Orlando – Off The Beaten Path: Discovering Central Florida Without
Orlando – Off The Beaten Path: Discovering Central Florida Without Visiting Any Theme Parks… Can It Be Done?
One of my husband’s admired places is Florida, when you consider that he is an avid golfer and likes to escape from the cold Canadian iciness for his birthday in early December.
For some time now we had planned to visit Orlando, but neither one of us are into topic parks. So there was the issue for me: could we be able to go to Orlando devoid of placing foot into Disney or Universal Studios? For an individual as curious as me this turned into a perfect hindrance and I were doing weeks of searches on the Internet and speaking with the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau to discover approximately appealing destinations off the overwhelmed trail.
Well, I am completely happy to mention, we arrived to come back accurately the day prior to this from our commute, and the trip itself become especially an journey given that we decided to power from Toronto to Orlando, approximately 2100 km each method! Actually, the force turned into now not as painful as I estimated. The power by Pennsylvania and West Virginia used to be first-class and hilly, and I chiefly loved coming over the ridge of the Appalachians, suitable wherein Virginia and North Carolina meet, the place you get a pleasing view of the piedmont neighborhood round Winston-Salem bahamas yacht rentals that spreads out in direction of the Atlantic in front of the mountain chain.
And I am even happier to claim that inside the 14 or so days that we spent in Orlando, now not in simple terms did we get to play quite a few golfing (to make my husband definitely glad…;) – including Mystic Dunes, Champions Gate, Royal St. Cloud Links, Hawk’s Landing and Timacuan Golf and Country Club, no longer to mention the Walking Hall of Fame expertise of the PGA Father Son Challenge at Champions Gate, yet I additionally were given to discover some pretty enjoyable locations, destinations I would now not have envisioned in Orlando and its surrounding region. I additionally had a opportunity to do an interview with GolfOrlando to get a miles more effective inspiration of why Orlando is referred to as “The Ultimate Golf Theme Park”.
We commenced off our first week with a consult with to the Orange Country Regional History Center, which gave us a compatible historical history of Orlando and Central Florida. Then, for some sociological and cultural insights, we visited the Well’s Built Museum for African American History and Culture in Orlando. To excellent off our first day of exploration we enjoyed a stroll around picturesque Lake Eola in downtown Orlando.
The next merchandise on my off-the-crushed direction agenda turned into a discovery of the City of Winter Park, a eye-catching suburb of Orlando, harking back to Old European towns. I additionally went at the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour, which used to be an wonderful, informative and visually eye-catching holiday.
The adrenaline revved up greatly on our subsequent outing: a totally high-pace airboat experience at Boggy Creek, that changed into observed up by using a much scale back pace swamp buggy trip in a tradition-developed monster truck that took us thru real Florida panorama.
After our golfing day out on the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links we loved a fine picnic with the aid of the waterfront in sunny downtown Kissimmee. Then, on a beautiful Sunday morning we drove approximately an hour outside of Orlando to succeed in the old fashioned the town of Mt. Dora, wherein I hopped on the “Herbie Express”, section of the Mt. Dora – Lake Eustis Scenic Railway.
From midweek in the 2d week onwards the weather took a flip for the worse. While planes have been sliding off runways in Chicago and file temperatures were registered within the mid-western states, we were freezing in Florida where the mercury hovered around sixty eight to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (around 20 tiers Celsius). So I received a rain jacket, and decided now not to let the freezing chilly interfere with our plans, we headed out to proceed our explorations.
On an afternoon that was forecast to be wet, yet simply ended up being a bit of grey and clammy, we went out to detect Loch Haven Park, Orlando’s heart of technology, paintings and subculture. We then persisted our explorations added south to find out a few of Orlando’s ancient neighbourhoods and parks equivalent to Lake Cherokee and Lake Lucerne.
As the drizzly climate persisted, we went on to talk over with Florida’s Natural Visitor Center in Lake Wales, approximately an hours drive south of Orlando, where I acquired a highly awesome understanding of Central Florida’s citrus industry. I spent the afternoon in one more admired charm in Lake Wales which holds two National Historic Landmarks: the Historic Bok Sanctuary, in which I were given to determine the elegance of the Bok estate and its historic carillon tower, mixed with a journey by way of the ancient Pinewood Estate, which was decked out in full Christmas decorations.
During these 2 weeks in Florida, we got uncovered to a variety of its flora, plant life and wildlife, much of that you run into casually even at the same time as taking part in golfing or picknicking by using the waterfront. Florida has a shocking amount of pure diversity and I loved observing the lots of types of birds, lizards, and squirrels. The only aspect we didn’t get to work out was a stay alligator (apart from the good-hidden rear cease of a small alligator all through our swamp buggy journey – unfortunately I couldn’t even get an effective picture of that one..). Apparently wintry weather time is too chilly for these creatures to come out of the water…
On our drive dwelling house, on a vibrant sunny day (of course…), we stopped off in St. Augustine, a historic city centered by way of the Spaniards inside the 1500s, and the oldest steadily inhabited town in the United States – a mighty photogenic position, I have to add.
So, you ask, is it feasible to spend 2 weeks in Orlando devoid of even putting foot interior a subject matter park and still have an even time? Well, founded on the above itinerary I’d say that my plans to discover Orlando off the crushed path got here to full fruition.
Mission executed.