Stay at Erin’s Florida Villa

March 22nd, 2016

I never did like the cold, snow and ice (green easily beats white in my color book), but I’m “enjoying” it less as I rapidly age.

Here’s the palm-lined street leading to Erin’s Florida villa.

That’s why my wife, Sue, and I have been trying to shorten winter the last few years by escaping to Florida for a few weeks, like so many other northern snowbirds.

We’ve been renting a townhouse or villa, which come with kitchens, cozy furniture, living rooms and wireless Internet so I can post online while wearing T-shirt and shorts instead of shivers.

From now on, though, we’ll have a place we can call our winter home away from home. Our daughter, Erin, saved her pennies and put a down-payment on a villa just minutes from the entrance to Walt Disney World.

When we’re not hiding out there, Erin plans to rent this cute, 3-bedroom villa in a gated community the rest of the year. (See Erin’s villa website for availability and lots more pictures.)

She picked this area not only because we all happen to be Disney fans (Epcot is my favorite) but because this is the one part of Florida where people rent places all year long.

Here’s the front of Erin’s 3-bedroom villa.

The villa is in a Mediterranean-style community called Tuscan Hills, which is along Route 27 just 7 miles southwest from the less-frenetic Route 192 entrance to Disney.

We were all impressed at first glance at Tuscan Hills. There’s a clay-tiled clubhouse at the front with a large, four-tiered fountain gracing a circular foundation bed. Inside is a comfy lounge with TV, a kitchenette, a games room, and an exercise room with treadmill, bike and weights. It’s free for guest use.

Out back of the clubhouse is a tennis court, a sand volleyball court, a kiddie play area, and lots of palms that remind you that you’re not in frigid Mechanicsburg anymore.

I probably pay more attention to landscaping than the average person, and Tuscan Hills impressed me there, too. Crews were out trimming and planting flowers the day we first visited. It’s all neat and formal in keeping with the Italianate theme.

I also liked the red-clay-tile roofs on all of the residences, which range from 3-bedroom villas like Erin’s to 5-bedroom single-family homes.

The master bedroom features its own TV and bathroom.

Erin’s villa has a master bedroom with its own bathroom as well as two other bedrooms with another full bathroom. It sleeps six comfortably.

There’s a full kitchen with oven, range, microwave and garbage disposal, and there’s plenty of space to eat (two tables, kitchen counter space for two and a patio table out by the pool).

Two glass doors open to the pool area, which is covered by a lanai (what we northerners call a screened-in porch) and equipped with a water heater for swimming in the cooler seasons.

The living room has a 40-inch, flat-screen TV, and each bedroom has its own TV – all of them hooked up to Comcast Xfinity’s 140-channel plan.

The Internet is wireless and super-fast at 75 Mbps (faster than mine at home).

That should give me plenty of online power so I can continue to work, write and post from the sunny poolside patio – not that I’m rubbing it in or anything while the folks back home are shoveling snow.

If you’re ever looking for a place to stay while vacationing in Disney territory – or if you know someone who is – check out Erin’s villa.

You can even water and deadhead the flowers at no extra charge.