My Kind of Place: Orlando, Florida, offers more than just park life

Orlando, where Emirates has recently launched a new direct route, may be famed for Disney World and Universal Studios, but there's also much to explore beyond the theme parks.

Lake Eola in Orlando, Florida. Getty Images
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Why Orlando?

I’ve now been to Orlando three times – first as a teenager on a school trip, second to a conference, and, most recently, on Emirates’ inaugural 16-hour flight from Dubai. Each time, I’ve enjoyed it more than expected, because it’s a destination that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Chief among its parts is theme parks, and provided someone else is doing the organising, for many people, these are the highlight. Like Dubai, there’s something new each time you visit, but its main draw is the same year in, year out – Orlando is about the entertainment industry and feel-good escapism, and Walt Disney World and Universal Studios have made this their sole aim. This is a place where you forget the negative and embrace the thrill and possibility of other realms – whether it’s becoming a minion at Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, a fantastic new simulator ride at Universal, or putting yourself in the position of shooting for the Moon at the Kennedy Space Center. This is the place to let go of your doubts and surrender yourself to the full-on embrace of American optimism. It may be fake, and commercial, but it’s a whole lot of fun.

But there’s more to Orlando than theme parks. In recent years, the downtown area of the city has undergone considerable gentrification. Many visitors skip the downtown area, but others are surprised to learn that there’s a small, historic and quintessentially American core to this sprawling mass of hotels, resorts, shopping malls and freeways. Built mostly on swamp and lakeland, the surrounding area is also surprisingly scenic, with some protected wild areas that can compete with other parts of the state. Forests contain wild bears, alligators and snakes, and Spanish moss drips from tree-lined country roads to remind you that however international Florida has become, you’re still in the American South. The weather – blue skies and sunshine, with the occasional storm – is easy and attractive, making side trips to the east-coast beaches a good break from the theme-park queues. This is an all-year, all-round destination that can suit people of all persuasions.

A comfortable bed

The new, Spanish-revival-style Four Seasons Orlando is on Walt Disney World property, which, given the size of the park – 11,000 hectares, or the size of the city of San Francisco – is a luxury in itself. Unlike the Disney-branded resorts, it's atmosphere is self-contained and more adult, and it's set in its own private, gated zone of wooded grounds. Unsurprisingly, it's the best genuinely five-star luxury base, making it perfect if you're visiting the theme parks. The cheapest rooms cost from US$550 (Dh2,020) per night, including taxes, if booked in advance, and can rise significantly if reserved last-minute.

The best of the Disney hotels is the Grand Floridian, which has more character than the Four Seasons, but is less cosseting. Opened in 1988, in colonial style, it's practically historic, and has an enviable position on a lakeside close to the Magic Kingdom. Rooms cost from $696 (Dh2,556) per night, including taxes. A bit farther away, on its own grounds land but still within the Disney estate, the Waldorf Astoria Orlando offers spacious luxury at the much more reasonable rate of $290 (Dh1,065) per room, per night, including taxes.

Downtown Orlando is 16 kilometres from Universal Studios and 22km from Walt Disney World, but if you prefer to stay in the city, the Aloft Orlando Downtown costs from $212 (Dh779) per night, including taxes. There are also several hotels in the historic Winter Park, just north of the downtown area. The luxury choice here is the Alfond Inn; rooms cost from $223 (Dh819) per night, including taxes.

Find your feet

Most visitors will hire a car, as the various attractions, let alone downtown and the beaches, are quite spread out. For the ultimate luxury, you can hire a driver-guide from any hotel from about $50 (Dh184) per hour, which can be worthwhile for a small group. Yet you'll also do a surprising amount of walking here. Downtown Orlando and the Winter Park are two areas that are easy to navigate on foot. The first centres around the attractive new Dr Phillips Center for the performing arts; in the affluent Winter Park, a planned residential community built in 1882, most of the shops and restaurants are on Park Avenue, which runs through Central Park and is close to the Amtrak station. At the Morse Museum of American Art, there's a section dedicated to Louis Comfort Tiffany, and a museum detailing the history of the self-contained town. The real challenge in Florida is getting around the usually crowded theme parks, and the most mammoth of these is Walt Disney World, which is actually an entire ecosystem of four separate theme parks, 22 hotels and two water parks, plus hundreds of shops and restaurants.

