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Orlando - Off The Beaten Path: Discovering Central
Florida Without Visiting Any Theme Parks... Can It Be
Done? by Susanne Pacher
One of my husband's favourite places is Florida, since he is
an avid golfer and likes to get away from the cold Canadian
winter for his birthday in early December.
For a while now we had planned to visit Orlando, but neither
one of us are into theme parks. So there was the challenge
for me: would we be able to visit Orlando without setting foot
into Disney or Universal Studios? For someone as curious
as me this was a suitable challenge and I had been doing
weeks of searches on the Internet and communicating with
the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau to find out
about interesting destinations off the beaten path.
Well, I am happy to say, we arrived back safely yesterday
from our trip, and the trip itself was quite an adventure
since we decided to drive from Toronto to Orlando, about
2100 km each way! Actually, the drive was not as painful as
I expected. The drive through Pennsylvania and West
Virginia was nice and hilly, and I particularly enjoyed coming
over the ridge of the Appalachians, right where Virginia and
North Carolina meet, where you get a beautiful view of the
piedmont area around Winston-Salem that spreads out
towards the Atlantic in front of the mountain chain.
And I am even happier to say that in the 14 or so days that
we spent in Orlando, not only did we get to play a lot of golf
(to make my husband really happy...;) - including Mystic
Dunes, Champions Gate, Royal St. Cloud Links, Hawk's
Landing and Timacuan Golf and Country Club, not to
mention the Walking Hall of Fame experience of the PGA
Father Son Challenge at Champions Gate, but I also got to
explore some really interesting places, destinations I would
not have expected in Orlando and its surrounding region. I
also had a chance to do an interview with GolfOrlando to
get a much better idea of why Orlando is called "The
Ultimate Golf Theme Park".
We started off our first week with a visit to the Orange
Country Regional History Center, which gave us a suitable
historic background 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 top off our first day of exploration we
enjoyed a walk around picturesque Lake Eola in downtown
Orlando.
The next item on my off-the-beaten path agenda was a
discovery of the City of Winter Park, a beautiful suburb of
Orlando, reminiscent of Old European towns. I also went on
the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour, which was an
entertaining, informative and visually appealing excursion.
The adrenaline revved up significantly on our next outing: a
very high-speed airboat ride at Boggy Creek, that was
followed up by a much lower speed swamp buggy ride in a
custom-built monster truck that took us through authentic
Florida landscape.
After our golf outing at the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links we
enjoyed a wonderful picnic by the waterfront in sunny
downtown Kissimmee. Then, on a beautiful Sunday morning
we drove about an hour outside of Orlando to reach the
quaint town of Mt. Dora, where I hopped on the "Herbie
Express", part of the Mt. Dora - Lake Eustis Scenic Railway.
From midweek in the second week onwards the weather
took a turn for the worse. While planes were sliding off
runways in Chicago and record temperatures were
registered in the mid-western states, we were freezing in
Florida where the mercury hovered around 68 to 70
degrees Fahrenheit (around +20 degrees Celsius). So I
bought a rain jacket, and determined not to let the freezing
cold interfere with our plans, we headed out to continue our
explorations.
On a day that was forecast to be rainy, but just ended up
being a bit grey and clammy, we went out to discover Loch
Haven Park, Orlando's center of science, art and culture.
We then continued our explorations further south to
discover some of Orlando's historic neighbourhoods and
parks such as Lake Cherokee and Lake Lucerne.
As the drizzly weather continued, we went on to visit
Florida's Natural Visitor Center in Lake Wales, about an
hours drive south of Orlando, where I got a really good
understanding of Central Florida's citrus industry. I spent
the afternoon in another famous attraction in Lake Wales
which holds two National Historic Landmarks: the Historic
Bok Sanctuary, where I got to see the beauty of the Bok
estate and its historic carillon tower, combined with a tour
through the historic Pinewood Estate, which was decked out
in full Christmas decorations.
During these 2 weeks in Florida, we got exposed to a lot of
its plants, flowers and wildlife, much of which you run into
casually even while playing golf or picknicking by the
waterfront. Florida has a surprising amount of natural
diversity and I enjoyed watching the various types of birds,
lizards, and squirrels. The only thing we didn't get to see
was a live alligator (with the exception of the well-hidden
rear end of a small alligator during our swamp buggy tour -
unfortunately I couldn't even get a good picture of that
one..). Apparently winter time is too cold for these creatures
to come out of the water...
On our drive home, on a bright sunny day (of course...), we
stopped off in St. Augustine, a historic town founded by the
Spaniards in the 1500s, and the oldest continuously
inhabited town in the United States - a mighty photogenic
place, I should add.
So, you ask, is it possible to spend 2 weeks in Orlando
without even setting foot inside a theme park and still have
a good time? Well, based on the above itinerary I'd say that
my plans to explore Orlando off the beaten path came to full
fruition.
Mission accomplished.
This entire article including photos is located at
http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_off_the_beaten_path
.htm
About the Author
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of http://www.travelandtransitions.com, a web
portal for unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out our
brand new FREE ebooks about travel.
