Florida Villa to Rent

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Five Bedrooms/Four Bathrooms, Private Pool, Lake View, Free WiFi + Fantastic Resort Facilities!

Our new luxury townhome with 5 bedrooms & 4 bathrooms (2x Masters with en-suites) will sleep 10 people in superb comfort. There is a well-equipped kitchen located adjacent to the dining area, with seating for 10. Flat screen TVs in every room, a multi-region DVD player and an Xbox are provided for your home entertainment. Free WiFi is also available. The property has its own private heated pool and patio area with a covered Lanai.

Located in one of Florida’s premier resorts, Paradise Palms is a gated community offering all the amenities you’d expect in a 5-star facility, including a pool, game room, fitness room and movie theatre. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and there is a poolside Tiki Bar and shop. The resort also offers a shuttle service to many of Orlando’s attractions at an additional fee.

Paradise Palms resort is just minutes away from Orlando’s main attractions. Walt Disney World is just a 10 minute drive and Universal Studios, Seaworld, Wet ‘n Wild, Legoland and other attractions are easily accessible. Highway 192 is just a couple of minutes away and here you will find an amazing range of grocery stores, other retailers, restaurants and bars.

If you are looking for a florida villa to rent, look no further. Check our booking calendar to see if your dates are available and give us a call to confirm your booking.

Selected Articles

Florida Wildlife - Sea Turtles

Florida’s coastal waters play host, at various times of the year to five different species of sea turtle all of which are endangered or on the brink of being classified as such. The five species are;

Loggerhead Turtle – the most common of the sea turtle species which visit Florida’s shores (around 70, 000 nests found each year), the loggerhead is currently considered threatened rather than endangered. Taking its name from its wide head the loggerhead has powerful jaws to enable it to crush the crabs, clams and similar creatures upon which it feeds

Hawksbill Turtle – sports a beautiful shell which has contributed to it almost being hunted to extinction, when once it was commonly found on these coasts.

Green Turtle – again endangered in Florida, this turtle has been hunted for its meat which is turned into a much sought after soup. More common in the Caribbean, this turtle has been known to travel over one thousand miles to islands in mid-atlantic to mate.

Kemp’s Ridley – very rare and very small and once again endangered, this turtles Florida habitat is limited to a tiny beach on the Gulf of Mexico coastline.

Leatherback Turtle – by far the largest of the turtles that visit us, growing up to 8 feet in length, there have been around 200 recorded nests per year. They have a far greater range than other turtles, having been known to swim thousands of miles venturing into much colder waters.

Nesting

Turtle nesting is a sight many of us will be familiar with from watching wildlife programmes, but is none the less still awe-inspiring. Nesting begins in May, with individual nests hatching until October. A female will only nest every few years, but may nest several times in a single season. Each nest will contain around 100 eggs, the female turtle having made its tortuous journey up the beach, digging a hole for the eggs then covering the hole with sand. The female turtle then returns to the sea, leaving the future hatchlings to their fate. After two months of incubation, those hatchlings escape from their shells, wriggle out of the nest and make a dash for the sea, all the while a target for waiting predators. Those that make it to the relative safety of the water will spend several years living on offshore seaweed beds before returning to the coast to begin the cycle all over again.

5 Things to do in Kissimmee

If you have come to Florida and intend to spend at least some time in the main theme parks (and that is what most first time visitors to Florida want to do) then the city of Kissimmee and the surrounding area is the perfect location. Ideally located right in the midst of the main parks Kissimmee is also a good base for other activities, being within easy driving distance of either the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico coasts, with Kennedy Space Center only an hour or so drive away. Orlando is also close by and there are a large number of excellent golf courses in the immediate vicinity.

Kissimmee is a relatively small city (population circa 50,000) in its own right, but the surrounding metropolitan area is home to around 2m people, not including the vast number of tourists who visit each year. Located in Osceola County, Florida, the main industry in the area is, not surprisingly, tourism although there is still many cattle ranches and orange plantations harking back to pre-Walt Disney days.

