My husband actually spent the last week at New Smyrna Beach, FL at an oceanfront condo. New Smyrna is about a 90 minute drive from Disney World. While it is close, I wouldn't want to make a daily commute between New Smyrna and Orlando for my Disney vacation days.
If you're looking to split your Florida vacation between Disney and the beach (and you're not interested in Disney's Vero Beach), New Smyrna offers a beautiful wide beach (with on-beach parking) for relaxing in the sun. If the beach is your priority, this is your place. If you're looking for lots of quality restaurants, shops and entertainment, you may want to expand your search.
Love bugs appear twice a year in Florida... now and again in the fall around September. Some areas of Florida are worse than others. Coming home from the beach, we drove through some of the worst of it. It sounds like rain as the bugs hit your windshield and splatter. After about 30 minutes on the road, our windshield was completely covered and it became difficult to see.
If you get love bugs on your car, do not wait to remove them. Dead love bugs plus Florida sun equals damage to your car's paint - as soon as 24 hours. Love bugs are very acidic. Driving through huge swarms can clog radiators and overheat cars. I wouldn't want to be on a motorcycle this time of year...
On our way back home, we remembered there was an automatic car wash at the Hess station near the back side of Disney's Boardwalk Resort (across from Disney's Hollywood Studios). If you go to this car wash, please note that you have to pay in advance and receive a code to activate the car wash. During our visit to the car wash, the dryer was not working. The important part was that the wash worked.
Our windshield and most of our car was sparkling after running through the wash. We still had many bugs on the front bumper of our car. Living here as long as we have, we expected that.
Love bugs are sticky and very difficult to remove. A local's tip is to remove them using one of those dish washing sponges that have the soft scrubbing netting around them.