Orlando - Off The Beaten Path: Discovering Central
Florida Without Visiting Any Theme Parks... Can It Be
Done? by Susanne Pacher
One of my husband's favourite places is Florida, since he is
an avid golfer and likes to get away from the cold Canadian
winter for his birthday in early December.
For a while now we had planned to visit Orlando, but neither
one of us are into theme parks. So there was the challenge
for me: would we be able to visit Orlando without setting foot
into Disney or Universal Studios? For someone as curious
as me this was a suitable challenge and I had been doing
weeks of searches on the Internet and communicating with
the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau to find out
about interesting destinations off the beaten path.
Well, I am happy to say, we arrived back safely yesterday
from our trip, and the trip itself was quite an adventure
since we decided to drive from Toronto to Orlando, about
2100 km each way! Actually, the drive was not as painful as
I expected. The drive through Pennsylvania and West
Virginia was nice and hilly, and I particularly enjoyed coming
over the ridge of the Appalachians, right where Virginia and
North Carolina meet, where you get a beautiful view of the
piedmont area around Winston-Salem that spreads out
towards the Atlantic in front of the mountain chain.
And I am even happier to say that in the 14 or so days that
we spent in Orlando, not only did we get to play a lot of golf
(to make my husband really happy...;) - including Mystic
Dunes, Champions Gate, Royal St. Cloud Links, Hawk's
Landing and Timacuan Golf and Country Club, not to
mention the Walking Hall of Fame experience of the PGA
Father Son Challenge at Champions Gate, but I also got to
explore some really interesting places, destinations I would
not have expected in Orlando and its surrounding region. I
also had a chance to do an interview with GolfOrlando to
get a much better idea of why Orlando is called "The
Ultimate Golf Theme Park".
We started off our first week with a visit to the Orange
Country Regional History Center, which gave us a suitable
historic background 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 top off our first day of exploration we
enjoyed a walk around picturesque Lake Eola in downtown
Orlando.
The next item on my off-the-beaten path agenda was a
discovery of the City of Winter Park, a beautiful suburb of
Orlando, reminiscent of Old European towns. I also went on
the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour, which was an
entertaining, informative and visually appealing excursion.
The adrenaline revved up significantly on our next outing: a
very high-speed airboat ride at Boggy Creek, that was
followed up by a much lower speed swamp buggy ride in a
custom-built monster truck that took us through authentic
Florida landscape.
After our golf outing at the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links we
enjoyed a wonderful picnic by the waterfront in sunny
downtown Kissimmee. Then, on a beautiful Sunday morning
we drove about an hour outside of Orlando to reach the
quaint town of Mt. Dora, where I hopped on the "Herbie
Express", part of the Mt. Dora - Lake Eustis Scenic Railway.
From midweek in the second week onwards the weather
took a turn for the worse. While planes were sliding off
runways in Chicago and record temperatures were
registered in the mid-western states, we were freezing in
Florida where the mercury hovered around 68 to 70
degrees Fahrenheit (around +20 degrees Celsius). So I
bought a rain jacket, and determined not to let the freezing
cold interfere with our plans, we headed out to continue our
explorations.
On a day that was forecast to be rainy, but just ended up
being a bit grey and clammy, we went out to discover Loch
Haven Park, Orlando's center of science, art and culture.
We then continued our explorations further south to
discover some of Orlando's historic neighbourhoods and
parks such as Lake Cherokee and Lake Lucerne.
As the drizzly weather continued, we went on to visit
Florida's Natural Visitor Center in Lake Wales, about an
hours drive south of Orlando, where I got a really good
understanding of Central Florida's citrus industry. I spent
the afternoon in another famous attraction in Lake Wales
which holds two National Historic Landmarks: the Historic
Bok Sanctuary, where I got to see the beauty of the Bok
estate and its historic carillon tower, combined with a tour
through the historic Pinewood Estate, which was decked out
in full Christmas decorations.
During these 2 weeks in Florida, we got exposed to a lot of
its plants, flowers and wildlife, much of which you run into
casually even while playing golf or picknicking by the
waterfront. Florida has a surprising amount of natural
diversity and I enjoyed watching the various types of birds,
lizards, and squirrels. The only thing we didn't get to see
was a live alligator (with the exception of the well-hidden
rear end of a small alligator during our swamp buggy tour -
unfortunately I couldn't even get a good picture of that
one..). Apparently winter time is too cold for these creatures
to come out of the water...
On our drive home, on a bright sunny day (of course...), we
stopped off in St. Augustine, a historic town founded by the
Spaniards in the 1500s, and the oldest continuously
inhabited town in the United States - a mighty photogenic
place, I should add.
So, you ask, is it possible to spend 2 weeks in Orlando
without even setting foot inside a theme park and still have
a good time? Well, based on the above itinerary I'd say that
my plans to explore Orlando off the beaten path came to full
fruition.
Mission accomplished.
This entire article including photos is located at
http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_off_the_beaten_path
.htm
About the Author
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of http://www.travelandtransitions.com, a web
portal for unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out our
brand new FREE ebooks about travel.
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