CSS - Aligning Navigation bar with images and text

Question

I have a menu (shown in the picture below) which I am trying to correctly align the text with the images (ie [img] [text]) as well as "stretch" the whole contents to fit all the width.

Image:

HTML:

<div id="menu">
      <ul>                                        
           <li><a class="current" href="home.html" title="">HOME</a></li>
           <li><a href="services.html" title="">TRANSPORT</a></li>
            <li><a href="#" title="">ACCOMODATION</a></li>
            <li><a href="#" title="">DEALS</a></li>
            <li><a href="contact.html" title="">CONTACT</a></li>
      </ul>
</div>

CSS:

#menu{
    width:900px;
    height: 50px;
    clear:both;
    background-color: #f7951e;
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    text-align: center;

}
#menu ul{
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    list-style:none;
    margin-top: 5px;
    margin-bottom: 5px;
    display:block;
    float: left;
    width: auto;
}
#menu ul li{
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    list-style:none;
    display:inline;
    width:auto;
    height:50px;
    line-height:42px;
    font-size:18px;
}
#menu ul li a{
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    font-size: 18px;
    height: auto;
    width: auto;
    float:next;
    text-decoration: none;
    color:#fff;
    padding-left: 40px;
    padding-right: 10px;
}
#menu ul li a:hover{
    height:auto;
    width: auto;
    text-decoration:none;
    color: #fff;
}
#menu ul li a.current{
    height:auto;
    width: auto;
    text-decoration:none;
    color: #fff;
}

#menu ul li:nth-of-type(1){

    background:url(./images/iconza/house_32x32.png) no-repeat;
    float: start;
    padding-top: 5px;
    padding-bottom: 10px;
}

#menu ul li:nth-of-type(2){

    background:url(./images/iconza/Car.png) no-repeat;
    float: start;
    padding-top: 5px;
    padding-bottom: 10px;

}

#menu ul li:nth-of-type(3){

    background:url(./images/iconza/house.png) no-repeat;
    float: start;
    padding-top: 5px;
    padding-bottom: 10px;
}

#menu ul li:nth-of-type(4){

    background:url(./images/iconza/offer.png) no-repeat;
    float: start;
    padding-top: 5px;
    padding-bottom: 10px;
}
#menu ul li:nth-of-type(5){

    background:url(./images/iconza/mail_32x32.png) no-repeat;
    float: start;
    padding-top: 5px;
    padding-bottom: 10px;
}

Answer 1

I would suggest to use display: table-cell; in #menu ul li instead of float: left; (I've learned it from a book about responsive design), and put background-images into html as imgs:

see my LIVE DEMO

Here is the amended html:

<div id="menu">
  <ul>                                        
    <li><a class="current" href="home.html" title=""><img src=""><span>HOME</span></a</li>
    <li><a href="services.html" title=""><img src=""><span>TRANSPORT</span></a></li>
    <li><a href="#" title=""><img src=""><span>ACCOMODATION</span></a></li>
    <li><a href="#" title=""><img src=""><span>DEALS</span></a></li>
    <li><a href="contact.html" title=""><img src=""><span>CONTACT</span></a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

and the css:

#menu{
    width:900px;
    height: 50px;
    background-color: #f7951e;
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    text-align: center;
    display: table;

}
#menu ul{
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    display:table-row;

}
#menu ul li{
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    list-style:none;
    display:table-cell;
    font-size:18px;
    vertical-align: middle;
}
#menu ul li a{
    font-family: 'Exo 2', sans-serif;
    text-decoration: none;
    color:#fff;
}

#menu ul li span {
    vertical-align: middle;
    margin-left: 5px;
}
#menu ul li img{
    vertical-align: middle;
}
#menu ul li a:hover{
    color: #ababab;
}
#menu ul li a.current{
    text-decoration:underline;
}

#menu ul li:first-child {
    text-align: left;
    padding-left: 10px;
}

#menu ul li:last-child {
    text-align: right;
    padding-right: 10px;
}