Out and About in Florida

[ziggybaby]

Hi there
We are staying on Disney for three weeks and were wondering if anyone had any interesting places to visit apart from the usual theme parks. We are hiring a car, so getting about won't be a problem
Any tips or suggestions would be appriciated
Many thanks​

 

[diseyore]

Go to the beaches at Englewood and find shark's teeth, manatees and much more. Beautiful beaches without the normal crowds.

 

[MikeS.]

With a car you have a lot of options available. The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canarveral is about 2 hours away. Lake Okochobee (sp?) isn't far, take a swap boat ride. Tour a citrus farm. Go to Miami for a day or 2. Go deep sea fishing. Have fun!

 

[Goofysmate]

Space Kennedy
Gator land
Old Town in the evenings is good they have live music and towards the weekend there is two differents car shows.
Wonder works
Shopping mall which there are loads to choose from.
Have you contacted Orlando Tourist Bureau at WWW.Orlandoinfo.com/uk.
They will send you a free booklet with everything in which we find very useful also.

 

[MeMom]

St. Augustine is a nice place, especially if you like learning about the history of a place. I used to live in St. Pete, so I'm partial to the St. Pete/Clearwater area.

 

[Sunny Bedfords]

We are going to try out the Beaches, Last holiday we also tryed Bushe Gardens and we enjoyed it alot, We have also went to Kennedy Space Centre and really enjoyed that

 

[jenseib]

I suggest Bush Gardens too. As well as the beached of Clearwater. They are much prettier on that side of the state. (in my opinion)

 

[gweny70]

I have family down that way and they tell me there is a free park (national or state..not sure) you can go to with manatees & you can actually swim in the water w/them. I'm not sure exactly the name of it but they say it's really neat..and free..and we plan on visiting it while we are down. If interested, I will email my cousin for more specifics (park name, etc) and post more info when I hear back from her.

 

[momof3littlelilos]

The beach at Canaveral National Seashore, especially if you're heading to Kennedy Space Center anyway. There are Manatee viewing areas there, and the beach is unspoiled and seemes to go on forever. We've seen gators on the long ride through the park to the ocean, it's beautiful.
OMA - Orlando Museum of Art - sometimes has interesting exhibits...
http://www.omart.org/
Park Ave in Winter Park is very pretty, much nicer for shopping than a mall, there's a park where you could picnic, and the Amtrak station passes through the park...it's a bit upscale but idealic.
Oh, and here are some hikes through orange and osceola county:
http://www.greenoaks2001.org/hiking.htm
And a link to the Zora Neale Hurston Museum in Eatonville...there's also an Eatonville hike listed in the above link...I wish Eatonville was kept up better than it is because I LOVE Zora and would like to see the town more lovingly preserved than it is...
http://www.zoranealehurstonfestival.com/home.html

 

[themudd4]

We usually get there a day early just so we can drive around and check out some of the local things aside from WDW (cause once we go on Disney property I don't leave until it is time to go home). We usually hit the outlets, a few little odd and in stores and just take in the sights. I keep saying one year we are going to just stay in Kissamee/St. Cloud and do everything else there is to do in the area.

 

[Floridagram]

You did not mention if you had children or not. There is a park called Cypress Gardens that is about 1 hour from Disney. It has beautiful tropical gardens you can walk through, it has rides that are more like amusement park rides and a water ski show. They have some animals to view and shows. It is like what Florida used to be like before Disney. We like it because there are small children's rides that they can ride by themselves without an adult.
At 2 and 5 they love that independence. It is about $40 and you can go for 2days. They also have some big kid or adult rides that are not at Disney. They have bumper cars, a ferris wheel and other rides.

Also if you have small ones there is a farm near Kissimmee that they can touch all sorts of animals and have hay ride. I am not sure if you have something in England like that but if not this is worth a visit. I can't remember the exact name but they advertise and have discount coupons in all those tourist booklets you find around Orlando.

If you give us some ideas of what you like we may have more suggestions. There is much more to Florida than Disney.

 

[byoung]

Seaworld.