Orlando's major amusement parks can be famously expensive. If you've squandered most of your vacation budget on tickets to see a button, there's still plenty you can find in Orlando that costs practically nothing.
Here are the best things to do in Orlando for free.
Cornell Fine Arts Museum
This tiny lakeside museum (accredited through the American Alliance of Museums) sits around the campus of Rollins College and houses US, European and Latin American art. One of the highlights are some exquisite old European Masterworks, as well as a good-sized contemporary collection. The gathering is displayed both at the museum and also at the nearby Alfond Inn, a college-owned boutique hotel. Have guided tours for visitors, and the museum hosts a number of other events all year round.
Admission to the museum is free, but registration for a time slot is needed for those guests.
Disney Springs
Stretching along the shore of Lake Buena Vista, the Disney Springs' smart outdoor pedestrian mall lures tourists with a large numbers of restaurants, bars, music venues and shops.
This can also be where you'll find the stage show Drawn to Life and the largest Disney store in the world. There's a Disney-styled party atmosphere, particularly for fun on saturday, with street performers dancing on stilts, parents pushing strollers packed with Disney bags, and hundreds upon hundreds of people enjoying the waterside drinking and excellent cuisine.
Although the majority of the restaurants and bars will have a Disney premium put into prices, the experience of soaking within the atmosphere is absolutely free.
Winter Park
When Orlandoans wish to wax lyrical about how exactly beautiful their city is, many of them will point you to definitely Winter Park, a bucolic town (well, city) north of Downtown founded within the mid-19th century as a winter getaway for wealthy northerners. The town was raised around liberal-arts school Rollins College, Florida's oldest institute better learning. Here are a few of Orlando's best-kept secrets, including the city's best art museum and some of the very most discussed restaurants around, all within a few shaded, pedestrian-friendly streets. Shops, wine bars and sidewalk cafes line Park Ave.
Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of yankee Art
Internationally famous, this stunning and exquisite museum houses the world's most comprehensive collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany art. Highlights range from the chapel interior designed by the artist for the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago; 10 galleries filled with architectural and art objects from Tiffany's Long Island home, Laurelton Hall; and an installation of the Laurelton's Daffodil Terrace.
The museum is free of charge on Fridays in November in December; admission is $6 the rest of the year.
Orlando Farmers Market
With pretty Lake Eola since it's backdrop, the Orlando Farmers Market is where locals and visitors alike arrived at sample local produce, buy handmade jewelry and catch live entertainment at the wine and beer garden every Sunday at noon. Leashed dogs are welcome (search for vendors focusing on homemade pet treats).
Free street parking is within walking distance, and paid parking garages are nearby on South Osceola Ave and North Eola Drive.
Hannibal Square Heritage Center
As far back as 1881, Winter Park's Hannibal Square was home to African Americans employed as carpenters, farmers and household help. The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park 1900 -1980, on permanent display at this little museum, celebrates and preserves this community's history and culture.
CityWalk
Across the canal from the three amusement parks is CityWalk, Universal's entertainment district comprising a pedestrian mall with restaurants, clubs, bars, the very best multiplex movie theater in town, miniature golf and shops. Live music and mucho alcohol covers the entertainment options here. Although nights can be packed with partying 20-somethings, bachelorette parties and general drunken mayhem, there's a distinct family-friendly vibe and many bars have reasonable food. Oh, and even though it feels like a partying theme park on its own, you can come here even when you're not visiting the Universal amusement parks.
Kraft Azalea Gardens
This quiet 5.22-acre lakeside park features enormous cypress trees and numerous walking trails. It's particularly stunning January through March, once the azaleas burst into bloom. There's a dock, but no barbecues or picnic tables.
Disney's BoardWalk
The quarter-mile-long Disney's BoardWalk area is situated across from Epcot and along Crescent Lake. It's designed to echo a waterfront promenade of turn-of-the-century New England seaside resorts. On Thursday to Saturday evenings magicians, jugglers and musicians provide a festive vibe, there are a few good bars and restaurants. Get a doughnut or cute li'l Mickey Mouse cakes in the bakery, and toot around on the surrey-with-the-fringe-on-top bike.
Far less harried and crowded than Disney Springs, Disney World's entertainment district is free to the public, and the bridge connecting the boardwalk towards the Yacht and Beach club is a good spot to watch the Epcot fireworks.
Winter Park Farmers' Market
Winter Park's historic train station, with its original brick walls and large vintage wooden sliding doors, houses the Saturday morning Winter Park Farmers' Market. You'll find local cheeses and honey, flowers and herbs, along with several excellent stands selling baked goods, disseminate within the station and through the gardens.
It's a little market, but a lovely destination to people-watch over a cup of coffee or an organic Popsicle.
Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards
Florida's largest premium winery sits on the 127-acre estate about 25 miles northwest of downtown Orlando. Every year, it creates nearly a million bottles of table and sparkling wines from muscadine and hybrid grapes.
The daily tours and tastings in the winery are completely free. The 45-minute experience includes a 15-minute video followed by an excursion of the production area and a peek in the expanse of the vineyard. It also hosts a free music series all year round, as well as a free open house throughout the holidays. It's about 25 miles northwest of downtown Orlando, just off Florida's Turnpike within the townland of Clermont.
Lake Eola Park
This little city park sits between downtown and Thornton Park. A paved sidewalk circles water, there's a waterfront playground and you may rent swan paddleboats ($15 for 30 minutes). To determine the genuine article, keep an eye out for white swans and other birds that live in the park. A paved .9-mile walkway encircles the park.
Consistent shade, convenient location and a fenced-in playground make it an ideal escape for families. Street parking is found all around the park.
Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of proper Arts
Dedicated to Florida writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston (1881 -1960), who had been born in Eatonville and it is renowned for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, this tiny one-room museum features changing exhibits of African American artists.
While the museum itself attracts folks with particular interests within the author, African American studies or perhaps a specific exhibit, the Zora! Festival held here attracts thousands for any multiday family-friendly celebration every January.
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