Hollywood, FL

Have you ever been to Hollywood, Florida? I had never heard of it until a few months ago. My family and I booked a cruise back in March of 2020 RIGHT BEFORE the pandemic hit. Ultimately, we weren’t worried... I mean.. Coronavirus? This will last a few months and be done, right? WRONG. Our cruise was booked for the first week of February 2021. We had a 7 day cruise in the Western Caribbean booked through Carnival. We planned on driving 2.5 hours to Nashville, TN to fly directly to Miami, FL. We even had a hotel booked for the night before the cruise departed so we didn’t feel rushed.

We all know how the pandemic went the rest of the year. We each had our own experiences, losses, triumphs, emotional breakdowns, and more. In December, we had a feeling our cruise would be canceled but we didn’t want to cancel our flight. (I did go ahead and cancel the hotel). So we thought we would fly into Miami and then drive to Orlando and explore Universal Studios. I planned this whole back up vacation, booked a hotel at Universal and waited for Carnival to cancel.

Once they canceled we started to think that maybe a theme park wasn’t a safe way to enjoy our vacation. We canceled the back up trip as well. WHAT THE HECK WERE WE GOING TO DO NOW? Mommy needed a vacation! We started researching houses with pools on AIRBNB’s app and then discovered there was a whole slough of homes that had HEATED pools! WHAAAT??!! Yes, sign me up!

Bonus factor: We found the home listed by the same people but on their rental site and it was cheaper to book directly through them.

To see this gorgeous home click here :

https://hollywoodvacationrental.com/accommodation/amazing-villa-walk-5-minutes-to-hollywood-beach/

Upon our arrival, we met the owners of the home. They were so sweet & gave us some pointers on the pool & hot tub (forgot to mention this, THERE WAS ALSO A HOT TUB). They also gave me their number in case there was anything that we needed. We ended up forgetting some clothes in one of the dresser drawers and they were so sweet to ship it back to us.

Anyway we stayed for 7 days and had an amazing time. The weather was cooler than we anticipated. It was mostly in the mid 70s and one day it rained a little bit. For us, the weather was great compared to what we just came from. Back in Evansville, Indiana the weather was in the mid 30s and on the brink of snow.

The advertisement says a 5 minute walk to the beach...but its definitely more like 8-10 minutes depending on how fast you walk. Google maps lists it as a 5 minute drive / 10 minute walk. I was a little nervous to go to the beach with COVID still prevalent. However, I was really impressed with the people of Florida.

For starters, the beach wasn’t that crowded. Perhaps the time of year? February doesn’t strike me as a busy time. The boardwalk had a little more people than I would have liked, so we kept our distance. On the beach, everyone was really spread out. We had at least 20ft on either side of us. People were really respectful and didn’t get too close to you on the beach either.

To eliminate too many Doordash & Grubhub deliveries we did venture out to the grocery store. I did not see a single person without a mask or wearing their mask incorrectly. I was seriously impressed.

Naturally, our teenage girls wanted to do some shopping. Annnnnd naturally, I was apprehensive. I mean, it is still a pandemic. As small business owners, we have tried to shelter ourselves and family as much as possible. Our kids even do online school, which is why we were able to take this vacation at such a weird time of year.

Since I was so impressed with the mask initiative, I told them we would “try”. They wanted to shop at Brandy Melville in Miami Beach. We made our way down there and driving on I-95 was seriously scary! Florida drivers are crazy... seriously, my anxiety was through the roof. I mean, it may as well have been the Autobahn. There weren’t too many people out shopping in the middle of the week during the day, so we did have that going for us. There was maybe 1 or 2 shoppers in the store along with the employees. I feel like we picked a good time to go.

Moral of the story, if you’re looking for an amazing place to rent that is near the beach with a lot of restaurant options... check out the above link.

Hollywood, we’ll be back!