Top DAY TRIPS from ORLANDO!

Yes, we all love Walt Disney World and Universal Studios but there is SO much do within a couple of hours of Orlando. Check out our top DAY TRIPS in this episode. 

Links mentioned in episode:

🚀 Kennedy Space Center Tour

🏖️ Clearwater Beach Videos

🤿 Crystal River Swim with the Manatees

🛥️ St. Augustine Tours

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Moving to the Orlando area?! Ron has helped countless people relocate to Central Florida and will be happy to help your find your Orlando area home. Contact him at:
Ron@HowellHomeGroup.com
407-765-1525

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Transcript

Angie 0:00

Hi everyone, thanks so much for joining us for this week's episode of the Life in Orlando podcast.

Ron 0:06

Hey friends, glad to have you with us. We are excited. Today we are going to talk about day trips from the Orlando area and what's fun, what's around, and what you should think about getting into.

Angie 0:19

Whether you're visiting or you're a local who just moved here or thinking about moving here, believe it or not, there are things to do outside of Orlando and outside of Disney and Universal Studios. Say what? Yes. You know, there is really so much that a lot of people don't think about. We really like to use Orlando kind of like as a hub. We're so centrally located, and you can go any direction and you can find something awesome to do within a couple of hours.

Ron 0:49

Yeah, we're truly Central Florida at its finest, and you really can. You can to either Coast really easy. You can get up to Jacksonville, you can get down to Miami, you can get to the panhandle. I mean, it's so easy to get just about anywhere in the state of Florida from Orlando being your hub. It's really cool.

Angie 1:07

So let's just go ahead and get started on some of our favorite day trips from right here in Orlando.

Ron 1:13

Yeah. Let's start off with one of the best ones, one of the fun ones, and one of the really unique ones and talk about Kennedy Space Center. Kennedy Space Center is roughly about an hour from Orlando, if we're talking about from the like downtown area. And Kennedy Space Center is so much more than just rocket launches and all that. But if you actually take a day trip over and take the time to go to Kennedy, it will probably become one of your like favorite spots in all of Central Florida, I think.

Angie 1:43

I really do think this is the most underrated attraction in Central Florida.

Ron 1:48

I'd have to agree. It's really cool.

Angie 1:49

And this can be a full day. You can leave in the morning and you can spend the entire day into the evening there. This is a whole visitor complex. Yes, if you are lucky enough to be over there on the day of a rocket launch, that is super cool. However, if not, there's still so much to see and do. There's a space shuttle Atlantis there. You can do this whole back tour through the uh behind the gates, behind the scenes tour. There's the Apollo, there's some IMAX movies, meet an astronaut. There's a new cute fragile rock show that just started this year. So so much to do. Interactive rides, things to see, astronaut Hall of Fame. There really is just so much to do if you have a family and you have kids, or if you're just adult, or if you're just if you just love NASA.

Ron 2:36

You know, one of the cooler things I thought of when we were there that I liked the last time we were there was I call it this. I don't know if this is the official name or not, but I call it like the rocket garden. Right out there, kind of in the front point or front part of the facility. You've got that big, huge area where they have all the different rockets set up out there, and you can see like the size and how tall they are and just how enormously cool they are. So that's one of my favorite things about Canada Space. And then, of course, getting to see Atlanta. So it's really awesome.

Angie 3:06

Yeah, it is really that welcome.

Ron 3:07

And they do that little bus tour going out to like seeing launch pads and all that kind of stuff. Really neat.

Angie 3:12

That was really cool as well. Uh, if like Ron said, it's about an hour from downtown Orlando. If you're visiting it over on the Disney area, it's going to take you a little longer. But basically, you're going to head straight out on the 528 East and it's right on Omarit Island. So it's a fairly easy drive to get out there. There's also, if you don't have a car, then there's also some tours that go out there as well. I'll put some links to all of these tours down in the show notes. But you can also do a tour that's going to take you from Orlando over to Kennedy as well.

