Spirit Airlines provided what we needed to go on this trip for review purposes. Opinions are my own.

Did you come to this post you to find out how learning happens during our family travels? Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the links to all the places we visited during this trip!

Last month my family and I had the crazy opportunity to fly to Florida. For a lot of people that wouldn’t be a big deal, but, see – I’ve never been there.

I’ve traveled a lot in my life but never to Florida. Living in Ohio means a trip down that far south would be costly for us – all things considered. I mean, our 2002 van would probably break down or something. It’s happened to people we know from our area.

Spirit brings CAK non-stop flights to Florida

Cue in Spirit Airlines. Spirit moved into our the Akron-Canton Airport recently and started flying non-stop to four Florida destinations: Tampa, Fort Myers, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. The fun doesn’t stop there, though. Spirit will be adding flights to Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas in the spring of 2017.

Spirit Airlines’ moto is “Less money. More go.”  Tickets are cheap with Spirit due to their Bare Fare. The Bare Fare simply covers your flight ticket and one “personal item” from point A to point B.

Not only would this be my first trip to Florida, it was our boys’ first trip to this state, as well, AND their first time flying.

What the Spirit Bare Fare means

See that yellow Bare Fare bag in the picture below – that is the size of the “personal item” you can carry on for no extra price. You don’t have to have Spirit’s Bare Fare Bag, you can use your own bag that is the size of a small backpack the Spirit website says the bag must be “one that can fit entirely in the smaller sizer box. Another personal item or anything larger like a standard carry-on or checked bag is a little extra.”

The three backpacks you see below were our carry-on bags (which cost extra) and the yellow Spirit bag and two smaller beige bags in the picture below were our “personal item” bags which were covered in our ticket price. I packed our bags in such a way that we only needed two checked bags (which cost extra) for our family of four. I’ll share more about how I packed in another post.

Oh, and I didn’t tell you – this is the first post in a series! Yes, we did SO much on our trip in Florida that I have to tell you about it in pieces. You will want to follow along! I’ll tell you about where we stayed, where we ate, what we did…even our rental car (which will be the NEXT post).

I didn’t tell you what part of Florida we traveled to yet, did I? 

After a short wait for our flight we flew into the Fort Myers RSW airport, picked up our Enterprise rental and headed to Marco Island which was about an hour away. We did stop to eat dinner in Naples which is very close to Marco Island. It was dark by the time we got to our destination so we basically unpacked and settled in.

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself! This is a series so I hope you’ll follow along. We had a pretty full schedule prepared for us by the Naples CVB – as we were about to find out! While I’m thinking about it I want to be sure you know that you can subscribe here to get my future posts sent right to your email inbox as they come out.

Our Flight Experience with Spirit

We had a great trip with Spirit Airlines. I love that we Ohioans can fly to Florida in such a short time-frame for an affordable price. Oh, now that’s something I want to talk more about! The price.

Okay, so I told you about the Bare Fare and that that includes getting you and one “personal item” to your destination and that carry-ons and checked bags cost extra. The great thing about that is that if you don’t need a carry-on or a checked bag you’re not going to be charged for that in your ticket price like other airlines do.

The Bare Fare allows you more control over what you pay for on your flight which frees up money you’d rather spend on the things that are important to you.

During the flight you pay for drinks and snacks, if you want them. Make sure you have a credit or debit card, I believe it’s a no-cash food cart.

I looked over the menu and bought the multi-snack option, which seemed to be the best deal for our family. There seemed to be something in there that everyone would like and it only cost $6.50. We didn’t buy drinks or water because we had filled our water bottles at the airport before boarding.

The trip has just begun!

So here we are at the end of Part 1…waiting for our rental car.

It was one month ago today that our trip to sunny Florida ended with us flying back to snowy Ohio. This past month has been a blur and now I get to relive our trip through this series. I’m looking forward to this! I hope you are, too.

You can subscribe here to get my next post sent to your email inbox!

Be sure to visit Spirit.com to book your next trip. And, even if you’re just dreaming about that next trip you can go to Spirit’s website to view a video showing how much can fit into a Bare Fare sized bag.

Remember, if you’re using the Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) you can now fly non-stop to Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Orlando! In spring 2017 you can fly to Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas!

Visit Spirit’s website to see what days of the week they are headed to your dream destination and look up their cheap Bare Fare flight ticket prices.

Did you miss a post? Subscribe here so you don’t miss the next!

• Part 1: Our first family flight flying Spirit Airlines nonstop from CAK to FL.
• Part 2: What we drove on Marco Island.
• Part 3: Our experience staying at The Boathouse Motel and what swam by our dock.
• Part 4: Our experience on the Princess Dinner Cruise.
• Part 5: Our Visit to the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center.
• Part 6: Eating at Pinchers at Tin City in Naples, FL.
• Part 7: Visiting the Naples Zoo
• Part 8: We ate Alligator at the Snook Inn
• Part 9: Our Everglades Excursion Tour in SW Florida
• Part 10: Bonus!  Coming up: Additional places we found to eat at that we can recommend.

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