The plethora of direct international service to Orlando, Florida now make travelling to the city much easier. Staying in a comfortable vacation villa will fully complement your vacation stay.

In fact, despite the slump in domestic air traffic, international passenger traffic to Orlando actually increased 11% in 2009. Flights from London to Orlando are an important part of the city’s overall tourist volume. Let’s look at two major carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, based on their air schedules to Florida.

British Airways vs. Virgin Atlantic

Flight Comparison

Flights from London to Orlando Florida

• Flights Per Day - Bristish Airways (1), Virgin Atlantic (5);  Advantage: Virgin Atlantic
• Levels of Service - Bristish Airways (3), Virgin Atlantic (3);  Draw
• Departure Locations in London - British Airways (1), Virgin Atlantic (2); Advantage: Virgin Atlantic
• Skytrax Airline Quality Rating - British Airways (Four Stars), Virgin Atlantic (Four Stars): Draw

As you can see, both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have excellent airline service ratings and multiple levels of service for the London to Orlando flights. However, Virgin Atlantic does edge British Airways based upon the number of flights per day and the availability of flight service schedules from two different London airports, Gatwick and Heathrow. Since flight pricing is quite dynamic, we’ll let the prospective traveller do their own due diligence to determine rate comparisons.

Regardless of which airline you choose, Orlando vacation villa rentals provide the best value for your vacation in Central Florida. Vacation villa homes in Orlando provide a variety of amenities and choices in location, price and quality. For reviews on over 80 vacation rental communities in the area, please consult the main page of this website.

Source: All figures are based on a review of the www.britishairways.com and www.virginatlantic.com airline websites. Please read the general disclaimer on our website for more information.

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We enthusiastically applaude efforts to improve the transportation infrastructure in Central Florida. However, there is great local disagreement on local demand for the new $4 billion rail system and the central focus on connecting Orlando and Tampa by high speed rail. Why are more efforts not being placed on adding more tourist connections such as those mentioned above to the plan? Perhaps we will learn more in the coming weeks and months.

Connecting the South Poinciana station and other tourist stops to Disney would be a huge success in our opinion. Disney cast members alone would provide thousands of additional daily passengers and would be a real boon to the industry. The inside buzz seems to be that government officials are banking on Disney funding this type of Sunrail expansion with private money. Although tourist passenger revenues and park employees would be a fraction of total system usage, this overall new programme could be the financial core of the whole system that reduces taxpayer funded operational deficits in other areas.

Nevertheless and selfishly speaking, Orlando vacation rental guests would also benefit greatly from such added passenger rail connections to Disney, I-Drive and the airport to the South Poinciana and Kissimmee Stations. Most of our international visitors are very familiar with travelling in this manner and the adoption rate would be quite high. International visitors to Orlando also spend the highest amount locally per capita. Let our government leaders reconsider a revised schedule that will add more tourist attraction related stops to the Sunrail passsenger rail system.

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Since there are over eighty resort communities catering to short term rentals in the “Four Corners” area, this site also provides guidance and reviews for most luxury villas specifically in Kissimmee. Kissimmee villas vary greatly in size, location and quality.

The city of Kissimmee, Florida was incorporated in 1883 and has a population of over 60,000 persons. The city’s land area is roughly 17 square miles, and is located south of downtown Orlando and the Orlando International Airport. The city has an active central core area with most Kissimmee villas located west of the downtown commercial area, and adjacent to Highway 192 (Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway).

The westernmost parts of Kissimmee are bounded by the Osceola-Polk County line and the city of Davenport, Florida which is also a popular vacation rental destination.

Some of the more popular villa communities in Kissimmee include Emerald Island, Windsor Hills, Windsor Palms, and Terra Verde Resort. Additional high quality Kissimmee villas include Acadia Estates and Bella Vida Resort, although this is only a small sampling of neighborhoods. Any of these communities in Kissimmee provide outstanding accommodations with plenty of amenities to choose from.

The key for any Kissimmee traveler is to do your homework. There are some excellent values and packages available, but one does need to review infomediary websites like this one for resort quality ratings and community reviews.

Specific location and distances to the theme parks should be closely scrutinized as well. A distance differential of 2 to 3 miles, which may not sound like much, may be the difference in driving an extra 30-45 minutes daily during the high season. Consult the community reviews section of our main page for this information and more.

Kissimmee Villas

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The Florida Classic 2010 will be the 31st year of the national rivalry between Bethune Cookman College (BCC) and Florida A&M University (FAMU).

The Florida Classic is held at the Florida Citrus Bowl close to Downtown Orlando. Available parking is always an issue at this event, as the classic tends to attract between 60,000 to 75,000 fans. The stadium offers limited parking at best, so for those not willing to fight the traffic, a shuttle bus can always provide much needed convenient transportation.

