Swap Mickey Mouse for Matisse: How to have a culture-filled family trip to Orlando beyond the theme parks
While most families only think of the bright lights of Disney when booking an Orlando holiday, Eddi Fiegel and her young daughter dive deeper into the city and discover a type of magic that most tourists don’t get to...
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On a balmy October afternoon in Orlando, while Harry Potter fans in hooded robes were braving hair-raising rides at the Universal Studios theme park, a few miles across town, my 11-year-old daughter Georgie was admiring an Art Nouveau vase.
I should explain, in case you’re wondering, that Georgie doesn’t normally have a particular yen for vases. She’s generally keener on all things K-pop, manga and Harry Potter-related, and if there are rollercoasters or water parks involved, you’ll be hard-pushed to drag her away. My partner Henry and I had decided, however, that although we were visiting the theme park capital of the world, we would split our trip in two, visiting not only Universal Studios but also exploring another, lesser-known side to Orlando.
I had heard that the city’s leafy Winter Park area, just a 15-minute drive north of the centre, was home to world-class art collections, including the gorgeous Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (admission $6/£5; kids go free), so this was our first stop.
The museum is home to the world’s largest collection of works by the Art Nouveau genius Louis Comfort Tiffany – son of the legendary Tiffany jewellery store’s founder, and best known for having created the famous leaded-glass Tiffany lampshades, as copied the world over in American steakhouse chains.
As well as lampshades, Tiffany also designed vases, including the smooth, iridescent creation in peacock blue and magenta which had captivated Georgie, as well as jewellery and luminous panels of ornate stained glass, featuring trees and flowers in vivid greens, yellows and reds.
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Leaving the museum, we wandered Park Avenue, past chi-chi boutiques, smart restaurants and pavement cafes touting smashed avocado on toast, handmade pasta and oatmeal lattes.
We were on our way to the area’s other main art collection, the Rollins Museum of Art, which includes works by the likes of Picasso, Matisse and Salvador Dalí. Only a small percentage of the collection is permanently on display but when we visited, an excellent portraiture exhibition included an oil by Thomas Gainsborough and another by Flemish master Anthony van Dyck.
Winter Park isn’t just about art. Tucked away behind grand churches and Hispanic-style villas with neatly manicured lawns lie no fewer than seven grand lakes, linked by a series of narrow canals.
The best way to see them is by boat, and on our guided pontoon tour ($20/£16), we were soon edging past long-haired oak trees and 500-year-old cypresses before the canals suddenly opened up onto the lakes, each one lined with lavish Arts and Crafts and Modernist-style millionaires’ mansions.
The next day, after a delicious dinner at Hamilton’s Kitchen restaurant in our Winter Park hotel, the Alfond Inn – where my smoked salmon carpaccio and sea bass with asparagus risotto were particularly memorable – we set off to discover more of Orlando.
The city’s art scene isn’t just confined to Winter Park, however, and we arranged to meet walking tour guide Tracy Kuch (tours $55/£43) in the skyscraper-filled downtown area.
Huge sculptures dotted the lawn outside the Orange County Administration Building as part of the city’s annual Sculpture on the Lawn public art programme, with works by international artists including the Henry Moore-esque Seed Form by Edinburgh-born Hugh Lassen.
Georgie, meanwhile, was particularly taken with a giant pink bunny made of concrete and mesh by Danish sculptor Gleb Dusavitskiy. “The artist wanted to make people smile,” Tracy explained, and it looked like he’d succeeded.
The tour also included a stop at the fascinating Orange County Regional History Center ($10/£8), where interactive displays detail the history of Orlando from its original Native American population and the planting of Florida’s famous orange groves through to the civil rights movement and the present day.
We could easily have spent several hours at the museum but we were enticed away by the lure of ice cream at the quirky Greenery Creamery nearby.
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As with much of the city we had already seen, the independently run parlour is about as far as you could get from a McFlurry or indeed anything mass market. Recent art-inspired specials have included the “Damien Hirst” (a blue ice cream with gummy sharks), the “Jackson Pollock” (vanilla with marshmallow “splatters”) and the “Edvard Munch Scream” (a coconut, guava and passion fruit sorbet with a raspberry swirl).
“Most tourists don’t see this side to Orlando,” the Greenery Creamery’s Liam Gill told me. “I think a lot of them are very surprised to learn that we have our own culture and art outside of the theme parks.”
We had been surprised too, and while Georgie had loved our days in the city, her excitement at visiting Universal Studios had reached fever pitch, so the next day we drove half an hour south of Winter Park to Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort – a vast hotel complex, complete with water slides and a lazy river.
The Studios more than lived up to Georgie’s expectations. From the crooked house-filled Diagon Alley at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – with its huge, fire-breathing dragon – to her favourite rollercoaster, the Flight of the Hippogriff, she couldn’t have been happier.
The theme park and beach resort were unquestionably the highlights of her trip, but alongside the Harry Potter rides and water slides, she now also remembers Florida’s history and a rather gorgeous Tiffany vase.
Travel essentials
How to get there
British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Norse Atlantic Airways all fly direct from the UK to Orlando. Flight time is around nine hours.
Where to stay
The smart Alfond Inn in Winter Park has a pool and spa as well as major contemporary artworks on display throughout the hotel, thanks to its partnership with the Rollins Collection.
Universal’s retro-themed Cabana Bay Beach Resort is another good choice for families.
Eddi Fiegel and her family travelled as guests of Visit Orlando and Visit The USA.
Read more: The best hotels in Orlando
