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Bella Rose Travel
Central Park Fountain

Winter Park, Florida

Posted on June 22, 2022

Once the winter playground for the rich and famous, Winter Park is now relegated to being a sleepy suburb of Orlando. It really is much more, however, and deserves consideration for a weekend getaway. You probably don’t need to spend a long weekend here, two days is enough unless you are branching out into other nearby attractions (we recommend Wekiwa Springs State Park if you are). Be forewarned, this is not anywhere near the Orlando theme parks so if your plans include a day or two at Disney or Universal, plan to change hotels or get up early and drive another 30-45 minutes (if traffic cooperates, which almost never does in Orlando).

LODGING

If you want an authentic Winter Park experience, you have to stay at the Park Plaza Hotel. The hotel has provided rooms to visitors of the town for 100 years. Guests do not come here for five star opulence. Rather, they are looking for character, gilded-age charm, convenient access to the town, and maybe even a few ghost stories. Of course, with a building that old, you would expect it to be haunted and the front desk agent will be the first to corroborate this. The hotel does not disappoint with regards to the former list either. A wrought-iron balcony affords a relaxing view of the shops below, and the rest of the town’s boutiques and cafes are just a short walk from the hotel’s front door. Walking through the front doors you are immediately struck by all the dark wood and ornate carvings. The place exudes character.

DOWNTOWN

Most of what you will want to explore is easily reached on foot. The Central Park in the middle of the downtown/historic district is the site of a Saturday morning farmers market as well as serving as the hub from which the rest of the town’s sites radiate. Smack dab in the middle of the park is an old rail station and Amtrak will still bring visitors here if you prefer to not drive. Around the park you will find enough boutiques to shop until you literally drop (including a few kid-friendly stores), preferably at one of the many watering holes dispersed along the same streets, some of which even feature live music in the afternoons for added ambiance. We had no problem bellying to an outdoor high-top with our daughter to relax with a cold one and listen to music.

If museums are your thing, there a few worth checking out in Winter Park starting with the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. This museum houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany (yes, that Tiffany). Also worth visiting is the Winter Park Historical Museum. On the day we visited it featured an exhibit on the history of hotels in the region that was really interesting – though as a travel advisor I may be biased. Even our daughter enjoyed the exhibits at both museums, particularly the interactive one designed for kids to get a more hands-on experience. All said and done, there are about a dozen museums in Winter Park of varying sizes and themes. 

OUT AND ABOUT

If you want to venture beyond the historic Central Park area of town, you will find some uniquely Floridian opportunities to get up close and personal with nature. Scenic Boat Tours has been offering visitors cruises of three of the seven lakes in the Winter Park Chain of Lakes since 1938. The chance to see wildlife is all but certain and you will get a view of the flora around town that most will never know existed. If you are willing to venture even further, consider making the 20-minute drive to neighboring Apopka, home of Wekiwa Springs State Park. This park offers great opportunities for swimming in the fresh (i.e. cold) spring water or try your hand at paddling the spring run (rentals available). If you prefer dryer pursuits, there are plenty of trails to explore on foot as well. We opted to spend a day here with our 7 year old and she loved it. It took her a minute to build up the courage to jump in the water but once she did, she never wanted to come out. She also loved chasing butterflies through the woods on the trail closest to the spring.

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debra huettner
debra huettner
2021-12-08
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It was a pleasure to work with Cory booking our cruise he was helpful on any questions we had always responded quickly to messages made sure we understood everything we will continue to book our vacations with him and the surprise gift on the ship was awesome
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Carolina Donato-Bautista
2021-11-28
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Corey is the best travel agent there is! I checked all the qualities because he is definitely all of these. Corey is very professional, very reliable, very helpful and such a nice person to work with all the time. You will not regret it if you work with him on all your travel needs. Great job Corey! Thank you!
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Elizabeth Campbell
2021-11-22
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Corey is great to work with and takes care to assist customers in their travel needs. He works hard for customers to have the best travel experiences and then follows up with the customer upon return from the trip. I appreciate his passion for traveling. I'm already planning my next vacation with Corey's help!
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Ta'vion Williams
2020-07-10
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Corey and his team at Deep Horizons have planned my international trips to Japan and Greece and both were FANTASTIC!!!! In fact for my Japan trip, my friends are I actually missed our flight out of Orlando, but one call to Cory and he fixed it all. If you’re planning any trip, I and can’t recommend Deep Horizons enough! Definitely takes all the stress of travel planning away!
Elizabeth Campbell
Elizabeth Campbell
2020-03-26
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Corey is amazing and works with customers to ensure the details of the vacation is well planned. He is awesome to work with and has assisted me in several vacations I have planned.
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Anjum Somji
2019-04-30
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This review is pretty tardy, but no less heartfelt. Corey helped us with our honeymoon to Bali in April of 2018 and we could not be happier that we went through him. From being super responsive, to presenting us with all the options we asked for, Corey went above and beyond in ensuring we were not only going to have a great time, but that we were comfortable making our choices. He researched multiple flight options, hotels, and even the best time of year to visit, so we’d have a great time from the moment we left home until we returned – he was even available while we were in Bali and had questions about some of our excursions. We felt completely at ease making choices on what was the best for us – having worked with other services before I’ve felt like a number or a source of revenue, rather I felt like a person whose budget and preferences were at the forefront of any decision making. Since our trip to Bali, I’ve used Corey’s services to book a trip to Vegas and received the same attention, quality of service, and suggestions/tips! It’s great to be able to depend on someone for a trip large or small and I cannot wait to work with Corey again to book our upcoming trip to Thailand. Thanks for everything Corey!
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2019-04-27
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John Murray
John Murray
2019-02-11
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More than once, Deep Horizons has come through with better deals and suggestions on trips plus taken care of every detail so all I had to do was enjoy the adventure! Added thoughtful free extras like the champagne in the room, chocolates, wine at dinner and cocktail parties were greatly appreciated.
James Engle
James Engle
2018-09-23
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Great company to work with For any travel plans! I’ve used them for everything from simple hotel reservations, theme park packages, and long distance travel! They go the extra mile and take great care of their customers! I’ll definitely use them again and highly recommend them!
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