I’m ashamed to admit this, but I am looking forward to going down to Orlando from Wednesday through Saturday of this week (1/27-1/30). I’ll be staying right next to the big airport there while a friend gets some simulator training.
Does anyone have good ideas for pleasant road bike rides that start near MCO? 20-30 miles would be ideal. I will probably have a rental car so in theory I could drive for a bit and then bike.
What else to do when there? I can’t muster the requisite noise/crowd tolerance for Disney. What about good places to see nature? Photographing birds with a long lens? See manatees?
What about driving to the Atlantic coast for a day? Are there good places to ride a bike around Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach or is the traffic too heavy on A1A?
Finally, what about a breakfast get-together on Thursday or Friday morning? Please email philg@mit.edu if interested.
Half way between Orlando and Tampa is a neat place called Fantasy of Flight. Located near Polk city, it’s a large collection of vintage restored aircraft amid a grass airstrip, a lake(for his amphibious planes), and giant art deco syle hangars. The collection has been built by lifetime aviation enthusiast and aerobatic champion, Kermit Weeks.
Kennedy space center is a good trip, to discover what humans could do 60 years ago.
From the airport head east on 528 and exit south on 520. Just after you pass over the St. Johns River turn right into the Lone Cabbage Fish camp where you’ll find a bit of old Florida. Beer, fried food and locals. Some of whom will be happy to take you out on an airboat ride of the nearby river of grass where you’ll see gators, birds and free range cows and horses.
For birding hit the birding trail at Canaveral National Seashore. You’re also likely to see plenty of gators, wild hog and deer.
The beach sand is hard enough to ride a bike on in Cocoa Beach (due east of Orlando on the 528); though not perfect for a road bike, more so for a hybrid or mountain bike. From Cocoa Beach, bike on the sand 3 miles north past the “World Famous Cocoa Beach Pier” to Cape Canaveral, or five miles south to Patrick AFB.
I used to have to go to business type functions near the Orlando airport. My last trip there was December 2014, so I’m relatively up to date.
The recommendations from both K Booth and the “Smartest Woman on the Internet” are both good and I would do one or the other of them. If you are in Florida, you either want to get to the beach, or to the quiet under-visited interior areas that K Booth describes.
I don’t know if Phil drinks or is into music, but the Belle Isle Yacht Club, on the road to Sanford and quite close to the airport is a dive bar that hosts good bands in the evening. Across the street is another bar is another bar that is pretty much the only non-chain restaurant to eat at in the area.
People from other countries actually fly into Orlando not to go to Disney, but to go to the Florida Mall and shop, then fly back. Apparently retail prices in the US are much lower than in many other countries, once you take account of the currency. The hotel in the Mall is good, but the Hyatt at the airport is actually a better hotel, with good restaurants (though the hours are somewhat eccentric), and small children will like the courtyard in front of the hotel and the adjacent Disney and Seaworld stores. The airport security lines make for good people watching.
http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#7/-83.77625/28.11075/blue/bike
Not that you seem like one to follow the herd, but if you want to know where people are biking, see the above link.
Road biking: A1A between Melbourne Beach and Sebastian Inlet is uncrowded and enjoyable. Leave car at Melbourne Beach. Sand on the Beach good for lunch after ride http://www.sandonthebeach.com/
Manatees: Crystal River. Bring snorkel gear and rent a boat thusly:
http://www.manatee-central.com/
The West Orange Trail is a surprisingly pleasant ride through terrain that rolls a bit more than the usual for flat Florida. It would be a bit of a drive but it’s a neat ride and there are some nice rolling hills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Orange_Trail
The Strava heatmaps are usually solid for finding riding opportunities but despite plenty of experience I don’t see anything more obvious than the Google Maps cycling layer (confirming that main trail systems). I never lived right there so street rides weren’t on the menu.
http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#12/-81.32904/28.59462/blue/bike
I don’t know if airboats are your thing but I can second the Lone Cabbage recommendation as an experience difficult to get elsewhere.
-Peter