Orlando: The time is right for splashy fun
— -- Fall is value season in Orlando, what with the kids back in school and the theme-park throngs thinning. But the city is more than the sum of its amusement parks, as USA TODAY's Jayne Clark discovered. There's life beyond all the choreographed cheer — and the action isn't just kids' stuff, either.
Lodging:
Deals can be had in lodgings along busy International Drive (near the theme parks and 20 minutes or so from the city center) almost any time of year. But rates are in free fall now. I saw Internet prices for as low as $36 for a three-star lodging at SeaWorld, for instance. However, life is too short to hole up in a spot with a view of a strip mall. So I opted for the downtown Eo Inn, possibly Orlando's only boutique hotel.
I'd already booked the hotel's $109 corporate rate, but while perusing its mixed online reviews ("a rare find"; "disappointing"), I came across an Orbitz rate for only $77.50, which the hotel honored. (At checkout, the clerk said the rate was the lowest she'd ever seen, thanks to a particularly slow month.) Rooms are smallish and spare — in that black-and-white-photo-décor kind of way — yet they're well designed and pleasant. There's no one on duty after 7 p.m., which may be off-putting to some travelers. Its location on the eastern edge of downtown across from Lake Eola Park, an attractive urban hub of activity, is ideal, however.
• Eo Inn, 407-481-8485, eoinn.com
Getting around:
Again, timing is everything when it comes to paying less.
An economy-car rental through Sunshine Rent A Car cost a paltry $34.14 for two days, including taxes and fees. Daily base rates sometimes drop as low as $9.99. Conversely, they can soar to $99 a day during major events, the clerk said.
• Sunshine Rent A Car, 888-786-7446, sunshinerentacar.com
Dining:
I consulted the Orlando Sentinel's annual "best of" list (as chosen by readers and the restaurant critic), with mixed results. Lunch at an Indian place (a readers' favorite) tucked in an aging strip mall next to America's Golf Clearance Outlet on International Drive was overpriced and over-perfumed with incense. A lunch of spicy chicken vindaloo (not bad) and homemade pistachio ice cream (inedible) came to $28 and change.
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