[osuprincss]

I currently live in Las Vegas, but was just offered a promotion with my Company and am contemplating moving there with my boyfriend and two grade school kids. I have read some pretty awful things about Orlando, and what I want to know is this: where are the good places to live, good schools, and before and after school care options for my children. I also need to not be too far from where I will be working which will be in Kissimmee off of Arabian Nights Blvd. Please give it to me real! I live in a place that is hot as Africa in the summer and isn't all that family friendly. I want to be somewhere more family oriented and slower paced, down to earth. Is Orlando that place?

[Fl1150]

Celebration, Winter Garden , Hunter's Creek, Four Corners are areas to look at.

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by osuprincss

I currently live in Las Vegas, but was just offered a promotion with my Company and am contemplating moving there with my boyfriend and two grade school kids. I have read some pretty awful things about Orlando, and what I want to know is this: where are the good places to live, good schools, and before and after school care options for my children. I also need to not be too far from where I will be working which will be in Kissimmee off of Arabian Nights Blvd. Please give it to me real! I live in a place that is hot as Africa in the summer and isn't all that family friendly. I want to be somewhere more family oriented and slower paced, down to earth. Is Orlando that place?

A little introduction about myself. I earn a nice living and have the flexibility to live practically anywhere. I've lived in Alaska, Seattle, San Francisco, a few cities in Florida and even spent a few years in Australia. I've traveled to many other countries. My point is to establish I've experienced living and visiting many cities lol.

With that being said, I love Orlando. In fact, I'm planning to move back in my old house in 11 months from now. It is a spread out city, so as long as you aren't looking for a city where you can walk everywhere from you're home, I think you'll enjoy Orlando. You have so many theme parks and water parks in your backyard. You have tons of great shopping, both indoor and outdoor. Orlando attracts the most tourists in the entire country, so there are always new attractions coming. You are near natural springs where you can swim, snorkel, canoe, kayak and even scuba dive. You have easy access to both coasts. You can catch last minute cruise deals. It's a very clean city for the most part. Most streets have nice landscaping. The weather in my opinion is great. It's green year-round. There are many nice and safe communities with good schools. Parking is everywhere. Overall, I'm choosing to move BACK to Orlando, when in reality I could choose to live anywhere in the US.

I would highly recommend looking around Dr. Phillips and Windermere. My house is in Dr. Phillips and I love it. It's safe, beautiful, good schools, nice landscaping, central location, and has a nice selection of grocery stores, restaurants etc. The commute would be easy to your work as well from here. You could also look into Celebration as well. Some people love it, personally I'm not a fan of that type of architecture, but it is also a safe and nice area. Hunters Creek and Winter Garden are not bad suggestions if you are on a budget. The top tier areas are Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Celebration, Lake Nona, and Winter Park.

If you have any questions feel free to send me a DM... also I think you'd get better answers in the Orlando forum. There is a lot of city vs city battles on the Florida forum, which doesn't usually give the most accurate responses.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

A little introduction about myself. I earn a nice living and have the flexibility to live practically anywhere. I've lived in Alaska, Seattle, San Francisco, a few cities in Florida and even spent a few years in Australia. I've traveled to many other countries. My point is to establish I've experienced living and visiting many cities lol.

With that being said, I love Orlando. In fact, I'm planning to move back in my old house in 11 months from now. It is a spread out city, so as long as you aren't looking for a city where you can walk everywhere from you're home, I think you'll enjoy Orlando. You have so many theme parks and water parks in your backyard. You have tons of great shopping, both indoor and outdoor. Orlando attracts the most tourists in the entire country, so there are always new attractions coming. You are near natural springs where you can swim, snorkel, canoe, kayak and even scuba dive. You have easy access to both coasts. You can catch last minute cruise deals. It's a very clean city for the most part. Most streets have nice landscaping. The weather in my opinion is great. It's green year-round. There are many nice and safe communities with good schools. Parking is everywhere. Overall, I'm choosing to move BACK to Orlando, when in reality I could choose to live anywhere in the US.

I would highly recommend looking around Dr. Phillips and Windermere. My house is in Dr. Phillips and I love it. It's safe, beautiful, good schools, nice landscaping, central location, and has a nice selection of grocery stores, restaurants etc. The commute would be easy to your work as well from here. You could also look into Celebration as well. Some people love it, personally I'm not a fan of that type of architecture, but it is also a safe and nice area. Hunters Creek and Winter Garden are not bad suggestions if you are on a budget. The top tier areas are Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Celebration, Lake Nona, and Winter Park.

If you have any questions feel free to send me a DM... also I think you'd get better answers in the Orlando forum. There is a lot of city vs city battles on the Florida forum, which doesn't usually give the most accurate responses.

I agree with Dr. Phillips and Windermere, but wouldn't the drive to that side of Kissimmee be kind of hectic? Correct me if I'm wrong -- I haven't done that particular drive all that often.

[Bishwhat]

I would imagine Orlando would be a better place to raise kids than Las Vegas.

[Crane's Rooster]

I"m not sure what you've read but Orlando/Central Florida has some great areas to raise a family. Although both Orlando and Las Vegas are both very tourist dependent towns one thing you will find about Orlando is that there's a whole separate world from the theme parks. Granted you will be working in the tourists corridor there will still be some very good family friendly areas near you. With that being said there will be some sacrifices that you will need to accept, primarily a longer commute. The best places for a reasonable commute 30-45 mins from your job would be Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Winter Garden, Clermont, Apopka and possibly Maitland. These areas are all very family friendly and safe. There all different in their characters so I would do some more research online to get a better idea of what might suit you. As far as weather it gets hot here, but humid hot is alot different than the dry heat of the desert. It gets cool here as well, but not nearly as cold as Vegas. For instance most of this week it will be in the 60's/70's during the day and lower 50's at night. I hope this helps to calm your fears a little.

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by Arcenal352

I agree with Dr. Phillips and Windermere, but wouldn't the drive to that side of Kissimmee be kind of hectic? Correct me if I'm wrong -- I haven't done that particular drive all that often.

Arabian Nights Blvd is right off of I-4, so the drive will be very easy. It's basically like driving to Gaylord (around 15 minutes without traffic, 30 minutes with traffic).

[osuprincss]

Keep the feedback coming. This is helping me immensely! I getting excited again about all of this!

[osuprincss]

One other question, I was just told that Avalon is a good place to look as well. Any thoughts on that?

[Crane's Rooster]

Avalon is nice but I don't know how far it is. You could take the 417 but that may still be quite a distance. If you like Avalon you may want to consider Lake Nona instead, it's much closer on the 417. It really all depends on how far you're willing to drive. Seminole County is probably the best overall area for schools and family but no one has mentioned it because it would be about a 1hr+ in traffic. But if that's something you'd be willing to do than definitely add Seminole county to your list.