Things to do in Orlando

Food · Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive, just north-east of downtown

The centre of one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the American South, layered with a decade of independent bars, coffee shops and murals — bánh mì counters and third-wave espresso on the same block.

Local tip: Go on a weekday evening. The Vietnamese restaurants along Colonial are the reason the district exists and are still the best thing in it; the newer bars are the reason people stay past ten.

Nature · Downtown Orlando

The city's front garden, built around a lake that is itself a water-filled sinkhole, with a 1.5 km path, the swan boats, and the downtown skyline reflected in it.

Local tip: Sunday morning farmers market, then a lap of the lake before the heat. The Fourth of July and New Year fireworks here are the closest thing Orlando has to a civic gathering that has nothing to do with the parks.

Culture · Winter Park, immediately north of Orlando

A separate small city of brick streets, live oaks and a chain of lakes, with Park Avenue's shops and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum holding the world's most comprehensive collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany's work — including the recovered chapel interior from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Local tip: Take the Scenic Boat Tour through the lake chain's canals first, then the museum. It is the single strongest argument that central Florida has a cultural life independent of the attractions.

Nature · Apopka, about 30 minutes north-west

A first-magnitude spring that pushes out water at a constant 22°C year-round into a swimming basin and a blackwater river, inside a park of sandhill and hammock forest.

Local tip: Arrive before 10am on a summer weekend or the park closes at capacity. Rent a canoe and paddle upriver rather than swimming in the crowded basin — the wildlife is on the water, not in the pool.

Neighborhood · East of downtown, either side of Colonial

Two adjacent 1950s neighbourhoods that became the city's independent retail and food centres — a weekly community market, record shops, breweries and the East End Market food hall.

Local tip: The Monday evening market at East End Market is where Orlando looks least like a tourist destination and most like a normal southern city with a good food scene.

Food · Sand Lake Road, south-west Orlando

A three-kilometre stretch of Sand Lake Road between the attractions and the suburbs that quietly became the metro's fine-dining strip, built on the expense accounts of forty million annual visitors.

Local tip: It is the best-value serious cooking in the city precisely because it is subsidised by convention traffic. Book midweek; conference season fills it solid.