Maitland/ Lake Catherine (Orlando, Winter Park, Eatonville: house, neighborhood, movie theater)

[southrnflyer]

I am looking at a place near Lake Avenue/S. Orange Avenue/Lake Catherine in Miatland to move to. Can anyone tell me about the area? I drove through Eatonville from I-4 to get to it, and was a little discouraged, although the area with the house looked nice. I'm single and in my early 30's.

[Pete C]

Finally someone asks about Maitland! Everyone seems to want to move to the far-out suburbs...glad to see you want to live close to town. I live in Maitland on the west side of I-4. Eatonville does not really interfere with Maitland, though I drive through the Eatonville main street regularly. It's not bad.

The little downtown Maitland is very nice, and where many doctors are located. There is a library, some small museums, a beautiful little lake park called Lake Lily Park which has a small farmers market every sunday, an upscale Italian restaurant, an eclectic art-house movie theater and other cool places and eateries. That little area is one of the hidden gems of Orlando, and the city of Maitland has big plans for it, or at least they did before the recession. I think this is one of the best areas to live in. That area around lake Catherine is very nice and the homes are expensive to my knowledge. This area and to the east and south is nice. You are very close Winter Park, which is the prettiest town in Orlando and also one of the wealthiest. Park Ave is loaded with upscale shops, restaurants, and a few bars. Off Park Ave is Orange Ave and Mills Ave leading downtown, both of which have cool little strips of shops and bars here and there.

However, being that you are in your 30s and single, I would head straight downtown to Thornton Park and live in one of the luxury mid/highrises like 101 Eola, The Paramount, The Sanctuary, Star Tower, The Vue, or Aspire. This is where the action is, and gives you convenient walking to a beautiful lake park (fountain is broken right now though), grocery store, movie theater, restaurants, bars, and clubs. Thornton Park also has a very nice neighborhood with brick-lined streets everywhere...it's extremely charming. I would look there too, and one more to throw out there...College Park. Maitland is still nice though if you want to be close to downtown and Winter Park, but don't want to live in it. However, I would add that it is not busy downtown and is not congested like a big city downtown would be.

[Wilshire81182]

Maitland is nice. Eatonville is historic, but not the best area overall.
In fact, that is very close to Lake Sybelia which is a nice part of Maitland. I would not worry about it too much.