Ron 3:40

Let's move up the coast just north a little bit and hit St. Augustine. St. Augustine is roughly about an hour and a half, almost two hours from Orlando. It's about 100 miles roughly, give or take. And St. Augustine is just it's such a charming town. It's there's so much to do. There is so much history there. There's so much culture there. It's just a really unique, neat, fun spot to go hang out. And you can spend a whole weekend there if you wanted to. We've done it a couple times actually.

Angie 4:09

Yeah.

Ron 4:10

And it's amazing.

Angie 4:11

Yeah. One of the highlights there is the fort. This is the Castillo Den San Marques Fort. And you can also do boat tours. So many different boat tours there. One of our favorite things to do, live music. There's live music everywhere, all day.

Ron 4:27

Good, high quality live music at that.

Angie 4:29

All day, every day.

Ron 4:30

Yeah.

Angie 4:30

Lots of museums. The Leitner Museum, there's a private museum. The old jail museum is really neat. And what was that one that we there's also a pirate museum? I said that's a pirate museum.

Ron 4:41

You said private museum.

Angie 4:43

No.

Ron 4:44

I knew what you meant. Yeah, the last one that we did when we were there just a few months ago was shoot, what was it? Medieval Torture Museum. Oh my gosh, this thing was wild. It was wack-a-doodle, so crazy, but awesomely creepy cool.

Angie 4:58

Yeah, it was creepy and it was fun. There's a lot of tours, downtown, walking tours. There's a train trolley, and there's ghost tours as well of all different levels.

Ron 5:07

Which we also did one of those the last time we went as well. And it was really fun. It was really cool.

Angie 5:11

It was a lot of fun. You can also drive over to the beach. There's a lighthouse there. You can climb to the top. And there's lots of great restaurants.

Ron 5:18

Yeah, I was going to say a lot of great food. Like most of fish tacos or some good fish taco places. There's all different kinds of cultural types of food there. And then as you're walking through the historic downtown St. Augustine area, there's a lot of different shops where you can try different things. There's jerky and all different ice cream, lots of different things you can try there, as well as some bars, as well as a distillery.

Angie 5:41

Yeah, we can go to the distillery over there. So this is a great place for kids of all ages. I feel like there's enough there. No, not the distilleries, but the St. Augustine in general, there's enough there for smaller kids to do with the Pirate Museum and those types of things with the go tours. But it's also a great spot for couples. If you're just looking for an adult's day and just a getaway, then it's a great spot there as well. But if you really want to learn about the history, the true history of Florida, then St. Augustine is the place that you're going to want to go to.

Ron 6:16

I would agree. And one thing, a tip I will give you is you may look at the Castillo de San Marcos fort from outside and think there's not much to it. But if you go inside, you can spend a long time there. I think we spent like four hours there easily. Could have spent more time there you wanted to.

Angie 6:34

We did.

Ron 6:35

It's huge. It's a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. And then just the history and the stories that they tell you while you're there, it's a really cool explore. I definitely recommend checking that out while you're there, but give yourself time to really explore it if there's someone that wants to really dig in.

Angie 6:48

Yeah, I think we did an entire podcast episode on Saint Audesting recently.

Ron 6:51

Yeah, I think we did.

Angie 6:52

All right. So next, let's head over from the East Coast and head all the way over to the West Coast and talk about the Tampa area. Tampa is around 88 miles from downtown Orlando. So it's going to take you about an hour and 45 minutes. This is really going to be traffic dependent because you're going to be driving on I-4 going over. But if you time it right, then the drive shouldn't be that bad. You know, just don't go during rush hour, but just kind of really time it right. But there's a lot to do just in downtown Tampa. They have this beautiful river walk area with some restaurants right there on the river. There's a wonderful aquarium, the Florida aquarium there. There's a downtown area there with some restaurants and some shops. It's a really great area, too. And you know, in Tampa, you have the Tampa Bay Bucks football stadium. There is the Tampa Race, baseball, which is kind of down in St. Pete. And there's also hockey there. So if you want to go over for sports, then you have that there as well. But also in Tampa, you have Busch Gardens. So that's another option. If you're over in that area and you want to spend a day or a half day of Bush Gardens, it's a theme park with animals. So they have a lot of great roller coasters and rides and attractions, but also animals around as well. So that's a really great option. And this could be a full day. I mean, leaving in the morning and coming back at night, but it would be a fun day.

