Orlando

The emblem of downtown Orlando is a round lake ringed by a mile-long path, with a lit fountain in the middle and the city's towers rising behind. Swans paddle about, including black and trumpeter species, and you can pedal a swan-shaped boat across the water yourself. The Walt Disney Amphitheater on the shore hosts concerts and holiday events, and the streets of Thornton Park on the east side are lined with brick bungalows, cafés and wine bars.

TipCome on a Sunday morning for the weekly farmers' market on the lakeside, then stay for brunch in Thornton Park.

A couple of miles north-east of downtown, these botanical gardens spread over about 50 acres on the shore of Lake Rowena. Paths lead through palm and bamboo collections, a rose garden, tropical plantings and one of the largest camellia collections in the eastern United States, which blooms in winter. The restored Leu House, a farmhouse turned family home, shows how prosperous Orlando lived in the early 20th century.

Founded in the 1880s as a winter resort for well-off northerners, Winter Park is a separate city with brick streets, oak trees hung with Spanish moss and a chain of lakes lined with grand houses. Park Avenue is its main street, with independent boutiques, pavement cafés and Central Park, a long lawn beside the railway. Here the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art holds the world's most comprehensive collection of work by Louis Comfort Tiffany, including a jewel-like chapel interior he made for the 1893 Chicago world's fair. At the south end of the avenue lies Rollins College, founded in 1885, with Spanish Mediterranean-style buildings on the shore of Lake Virginia.

At the end of Morse Boulevard, small pontoon boats leave for the Scenic Boat Tour, a gentle, narrated cruise of about an hour that has run for decades. It loops across three lakes, linked by narrow canals crowded with cypress and palms, while the guide points out the mansions, wading birds and Rollins campus from the water.

TipSunRail stops in the middle of Park Avenue, so on a weekday you can come up from downtown Orlando by train and skip parking altogether.

About 30 minutes north of downtown, a spring pours clear water at a near-constant temperature of about 72°F (22°C) into a broad, sandy-bottomed pool surrounded by forest. It's one of the best places close to the city for a natural swim, and canoes and kayaks can be rented to paddle down the Wekiwa River and Rock Springs Run, where turtles bask on logs and alligators and the occasional black bear live along the banks.

TipThe park has limited space and day visitors need to reserve entry online in advance; weekends in summer fill early, so book as soon as your plans are fixed.

Around 45 minutes north of Orlando, near Orange City, this spring is the most important winter refuge for West Indian manatees on the St Johns River. When the river cools, manatees crowd into the steady warmth of the spring run, and on the coldest days of the 2025–26 season the count reached close to a thousand. A boardwalk follows the run to the boil of the spring itself, giving clear views of the animals resting in the turquoise water. From mid-November to the end of March the spring run is closed to all swimming and paddling to protect them; in summer it becomes a popular place to swim, snorkel and tube.

TipSince 15 July 2026, every day visitor needs a reservation to enter, bookable up to 60 days ahead. For manatees, go on a cold, clear morning between December and February, when the most animals gather.

Universal's original Orlando park, opened in 1990, is built around movie and television sets, and its rides lean towards thrills and high-tech simulators. The highlight for many is Diagon Alley, a faithful London street hiding a wizarding shopping district, where a fire-breathing dragon sits on the roof of Gringotts bank and a ride plunges you into its vaults. Revenge of the Mummy is a fast indoor coaster, and DreamWorks Land, opened in 2024, caters to younger children.

The second park, across a lagoon, is arranged as a ring of themed islands and has some of the best coasters in Florida. Jurassic World VelociCoaster launches riders at high speed around the lagoon, while Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure winds through the forest below a convincing Hogwarts Castle and the village of Hogsmeade. The Hogwarts Express train links the two Harry Potter areas across both parks, but you need a ticket valid for both parks on the same day to ride it.

In the middle of International Drive, the area's busiest tourist strip, this entertainment complex is built around The Wheel, an observation wheel about 400 feet (122 m) tall whose air-conditioned capsules give the best panorama of the flat, lake-strewn landscape. You can see the parks, the hotel towers and, on a clear day, the downtown skyline. The surrounding plaza has restaurants, bars, a waxwork museum and an aquarium. It's at its best after dark, when the wheel is lit up.

