ORLANDO · FLORIDA
Theme parks, wild springs, a rocket-launch coast.
Manatee mornings in the springs, glow-water kayaks after dark, airboats over the saw grass and launch day on the Space Coast. Plus skip-the-line tickets for every park in town.
Only here
Three things you can only really do here.
Roller coasters and dinner shows you can find in plenty of cities. Glowing water, wild manatees and a launch you can feel from the sand belong to this stretch of Florida alone.
Living light
Glow-Water Kayaking
On warm summer nights the Indian River Lagoon around Merritt Island lights up: dinoflagellates flash blue-green with every paddle stroke, and in winter the comb jellies take over. It happens in only a handful of places on earth, and this is one of the few you can paddle into after dark.
- 1 Bioluminescence Kayak Tour
- 2 Bioluminescence Night Kayaking Tour of Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge
- 3 Florida Bioluminescence Kayaking Tour (Titusville)
Gentle giants
Manatees in the Springs
When the Gulf cools, hundreds of manatees crowd into Central Florida's spring runs, where the water holds a steady 72 degrees all year. This is the one corner of the country where you reliably share the water with them, close enough to watch them surface for air an arm's length away.
- 1 Cocoa Beach Dolphin and Wildlife Tour
- 2 Thousand Island Mangrove Tunnel, Manatee & Dolphin Kayak Tour w/Cocoa Kayaking
- 3 Mangrove Tunnels, Dolphins, Manatee Tour #1 Rated in Cocoa Beach
Launch country
Watch a Rocket Launch
Cape Canaveral is the busiest launch coast on the planet and the only place in America that sends astronauts to orbit. Tour the pads and the Saturn V at the Visitor Complex, then time a trip to the countdown and feel a launch roll across the water from the beach.
- 1 Merritt Island: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Ticket
- 2 Kennedy Space Center: Entry Ticket with Explore Bus Tour
- 3 Kennedy Space Center with Transport from Orlando and Kissimmee
Start with the standout
The one Orlando booking everyone makes.
More visitors build a trip around this than anything else on the list. If you only do one thing, start here.
The classics
Orlando's Most Popular Experiences
Kennedy Space Center, the spring runs, the Everglades airboats and the Cocoa Beach dolphins. The days most visitors remember.
Where to begin
The days an Orlando trip is built around.
Glow-water kayaks, manatee swims, the Space Center, the Everglades airboats, the clear-bottom springs and the big-park tickets. The handful of experiences most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
An hour east
How to do the Space Coast.
Cape Canaveral sits barely an hour from the parks, and it doubles as America's launch pad. Three ways to spend the day, depending on whether you are chasing rockets, dolphins or sand.
Central Florida
Spring-fed and glass clear.
An hour from the parks, dozens of springs push tens of millions of gallons a day up through the limestone, holding a steady 72 degrees all year. The water runs so clear a glass-bottom kayak feels like floating on air, over turtles, gar and the manatees that crowd in each winter.
Read the guide: the best spring kayak tours near Orlando →After dark
When the lights come on.
Orlando doesn't clock off at sunset. Summer nights bring the glow-water kayak trips out on the lagoon; year-round there are jousting dinner shows, sunset cruises off Cocoa Beach and the night airboat runs when the gators' eyes catch the light.
See the after-dark experiences →The Space Coast
Seventy-two miles of Atlantic shore.
The barrier-island coast east of Orlando runs for seventy-two miles, from the empty dunes of Playalinda past the Cocoa Beach pier to the cruise terminals at Port Canaveral. Wild dolphins work the lagoon, surfers ride the morning break, and every few weeks a rocket climbs out over the water.
Cocoa Beach & the Space Coast →The big parks
Sort the tickets before you hit the gate.
Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld and LEGOLAND all sit within a half-hour of each other. The move that saves a day in line is sorting entry before you arrive: dated and multi-day passes, skip-the-line tickets and the park-hopper and combo deals.
- 1 LEGOLAND Florida Theme Park Admission Tickets
- 2 Universal Orlando Resort Theme Park Tickets
- 3 Fun Spot America Theme Parks – Orlando
By pace
Pick your pace.
Central Florida runs the whole range. Slow it right down on a spring float, head out on the open water for the dolphins, or open it up on an airboat over the marsh.
Take it easy
Float a spring run.Glass-bottom kayaks over a 72-degree spring, slow drifts past turtles and eelgrass, and manatees nosing through on a winter morning.
Out on the water
Dolphins and open water.Pontoon and catamaran trips off Cocoa Beach, wild dolphin pods in the Banana River, and a sunset cruise to finish the day.
Full throttle
Airboats over the saw grass.Flat-bottom airboats skimming the marsh at speed, gators sliding off the banks, and helicopter add-ons for the long view.
The Everglades
Flat bottom, big fan, no brakes.
The airboat was built for exactly this water: a flat-bottom hull pushed by an aircraft propeller, skimming over marsh too shallow for any other boat. Captains run them fast across the saw grass, then cut the engine to drift up on gators, turtles and wading birds in the sudden quiet.
See all 27 airboat rides →By place
Orlando and the day-trip coast.
Orlando for the parks, the springs and the launch pad. Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral for the Space Coast. Kissimmee for gator country, Winter Park for the chain of lakes, and Clearwater for a Gulf-coast beach day.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Clear kayak if you want to see straight through the water. Airboat if you want the marsh fast. A dolphin cruise if you want it slow. Bioluminescence, the Space Center, dinner shows and the rest.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Orlando? Here is a long weekend that hits the parks, the wild side and the coast without a wasted hour.
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