I stayed in Orlando at the beginning of October - I spent 5 nights at Pop Century Resort at Disney, 1 night at Holiday Inn on Int Drive and 4 nights at Royal Pacific at Universal.

Disney was basic, but clean and pleasant, Royal Pacific was absolutley fantastic, and Holiday Inn? horrific! Dont be fooled by a brand name as this was awful.

Having seen Int Drive, to me, its a bit like Blackpool (no disrespect to anyone from Blackpool) but its a bit tacky and the hotels do look scruffy and run down. If it is important to you to be in a nice place and feel comfortable, go for the more expensive hotels, as yes, I think you most definately get what you pay for.

What I found out was, in the cheaper hotels on Int Drive, the staff dont care about helping should there be any problems but at Disney or Universal they cant help you enough!

Hope this helps.

there are some nice hotels on international drive you just have to be careful which ones. Have you looked up on this site the hotel you are staying in in lake buena vista because you will be able to see how others view your hotel you have chosen

Hi Denise,

i have stayed at both I drive and Lake Buena Vista, and LBV is deffinatly more upmarket, theres plenty to do and loads of restarunts at both locations, there only about 15 mins apart, personly i prefer LBV,

Amber

I also recommend Lake Buena Vista. International Drive has become the quite the tourist destination for visitors not staying within the parks. It's lined with good and not-so-good hotels, run-of-the-mill gift shops, restaurants, etc but that also means you can get stuck over there for hours upon end in traffic. If you do go or stay there, they do have a trolley that runs up and down a good portion of the street... but trolleys get stuck in traffic too.

I would go with paying more money for a room but in some

cases that is not always better. The Sheraton Vistana Villages

on International Drive is lovely and large. The kitchen is even

nicer then mine at home!

Take a virtual online tour by going to www.expedia.com

type in this hotel name and you can see all the rooms online.

Enjoy!

Hi,

Just driving on International Drive makes me feel Claustrophobic! Lake Buena Vista has much nicer, generally newer, accomodations and restaurants, plus MUCH less traffic. I think in this case, it is you get what you pay for. I'd keep the reservations in LBV!

Best Wishes!

For anyone staying in hotel, i think International Drive is one of the best. You dont have to stay in the tacky part of the area. We stayed at the Rosen Centre on International Drive, it was fantastic, yes it was expensive but wow fantastic. Our friends stayed at the Sheraton at the same time, but our hotel looked better. If you will not rent a car, you may have to stay on I.Drive, although it cost less than $20 per day to rent a car.

Whilst I would agree the LBV is more upmarket than I Drive I have to say that to write I drive off as 'rundown like Blackpool' is not altogether accurate and a tad unfair.

There is nice accomodation to be fond at the 'right end' of I Drive. If you move up towards the Convention Centre & Sea World the overall cleanliness and atmosphere improves drastically.

I would recommend both the Wyndham Orlando Resort, Homewood Suites by Hilton or Sheraton World Resort although the later is slightly further away from the 'heart' of I drive it is a fantastic hotel. If you find a hotel towards this end of I Drive im sure you wont be dissapointed.

There is plenty to do including shopping, restaraunts, The Pointe Orlando etc and you are a 10 min drive from City Walk at Universal.

LBV over I Drive yes, but I Drive not worth it.....definitely not.

Hope this helps

Habing never stayed at lbv i cant comment on that but as a non driver i fing International drive very good as i pick a hotel with free transport to disney but then i am within walking distance of places to eat and shopping as i do go to belx a few times so staying ay lbv with no car that would be impossible

Sea World, WonderWorks, Orlando Science Center, Convention Center stay on International Drive (close to Sea World is better).

Disney Properties, Lake Buena Vista.

Both... Kissimmee (here you do get what you pay for though)