Dune Buggies Florida
Orlando – off the beaten path: Discovering Central Florida without visiting any theme parks … Can it be done?
One of the favorite places My husband is from Florida, since it is an avid golfer and likes to get away from the cold Canadian winter for his birthday in early December.
For one time we had planned to visit Orlando, but they are neither one of us in theme parks. So there was the challenge to myself: Would we be able to visit Orlando without setting foot into Disney or Universal Studios? For someone as curious as I was a suitable challenge and I had been doing weeks of searching the Internet and communicate with the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau to learn about interesting destinations off the beaten path.
Well, I'm happy to say, who returned safely yesterday from our journey and the journey itself was an adventure since we decided to travel from Toronto to Orlando, about 2100 km each! In fact, the unit 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 crest of the Appalachians, right where Virginia and North Carolina are, where you get a beautiful view of the piedmont area around Winston-Salem that extends into the Atlantic off the mountain.
And I'm still more than happy to say that in the 14 or so days we spent in Orlando, not only going to play much golf (my husband very happy …;) – including Mystic Dunes, Champions Gate, Royal St. Cloud Links, Hawk's Landing Golf and Country Club and Timacuan, not to mention the Walking Hall of Fame experience of the Father Son Challenge at PGA Champions Gate, but also needs to explore some really interesting places, destinations that would not have expected in Orlando and surrounding areas. I also had the opportunity to make a GolfOrlando interview to have a much better idea of why Orlando is called "The Ultimate Golf Theme Park."
We started our first week with a visit to Orange County Regional History Center, who gave us a suitable historic background of Orlando and Central Florida. Then, for some sociological and cultural ideas, visited the museum, built from the Well of African American History and Culture in Orlando. On top of our first day of exploration we enjoyed a scenic drive to Lake Eola downtown Orlando.
The next item on my "off the beaten path agenda was a discovery of the City of Winter Park, a nice area of Orlando, who remembers the cities of old Europe. It was also in Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour, which was an entertaining, informative and visually appealing excursion.
The adrenaline accelerated significantly in our next outing: an airboat ride very high speed in Boggy Creek, which was followed by a much slower ride swamp buggy into a truck as it was built took us through authentic Florida landscape.
After our game of golf at the Royal St. Cloud Links Golf enjoyed a wonderful picnic by the sea in sunny downtown Kissimmee. Then, on a beautiful Sunday morning we took about an hour outside Orlando to reach the picturesque town of Mt. Dora, which was mounted on the "Herbie Express", part of the mountain. Dora – Lake Eustis Scenic Railway.
From mid-week during the second week on the time took a turn for the worse. While planes were sliding off runways in Chicago and record temperatures were recorded in Midwestern states, they were freezing in Florida where the mercury hovered around 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). So I bought a jacket rain, and determined not to let the cold interfere with our plans, we went to continue the explorations.
On a day that is forecast to be rain, but only became a little gray and wet, we went out to discover Loch Haven Park, Orlando Science Center, art and culture. Then we continued our explorations south to discover some of the historic neighborhoods and parks of Orlando, such as Lake Cherokee and Lake Lucerne.
As the rainy weather, then we to visit Florida's Natural Visitor Center in Lake Wales, about an hour's drive south of Orlando, where I got a very good understanding of the industry in Central Florida citrus. I spent the afternoon in another famous attraction in Lake Wales, which has two National Historic Landmarks: the Historic Bok Sanctuary, where I got to see the beauty Bok farm and its historic bell tower, combined with a tour of the historic status of pine wood, which was decked with all the Christmas decorations.
During these 2 weeks in Florida, which began to be exposed to a lot of your plants, flowers and fauna, many of whom he meets casually even while playing golf or picknicking the coastline. Florida has a surprising amount of natural resources diversity and I enjoyed watching the different types of birds, lizards, and squirrels. All that failed to see was a live alligator (with the exception of well-concealed rear of a small alligator during our swamp buggy tour – unfortunately, even I could get a good picture of that one ..). Apparently, the winters are too cold for these creatures to leave the water …
In our house by car, on a sunny day (Of course …), we stopped in St. Augustine, a historic town founded by the Spanish in 1500, and the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States – a mighty photogenic place, I must add.
Therefore, I 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 itinerary above I would say that my plans to explore Orlando unusual became actually complete.
Mission accomplished.
This entire article including photos is located in http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_off_the_beaten_path.htm
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Susanne Pacher is the publisher of
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