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