CFL ExaminerStraight answers about Orlando and Central Florida
Sunlight breaking through clouds and reflecting on the water at Canaveral National Seashore, with a dark tree line along the far shore.
Sun on the water at Canaveral National Seashore, on the Atlantic coast in Brevard and Volusia counties. National Park Service staff photograph, content dates 1980–1999. This is not an Orlando beach.NPS photo. Public domain. Source.

Orlando and Central Florida

CFL Examiner

Straight answers about Orlando and Central Florida. Guides for visitors, new residents, and short-term rental owners across Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and nearby counties.

Guides by topic

  1. 01Theme parksTickets, timing, and choosing between parks for an Orlando trip.
  2. 02NeighborhoodsWalkable districts and nearby towns for days away from the parks.
  3. 03FoodRestaurants and food districts across Orlando and nearby towns.
  4. 04Day tripsDrive times and plans for beaches, springs, and Kennedy Space Center.
  5. 05Moving hereWhat to know about living in Central Florida before you move.
  6. 06Local guidesLonger guides to Central Florida communities for residents and relocators.
  7. 07Getting aroundAirport transfers, rental cars, transit, traffic, and weather planning.
  8. 08Airbnb ownersShort-term rental rules, strategy, and themed builds for Central Florida owners.

Reading

Latest articles

Theme parks

Best Time to Visit Orlando Theme Parks

How Orlando weather, hurricane season, and seasonal park events vary through the year, and which official pages to check for your dates.

Day trips

Closest Beaches to Orlando: Cocoa Beach vs the Gulf Coast

Atlantic and Gulf beaches reachable from Orlando, compared by modeled road miles from named starting points, posted parking and entrance fees, and beach-safety flag rules.

Theme parks

Walt Disney World vs Universal Orlando (Including Epic Universe): What Each Resort Includes

What Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando each include, how Epic Universe fits into Universal, and how Disney's Lightning Lane compares with Universal Express.

Getting around

Do You Need a Rental Car in Orlando?

When a rental car makes sense in Orlando and when airport transit, shuttles, rideshare, and Disney resort transport are enough.

Moving here

Is Orlando a Good Place to Live?

City of Orlando, Orange County, and the four-county metro compared on dated Census and BLS figures, plus where to check homestead rules, flood maps, hurricane prep, and school grades. No rankings.

Day trips

Kennedy Space Center Day Trip from Orlando

How to plan a Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex day from Orlando: getting there, hours, what admission includes, and launch viewing.

Food

Mills 50 Food and District Guide

Where Orlando's Mills 50 Main Street district is, five of its food businesses with the addresses, menus, and hours they post, and the district's documented Vietnamese business history.

Neighborhoods

Walking Around Orlando's Districts: Lake Eola, Main Streets, Baldwin Park, and Park Avenue

Where five Orlando-area districts are, what their official pages say about them, and how LYMMO, SunRail, and the Orlando Urban Trail connect some of them. Not a walkability score or ranking.

Places

Coast, lakes, and palms

These photographs are from the places named in the captions. The cabbage palms are on Sanibel Island, on the Gulf coast, not in Orlando. The airboat is on Lake Washington in Melbourne. The wetland is Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Lake Eola is in downtown Orlando.

Lake Eola in downtown Orlando, with metal bird sculptures in the water and the city skyline beyond.
Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando, Orange County, on January 23, 2019.OrlandoThings.com, CC BY-SA 4.0. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.
Cabbage palms, Sabal palmetto, growing above coastal scrub on Sanibel Island.
Sabal palmetto (cabbage palms) on Sanibel Island, Lee County, on the Gulf coast, photographed August 31, 2009. These trees are not in Central Florida or Orlando.James St. John, CC BY 2.0. CC BY 2.0. Source.
An airboat on Lake Washington in Melbourne, Florida, at sunset, with a silhouetted person aboard.
An airboat returns at sunset on Lake Washington in Melbourne, Florida (Brevard County), on October 20, 2015. This is not an Orlando lake. The photographer’s mark stays visible in the lower right.Michael Seeley, CC BY 2.0. CC BY 2.0. Source.
Shallow wetland water and shorebirds at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge under a cloudy sky, with a distant tree line.
Wetland and shorebirds at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Brevard County, photographed July 8, 2005. This is the refuge, not the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The agency page title spells the refuge “Merrit.”George Gentry/USFWS. Public domain. Source.