Away from the parks, in Winter Park or Grande Lakes. The Alfond Inn, from about $290, if you want Winter Park on foot, with Park Avenue two blocks away, the Morse Museum and more than 100 contemporary works on the walls; The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, from about $480, if you would rather have a spa of 40 treatment rooms, golf, a kids' club and a lazy river next door.
Rollins College's art hotel, two blocks from Park Avenue: museums, lakes and a spa for days off from the parks.
$$From about $290 a night
Choose The Alfond Inn if
Days off from the parks
Art and museum lovers
Couples
Spa days
The catch
The hotel runs no park shuttle and its free house cars go only around Winter Park, so the parks mean a car or a taxi, 28 to 31 minutes to Universal Studios and Epic Universe and 42 to 47 minutes to the Disney parks with the roads clear, and more at rush hour.
Away from the parks, in Winter Park or Grande Lakes. The Alfond Inn, from about $290, if you want Winter Park on foot, with Park Avenue two blocks away, the Morse Museum and more than 100 contemporary works on the walls; The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, from about $480, if you would rather have a spa of 40 treatment rooms, golf, a kids' club and a lazy river next door.
Good questions about The Alfond Inn vs The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes
The Alfond Inn or The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes?
Away from the parks, in Winter Park or Grande Lakes. The Alfond Inn, from about $290, if you want Winter Park on foot, with Park Avenue two blocks away, the Morse Museum and more than 100 contemporary works on the walls; The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, from about $480, if you would rather have a spa of 40 treatment rooms, golf, a kids' club and a lazy river next door.
Is The Alfond Inn worth it?
Book it for Winter Park on foot: Park Avenue, the Morse Museum and the boat tour, with art on the walls and a spa to come back to. Take a Parlor King Room for the extra space, and budget $64 a night for the resort fee and valet, plus a car for the parks. A boutique art hotel in a walkable college town: you stay for Park Avenue, the museums and the lakes, and drive to the parks. It is calm and grown-up, with a real spa and a pool terrace rather than slides.
Does The Alfond Inn have a pool or a beach?
It has an outdoor pool. There is no beach; the nearest is a drive away.
Is The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes worth it?
Book it for the spa, the golf and the lazy river next door, and ask for a Lakefront room. Budget $113 a night in resort fee and valet, and book the park shuttle a day ahead. A big, polished resort built around a three-storey spa, a championship golf course and a shared waterpark, 13 to 28 minutes' drive from the parks with the roads clear, or a shuttle booked a day ahead. It suits slow days between park days more than early starts at the gates.
Does The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes have a pool or a beach?
It has an outdoor pool. There is no beach; the nearest is a drive away.
The escape