Ron 8:21

Yeah, and if while you're over there, if you want to go just a little bit further west and actually truly hit the edge of the water, Clearwater Beach is over there as well. So if you wanted to go a little bit further west and just Tampa proper, you can hit Clearwater Beach. And these are some of the prettiest beaches in all of the world, let alone just Florida. But you've got a nice, soft, white, powdery sand beaches with warmer Gulf Post waters, beautiful, beautiful sunsets. So something else to think of. If you're going to head over to Tampa and you've got a little bit more time in your day, or if you want to just bypass Tampa and head straight over for a full day on the beach, clear water might be an option to hit there as well. Yeah, it's totally it is a little bit further, obviously, for the beaches, but it's it couldn't be a day trip if you left early in the morning and you wanted to come back late at night.

Angie 9:03

Yeah, you we used to do it a lot. We used to drive over the clear water for day trips. It would take us almost two hours to get the clear water, but we would get there, we would leave it around eight o'clock in the morning, we would get there early, spend an entire day, watch the sunset, which is beautiful over there, and then drive back at night. So it's definitely doable for a day trip as well.

Ron 9:22

Yeah, we need even occasionally on the way back stop at Hard Rock Casino and try our luck on the slots or the blackjack tables, well, roulette tables for me. But you also have the casino there if you want something different to right there in Tampa.

Angie 9:34

If that's your thing, right before you get to Tampa coming from Orlando, there is a pretty large hard rock casino that's pretty nice.

Ron 9:41

Yeah, it's a lot. It's nice. They've really done it up. They've they've expanded quite a bit over the past couple of years.

Angie 9:45

Yeah, so that's nice as well. Um, I'll put a link uh to some Clearwater Beach videos that I did if you're interested in that. I've done a lot of content on Clearwater Beach. So I'll put a link to those videos as well if you want to check those out.

Ron 9:57

Good point. Good point. Let's hit some of the state parks and springs kind of in the area next. And we'll start out with Wakaiwa Springs State Park. So this is a park that you're gonna have swimming in the natural springs, beautiful, pretty, crystal clear water. You've got hiking, you've got pedal boards, you can do kayaking and things like that. So it's a really cool park. And it's probably what about 35-40 minutes outside of Orlando, roughly.

Angie 10:24

Yeah, this the closer state parks to Orlando. So if you really don't want to drive far, you can be here in under an hour. And it really is beautiful. You know this well because you've sold all of them around this area.

Ron 10:38

I actually have one closing right outside of there in next Friday, actually.

Angie 10:43

Yeah.

Ron 10:43

So yeah, we're we we know the area and it's it's beautiful. So it's definitely a good local outside of Orlando, we'll say in quotes, place to go check out.

Angie 10:52

Yeah, this is a great spot if you don't feel like driving hours and you just really want to get some outdoorsy experiences, then this one is great as well. The next one is close as well, and it's called Blue Springs State Park. And if manatees are your thing, then this is one of the state parks that you're going to want to go to to see manatees. However, you got you need to make sure that you're going there during the winter because that's when you're going to see the manatees. You're typically going to be able to view them from mid-November through mid-March time frame. There is a little manatee cam on the Blue Springs State Park website if you want to check it out to kind of see what the manatees are like. But if you go during the winter time, then that's going to be manatee viewing season. If you go during the summer, there's going to be lots of other things to do. Swimming in the springs, you're going to have kayaking, tubing, biking, hiking. There's a riverboat tour. So this is another great park. If you're just looking for some outdoor activities for yourself or for the family, then this one is a great one as well.

