I got such great info on traveling to WEC I thought I would pick your brains for another Florida horse showing trip. Does anyone go to Fox Lea Farm in Venice and if so, where do you stay? It’s a really beautiful area and I love the beach. Lots of great airport options. But so expensive and busy this time of year and hard to find any reasonably priced lodging.
It’s going to be expensive this time of year all over Florida. You can save by staying closer to Fox Lea near I-75. If you want to be near the beach you’ll pay for the privilege. 
Depending on what your horse care situation is (do you have help?) and you don’t mind driving a bit, you can look a bit further up I-75. Clark road (72) in South Sarasota probably has some hotels along the interstate and that’s not a bad drive, especially heading to the show at o’dark thirty.
ETA Fox Lea has started doing on site RV rentals. No idea the price or if they’re all booked, but you could look into that!
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The lodging options are not good around Venice. The Fairfield and TownePlace are close to the show grounds, but not much else, and last time I looked their rates had gone up for the show season so they aren’t necessarily a bargain. I couldn’t find any reasonably priced airbnb’s that looked decent, the decent looking ones were expensive. But, if you are just going for a getaway, the commute from Sarasota or nicer areas to stay isn’t terrible and would give you a lot more options. Personally, I didn’t love showing there, but a lot of people do like it. The show is small and the days are short, which is nice for the trainers, but it still didn’t leave a good block of time for the beach after you go back to the hotel, change, load up stuff, etc . . . and it was an expensive trip. Venice has cute restaurants, but if I ever went back, I think I’d take a few days just for the beach in Sarasota, and keep the horse show days just for the horse show. But mostly I don’t plan to go back because of the lodging situation and distance, I’d rather go to Ocala.
I agree about the lodging options not being good. The nearby hotels are pretty expensive, and I can’t handle the interstate. I did look into AirBnbs and as noted look risky without a recommendation. I checked into their campers, and they are expensive too.
