Kicking off our Newcomers Guide this year is a freeform and uncategorized tour through some local deep cuts. Try ’em or don’t, but these are places and activities that lend Orlando unique character you won’t find anywhere else.
Acme Superstore
acme-superstore.com
The trip to Longwood is worth it for this strip-mall-as-collectibles emporium that has been making pop-culture heads’ dreams come true for many years now. Comics, aisles stuffed with toys both vintage and modern, and cards and gaming supplies are features of this four-color mainstay.
Asian markets
ifresh-market.com
lotteplaza.com
Break the big-box habit and keep your grocery dollars local, while also being turned on to new tastes and seasonings. Sure, H-Mart is fun, but iFresh Market, Lotte and Dong-A Supermarket (among many others!) have garnered a local audience eager for veggies, proteins, spices and sweets you’re not likely to find at a chain. Plus those three are all fairly close together in and around Colonial.
Austin’s Coffee
austinscoffee.com
Winter Park’s bohemian hub is safely ensconced in new expansive digs on Fairbanks just down the road from their previous longtime address. With new ownership (Preacher Lawson among them) and energy, they’re back to full 24-hour power and a packed calendar of music, comedy and drag. Expect the unexpected.
Bok Tower Gardens
boktowergardens.org
Would you like to spend a few hours living in a new age album (and a good one, like Laraaji not Yanni)? Then the mystical and peaceful refuge of Bok Tower Gardens in nearby Lake Wales awaits you. The lush grounds teem with flora and fauna centered around a Gothic-style singing tower that contains a 60-bell carillon. There’s nothing like it.
Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp
cassadaga.org
If you’re heading up I-4 East on a lazy summer weekend and suddenly the thought of jostling for your two square feet of space on a crowded Daytona Beach gives you premonitions of disaster, take the road less traveled to Cassadaga. Cassadaga — the oldest and most active community of psychics and mediums in the United States — is a can’t-miss destination for the psychically sensitive or curious traveler who wants to see a very different side of Central Florida’s living history.
Casselberry Arts Center
casselberry.org
Seemingly against the odds, quiet Casselberry is becoming a modern art destination of choice for the greater Orlando area. Curator Justin Luper programs a year-round slate of arts happenings that include residencies, installations, group shows and even the occasional foray into creative music.
Central Florida Dragon Parade
centralfloridadragonparade.org
This annual parade brings good luck to the Mills 50 neighborhood for the Lunar New Year in the form of a massive paper dragon snaking through the streets. Local officials often lead the parade along with representatives of numerous Asian organizations and, of course, a serpentine and flowing dragon as the star. This is a celebration that brings Orlandoans together with hopes for fresh beginnings, all without the usual Jan. 1 hangover.
Commission Beer Chamber
instagram.com/the_commission_beer_chamber
In NYC rock & roll lore, it was CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. In modern-day Orlando, the indie and rock scenes have home bases like Will’s Pub. But for the city’s true-school hip-hop scene, it’s the Commission Beer Chamber. This funky spot on Curry Ford serves up classic-hip-hop vibes alongside tasty beverages, complete with 1990s decor up to and including haphazard piles of VHS tapes — and even proffers mix CD of local artists.
Hot Dog Heaven
An Orlando staple, Hot Dog Heaven has been slinging authentic Chicago dogs since 1987, with an unwavering community following for this classic bite. In an era of enshittified fast-food and fast-casual spots ever more aesthetically homogenous, the time-lost exterior of Heaven — complete with speared wiener — is worth the trip alone.
Orange Tree Antiques Mall
orangetreeantiquesmall.com
Despite what misinformation you may have been fed, antique malls — far from being dowdy and fussy — can often be essential weekend shopping destinations. Particularly when said antique mall is Orange Tree, located at the dividing line of Orlando and Winter Park. The shop is a wonderland of furnishings, clothing and pop-culture ephemera going back decades. This is the only spot, we daresay, where you can walk out clutching glassware, a Ben Cooper Halloween mask and a wrestling action figure. (Or so we’ve ahem heard.)
Orlando Urban Trail
orlando.gov
And they say Orlando is unwalkable! (Well, it is, but this is a very notable exception bucking the trend.) This central Orlando trail runs right through downtown and is approximately three miles long. It’s mostly an off-street path, and it has connections to six nearby lakes, Orlando Cultural Park and Gaston Edwards Park.
Orlando Zine Fest
facebook.com/orlandozinefest
Annual showcase of local and regional print creativity takes the classic zine aesthetic and process — punks clustered around a Xerox machine disseminating information via self-publishing — and brings it to new fans across generations. Now hosted at Blackbird Comics — an even more youth-forward and all-ages venue — OZF gathers scores of inky-fingered creators to sell and swap their tracts. Given the current state of the state (and country and capitalism), zines are ever more essential in representing alternative and marginalized viewpoints.
Zora Neale Hurston National Museum
preserveeatonville.org
Eatonville has a festival — aptly dubbed Zora! — devoted to their legendary daughter, Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote beautiful and profound novels like Their Eyes Were Watching God and the autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road, was a prime mover in the Harlem Renaissance, and later wrote incredible anthropological works. But for the other 50 weeks of the year, you owe it to yourself to visit this museum.
This article appears in July 1-7, 2026 — Newcomers Guide.