Florida MAGIC

From wildlife to art to baseball, Jane Druker says a trip to Orlando without Mickey is still a lot of fun for grown-ups

- Jane Druker

Why go?

Orlando often means one thing to the world, and it starts with a D (you know the rest). My kids are grown up and fairground rides scare me, so I was searching for alternative experiences in the Florida sun and, to my delight, ‘the City Beautiful’ didn’t disappoint. It is as much a home to culture as it is to business conventions and theme parks.

Head north-east

I actually started my trip by heading out of town, one hour north-east to Daytona Beach, a resort in its own right and famous for its Ormond-Daytona beach of hard, white sand – 23 miles long and 500ft wide at low tide. Here, I rode a golf cart on the beach, visited art galleries (including the Museum of Arts and Sciences, which features Cuban art and original Coca-Cola memorabilia), and ate spectacular seafood. All of this was punctuated with a sensational sunset on a boat cruise.

Hub of activity