A vacation home in Florida? You've got to be kidding

What is it about Florida vacation homes? Isn’t Florida supposed to be all about vacations, especially extended ones? My partner and I were thinking of returning for a winter Florida sojourn after several years away. We’d always loved St. Petersburg. St. Pete has the best of both worlds: a delightful, artsy, people-scaled city with lots of museums, restos, bars and cafes but close to extensive beaches, shopping, and entertainment. And if you want at a bigger city there’s Tampa across the bay with its frequent downtown festivals and Ybor City, the traditional Cuban neighbourhood with its quaint hand-rolling cigar factories, restaurants and clubs. So we went on Booking.com and checked long term vacation stays – specifically early 2026 – yes, a year away. We have now contacted four properties. Guess what? No or negative responses. The first was a typical Florida-style suburban house designed for a disabled person, as is my partner. It looked perfect and the price was right. But you couldn’t just book the property, you had to “request” to book. The owner had 24 hours to reply. In this case the dates for the “Luxury Oasis” house simply weren’t available. What?! The Booking.com calendar showed they were! The next property was further south off Tampa Bay as opposed to the ocean side. This time the owner responded but said he didn’t want to rent this far in advance, despite advertising. The third property was the “Seashell” home in suburban Pasadena, a nice three-bedroom corner house that looked accessible as a one floor bungalow with few stairs. But the reply: “Unfortunately the host has not responded, so your request has expired.” Why no response when the property is advertised?  My thought was I was booking too far in advance and since there was free cancellation up to November the owner couldn’t be bothered confirming for a possibly fickle customer. So I sent a second request and offered a deposit. Again no reply. The fourth property was a condo along a beautiful canal close to beaches near Pass-a-Grille in the far southwest corner of the metro area. The property, this time listed on the VRBO website, looked modern and comfy. But we needed some questions answered regarding accessibility. Again, no response. I even wonder if owners are scared away by a disabled tenant, fearing liability. Meanwhile, a problem with most properties is their severely limited accessibility, including Airbnb, even in retirement haven Florida! 

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

Escape from the Caribbean? Yes

St. Lucia is one beautiful tropical paradise, hilly even slightly mountainous with of course the two iconic Pitons on the west coast. I’d never been in a place with lush jungle. The temperatures were great – mid-80s but “feeling like” low 90s. But not insufferable, as trade winds blue in and comfortably cut the heat. The problem was our accommodation. It’s a well-known resort in the northwest corner of the island which has four facilities within a mile or two of each other. We stayed in town, mainly because one of us is disabled and we wanted close access to stores and restaurants. The resort was smaller than expected though it did provide the most convenient first floor suite for someone in a wheelchair. Service was so-so. Breakfast was particularly bad. There seemed to be adequate staff but they didn’t circulate, meaning tables weren’t promptly cleared nor coffee or tea readily brought. The buffet was within a cramped room through doors and guests had to be served by hotel staff, not self-serve which is more common. Often staff were unsmiling and impersonal, giving the impression they had to get up and go to work in the morning. A few staff were courteous, including those at the pool bar which made fantastic and relatively cheap rum-filled drinks. And our maid was unfailingly polite and smiling even when we had an emergency. But service overall was middling. We had paid for “half board” covering breakfast but no other meals. We dined one evening and the bill with one Coke and one beer came to $171.63 CAD. From then on it was into town to grab take out at the only two outlets which seemed to be open – KFC (often crowded) and Subway though we did hit a ramshackle outdoor café that served a superb stuffed chicken dish, our trip highlight! The resort’s wi-fi worked literally off and on. Every second night brought loud bombastic music from karaoke or a guest singer/DJ. After asking five times over three days a shower chair was finally brought for my disabled partner but there was no way to get into the bathtub due to a partial solid shower wall. The resort seemed to still be operating on 1970s principles and required an audit by a hotel expert, overhauled top to bottom, from physical facilities to personal service, top of list have employees smile. And...we hated to have to wear “resort” bracelets (photo) - prisoner-like and so touristy! The adjoining town – more like village – was so-so, with a large grocery store (often packed with 15–20-minute checkout lineups), some boutiques and a few standalone restos. But the infrastructure was poor and the surroundings dirty. The beach was packed and while framed nicely by hilly outcrops the tide was in and there wasn’t a lot of space. The see-through teal colored water of travel brochures was non-existent. So, were we happy with our first Caribbean experience? We counted down the days.

Moving through Toronto’s Pearson Intl., CATSA (the government agency that oversees security) seems to never have got the memo about mobility chair batteries. The airlines require lithium batteries (photo left)  to be removed from checked wheelchairs. But we almost were not let through because a CATSA agent was highly suspicious of the black rectangular object! 

Finally, beware Canadian hotel telephone reservation charges. Twice now I have unwittingly been charged for calling a hotel and making a reservation, the latest being $17.99 and not being told there’s an additional fee. That’s opposed to booking through a third-party travel site at no extra charge. 

And yes, complaints have been made to all three organizations above.

 - Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller