Two weeks in Orlando (University, Winter Park: to rent, how much, hotel)

[twade1]

Hi,

I am coming to Orlando on holiday (vacation) with 3 friends from England for 2 weeks at the end of Feb/start of March. We are all early 20's.

I am looking for any ideas of things to do or places to go. We have tickets for the Disney Parks, Universal Parks and Busch Gardens but are looking for other things to do as well for when we are over there. We will not be hiring a car so will just be using public transport. We are stopping on International Drive close to Universal. These are the kind of things that we are looking for:

Nightlife - will be looking for about 3 or 4 nights out whilst we are there so are wondering where the best places to go are?

Other interesting places to visit.

Would like to visit to the University area so are looking for advice on how to get there without the use of a car.

How to get to downtown Orlando from I Drive?

I've heard that Winter Park is a nice place to visit, is it possible to get there without a car?

Also, what is the weather ussually like around this time of year?

Thanks in advance for any advice/ideas.

Tom

[TehB33nz]

I don't mean to pry but, is there a reason why you are not renting a car? Central Florida is not the best for public transportation and it will extremely difficult for you to get around town, out of the attractions area without your own vehicle. How do you plan to get to Busch Gardens which is located about 90 minutes outside of Orlando? As far as night life, if I were you I would head to City Walk at Universal for a night, there is Pat O'briens a dueling piano bar, Rising Star where you can sing Karaoke, Red Coconut, Maragaritaville, The Groove which is a dance club among a few other. I also personally enjoy Howl at the Moon which is another dueling piano bar on I-drive. You could probably take a cab from I-drive to Downtown Orlando, it would probably be about $35.00 each way. Some places I like going dowtown is Latitudes, Beer Belly, Chillers, Wall Street, Ember, and Corona Cigar Bar, but there are many more I am sure others will list. Another place I would recommend would be The Kennedy Space Center, which is a little over an outside of Orlando to the East. There might be some kind of shuttle that offers transportation but I am not sure... The Weather is usually great that time of year, you can go with T-shirt and jeans during the day and you will probably need a light jacket at night. Although this year as been quite cold for Florida, so I would just check the weather reports prior to your trip. Can I also ask in what area you will be staying, that would probably give us a better idea of how we can tell you to get around in the area and if your hotel has shuttles to the area attractions. I do not want to discourage you but I would advise to rent a car at least a few days on your trip so you are able to visit areas outside of the attractions as you stated in your post....Have fun!

[twade1]

Cheers for the reply. The reason we aren't renting a car is that none of us can drive! In England its fairly easy to get anywhere you want to with public transport so none of us have felt the need to drive yet.

We are stopping at the Orlando Continental Plaza Hotel on I Drive, opposite Wet & Wild. There is free transportation to the Disney Parks and we have an Orlando Flex-ticket that includes free transport to Busch Gardens.

Any ideas how much a taxi would cost from where we are stopping to the University area or Winter Park if there is no public transport to get there

[hgebel]

Originally Posted by twade1

Cheers for the reply. The reason we aren't renting a car is that none of us can drive! In England its fairly easy to get anywhere you want to with public transport so none of us have felt the need to drive yet.

We are stopping at the Orlando Continental Plaza Hotel on I Drive, opposite Wet & Wild. There is free transportation to the Disney Parks and we have an Orlando Flex-ticket that includes free transport to Busch Gardens.

Any ideas how much a taxi would cost from where we are stopping to the University area or Winter Park if there is no public transport to get there

Mears (taxi company) has an online fare estimator (http://www.mearstransportation.com/TaxiFareEstimator.asp - broken link) I use a lot to answer guest questions at work. They have a drop down box selection for Wet & Wild, you can use that as your starting point. It's flaky, you need to be real careful about addresses or you have to use one of their presets. Note that it is an estimate, I have had guests that had to pay quite a bit more.

If you are traveling during the hours it is running and don't mind spending quite some time to get from place to place if you need to make a transfer, the city bus system is a great way to get around. Their website has their schedules and also a trip planner. Their trip planner is a little flaky, although it isn't as picky about addresses but you have to be careful with all of the options.

-Harry

[annerk]

Be aware that if you go downtown on the weekends to enjoy the nightlife, part of Orange Ave gets closed to vehicle traffic, so your cab fare could be considerably higher as you sit in traffic with the meter running waiting to get dropped off. In my opinion the weekend nightlife downtown beats any of the prefab Universal nightlife. It's worth making the trip for. You could take the LYNX bus there to save some cash--have dinner in one of the many restaurants, then party and take a cab back. Make sure to get the number of a cab company from your hotel, they don't line up waiting for fares downtown, you'd have to call. My favorites downtown are Club 57 West, the Backbooth, Wall Street Plaza and all of it's clubs, Central Station, and a new place, Lyrica.

If you want to go to the UCF area during the day, you can take Lynx. Not sure why you want to go, in my opinion it's nothing worth making that trip for. It would be a very spendy cab fare from your hotel.

[GLS2010]

Getting to the University area from I-drive without your own car will be tricky, you can call a taxi but that might be expensive, or you can take lynx but you will prolly need to transfer buses, and it will prolly take 1-2 hours to get there, even though its a 30 min car ride.

You can plan your trip with lynx on here to see exactly what you will be doing.

Trip Planner: -

[beckycat]

Originally Posted by annerk

Be aware that if you go downtown on the weekends to enjoy the nightlife, part of Orange Ave gets closed to vehicle traffic, so your cab fare could be considerably higher as you sit in traffic with the meter running waiting to get dropped off. In my opinion the weekend nightlife downtown beats any of the prefab Universal nightlife. It's worth making the trip for. You could take the LYNX bus there to save some cash--have dinner in one of the many restaurants, then party and take a cab back. Make sure to get the number of a cab company from your hotel, they don't line up waiting for fares downtown, you'd have to call. My favorites downtown are Club 57 West, the Backbooth, Wall Street Plaza and all of it's clubs, Central Station, and a new place, Lyrica.

If you want to go to the UCF area during the day, you can take Lynx. Not sure why you want to go, in my opinion it's nothing worth making that trip for. It would be a very spendy cab fare from your hotel.

I think downtown is best for nightlife too. You can easily walk to all of the clubs once you get there. I like Antigua, Tabu, and the small bars around. I also heard Ember is good. The bars and clubs change names, so the ones mentioned by annerk, I don't know about. (annerk, thanks for the update) But, if you go downtown, there's no reason you shouldn't find a place you like. Many of them have ladies drink free. I don't think the UCF area is a big deal either. The only thing is there are bars with alot of college kids which you can easily find downtown. I Drive has some clubs too.

I'd recommend the beach too b/c it's only an hour away, but transportation maybe a problem.

The weather at that time of the year is usually vey nice, but as mentioned before it's been a cold winter. Check the forcast before leaving.

[annerk]

Other than Lyrica which is the old Cairo, and 57 West which is new (right next door to The Backbooth on W Pine), the places I named have all had the same names for many years--over five, some over 10.

[twade1]

Cheers for the replies guys, will definitely have to go to downtown Orlando for a night out. Don't think we'll bother with UCF then. What bout Winter Park, would it be worth a trip there? Also, any other ideas of things to do during the day apart from the parks?

[annerk]

Unless there was something specific in Winter Park that you wanted to see, I'm not sure that is worth the trip either. I love it, but wouldn't pay $80+tip for round trip cab fare to get there.