6 Amazing Things To Do In Beautiful Winter Park, Florida

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Travel Awaits| January 18, 2023

https://www.travelawaits.com/2849813/things-to-do-winter-park-fl/

Located just seven miles north of the City of Orlando in Orange County, Winter Park’s 30,000 residents enjoy abundant outdoor spaces, a decadent Saturday morning farmer’s market, golf courses, and more museums than you would ever expect to see in such a small area. Created by several wealthy industrialists as their winter haven in the late 19th and 20th centuries, boating, museums, shopping on Park Avenue, and great food make it as delightful today as it was then.

I attended a press trip that included Winter Park. All the opinions herein are my own.

1. Scenic Boat Tour

The Scenic Boat Tour is a must-do and the perfect introduction to Winter Park. It is the oldest, continuously running attraction in the state of Florida since 1938! They operate seven days a week, 364 days a year (not Christmas). Peppered with jokes, facts, and wry asides, Skipper Don Brown’s a treasure trove of information along this gorgeous tour.

The Winter Park chain of lakes is connected by navigable canals created by Charles Mizell of timber fame to ship his product between six lakes (Maitland, Minnehaha, Mizell, Nina, Osceola, Virginia) in the mid-1800s.

The pontoon boats can’t have a roof or cover because the water levels on the lakes can be quite high during the wet season and there isn’t enough clearance for the boats to pass under bridges that dot the canals. Don’t worry, the lake view of all the historic homes make it well worth the trip with people kayaking around the pontoons.

Before you move too far along in our journey, though, it’s time for the first section of the historic shoreline to receive a shout-out. On the right side of the lake once stood the Old Seminole Hotel, the grandest hotel in the state of Florida. In 1886, maybe even the United States. It had 250 hotel rooms and a four-story tall observation tower from which you could see both Lake Osceola and Lake Virginia. Most impressive was its front porch, stretching 600 feet (that’s two football fields). Host to Presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison, many said that Rollins College and the Old Seminole Hotel brought “luxury to the edge of the Florida frontier.”

Sadly, the hotel caught fire in 1902 and burned to the ground.

Along the Scenic Boat Tour route, identify the “Resurrection Fern” and the “Dinky Dock,” an ecologically protected cypress with several homes designed and built by the famous architect, James Gamble Rogers.

2. The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum Of American Art

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum was created by his granddaughter Jeannette Genius McKean and her husband Hugh McKean who had completed an internship with Louis Comfort Tiffany glass earlier in his life. First housed on the Rollins College campus, the collection outgrew that space, especially after the couple rescued as much as possible from Tiffany’s Laurelton Hall, Long Island, New York home that collapsed during a fire. It was the quick work of Jeannette and Hugh that saved so many panels of this precious work.

Along the tour, you’ll learn how many different mediums Tiffany found to work with. There are his lamps, of course, but also jewelry and furniture, the most astounding windows… explore how the light changes based on your position.

3. Albin Polasek Museum And Sculpture Gardens

Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens, with over 400 bronze pieces, visible from the Scenic Boat Tour, remains a popular wedding venue and was donated by the artist’s wife following the death of this incredible Czech American talent in 1962.

However, the story of this museum and its foundation goes further still. When the Capen House was sold, the Polasek offered a safe haven for the original home. The new owners of the land the Capen House stood upon paid for the house to be split in two (called Fred and Ginger after the famous American dance team, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), rolled down the hill, and floated across Lake Osceola to its current location. It took 45 minutes for the first half, according to our skipper, and 15 minutes for the second. Check out the YouTube videofrom 2010 where a drone covered the event. Movement across the lake starts at 1 minute and 42 seconds. 

Also found in Winter Park is the Rollins Museum of Art, the Winter Park History Museum, Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, and Hannibal Square Heritage Center, with art galleries regularly hosting berry special events. If you’re interested in classes or summer art camp, check out the Crealde School of Art.

4. Kraft Azalea Gardens

While many visitors know to go to Mead Botanical Gardens, one of Winter Park’s best but little-known attractions remains Kraft Azalea Gardens. Popular for weddings, marriage proposals, and birthdays, it’s a magical place.

Located on Lake Maitland’s shores, this 5-acre public garden is free to enter and open year-round from 8 a.m. to sunset, with a boat dock, benches, and eight more acres of park to explore outside the garden. Relax at The Exedra, reminiscent of Golden Gate Park’s Spreckels Temple of Music, wander the great egret rookery, or visit the northernmost Banyan Tree in the state of Florida.

5. Saturday Morning Farmers Market

Advertised as the “Number one produce and plant market in Central Florida,” Winter Park’s Farmers Market contains the city’s central park and lives up to the hype with a lovely, festive gathering place with vendors and shoppers reveling in the fresh, colorful produce, assortment of plants, baked goods, artisanal crafts, and other offerings. The City of Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival is held in this same location each year. Details can be found here.