Ron 11:52

And yeah, I agree totally. And again, it's not too far outside of Orlando. Now, if you want to go a little bit further outside of Orlando, one of the really big kind of premier places, especially for the manatees, is to go to Crystal River. And this is about an hour and a half to two hours from Orlando, roughly. But this is like the famous place for swimming with manatees. This is a place where it's kind of commercialized in the sense of all the different tours and options that they offer for the manatees, but this is a primo spot for catching and seeing the manatees, or as they're known, the seacal. So definitely a really cool spot to go to. They have the clear kayaking, you can get out on the water, and they have different tours for that, nighttime, daytime, different things like that. There's all kinds of different boat tours and stuff like that. So Crystal River is one of the primo spots to go to catch the manatees. And again, it's only about an hour and a half to two hours outside of Orlando. So real close option.

Angie 12:47

If you really want to get up close, this is where you're going to go because this you're going to have lots of opportunities to get up close to the manatees, rather swimming or just the boat tours or clear kayaking. There's so many options to really get up close to the manatees. This is one of the coolest things. Some of the tours offer photos as well, so they'll get underwater and do photos. I'll put a link to some of those tours in the show notes of some of our favorite ones of this for swimming with the manatees or boating with the manatees. Yeah, guys, this is just a really cool experience. And most people don't know how close this really is to Orlando.

Ron 13:21

Yeah, agreed. Totally. Let's move over truly more coastal, kind of to some of the beaches. We kind of hit a little bit like on Clearwater Beach and a little bit on St. Augustine that they have the beach, of course, there as well. But let's actually focus more like on beach towns a little bit and hit Daytona Beach as one of our stops. Daytona Beach is a really neat overall experience and area, but it's only about, I don't know, about an hour roughly from Orlando, maybe an hour and 10 from Orlando. They have a really nice pier and boardwalk area. The beach there, you can drive on the sand in certain areas. Make sure that you, you know, look into it. I think you have that permit to drive on the beach in some spots, or you have to pay to drive on the beach in some spots. So make sure you kind of know the local rules as to what the laws are with the driving on the beach. For the Daytona International Speedway, obviously you can go there when the Daytona 500 and the other races are going on and actually catch a race. Crazy, crazy over there. There's also usually a really big Jeep kind of not conference, but a Greek Jeep event over there. If you're a Jeeper, you can go there and there are just all kinds of crazy Jeeps and just a huge community over there for that. And then you also have bike week once a year that's really, really huge over in Daytona Beach, and that's like a massive experience over there for that. There's also the Ponce Inlet lighthouse over there, which is really cool to check out.

Angie 14:47

Yeah, and you know, if you have a family, this is a great spot as well. There's the pier, there's a boardwalk, there's a lot to do for families as well. So this, you know, Daytona Beach is one of the commercialized beaches. But if you want something more unique where you can drive on the sand, or if you're a NASCAR fan and want to tour that Daytona Speedway, then this could be a great beach for you. If you want something that's not as touristy, not as commercialized, this one is more of a locals beach. So we're giving you more of a local secret here. And it's really close to Daytona Beach, and that is New Samarita Beach.

Ron 15:22

Mm-hmm. This is actually the shark capital of the world.

Angie 15:25

It is.

Ron 15:26

Yeah. Now, saying that, don't be afraid to go in the water, just pay attention to your surroundings, of course. But it is actually the shark capital of the world. So you have to know that when you're in the water, there is always that chance that there are some sharks in the water. I don't think it's really great whites or anything like that that you have to totally be terrified of. There's been some things, yeah, but I think it's more like little black tips and stuff like that that are around there. But New Smyrna Beach is a really quaint town. It's really laid back and chill, kind of like Ange was saying. It's a little bit more hidden gem type of an experience, but you can also drive on the beach in New Smyrna Beach in some spots. And it's a great spot to just go and check out like the sunrises and stuff like that and just kind of chill on the beach. It's a really, really cool, low-key kind of slow-paced spot.

Angie 16:15

Yeah, and you'll be able to get there in less than an hour from Orlando as well.

