Information on Orlando, Florida (Map of Orlando) What most visitors think of as Orlando actually includes Kissimmee and Lake Buena Vista as well. Walt Disney World's theme parks are mandatory magic for Central Florida visitors. The spires of Cinderella's castle are familiar around the world as the symbol of The Magic Kingdom, Disney's original park in Lake Buena Vista. The castle is a fantastic backdrop for playful rides and roaming characters such as international celebrity, Mickey Mouse. Disney's Animal Kingdom, its newest adventure park, is filled with the natural drama of life in the wild. Visitors have thrilling encounters with animals from real life, the distant past, and imagination. The latest addition to Disney's Animal Kingdom is Asia, which showcases the exotic wildlife and lush rain forests of the continent's southern region. Guests embark on many fascinating journeys, encountering natural mysteries at every turn. Visitors to Central Florida will want to explore natural attractions as well as fantastical ones, and SeaWorld is a wonderful place to start. Now guests can be Trainer for a Day, working alongside real SeaWorld animal trainers to learn training techniques, feeding, and show preparation. Attractions include the "Pacific Point Preserve," a sea lion and seal habitat which mimics the rocky, northern Pacific coastline; and "Manatees: The Last Generation?" an up-close look at the endangered sea cow. SeaWorld's newest attraction is Wild Arctic, which takes visitors on a chilling adventure to experience the natural beauty of the arctic. Visitors come face to face with real polar bears, walruses, harbor seals and beluga whales. The highlight of a visit to SeaWorld is the "Shamu: New Visions" show during which killer whales interact with trainers, defy gravity in breathtaking leaps; and make a big splash (and a wet audience!) with a flick of the tail and 52-degree water. Dinner attractions are very popular in the Orlando area and also center around themes, whether of an era or an ethnicity. Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament in Kissimmee allows you to cheer a knight to victory. Disney's Pleasure Island celebrates New Year's Eve every night with laser lights and dancing in the streets. Church Street Station in downtown Orlando is a nighttime smorgasbord of activities and eateries, hosting a variety of different clubs and restaurants. Universal Studios CityWalk is a colossal 30-acre entertainment mecca, where themed restaurants, nightclubs, cinemas, live entertainment, and shopping abound. Botanical beauty flourishes in several parks, which offer beautiful glimpses of lush plant life. Cypress Gardens, a short distance from Orlando in Winter Haven, shows off stunning outdoor floral displays as well as world-class water-ski shows daily. Bok Tower Gardens is a serene sanctuary abounding with azaleas, camellias and magnolias. A World of Orchids displays thousands of rare and exotic examples that flourish in a state-of-the-art, air-conditioned, tropical rain forest garden showcase. Epcot is a two-part educational and cultural attraction designed to challenge the mind and satisfy the senses. Here, you can sample a warm croissant at a bakery in France, tap your foot to an authentic oom-pah band in Germany, learn about the age of dinosaurs, and take an exhilarating trip through the human body all in one day! Disney-MGM Studios allows visitors to see Disney animators creating wonderful characters and explains movie-making on an entertaining backlot tour. Universal Studios Florida shares the movie-making theme of Disney-MGM Studios, but attractions are presented quite differently here. At Universal, promoters say you can "ride the movies." Some rides provide an entertaining look at famous movies of the past, such as "Kongfrontation," where guests meet King Kong on the New York subway. Jaws, Earthquake, Terminator 2: 3-D Battle Across Time and the works of Hitchcock are among the park's other movie attractions. Twister, a technological marvel, invites guests to experience the awesome live spectacle and destructive nature of an actual tornado, a mere 20 feet away. Universal's newest park is Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Five islands, each with a distinct personality, offer something for everyone. Experience the bustling marketplace of Port of Entry, battles between good and evil on Marvel Super Hero Island, slapstick ruckuses at Toon Lagoon, prehistoric megalosaurs in Jurassic Park, mythical sorcerers on the Lost Continent, and fanciful revelry at Seuss Landing. Shopping areas in Orlando