There are myriad entertainment activities in Kissimmee and the surrounding area, and here are just a few of them;

#1 Theme Parks – you are very close to all of the major theme parks with the largest being Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Non-Disney parks include Universal’s Studios and their Islands of Adventure park which includes the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There is also SeaWorld, with its recently opened penguin based exhibition, Antartica.

#2 Water Parks – there are a large number of water parks in the area, the largest of which is Wet ‘n Wild. This features a number of water-based rides ranging from the sedate (Lazy River) to a number of very exciting rides (Surge). A tip to remember is that once you have paid to get in once, you can get in free anytime in the next two weeks, a great saving if you have a young family and intend to visit more than once.

#3 Gatorland – an easy drive from Kissimmee, this American alligator themed park and nature reserve is a great way to spend a few hours, and is quite a bit cheaper than the main theme parks. There are literally hundreds of alligators of all sizes and ages in the park and there are a number of entertaining shows involving the gators and their keepers to keep you amused. For the more adventurous there is a zip-line covering several hundred feet, allowing a birds-eye view of the park and part of the breeding marshes.

#4 Airboat Rides – there are a number of places offering Airboat rides, based in the wetter, marshy parts of the state, and Florida Wild is an easy drive from Kissimmee. This is a fantastic experience, with the boat ride lasting about an hour, giving a close up of much of the wildlife in the park, although the alligators were a little shy when I was there! You also get the opportunity to hold an adolescent gator, which is probably not for the squeamish!

#5 Shopping and Dining – Highway 192 runs straight through the centre of Kissimmee and has mile upon mile of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues on either side. All the big supermarkets are represented (Walmart, Publix), as well as literally hundreds of bars and restaurants.

If you are looking for other suggestions for things to do in Florida try our article What is there to do in Florida?

Florida Wildlife - American Alligator

Anyone spending any time in Florida will notice the alligator warning signs and will eventually see one whether wandering across a golf course or as they drive around near their wetland habitat. Alligators only exist in two locations, China and the southeast of the USA, predominantly Louisiana and Florida. Although similar, alligators found in China tend to be considerably smaller than their American cousins.

The American alligator was once considered an endangered species but a successful program of State protection, improvement and preservation of their natural habitat and a dramatic reduction in demand for alligator sourced products has led to the species thriving with an estimated wild population in excess of one million. The alligator’s durability has contributed to its 150 million year existence and allowed the species to survive when similar species, like the dinosaurs, became extinct.

Alligators are large reptiles with an adult male growing up to 15 feet long and weighing in at up to 1000 pounds. They live in the freshwater environments that can be found in abundance in Florida, including rivers, lakes, marshlands and swamps.

The species feed on a variety of animals including turtles, fish, snakes and coypu, helping keep the latter population under control. While alligators usually dine on animals they can swallow in one go, they will eat larger creatures if given the opportunity. They will seize larger animals and drag them under water until they drown. They will digest larger prey either by waiting for the animal corpse to rot or by tearing chunks of the animal off by gripping the animal with its powerful jaws and twisting its body around a number of times, in what is known as the ‘death roll’. Alligators will normally avoid human contact moving away if approached, although they will attack if threatened (or hungry!). Feeding alligators is illegal in Florida to ensure that the reptiles do not start associating humans with food, leading to greater contact between the species, with obvious greater risk. Alligators have extremely strong muscles to close their jaws, useful for capturing prey, but comparatively weak muscles for opening their jaws allowing a reasonably strong person to hold an alligators mouth shut with their bare hands.

Adult alligators are solitary creatures and very territorial to boot, selecting and defending prime freshwater locations. Younger alligators are much more tolerant of each other and will spend much time in large groups.

If you want to get a closer look at alligators then the controlled environment of Gatorland is a good place to start.

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