What about this area? (Orlando, Pine Hills: travel, work, housing)

[perez0808]

Anyone know anything about Apopka, FL area? If you are working in Orlando is this area easy access?
And is it family oriented?

[Kali's Grandma]

Yes, Apopka is very family oriented. It's growing like the rest of the area but I wouldn't hesitate to live there. You have two ways into Orlando now and one more being built.
When looking for housing and using a map try to stay north of the railroad tracks.....this IS one town that being from the wrong side of the tracks has true meaning.

Happy hunting!

[perez0808]

How do you know what parts of Apopka is nice?

And just curious... What on the other side of the tracks? Or Do I wanna know??

[Wilshire81182]

I think the nice parts of Apopka are toward Altamonte to the east or Zellwood/Mt Dora to the west. I think you can also find some nice areas north of Apopka within the golf course areas and Sorrento. The less nice areas are in the downtown area and south and southeast of there.

[Crane's Rooster]

A good rule of thumb is stay north of 436 and you should be ok, although after you pass west of the 429 it doesn't matter what side of 436 your on. The thing about APK is that it changes very quickly, this is mostly to due to fact it used to be the last frontier of Orlando civilization. What I mean by that is within a few blocks APK goes from being a suburb to a very rural area once you go past the Home Depot on 436. But overall APK is nice place to live.

I used to live there and commuted downtown everyday. Your options are 441, 429 and sometime 436 to I-4. There are also many backroads you can learn to cut down on travel time, such as cutting through Pine Hills. On average it took me 40 minutes to hour to get downtown during rush hour. Coming home was much quicker for some reason, closer to 35 minutes. Bare in mind though that I was always getting out of the house at the peak of rush hour. A friend of mine who had the same commute but left 20 mins earlier than I did said his average time was only 35 minutes in the morning.

APK is very convenient, plenty of grocery shopping and starting to develop some good dining. What they refer to by the other side of the tracks is South Apopka which is a somewhat shady area that borders Pine Hills. The rest of APK is fine. You may also want to consider the Altamonte/Longwood/Wekiwa area if your looking at APK although APK has some really good housing deals right now.

[perez0808]

What about the areas that are right near and around Wekiwa State Park?

[rarebuyer]

I love Wekiva and the surrounding neighborhoods, although I'm not sure I would want to live there b/c I don't care for downtown Apopka--there's no central downtown other than (I guess) 436, which isn't really a downtown, just a busy street with neighborhoods on both sides. But I think that just depends on personal preference, i.e., whether you want/need a downtown to feel good about where you are living.

Either way, I would definitely avoid areas that border the W.O. running trail (trust me, you will be scared if you are on the trail going toward Winter Garden through "South Apopka," which is notorious for being crime-ridden).

Btw, can anyone tell me restaurants that you like in the area??? That's what piqued my interest in this thread. We are always looking for good places to eat and we live fairly close to Apopka.