have as much variety as the local attractions. Souvenirs of your adventures, for both yourself and your friends back home are easy to find. Outlet centers and factory stores abound here and offer some of the best bargains in town. Shopping areas in Orlando and Kissimmee are also popular for their fun environments, such as at Pointe*Orlando, the Church Street Station Exchange, Disney Village Market Place or Old Town in Kissimmee. Water fun is everywhere in Central Florida, though it's not a beach destination. Wet 'n Wild, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach are water parks where visitors can beat the Florida heat—and have a slipping, sliding, good time of it! The newest, Disney's Blizzard Beach combines water with "snow" from a "freak Florida snowstorm," creating snowy slopes.   Nightlife in Orlando Nightlife in Orlando is dominated by upbeat centers that combine restaurants, dance clubs, shopping and "street" entertainment all in one locale. Beyond that, the strip of Orange Avenue that runs through downtown Orlando has hipper clubs for young locals. If you're not into dancing and drinking, stick to dinner, dinner theater and the movies, or splurge on tickets to Cirque du Soleil's spectacular La Nouba show at Downtown Disney West Side. Points of Interest Orlando, an insubstantial city in the heart of peninsular Florida that was a quiet farming town just 25 years ago, now has more people passing through than any other place in the state. Reminders of the old Florida are still easy to find, though most people get no closer to Orlando's heart than a string of motels fifteen miles south of town. The reason for this is Walt Disney World Resort, a group of state-of-the-art theme parks southwest of Orlando pulling 35 million people a year to a previously featureless 43-square-mile plot of scrubland. You can walk downtown's sites in a day; away from the small group of high-rise office buildings the bulk of the city comprises smart residential areas enhanced by parks and lakes. But most visitors spend their time at the theme parks and the big-budget shops and restaurants located near hotels and the Orange County Convention Center. International Drive is worth a short visit for those interested in gawking at big-budget tourism at its most obscenely creative, including an F.A.O. Schwartz toy store marked by a 38ft-tall Raggedy Ann; WonderWorks, a big-budget arcade housed inside a seemingly upside-down building; and Skull Kingdom, a haunted mansion built to look like a castle with a skeleton facade emerging from the front wall.     Dining in Orlando Given the level of competition among restaurants to attract hungry tourists, eating in Orlando is never difficult and - if you escape the clutches of the theme parks - need not be expensive. Choices are limited in downtown Orlando, but the tourist corridors of International Drive, Lake Buena Vista and Kissimmee's 192, as well as the more elegant Winter Park, offer many options. In the tourist areas, you can eat massive amounts at one of several chain buffet restaurants such as Sizzler or Golden Corral - all for less than you might spend on a tip elsewhere. Discount coupons in tourist magazines make these restaurants even less expensive. If you've got a little more to spend, look for the local independents, which offer better food at a fair value. At "Show Restaurants," $30 a head buys not only a multi-course meal and limitless beer, wine and soft drinks but also entertainment ranging from cavorting ninja warriors to medieval knights jousting on horseback.   Accommodation in Orlando Unless you're staying on Disney property and planning a Disney-only holiday, you'll need to be mobile wherever you stay in the far-flung Orlando area. Therefore, price should be more of a concern than location when looking for accommodation. Genuinely budget-priced accommodation is offered only by the scores of cheap motels lined up along Hwy-192 between Walt Disney World and Kissimmee; many offer special rates which can be yours simply by picking up a discount coupon at one of the tourist information offices. International Drive is dominated by pricey chain hotels, but bargains can be found during slow winter periods. The hotels in the Lake Buena Vista area are costly but offer excellent accessibility to theme parks. The 16 Disney hotels on Walt Disney World property, all heavily themed, charge a notch more than the others but are always clean and exceptionally well run. Campgrounds are plentiful on and around Hwy-192 close to Kissimmee. Return to Florida Home Page Home Page Enquiry Form E-Mail us