, the only machine for printing passports in Sweden broke down, which meant that they were printed in Finland (!!!) and the waiting time was several weeks. While we were making the childrens’ passports in the second half of August, we learned that their passports will not be printed before we leave for the USA. So there were phone calls to the embassy and the police (that’s where we make passports in Sweden) to find out if the children would be able to travel using the so-called temporary passports. I have no idea how it works in other countries, but in Sweden you can get such a passport for 72 hours. before the scheduled flight. 72 and not an hour earlier. For us, it meant additional stress because ESTA (more about this in a moment) must be applied for according to the recommendation at the latest for 72 hours before flying to the USA. So it’s catch 22 in general. Fortunately, the childrens’ passports were produced a few weeks earlier than announced, so we could safely fill in all entry documents.
If you think this was the end of our problems, then you are wrong. Hurricane Ian hit Florida in September. One of the worst ever. It destroyed, among others the south-western coast of Florida (Naples area, Cape Coral, Fort Myers), including Sanibel Island, where we were supposed to spend a few days…. So again at the last minute we had to change our plans …
Okay, end of this whining 🙂 Now to some details.

How to get to Florida?
There are several international airports in Florida. The largest and most popular of them is Miami, Orlando and the popular with Swedes, Fort Lauderdale. There are many direct flights from different European countries. We could choose a direct flight with SAS, but the price is probably 2 times higher than a connecting flight. And here we have a lot of options. However, it is important that the transfer takes place in Europe, and not, for example, in New York, because it causes problems with luggage (from what I understand, in NY you would have to pick up your luggage, go through security control and check it back in again). Also note that recently more and more airlines are departing from the standard in which baggage is included in the price. When looking for flights, we noticed that both British Airways, as well as Lufthansa, Delta, Air France, etc., do not have a checked in baggage included in the price of the standard ticket. Fortunately, Turkish Airlines for now has good old rules and we are entitled to two 23 kg suitcases per person (I think we can pack the whole house).

ESTA or visa?
Depending on our citizenship and the history of our previous travels, we have to apply for a visa or not. Fortunately for us both Sweden and Poland have signed an agreement with USA which allows us to travel only using the so-called ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization). Application should be done on this page (it is available in many languages). According to the recommendation, the application should be completed no later than 72 hours before the flight (because theoretically, this is how long it may take to consider our application). We got the answer after 1 hour. But you have to be very careful not to make a mistake when filling out the application. ESTA currently costs $ 21 and is valid for a maximum of 2 years (shorter if the passport expires before 2 years).
I mentioned that your previous travel history may have an impact on whether or not you can apply for an ESTA. Well, if you have previously traveled to countries on the undesirable list (eg North Korea, Syria, Libya and Cuba), unfortunately you have to apply for a regular visa (at the embassy, ​​which may take up to several months).

Travel to the USA and Covid-19
From June 2022, there is no longer a requirement for testing before flying to the USA, but full vaccination is MANDATORY for anyone over 18 years of age who does not have US citizenship. Of course, there are some exceptions (e.g. if you cannot get vaccinated for health reasons), but you cannot enter USA on a recovery certificate or test. There is simply no other option than vaccination. However, if you find yourself on the list of exceptions (e.g. children), then additional rules might apply, such as a promise that we will do the test 3-5 days after arriving in the USA and, in the event of a positive result, we will undergo isolation. But no one has asked us for anything regarding the kids. And our vaccination certificates were checked only on the airport in Copenhagen.

Hotels
As always, we booked our accommodation via booking.com and mostly we did it well in advance. Thanks to this, for example, for a hotel in Orlando for 4 nights we pay only 370 USD. Of course, hotels in the center of Miami and on the coast are much more expensive, but I will write about the details in the next posts.
If you would like to stay in one place for a longer time, I think it is worth considering renting a house. There are lots of sites where you can find beautiful villas for short or long term rentals.

Tour
We’re spending 15 days in Florida. This is what we can do, considering the work and school of children. I think that is enough for us to visit the most interesting places in this state. Of course, I could easily make a plan for a month of sightseeing, but we have to enjoy what we have. So it will be a mixture of a large city (Miami), nature (Everglades and the Crystal River area), beach and amusement parks 🙂 We will have a rental car for the entire 2 weeks, but I will also write about it at the end, depending on how it works.
As usual when organizing a trip, I was largely guided by the experiences of various blogging families. We will definitely go to Crystal River thanks to Polish bloggers Tasteaway, and I got various local advice from 2TravelDads (where for kayaks, where for airboats etc.). For several weeks I have also been following groups devoted to Disney parks in Orlando, but I must admit that I did not learn anything wise from them 🙂