Universal's third park, which opened on 22 May 2025, is the first entirely new major theme park in Orlando in a quarter of a century. Visitors enter Celestial Park, a landscaped hub with fountains, gardens and the twin-track Stardust Racers coaster, and reach four themed worlds through portals. Super Nintendo World has Mario Kart and Donkey Kong rides and interactive power-up bands; the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic recreates 1920s Paris and the ministry in London; Dark Universe brings back Universal's classic monsters in a gothic village; and How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk has a Viking village, a family coaster and a live show with a flying dragon.

TipEpic Universe is ticketed separately from the two older parks, and it has its own Express Pass products, so check exactly what your ticket covers before you travel.

SeaWorld has reinvented itself as a coaster park as much as a marine one. Mako is a tall, fast and smooth hypercoaster, Manta flies riders face-down past ray tanks, and Pipeline: The Surf Coaster puts you in a standing position, as if on a surfboard. Between the rides are dolphin, sea lion and killer whale presentations, a penguin habitat kept at polar temperatures, and a turtle and manatee rescue area. Next door, its water park, Aquatica, has slides and a lazy river.

The original Walt Disney World park, opened in 1971, is the one everyone pictures. You arrive by ferry or monorail across the Seven Seas Lagoon, walk down Main Street, U.S.A. and see Cinderella Castle rising at the end. Classics like Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain stand beside newer rides such as TRON Lightcycle / Run, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Tiana's Bayou Adventure. The Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island closed in 2025 to make way for new lands, so expect construction walls in Frontierland. The evening fireworks over the castle are the emotional finale for many families.

TipClaim a spot on Main Street well before the fireworks, or watch from the beach of a monorail resort across the lagoon, where it's far less crowded.

Opened in 1982, EPCOT has two halves. Around the giant silver geodesic sphere of Spaceship Earth are rides about science and nature, including Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, one of Disney's best coasters, and the redesigned Test Track. Beyond, World Showcase circles a lagoon with 11 national pavilions, from Mexico's Mayan pyramid to a Japanese pagoda and a slice of Paris where Remy's Ratatouille Adventure is hidden. It's the most grown-up of the Disney parks, and the place to eat and drink your way around the world.

TipEPCOT's festivals run for much of the year: Festival of the Arts early in the year, Flower and Garden in spring, Food and Wine from late summer into autumn, and Festival of the Holidays in December.

This park is built around Hollywood glamour and film franchises. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge recreates a remote spaceport, where Rise of the Resistance is among the most elaborate rides anywhere and you can pilot the Millennium Falcon. Toy Story Land shrinks you to the size of a toy, with the Slinky Dog Dash coaster, and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror drops riders down an elevator shaft in a crumbling hotel. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster reopened in May 2026 with a Muppets theme, while the old Muppets courtyard is being rebuilt as a Monsters, Inc. land, so parts of the park remain behind walls.

The largest Disney park is part zoo and part theme park, centred on the Tree of Life, an artificial baobab carved with hundreds of animals. Kilimanjaro Safaris drives you through open savannah with giraffes, elephants, lions and rhinos; Pandora – The World of Avatar has floating mountains and the soaring Flight of Passage; and Expedition Everest races through a Himalayan peak. DinoLand U.S.A. closed in early 2026 to make way for a Latin American-themed land, expected in 2027.

TipThe animals are most active early in the day, so ride the safari first and save indoor shows for the afternoon heat.

Disney's lakeside shopping and dining district needs no ticket and has free parking in its garages. It's a pleasant evening out after a park day, with themed restaurants, celebrity-chef dining, cocktail bars, a huge Lego store, a cinema and live music. Water taxis link it with several Disney resort hotels.

Open since 1949, before any of the big parks, this family-run attraction on the old road to Kissimmee is a slice of old Florida roadside kitsch, entered through a giant alligator's jaws. Thousands of alligators and crocodiles fill its ponds, rare white alligators live in a special swamp, and handlers wrestle gators and lure them to leap out of the water for chicken. Boardwalks cross a breeding marsh where egrets, herons and other wading birds nest in spring, right above the alligators, and a zip line runs over the whole lot.

About an hour's drive east, on Merritt Island, America's spaceport is the best day trip from Orlando. A standard ticket (in 2026, $77 for adults and $67 for children aged 3 to 11) includes the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, where the real orbiter is displayed as if in flight; the Rocket Garden; Gateway, which covers the new generation of rockets; and the bus tour past the launch complexes to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, where a complete Saturn V moon rocket lies overhead. Parking costs extra.

TipCheck the launch schedule before choosing your date. On launch days the complex sells viewing packages, and you can often see a rocket climbing from Orlando itself, but road traffic to the coast is heavy.