Should we go out of Orlando?
My family has decided to go to Florida in late February, early March…
We’re staying at one of the Disney resorts, and will spend most of our time in Lake Buena Vista. We’ve already been to Disney World a couple of times… where else is there to go in Florida within 1 hour or an hour and a half from there?
The Florida Mall is nice, but what is there outside of Orlando?
We’ve been to WDW 13 times. We rent a car & enjoy going to other places too. The Kennedy Space Center is very interesting. Busch Gardens & Sea World are fun. They both have all day dining deals where you can eat & drink all you want at several of the restaurants all day for one price. Busch Gardens has some great rides & shows. We enjoyed feeding the birds nectar. Sea World is mainly about marine life. You can feed the dolphins (get there early for this; it fills up & they only do it 2x/day) & stingrays (ongoing). You can sign up for some behind the scenes tours that aren’t that expensive & are very interesting. You can sign up for them as soon as you enter the park. They fill up fast. We really liked getting to pet a penguin. Some of the shows are beautiful & others are really cute. You can go shopping at the Prime & Premium Outlets. We enjoy doing something new in Disney each time we go too. Disney Quest in Downtown Disney is fabulous! We’ve also done the Keys to the Kingdom Tour which was great & the Segway Tour in Epcot (we liked this so much that we’ve done it twice). You need to be at least 16 yrs old though for the tours. Miniture golf is fun too. We like Fantasia Gardens. We haven’t gone to Wonder Works yet, but it sure looks like fun. Have a great time!
The problem is that you can drive for an hour in any direction and still be in the Orlando Megopolitan Area, if you get my meaning. If you want a really spectacular day, make the two hour drive to the Floral City area http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=florida%20state%20parks&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl. You can rent bicycles and enjoy the beautiful Withlacoochee rails to trails, or you can book a canoe or kayak for a pleasant downstream trip on the Withlacoochee river. I recommend Soggy Bottom Kayaks for this.
Florida is a big state and sometimes you have drive a long ways to avoid "more of the same old same old." If you really want to see the parts of Florida that aren’t beaches or theme parks, then you might to replan your route and include a night or two of lodging outside the Orlando area.
Omg My family and I went 2x this last summer and looked for fun things to do, well we went to Wekiva springs less than 30 minutes from orlando it was awesome, our 1st natural spring visit and we went swimming there great day and it was 6.00 for the whole car! Clearwater Beach is great also it is 1 hr away, Cocoa Beach is great 30-45 min, Old town (amusement rides n carnival fair)Google things to do orlando, Good luck n have fun!,
St. Augustine is about an hour and a half away, it’s pretty cool, definitely a place you need to see at least once in your life. It’s filled with great restaurants, fantastic history (oldest city in America) and some awesome people.
ORLANDO IS REAL BAD OUT SIDE OF DISNEY, BUT YOU CAN GO TO COCO BEACH ITS LIKE 45MIN EAST OH HW 50
Daytona Beach is about an hour away and it’s really nice. I’ve been twice but it was a long time ago but back then it was great! You can drive on the beach, see dolphins if you’re lucky, go to the boardwalk, and just enjoy the ocean. Also, about 2 – 2 1/2 hours away on the Gulf side there is Siesta Key. I’ve never been there but it looks beautiful with white sand beaches and is supposed to be great for finding sea shells. Hope you have a great time!
In Tampa there is Busch Gardens that is about 1 hour south on I 4
In Ocala there is Silver Springs that is about 90 minutes north on US 441
In Lake Wales there is Bok Tower Gardens that is 1 hour south on US 27
In Orlando there is the museum of science downtown I think it is on Edgewater ave.
There is Sea World right near WDW on I 4
There is Kennedy Space Center about 1 hour east on hwy 50 Fort Christmas is on the way to the KSC
There is Wekiva Springs State Park near hwy 436