Warm weather cycling vacation in winter?

[fallstoclimb]

Hi everyone! I'm pretty new to the site and to cycling, although I'm quickly getting addicted. I'm just on a Trek hybrid now but am up to reasonably hilly 30-mile rides and am giving serious thought to getting a road bike sometime next year.

I want to go on vacation with my husband over our winter break this year (he's a teacher, I'm a student for the last time, so it's our last real winter break together). He's very much into cycling, and since I'm getting into it I thought it'd be fun to somehow work cycling into our plans -- I don't think I'm ready for a full-on tour, especially with the risk of bad weather ruining our plans, but instead I'm thinking of a few days where we can either just take a few day trips from a hotel, or maybe cycle from inn to inn but on a casual schedule.

Does anyone have location and/or ride suggestions? Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the U.S. to ride? I know the Eastern Shore in MD has some inn to inn rides but it'll be freezing in winter. My only stipulation is that I want to be somewhere warmer than Maryland is in December/January, I suffer from a touch of SAD so I'm not going to vacation during the winter and stay somewhere cold. We would probably also want to rent bikes at our location, rather than ship our own, since this wouldn't be a real tour. Which does bring up another question, can you put bike racks on rental cars?

[Chicken Little]

I throw the bike in the car and head to Phoenix for a quick pick-up, if I just can't bring myself to stick heat pack in the shoes.

[azfiddle]

Or Tucson.

[Veronica]

Hawaii - circumnavigate the Big Island.

Veronica

[tulip]

Last winter, when my South American trip was canceled because of the Chilean earthquake, we packed up the car and headed to Austin. We rented an apartment and got cue sheets from a couple of bike shops. It was great, and alot warmer than Virginia was.

Florida would be good except that it is the worst place to bicycle.

[fallstoclimb]

Hawaii is too $$, but we've been discussing Austin and Phoenix, hadn't thought of Tucson yet. I figured biking in Florida would be pretty lame. Which of these cities would be best for scenic rides through the countryside? Since I'm still pretty new to this, I'll want to be in low traffic areas when we ride.