Ron 16:18

Yeah, agreed. You could also, of course, go a little bit further south and hit Cocoa Beach, which is just outside of where we talked about earlier with Kennedy. So Cocoa Beach is another spot similar to that where it's becoming a little bit more commercialized. And that's also obviously where Port Canaveral is and all of that. So you'll see all the cruise ships and hanging out. But Cocoa Beach is about 50 minutes from Orlando. So it's an easy drive straight down 528 Toll Road, what we call the B-line beach line, to get you over there. So it's another spot, another beach is close by to hit. Now the water on the Atlantic side is a little bit rougher. It is a little bit colder, but it's a good spot to go for surfing and stuff like that.

Angie 16:55

It is. So let's talk about Coco Beach just for a minute because this is the beach that we visit the most, really, because we can be there from where we live in Southeast Orlando in about, I don't know, 35, 40 minutes. So, you know, we can leave our house and be on the hit, hit the 528, the beach line, and be there in no time. And there's really a lot to do over there. And this is considered the closest beach to Orlando. So if you're looking to go over for a close beach day where you're not having to uh drive very far, then this is going to be the best beach for you. They also have this huge Ron John Surf shop that has everything beach related you could possibly think of. And if you don't need anything, go in there because you'll probably still find something. There's a pier that has some restaurants and things to do there, volleyball nearby. Oh, also, one thing to mention about the Ron John Surf shop is you can do surf lessons directly from there as well. So if you want to take surf lessons, you can do them there. Or there's some other smaller local places that do surf lessons as well. There is a dinosaur world museum there that's super random, but is very cool. So if you want to do something else aside from just spend all day on the beach, then hit up that dinosaur world because there's also their typical, you know, miniature golf and go-karts and things like that.

Ron 18:19

There's a cool Irish bar that we like over there a lot.

Angie 18:21

Nolan's.

Ron 18:22

Nolan's, yeah. As well as there's also the best fish tacos in the world, in my opinion.

Angie 18:26

This is at the sandbar, which has been there for a million years.

Ron 18:31

It is local dive bar.

Angie 18:33

Local dive bar. If you go in there on a Sunday, it's going to be packed out with people watching football. If it's during football season, it's during football season. Yeah, with people watching football.

Ron 18:43

It's a Steelers bar for all you Steelers fans.

Angie 18:45

Yes.

Ron 18:46

Like me.

Angie 18:47

Yes. And they have amazing fish tacos. Yes. So check it out. And then something else you can do over there is you can do boat rides as well. They do dolphin watching tours, wildlife tours. There's a casino boat as well. They do little tiki huts. So there really is a lot to do over in that Cocoa Beach area. And of course, it's the gateway to Port Canaberals. What else do we have besides beaches?

Ron 19:10

Well, if you are in the theme parks when you're in Orlando, obviously you think of Disney, SeaWorld, Universal, places like that. You can go just a little bit further outside of Orlando and catch a unique little park called Legoland. And this is a great park for the young ones, for kids, and some adults that just love Lego, of course, the brand of Lego. This is a really cool place. This is about an hour and a half roughly from Orlando. It's only like 50 miles-ish, but it's kind of down closer to an area called Winter Haven, Lakeland area. So it's a little bit off of the beaten path. So it takes a little bit longer to get there. But they have rides, attractions, different entertainment and stuff like that. So Lego Land is a whole other park, a theme park that you can go to if you don't want to do the traditional stops in Orlando, like Disney and Universal and SeaWorld, stuff like that.

Angie 20:00

Yeah, they have rides there. They just opened a new coaster. There's all kinds of attractions, things for kids to do. There is a hotel there. And the Peppa Pig theme park is around in that area as well. But this, you know, this is just a great spot for young kids, preschool kids or young kids. There's really a lot to do. This is a whole park that's really going to be fully focused on them.

Ron 20:26

Yeah, agree. Yep. Talking towns. A little town that's really quaint and cute and fun to go to and check out is Mount Dora. Mount Dora is, I mean, officially it's about 35 miles away from downtown Orlando, but you're looking at roughly 45 minutes-ish to get up there into Mount Dora. But Mount Dora has a really quaint, just super cute historic downtown area with all kinds of shops and little restaurants, antiques, and little galleries and stuff like that. They also do boat tours out on, I think it's Blake Dora, that is just really cool. Good sunset tours and things like that. There's a lot of cafes and restaurants. They do a really big festival every year, like an art festival every year that is just amazing. And they bring people from all over, I would say all over the world to come to this. It's a really big festival and very well attended. We've been a couple of times, and the quality of art that's there is really high level.

