San Francisco 49ers will stay in Florida before heading to Chicago

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Given how hard it rained at the San Francisco 49ers' home game against the New England Patriots last week, it's nice that the club gets a week's vacation in Florida.

Only this is no vacation.

And it rains in Florida, too.

Actually, rain is in the forecast for Sunday's game at Miami, but that's not keeping the 49ers from packing their sunscreen for the trip.

That's because the club won't be flying home after the game. Rather, the 49ers have made arrangements to stay in Orlando through next Friday before flying to Chicago for a Week 13 game against the Bears.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has a lot on his plate these days, said he doesn't mind the week-long getaway.

"It gets you kind of back into a training camp mentality where you're in a hotel together, kind of isolated, and it's just the team," he said. "So there's an opportunity for us to get closer, but I think we already have a very tight-knit team."

That also was the case in Week 3 of the 2011 season, when the 49ers were in a developing stage under coach Jim Harbaugh.

After a home loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the 49ers recorded a 13-8 win at Cincinnati, then stayed in Youngstown, Ohio, before moving on to Philadelphia, where they also defeated the Eagles 24-23.

The 49ers went on to finish the 2011 season 13-3 and made their first of three consecutive trips to the NFC Championship Game, losing to the New York Giants.

The only similarity this season is that they'll fly east with one win, albeit in 10 games.

Whether or not they're a developing team under coach Chip Kelly remains to be seen.

If there's any resentment being away from their friends and families for a week late in a lost season, none of the players are talking about it publicly.

"It saves travel time, so in that regard it can be beneficial," Kaepernick said. "It will give you an opportunity to really focus on what we need to get done."

The 49ers will work out next week at Central Florida, whose coach, Scott Frost, is a colleague of Kelly.

The forecast in Orlando: Sunny and in the 80s.