The Florida Classic 2010 game date is anticipated to be November 20^th (Saturday), but this date is not official and is subject to finalization by the Citrus Bowl. We do not advise booking any travel arrangements until the Florida Classic 2010 has been confirmed by the Citrus Bowl and BOTH colleges.

The BCC Wildcats versus the FAMU Rattlers at the Orlando Citrus Bowl provides a superb venue for fans to visit all the Orlando area attractions. It’s also a great opportunity to catch-up with old friends and watch one of the biggest rivalries in college football.

It has been a classic tradition for fans to tailgate at the various accommodations to enjoy pre-game festivities. Orlando area vacation homes allow a unique perspective, as they allow fans to gather in a relaxed setting. Rental homes offer optional amenities such as fully equipped kitchens, private garages and pools, and home barbecue areas to add to the festive atmosphere. If you are visiting friends in Orlando, area vacation homes can comfortably sleep between five persons and as many as seventeen people (in the larger 8 bedroom homes).

Whether you’re a BCC Wildcat or a Florida A&M Rattler fan, Orlando area vacation homes can make for a great stay while enjoying all that Orlando has to offer.

Florida Classic

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The Celebration Florida special event calendar in 2010 includes:

• Thursday, April 15th Track Day in Sebring, Florida Plus Party and Dinner
• Friday, April 16th Track Day and Challenge Race in Sebring, Florida; Jetport Evening Food & Wine Soiree at the Kissimmee Airport
• Saturday, April 17th Concours Parade of Exotic Cars in Downtown Celebration Fl; Celebrity Dinner and Party at Hard Rock Live, Universal Orlando 7:15 p.m.
• Sunday, April 18th Exotic Car Rally and Celebrity Golf Tournament at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando

The main event on Saturday, April 17th is in fact Celebration Florida’s largest commercial event during the year. The town’s quaint retail shops and restaurants teem with car enthusiasts. The additional Waldorf Astoria Orlando golf event should be an opportunity to raise funds for a great charity. For photos from the 2009 festival, please click here.

Celebtation Florida also makes a great day trip for any vacation rental guests in the Four Corners area. The shopping is excellent and the restaurant choices are plentiful. The upscale town is minutes away from Disney World and most vacation home communities. Consult our reviews of most vacation resorts near this outstanding destination.

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Consumer travel information based websites, also known as infomediaries, have an increasing impact on Orlando Florida vacation planning. Some examples of these types of sites include the Trip Advisor reviews portal, Flip Key rentals, and of course this vacation reviews based website.

Our interest was piqued after a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers travel research report revealed that these consumer information websites have a rising influence on online travel decision making. In fact, travel infomediaries show strong traffic growth trends, especially in Europe. Click here for this previous blog post.

For this trend to continue, we believe there are at least three ingredients that online travel “infomediary” sites must emphasize for the benefit of online travel consumers. These essential factors include consumer trust, content relevancy and information timeliness. Each of these in their own right have a great influence on Orlando Florida vacation planning, the focus of this website.

The first and most important feature a consumer must maintain for any infomediary travel site is consumer trust. Any prospective consumer of web content should read the site’s disclaimer and then evaluate the advertising (if any) on the site. This may give one insight or balance for possible commercial conflicts. If the site is a blog, do the content editors disclose particular biases a reader will need to know? For instance, this website clearly indicates our bias towards vacation rentals over hotels. We also clearly indicate that our reviews are opinion based only.

Also, what percentage of the reviews receive 4 or 5 star ratings for an online reviews portal? Persistent high ratings throughout the site may indicate “score inflation”. Consumers should prefer sites with discerning travellers or professionals with variances in scoring to indicate a better indication of true quality designations and preferences.

Content relevancy also plays a key role in the rise of online consumer information websites. Does the content posted vis-a-vis reviews pertain to my own personal prospective vacation at that resort, hotel or vacation rental? A good example of a site doing great work in this arena is the Flipkey rentals site with reviews right down to a particular vacation home.

For a vacation home review site, it is important to look at the breakdown by resort or community variables. For instance, this site provides decision variables such as location, community facilities, amenities, and driving distances, and then let the consumer decide. This high level of interactivity ultimately has an impact on personal content relevancy for any successful online travel website.

Information timeliness is the third factor infomediaries must fulfill to be successful. For example, some consumer oriented websites retain posted reviews well over 18 months old. These may provide some insight, but we believe resort and community quality is dynamic over time. If new updates are not posted regularly the reviews lose relevancy. This particularly applies to smaller resorts or communities that often get less than five posted consumer reviews monthly.

As you move forward with your Orlando Florida vacation planning, evaluate information based travel websites carefully. With consumer trust, content relevancy and information timeliness, travel decisions can be strongly aided by online infomediaries.

