3 Best Sights in Orlando, Florida

Given to the City of Winter Park by the Genius family (benefactors of the Morse Museum), this 11-acre green space has manicured lawns, specimen plantings, a beautiful rose garden available for private functions, a fountain, and a gazebo. If you take a seat and listen as the Amtrak passenger train rolls by, it's not hard to imagine how Winter Park looked and sounded in the late 19th century. The SunRail commuter and Amtrak trains stop right within the park, giving great car-free access, particularly during the packed art festivals, to and from Downtown Orlando, Kissimmee, and Sanford. The Winter Park Farmers' Market draws people to the southwest corner on Saturday between 8 am and 1 pm. If you don't want to browse in the shops across the street, a walk beneath the park's moss-covered trees is a delightful alternative. There's free Wi-Fi within the park, as well.

A refined and dazzling private collection of American and international pieces by mid-20th-century modernist artists features the work of George Nakashima, Wendell Castle, and the more radical Memphis Group, as well as pieces collected by musician David Bowie. The museum shares resources and a gift shop with the 1921 restaurant across the street, so special dining and exhibition events are held throughout the year.

On the Rollins College campus, this museum houses Florida's oldest art collection (its first paintings acquired in 1896)—one with more than 5,000 pieces, from Italian Renaissance works to 19th- and 20th-century American and European paintings. Special exhibitions feature everything from Native American artifacts to Soviet propaganda posters. Outside the museum, a small but charming garden overlooks Lake Virginia. Some of the museum's collection graces the walls of the nearby, Rollins-owned, Alfond Inn. The museum is free to visit; free guided tours are offered on weekends at 1 pm. A new downtown Winter Park home for the renamed Rollins Museum of Art will break ground in 2023.