Tampa to disney drive...... (Lakeland: living, restaurants, cost of living)

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by tinytrump

Clearwater to Kissemme 2 hrs- city feel,,, haha-not in Tampa but it has the traffic- looks like Lakeland might be your town. I say get the JOB 1st- then move, the drive beween the 2 is not that long but grueling..

I can imagine the cost of gasoline every week would be pretty bad unless you drive a hybrid.

[Spring Hillian]

What you said is that there were no non-chain restaurants in FLORIDA. Re-read your post.

I used Lakeland as an example. I dared you to find me ANY town in Florida that has nothing but chain restaurants and I can assure you there are many near Lake Buena Vista so that one is void.
Please provide the source of your 99 to 1 percent statistics.

As far as chain restaurants go, I was in Tokyo Japan and my eyes lit up when I saw the golden arches.
I was tired of looking at the plastic food in the store windows that I could not recognize and what I did recognize I wouldnt have eaten anyway.

Chain restaurants do well everywhere because of the fact that the diner knows well in advance what they can expect from the establishment right down to the menu choices. They didnt become chain restaurants because nobody goes to them. Frankly, I prefer independently owned and operated
establishments when ever possible and anywhere Ive been Ive had that choice.

Originally Posted by algia

Now I searched: Lakeland NON Chain:
https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&safe=of...w=1555&bih=878


Olive Garden, Grillsmith, and Ihop are chains.

I didn't say there are no restaurants in Lakeland, I said that the ratio between chain restaurants versus good quality non chains throughout Florida is very small 99% to 1%.

[Spring Hillian]

Yeah, but my point Jambo was that you could do it to ANYWHERE USA. The original quote was that there werent any non chain restaurants in Florida and that is so far from accurate it cant be determined how far off it is.

Originally Posted by jambo101

Click on the red dots on the interactive Lakeland map in that link and if you're looking for non chain restaurants you'll find many..

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

Yeah, but my point Jambo was that you could do it to ANYWHERE USA. The original quote was that there werent any non chain restaurants in Florida and that is so far from accurate it cant be determined how far off it is.

Guess i missed something along the way as theres plenty of chain and non chain restaurants between Tampa and Orlando..

[Spring Hillian]

Jambo - I refer to message #3 in this thread.

the original poster asked for a place with "local flavor food without chain restaurants"

The answer they got was:

"No such thing left in FL...sorry to say. You might find a small Main Street in Sarasota, Dunedin, but not really like you're envisioning."

Originally Posted by jambo101

Guess i missed something along the way as theres plenty of chain and non chain restaurants between Tampa and Orlando..

[llrain73]

we do have a hybrid so gas is kinda non issue

Originally Posted by BucFan

I can imagine the cost of gasoline every week would be pretty bad unless you drive a hybrid.

[llrain73]

Yes, we are "looking" to not discover chain restaurants , except panera where I get my coffee basically every day up here...but I'd rather starve than be found in a red robin, olive garden, etc
We dont eat out that often but am just thinking about these kinds of things we want from a town we may move to

Actually, is whole foods popular down there, or something similar? and farmers markets?

Originally Posted by punkfan39126

You really think that people who make repeat visits to Disney are "looking to discover new things"?

[marcopolo]

Originally Posted by punkfan39126

You really think that people who make repeat visits to Disney are "looking to discover new things"?

Hey, it's huge. We've been to WDW more than 20 times, and we discover new things every time.

About the drive times: We drive past the Tampa International Airport exit, and from there to WDW, we've made it in as little as 1:15 and never as much as 1:30. We avoid rush hours through Tampa, and never drive fast enough to get a ticket.

[crazynip]

Originally Posted by marcopolo

Hey, it's huge. We've been to WDW more than 20 times, and we discover new things every time.

About the drive times: We drive past the Tampa International Airport exit, and from there to WDW, we've made it in as little as 1:15 and never as much as 1:30. We avoid rush hours through Tampa, and never drive fast enough to get a ticket.

That might be the case, but it doesnt take much to go wrong and turn that 1:15 commute into a 2-3 hour fiasco

[FloridaKash]

I find it amusing that certain people can spend thousands on annual passes to an amusement park that isn't in their town or county and then complain about taxes, cost of living, wages, etc.