Feel free to consult this website for vacation reviews of over 80+ resort communities along with news on what’s happening in the Central Florida area. We strive to fulfill traveller expectations with unbiased reviews, continuously updated interactive ratings and reliable information profiles.

Vacation Home Review Web Sites

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What are the closest homes to SeaWorld©? This is a question we often get asked. The closest vacation “community” to SeaWorld© is Vista Cay and The Isle at Cay Commons. These communities offer condominiums and townhomes and are not typical single family homes.

These resort complexes are next to each other, and share extensive amenities. The bulk of the amenities are actually located in Vista Cay.

These communities are also close to Universal Studios ® and next to the Orange County Convention Center. Interstate 4 can easily be reached from these condo and townhome communities including convenient access to the Walt Disney World Resort ® theme parks.

To learn more about these vacation rentals near Sea World, visit our reviews on the right hand side of our main page.

Vacation Homes Near Sea World

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The 2011 Capital One Bowl in Orlando will be held on January 1, 2011 at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. This top tier college football bowl game features a representative of the Big Ten Conference versus the highly competitive Southeastern Conference. Funds from the bowl game and associated activities benefit regional community affiliated charities.

The area Bowl festivities are supervised by a very diligent and hard-working volunteer community organization - Florida Citrus Sports. Vacation homes in the Central Florida area are a perfect fit for any football fans wanting to get close to the stadium along with all the fun bowl activities. The vacation home and resort reviews on this site will assist you with further information needed to book vacation rental accommodations.

Our initial prediction for the 2011 Capital One Bowl is the Arkansas Razorbacks vs. the Michigan Wolverines. The Razorbacks return Ryan Mallett, an early Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback after a successful 2009-10 season. Ryan Mallett is also expected to be drafted into the NFL at some point. Arkansas will be part of the very rugged Western Division of the SEC. We believe the Alabama Crimson Tide will ultimately win the SEC and be pushed into a BCS bowl game. The Crimson Tide under the coaching of Nick Saban won the 2010 National Championship trophy.

The Michigan Wolverines team should be much improved. Coach Rich Rodriguez returns many starters from a team looking to redeem itself after the 2010-11 campaign. We believe Ohio State will also be pushed up into a BCS game of some kind after winning the Big ten behind the leadership of much heralded Terrelle Pryor. Terrelle Pryor also has the potential to be a Heisman Trophy hopeful. Michigan has played in the Capital One Bowl before and should bring plenty of enthusiastic fans to Orlando. Arkansas vs. Michigan would indeed be a hot ticket for a 2011 Capital One Bowl match-up.

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The European market is a critical component for robust tourism in Florida. Orlando resorts that place themselves in a good strategic position to capture their fair share of the online market will survive and even prosper in this economic downturn.

The PriceWaterHouseCoopers study also indicates that by the latest numbers there are over 46 million internet users in the United Kingdom and 252 million in North America. The New Media Trend Watch, an influential newsletter published by the European Travel Commission, also noted the rise of “infomediaries” that add value vis-a-vis reviews, price comparisons, etc… and are critical to the success of online travel. Examples of these types of websites would be TripAdvisor Orlando and this website which is anchored by reviews of most resort communities in Orlando, Davenport and Kissimmee. Click here for a summary of the PriceWaterHouse report.

For online travel to grow and prosper, a continuous source of reliable and compatible consumer information is needed for online travellers. The same can be said for the Orlando vacation rentals market. This website is dedicated to professionally covering the vacation home market with credibility to the online consumer. Travellers to Orlando can expect reliable and trustworthy reviews of over 80 resorts and resort communities in the area. These reviews are also regularly updated and revised to best reflect changing conditions at each of the Orlando area resorts.

Orlando Resorts

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We continuously update our resort reviews. For Emerald Island Resort, our initial evaluation resulted in a rating of Good/Premium for these vacation villas. We would like to reiterate our resort review for Emerald Island after a recent on-site evaluation. No more than 20% of the reviewed communities attain this distinction.

The community review of Emerald Island rentals is a blending of multiple areas to formulate the composite resort rating including:

* Cleanliness of Resort Grounds

* Appearance of Community Overall

* Overall Quality of Community Amenities

Emerald Island rental choices include mostly 2 to 4 bedroom vacation homes and townhomes. The exterior aesthetics of the vacation rentals differ (Refer to our video footage of the resort), but all rentals are updated and modern. The common areas are good especially the strong sense of arrival with fountains and outdoor seating areas.

Emerald Island community amenities include pool, playground, barbecue, volleyball, fitness room, whirlpool spa and nature trail. We did find the resort pool to be on the smallish side especially considering the size of the community. However, Emerald Island Kissimmee is a luxurious destination for any family or group visiting the Orlando area, and our review of Emerald Island Resort reflects this favorable rating.

Emerald Island Rentals

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