for those who love Orlando, which things do you like least about it? (Winter Garden: construction, live)

[Bellamouse]

We love just about everything about Orlando. So many things here are a million times better than Chicago, where we came from.

Along with all the usual things to love about Orlando (ie., so much to do - never get bored), here are the things we love that surprised us:

1. Restaurants. We were under the impression that there was nothing but boring, mediocre chain restaurants geared toward tourists. Those exist in abundance, of course, but there are definitely FABULOUS independent restaurants here too. We haven't lacked for great dining options at all.

2. Access to good/exotic groceries. Again, I thought it would be your basic fare here. But there are great farms all around where you can buy pastured meats (try finding THAT in Chicago), the BEST produce ever, and I have had zero difficulty finding the exotic ingredients I want/need.


As to the question asked, there isn't much we don't like. A couple I can think of that have already been mentioned:

1. The sprawl. Going anywhere requires long driving distances. And even from store to store. You can't just park somewhere and walk up and down the street and shop. Maybe on Park Ave in Winter Garden, but that's not convenient to get to very often. I come from a BIG city where you can get places in your neighborhood quickly and easily. A quick run to the store there might take 10 minutes there and back. Here, it's a MINIMUM of 20 and more like 30. No such thing as a "quick" run to the store.

2. The terribly timed stop lights that are sooooo long that I joke you can read "War and Peace" while sitting at them (that's also part of why there is no quick run to the store... )

3. A dearth of medium sized neighborhood churches. All the churches here seem to be HUUUUUUGE or tiny. We are looking for something like 400-500 people, and we've found nothing but many thousands OR like 75. Very, very odd.

4. Weird driving lanes/poorly planned streets. One minute you are going straight and the next you are somehow in a turn only lane! Makes driving so dangerous and chaotic! Most of the people (like me when we were new) don't realize it then try to merge over at the last minute. Just awful.

5. Tailgaters. I've never in my life seen so many tailgaters as here in Orlando. I just don't get it. EVERYONE sees the millions of rear endings that happen every day here (yes, I know it's not actually MILLIONS - just seems like it), and yet, it doesn't seem to have any effect on people. They just keep tailgating! Chicago has VERY aggressive drivers, but it has a rhythm and flow to it and hardly anyone tailgates. So there just aren't a lot of rear endings there even though it's a much bigger city. And worse weather conditions!


That's about it. Traffic volume is a non-issue for us, and flat landscape is normal for us Chicagoans. At least you have GORGEOUS weather here 90% of the time instead of the opposite like Chicago.

[Ping322]

Fascinating and apt comment about medium sized neighborhood churches.

I highly recommend "First United Methodist Church of Winter Park" (https://fumcwp.org/) as a "medium sized" neighborhood church. It's located in a gorgeous part of Winter Park, a 1-minute walk from Park Ave and a few minutes walk from the beautiful Alfond Inn. Certainly not a megachurch in any sense of the word, but plenty going on that you won't feel bored there. There are 3 services: traditional (8am in the gorgeous classic sanctuary), contemporary (9:30am in the gym), traditional (11am in the sanctuary). A handful of small groups throughout the week. Sunday school (adults and kids). A great choir singing in the traditional services each week.

It also has a high school program with about 100 students (Sunday Night meetings and occasional trips), and a healthy junior high program as well. I like its young adult program. Lots of strong mission work.

So much beautiful flora and fauna surrounding you as you drive in to park, it always puts me in a good mood. And lots of restaurants within a few minutes walk of the church, great for a post-service meal.

[Ultraviolent]

-Traffic would be my #1, it's a nightmare and all the construction everywhere makes it 10x worse

-Bad public transportation options. SunRail only goes so many places and Lynx is a joke.

-Tourists. I know this is kind of a stretch and it's to be expected, but it does get annoying when I'm trying to do my grocery shopping on a Tuesday night and can't get through the aisles because Brazilians are standing in huddled groups looking at products, their kids running up and down the aisles, shouting at each other across the store, it gets exhausting. To add to that, my job is in the heart of Orlando and it gets old when I'm on my lunch break and random tourists are literally coming up to me asking me for directions to somewhere as I'm trying to eat my food

-Lack of fun for locals. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to do in Orlando and surrounding areas, but it's all tourist driven. I don't want to get in a slingshot or ride rollercoasters every day

-Not enough good vegan/vegetarian restaurants

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by Ultraviolent

-Lack of fun for locals. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to do in Orlando and surrounding areas, but it's all tourist driven. I don't want to get in a slingshot or ride rollercoasters every day

I'm just curious about your answer. What are all these things you want to do that Orlando doesn't offer? I ask this because I moved from San Francisco and I think there are a lot more variety of things here besides the theme parks. For example, there are a ton of parks with soccer fields, basket ball, tennis courts, volley ball courts, etc, there are lots of places to go biking, there are lots of places to enjoy the water whether kayaking, swimming, lakes, natural springs, day trips to the beach, there are a lot of farmers markets and food truck events, there are a lot of places to shop, coffee houses, bars, restaurants, clubs, etc.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

I'm just curious about your answer. What are all these things you want to do that Orlando doesn't offer? I ask this because I moved from San Francisco and I think there are a lot more variety of things here besides the theme parks. For example, there are a ton of parks with soccer fields, basket ball, tennis courts, volley ball courts, etc, there are lots of places to go biking, there are lots of places to enjoy the water whether kayaking, swimming, lakes, natural springs, day trips to the beach, there are a lot of farmers markets and food truck events, there are a lot of places to shop, coffee houses, bars, restaurants, clubs, etc.

