While well-known (sometimes too much so) for the theme parks and related diversions, Orlando offers up a constellation of its own unique sights and experiences. If you are indeed new to the city, venture outside the touristy destinations and well-known landmarks to try out some local deep-cuts. There’s a lot of exploring to be done in Orlando, indoors and out.
Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area
myfwc.com
Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area (photo above) may be off the beaten path, but its many trails offer a rare solitude typically encountered exclusively in apocalyptic storybooks and doomsday movies. Once inside, enjoy hiking the rugged Florida landscapes — quaint ponds, open fields of wildflowers and canopies of hanging moss — populated in the early morning hours by wild turkeys, boar, deer and more birds than Audubon Park documents on its street signs. Butterflies flock here, too; the Palamedes Swallowtail, Gulf Fritillary, Silver-spotted Skipper and Northern Cloudywing are just some of the species commonly seen in summer.
Dickson Azalea Park
orlando.gov
Hidden in plain sight, just off East Robinson Street and North Ferncreek Avenue, Dickson Azalea Park is one of our city’s best-kept secrets. It boasts lots of pretty, blossom-covered trees and longleaf pines. WPA-era bridges, pavilions and walkways crawl around and over the stream that trickles through the leafy little park. Along with neighboring Langford Park, Dickson Azalea provides a shady oasis just outside of downtown.
Uncle Lou’s Entertainment Hall
facebook.com/unclelous
There is nowhere else like Uncle Lou’s in the City Beautiful — or, we’d wager, Florida at large — a close-quarters, gritty staging area for DIY music both local and national, where (almost) anything goes. Uncle Lou’s has served as an incubator and proving ground for the Central Florida underground for over a decade. The frills are few and far between in the stripped-down space, but Lou’s is a crucial part of a Mills 50 that is changing in fast-forward all around it.
Wells’ Built Museum
wellsbuilt.org
In the 1920s, the former hotel and casino in Parramore built by Dr. William Wells hosted entertainers on the Chitlin’ Circuit — people like Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Jackie Robinson. Today, it houses a treasure trove of artifacts and memorabilia of Orlando’s African American community’s history and culture. It’s a testament to change, slow as it sometimes can be.
Renaissance Theatre Co.
rentheatre.com
The Renaissance Theatre Co. has transformed the Orlando Ballet’s former rehearsal hall near Loch Haven Park into one of the area’s most active and exciting new entertainment venues. In addition to presenting plays and musicals like Lenox Avenue and From Here, “The Ren” also hosts immersive undertakings like Nosferatu and 54, weekly cabarets and Off the Record drag shows, and also serves as an official venue during the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival.
Skycraft
skycraftsurplus.com
Skycraft Parts & Surplus, the iconic store that long livened up Winter Park’s skyline with rockets and a flying saucer, may have moved to a newer, bigger, less quirky location on Edgewater Drive, but don’t you worry, their anarchic inventory made the move with them. You’ll find all manner of electronic parts, electrical supplies, hardware, wires and cables, and the people who love them, in the crowded aisles within.
Orlando Zine Fest
facebook.com/orlandozinefest
The Orlando Zine Fest is an annual outdoors showcase of local print-tastic creativity happening in December in the Milk District, stylishly after dark. Writers, artists, photographers and compilers from around the region bring fanzines, chapbooks, art books and all manner of independent press works. Last year’s event featured nearly 40 tablers, ranging from SR50 Magazine to No, Nothing staffers to the artist behind the Center for Post-Capitalist History. It’s a great destination for last-minute, local-centric holiday shopping.
Timucua Arts Foundation
timucua.com
House venues, as a rule, generally don’t last that long. The ecstatic creative highs often end up outweighed by the organizational, logistical and financial lows. But the Timucua Arts Foundation isn’t just any house, not by a long shot. Timucua, headquartered since 2007 in a custom-built residence-cum-grassroots performance space nestled among suburban homes on a quiet SoDo street, presents adventurous music across genre, spoken word, theater productions and everything in between. What other room could hold Lydia Lunch, a night celebrating queer Latin music and an immersive A Streetcar Named Desire with equal aplomb?
Harry P. Leu Gardens
leugardens.org
Three miles of paved paths wind through gorgeous botanical displays, including the largest formal rose garden in Florida, a bamboo forest and a butterfly garden. You can also visit the historic on-site house museum. Recently Leu Gardens has also become the staging ground for Creative City Project’s immersive holiday walk-through experiences, including the Christmas-adjacent Dazzling Nights and the new Halloween-themed Haunting Nights.
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This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2023 and Newcomers Guide (2023).