America is my favourite place, I have returned here for the last eight years and think the Gulf Coast has the most beautiful beaches in America, white powdery sand and turquoise waters.

St Pete's is approximately an hour and 15 minutes drive from Orlando, and is a straight run with great views over the ocean. There are a few shops and one main supermarket, or you drive 10 minutes into St Petersburg centre for a wider choice. All the hotels are situated on the beachfront next to each other and I booked some excursions from the beach huts and went dolphin watching plus took a boat out to Shell Key.

Further afield, is Clearwater, slightly busier than St Pete's, and Tampa, where you will find Busch Gardens, a zoo/theme park with loads of roller coasters and rides though if you're not into that there are plenty of other things to do and see. There is also an amazing waterpark in Tampa known as Adventure Island which is set in 30 acres and is suitable for all ages.

As you can expect in all of these areas there are a lot of seafood restaurants, all which seemed great value to me. The main restaurants are located inside the hotels; a favourite was Sirata Beach with a great menu to choose from, but when I want to splash out, I go to the restaurant in the Don Cesar, a beautiful bright pink 5 star hotel. Both hotels are located on the beach at St Pete.

Car hire is essential when you are visiting the Gulf Coast and the coastal roads have a slow speed limit on them - don't forget to keep some loose change handy for any toll roads. If you don't fancy taking the car out all the time, there is a free trolley bus that runs up and down the beaches.

Every type of aquatic recreation is available from jet skis, parasailing, boating, deep-sea fishing, sailing, the lot! Ample opportunities also exist for hiking, biking, bird watching and other nature-based activities. Florida's Gulf Coast has on average 300 days of sunshine a year with temperatures averaging 91 degrees. It tends to rain in late May through to early September but you may welcome this as it gets very humid!