Angie 21:29

Yeah. And guys, if you just think of Mount Dora, if you were looking for an easy laid-back day, then this is Mount Dora. There really isn't going to be a whole lot for uh kids there, but if you have adults, a group of people, couples, this is just such an awesome day to go stroll around, go to some coffee shops, go to some cafes, there's antiques, there's art galleries. You could just sit on the water. There's all kinds of little boat tours there. It's just a just The chill, relaxed, quaint downtown day. We have gone to some afternoon tea there at some of the bed and breakfast.

Ron 22:06

I was gonna say it next. If you wanted to do an overnight there, there's bed and breakfast there that's really cool.

Angie 22:11

Yeah, or if you just want to pop in and do lunch or afternoon tea, then there's um some bed and breakfast that offer that as well. But this is definitely your chill day. If you want to get outside of Orlando, do a chill day, Mount Dora is gonna be a great option for that. Agreed. Yeah. Another great option, if you are okay with driving a little farther, we're gonna go back over to the West Coast. And this is going to be kind of close to the Tampa area, but there's a couple of areas over there that we recommend checking out. One is Dunedin, and this is another cute walkable town. This is Old Town, Florida. Yeah. If you think about Old Town, Florida, then that's what Dunedin is. They really focus a lot on art galleries and shops and cute restaurants. If you want to hop into the beach area for a couple of hours, then you can get to either Honeymoon Island or Caladeese Island. Both of these places are stunning. I'm talking all natural, no development.

Ron 23:08

Picturesque for sure.

Angie 23:10

Yeah. I mean, you know, clear water and sand. So you could really combine like Dunedin and then go over to one of these islands, Honeymoon or to Caladeese, fairly easy, and you could have an amazing day. If you still want to add on a little more, there is an area, it's about 45 minutes north. So you would hit this either on the way back, coming back to Orlando or heading down, and it's called Tarpon Springs. And Tarpon Springs actually has the largest population of uh Greek and Greek Americans in the U.S.

Ron 23:42

Yeah, surprisingly, right? Who would think that that's what's here in Florida? But Tarpon Springs is a really big Greek population there, and it shows in the city and kind of the culture there, the food, the core and architecture, all that stuff. It's really a cool spot. This is also home to the world-famous sponge docks, which they're still very active, working waterfront, and they've been there since the 1800s. So you can go in, they have all these different shops. They have all the different natural sponges out there. And it's a really cool, we had a really good time walking around there and just checking out the different sponge docks. It was really cool.

Angie 24:18

It was neat, and we had some great Greek food as well.

Ron 24:20

Yes, we did.

Angie 24:21

Of course.

Ron 24:21

They had a real true Greek salad.

Angie 24:23

The Horataki. Horataki. They had a real Greek salad. So we were very impressed with that. But it's just a great, I mean, you won't spend an entire day on Tarpon Springs, but it's definitely worth a stop if you're going to be all, you know, over in that area and Dunedin or in that area, then it's definitely worth checking out if you're into that Greek culture or interested in the sponge docs, either one.

Ron 24:45

Yeah, I agree. So I'd say with that, I mean, that's a that's a pretty good list of of day trips outside of Orlando to kind of have on your radar for different things that you might want to pop out and do while you're here for an overall Orlando experience and beyond.

Angie 25:02

Yeah, beyond beyond Orlando to really check out Central Florida and check out some other things to do outside of the theme parks because guys, there's so much to do outside of Disney and Universal.

Ron 25:11

There really is.

Angie 25:12

Well, that wraps it up for us. We are so glad that you joined us today. Like I said, I will put links to all of these things down in the show notes. If you want to check out any of these, um, please do.

Ron 25:25

Yeah, everyone, have a great week and uh make it a good one.

Angie 25:29

Thanks so much, everyone. Bye bye.