Back-to-School Shopping and Tax-Free Weekend in Orlando at The Florida Mall

Thank you to The Florida Mall for hosting our family and sponsoring today’s blog post about Back-to-School Shopping and Tax-Free Weekend 2018 in Orlando at The Florida Mall.

When I lived in Orlando for college many years ago, one of my favorite places to shop at for back-to-school was The Florida Mall. Now that we live in Orlando as a family, I love to take my own children shopping at The Florida Mall for their back-to-school shopping, too! The mall is so different (and so much better!!) now than it was 15 years ago. The Florida Mall is Central Florida’s largest and most spectacular shopping center.

The 2018 Florida Back-to-School Tax-Free Weekend starts NOW from August 3rd – August 5th, 2018 and The Florida Mall is THE place to get all of your shopping done! During the 2018 Florida Back-to-School Tax-Free Weekend, parents and students can save sales tax on clothing, footwear and certain accessories selling for $60 or less per item, as well as on certain school supplies selling for $15 or less per item.

Back-to-School Shopping and Tax-Free Weekend in Orlando at The Florida Mall

One of the reasons we love shopping for all of our family’s back-to-school necessities at The Florida Mall is because it’s more of a destination to enjoy a day together as a family, instead of just a place to shop. It spans more than 1.8 million square feet, and features more than 250 unique stores and restaurants. Stores we love are at The Florida Mall including: Microsoft, GAP, Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie & Fitch Kids, Carlo’s Bakery, Footlocker, and H&M and so many more!

 

In addition to the mall’s enviable retail and dining offerings, there’s also an onsite 511-room hotel and conference center. We had the chance to dine at Marcelo’s Bistro yesterday, which is located inside of The Florida Hotel. The food was delicious and the service was fantastic! We enjoyed being able to have lunch inside of the mall, to fuel up for our back-to-school shopping extravaganza. I had the Italian Chopped Salad, and my husband had the Pasta Primavera with shrimp…both were so good!

The Florida Mall also has an awesome Florida Resident Savings program which includes: Complimentary Savings Passport, Complimentary same day valet from 10-11AM, and VIP Tote Bag. The Saving’s Passport has jam-packed with amazing savings that we used at so many of our favorite stores.

One of our first stops for the kids was Abercrombie Kids. My boys had so much fun picking out some new clothes for school. We were able to rack up quite a bit of savings with the Savings Passport in there, too! The boys stocked up on great basics like jeans, shorts, graphic tees, and even an awesome letter jacket for when it gets chilly here in Orlando.

After visiting the Microsoft store (where we checked out the brand new Surface Go!), Abercrombie & Fitch, and Abercrombie Kids, we decided to head over to Carlo’s Bake Shop in the beautifully redesigned Dining Pavillion. We’ve been to the Carlo’s Bake Shop in New Jersey, and we were excited to visit this location, too! It’s the only one in Florida…and it did not disappoint.

After we had a quick snack break, we continued our back-to-school shopping and stopped at GAP, H&M, and Footlocker.

News flash: Kids aren’t the only ones who can have fun with back-to-school shopping! Mommy and Daddy grabbed a few things at GAP and H&M for ourselves! My husband badly needed new jeans so we grabbed those, and I found some great basics to transition from summer to fall.

Our last stop before leaving the mall was to grab some new shoes for the kiddos at Footlocker. These boys play hard, and go through sneaks SO fast. I was glad to save on new shoes for them to be fresh for the new school year!

We shopped till we dropped at The Florida Mall. We are now ready for Back-to-School!!