The other great thing down on the Gulf Coast is the quality and variety of sea food. Prices in the restaurants there are also very good value and you can find far more family run restaurants unlike in Orlando where so many of the restaurants are part of a chain and run specifically for tourists. One of the things that my family miss the most is our favorite restaurant back in the UK – The Fox and Hounds. Next time I go back that is going to be the first place that I visit. Another busy week ahead for the team at CompareAway – Have a good one.

Over the weekend I spent most of my time working on my short game. I practice a lot of pitch shots, flop shots and then shots from bad lies. I didn’t practice too much on the range because it was very windy which isn’t the best condition to work on my swing. I suppose the good thing was that I did not get wet! Both Saturday and Sunday afternoons I played on the course Saturday only 9 holes on a course designed by Tom Watson and on Sunday 18 holes on a course designed by Arnold Palmer. Saturday I played quite well considering how windy it was and on Sunday I didn’t play well but managed to scrap out a few birdies, which was a positive. Anyway time to go and get some more practice in – I’ll let you know how I got on tomorrow.

Cheers

James

I hope that my golf can progress and that I can follow the success that CompareAway are having. I’d also like to their team for having the confidence in me.

Have a good weekend.

James

A big thank you Becky and all her team who have worked so hard to make this happen and who are working closely with our new home owners to ensure that the import of their new properties goes smoothly. In a couple of weeks we will start to run this service out and then be able to offer our customers an even greater selection of holiday homes to choose from. So far we have had new properties from America and Europe and it won’t be long before we get them from other parts of the world as well. It’s going to be a very exciting year ahead for all of our team in both the Florida office and the UK office. Have a great day.

What I can confirm is no this is not a trick and yes this is definitely a treat.  The exciting news is that we are about to open the doors of our website to private owners and smaller agents to let them list their holiday homes for free. The revenue that we have secured from our publishing deals will pay for the running of our websites and we believe that we can secure another 100,000 properties to list with us. This will make us the largest holiday rental site in the world and for the first time customers will be able to compare a large chunk of the market place either listed by agents or private home owners on one site.

One of the things that I struggled with when I first moved to Florida was finding good small family run restaurants that prided themselves on service and home cooking. A friend told me about The Breakfast House and I must admit that I was a little skeptical when we first arrived. It’s a small old wooden clad house that has been turned into a restaurant.

We sat outside in the garden and ate breakfast under a shade and boy, what a great breakfast it was. I had bacon in a muffin with their special home cooked potatoes. I can truthfully say that it was easily the best breakfast that I have ever had. I still cannot work out how much flavor they managed to get into those potatoes but they were delicious. I’m already planning another trip back there and am looking for a holiday villa in Sarasota for my next vacation.

The room was clean but small and a little worn but in fairness it was fine for one night. We then hit the beach and had a great time enjoying the beautiful clean clear water which was still warm and also managed to top up our tans on the beach. We then went back to the hotel for a quick shower and went out into Sarasota for something to eat in the evening.

The problems started when we returned to our room later that night – the couple in the room next door spent the whole night arguing and playing their TV very loudly. I had to call in security at 1am to try and get them to be quiet but the racked continued till about 4 am. As my wife told me the next morning – we should have stayed in a holiday villa!

The sun is once again shining in Florida and as UK half term approaches we will start to see the Brits flooding in once again to enjoy the good weather and to go to Disney and the other theme parks. I am amazed at how Florida stays so busy around the year. It would appear that school holidays across America and the rest of the world are pretty much staggered so that people are able to come here on vacation pretty much all the year round. I’m off to the coast this weekend to enjoy the beautiful scenery down in Sarasota and may end up having a few rum cocktails on the beach. Have a good weekend y’all.

In my day you went on a villa holiday to Spain and sent back a postcard that if you were lucky arrived home probably a week after you got back. Now with this new generation of phones everything is virtually instant. Take a photograph and either text it or email it back home and keep in touch with your family and friends. As well as Facebook and texting you can also skype and speak to friends and family at either no cost or for very little money. It is amazing how far technology has gone and it will be interesting to see what the next technological break through will be.