Pretty much this.

I very seldom go to I-Drive/Universal/Disney, where all of the tourists flock. Maybe on occasion with the kids or something, but for the most part, we spend our weekends staying busy at the many parks, natural springs, on the lakes, walking around Park Ave and/or Baldwin Park, and around Eola (the latter which is always filled with random activities on weekends) and yes, even the day trip to the beach. 45 minutes gets you to Cocoa, New Smyrna, and Daytona, depending on where in Orlando you're leaving from.

I came from the NE (up in Canadia) in a very urban environment, and I find that there are just as many things to do here as anywhere else. Of course, sans the winter activities, which is another discussion. The main thing I DON'T like about Orlando (Florida in general) is how much of a pain it is to get around. I get that they are trying with Sunrail, and to an extent, there are some neat things about it (you can get from Lake Mary/Longwood to Park Ave -- the Park Ave stop is very ideally located -- to FL Hospital Village to Church St and now to Downtown Kissimmee) but as mentioned earlier, Lynx has got to be one of the most archaic bus systems I have ever seen. I've tried it over and over, and aside from the bus that takes you from the airport to downtown, it is useless.

[Ultraviolent]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

I'm just curious about your answer. What are all these things you want to do that Orlando doesn't offer? I ask this because I moved from San Francisco and I think there are a lot more variety of things here besides the theme parks. For example, there are a ton of parks with soccer fields, basket ball, tennis courts, volley ball courts, etc, there are lots of places to go biking, there are lots of places to enjoy the water whether kayaking, swimming, lakes, natural springs, day trips to the beach, there are a lot of farmers markets and food truck events, there are a lot of places to shop, coffee houses, bars, restaurants, clubs, etc.

I just personally feel like wherever you go in Orlando for fun, even away from all the theme park stuff, it's packed full of tourists and it's all tourist driven so you gotta leave the city to get away from that. I love to thrift shop, antique shop, attend festivals etc and I feel like there isn't enough of that in Orlando, I typically venture to Winter Park and Mount Dora for that.

[boy3365]

Originally Posted by Ultraviolent

I just personally feel like wherever you go in Orlando for fun, even away from all the theme park stuff, it's packed full of tourists and it's all tourist driven so you gotta leave the city to get away from that. I love to thrift shop, antique shop, attend festivals etc and I feel like there isn't enough of that in Orlando, I typically venture to Winter Park and Mount Dora for that.

Tourists hang out in Downtown Orlando, Mills50, the Milk District, Waterford Lakes, Winter Garden Village, Baldwin Park, Winter Park (sort of?), Cranes Roost in Altamonte, etc.?

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by Ultraviolent

I just personally feel like wherever you go in Orlando for fun, even away from all the theme park stuff, it's packed full of tourists and it's all tourist driven

Huh????

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by Ultraviolent

I just personally feel like wherever you go in Orlando for fun, even away from all the theme park stuff, it's packed full of tourists and it's all tourist driven so you gotta leave the city to get away from that. I love to thrift shop, antique shop, attend festivals etc and I feel like there isn't enough of that in Orlando, I typically venture to Winter Park and Mount Dora for that.

Do you actually live in Orlando? You said Orlando doesn't have things to do. I asked what things doesnt it have to do. Now you are saying, well Orlando has those things but there are mass tourists everywhere. Which isn't true either for most of Orlando. Now it's making me question the intention of your post. Not to mention world cities like NYC, Paris, etc are filled to the brim with hour waits for good restaurants, packed museums, full of tourists.

[boy3365]

Andrew Zimmern, a foodie TV personality, got trashed on Twitter for making similar remarks about Orlando's supposed lack of restaurant options that he ended up taping an "apology episode" that aired a couple of weekends ago on the Travel Channel.

Do a search for "Orlando actually has great restaurants" to view an article by the Orlando Weekly (which has an expletive in the title that I can't post here) that scathes people who have this "tourists everywhere" and "nothing but chains" mentality about Orlando. People will visit cities much larger than here and travel long distances to eat at the popular spots or see certain landmarks, but then they come to Orlando and don't want to go anywhere within 10 minutes of their resort. Then they complain because it's nothing but chains. That's because some of the highest performing locations of those chains are in our tourist area. What chains wouldn't want a piece of that pie while also being able to afford the land/rent?