The Disney parks are the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom. If you're very organised, you could spend a day in each; if you can only choose one and it's your first time, make it the Magic Kingdom (although a Frozen-themed ride will open at Epcot in early 2016). Tickets cost from $97 (Dh356) per adult, per day. Plan your visit and arrive as soon as the gates open to maximise your time (guests of Disney hotels get either an extra hour before opening, or two hours after the official closing time). Have breakfast and lunch early, as restaurants are busy between noon and 2pm, and hit all the rides you really want to experience as soon as possible. Shopping, parades and eating can be done later. As with most things, the more money you can throw at it, the better your experience will be – from VIP access to rides to private guides and priority parade viewing areas, all of which will take most of the stress out of navigating and queuing. Universal Studios is much more manageable. A personal tour guide will cost from $400 (Dh1,469) per hour for up to 10 people, for a minimum of six hours – but when you're paying so much to stay at the hotels, time really is money (for details, go to disneyland.disney.go.com/events-tours/vip-tour-services).

At Universal Studios, you can book on to a group day tour, offering front-of-line access to rides and attractions and behind-the-scenes tours, from $400 (Dh1,469) per person, including taxes, but not including theme park entry, which costs from $102 (Dh375) per adult; private VIP tours including lunch and dinner can also be booked. Universal's best attractions are the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Hogsmeade, which has been painstakingly constructed, and the Hogwarts Express train. A drink of alcohol-free Butterbeer from a traditional inn completes the experience. The best ride at Universal is the 3-D simulator Despicable Me Minion Mayhem.

Book a table

There are hundreds of restaurants at the theme parks, and while the quality has improved a lot in the past 10 years – fine dining is no longer a novelty – you're still likely to pay over the odds for the convenience of eating in the parks themselves, and many of the better restaurants need to be booked. At Downtown Disney, Wolfgang Puck's Grand Cafe offers a wide range of dishes, from butternut squash soup ($7 [Dh26]) to miso-glazed salmon ($35 [Dh129]). At Epcot, Restaurant Marrakesh, in the Moroccan quarter, is a startlingly realistic North African-styled dining room – there's also a more modern section on the lakeside. The menu offers delicious harira soup ($6 [Dh22]), lamb shank with couscous ($20 [Dh73]) and chicken tagine ($18 [Dh66]). At Universal, the best restaurant is probably Mythos, where the wood-oven flatbread with cheese and vegetables costs $8 (Dh29) and the pad thai $17 (Dh62).

Though there are no Michelin stars yet in Orlando, there are several excellent restaurants in Winter Park, including Luma on Park, where choice starters include the Seminole pumpkin ravioli ($12 [Dh44]) and pea-shoot macaroni ($14 [Dh51]) and main dishes such as quinoa crusted yellowfin tuna ($31 [Dh114]) and Idaho rainbow trout ($28 [Dh103]).

Meet the locals

Anywhere in upscale-but-local Winter Park is a good bet for meeting locals with time to chat. There's a farmers' market here, but better is the East End Market at the nearby Audubon Park, where traders and entrepreneurs, from bakers to coffee roasters, gather from throughout central Florida. There are a number of cafes, restaurants, events and classes.

Shopper’s paradise

Shopping can almost rival theme parks as an immersive and logistical exercise, and that's mainly down to the very competitive prices. Orlando Premium Outlets exist in two locations on the main road between downtown Orlando and Walt Disney World, and offer hundreds of attractively laid-out stores from all the world's major brands, at 25 to 65 per cent off. Pick up a voucher book, and you can save even more. More upmarket is the nearby Mall at Millenia, which has upscale designer brands (Prada, Versace, Gucci, Chanel) in a Dubai Mall-style environment, plus a Bloomingdale's (where you can have a free makeover), a Macy's and Lululemon.

Don’t miss

The beaches. Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Center complex are less than a two-hour drive away, and will complete your Florida holiday. Cocoa Beach, the birthplace of Kelly Slater, boasts both Ron Jon's surf shop and school. At Kennedy Space Center, the ultimate is to watch a rocket blasting off. The nearby Canaveral National Seashore (nps.gov/cana) is a National Park, and offers almost untouched white-sand beaches that can't be reached by car.

What to avoid

There are dozens of dismal-looking spin-off Orlando theme parks and hotels, many clustered along the I-4 road – but there’s no point flying all the way there to experience anything substandard; plan carefully and in advance to avoid family disappointment. Although children may enjoy them, attractions involving animals, such as SeaWorld and Discovery Cove, involve closing your eyes to the inevitable suffering involved in keeping the creatures in captivity.

Getting there

Emirates flies direct from Dubai to Orlando from Dh6,535 per person return, including taxes, in economy, and from Dh23,295 in business class. Emirates Holidays has a number of good-value packages available, including stays at Universal Studios, Walt Disney World and the beaches.

rbehan@thenational.ae

Look out for this and more stories in the Ultratravel magazine, out with The National on Thursday, November 26.