The Alfond Inn

Rollins College opened The Alfond Inn in August 2013 and gives its net operating income to Rollins student scholarships. The building is Spanish Renaissance in style, with a glass-domed conservatory overlooking a courtyard lawn, and a 2023 wing took it to 183 rooms and added a spa and a second pool. The walls are the point: the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, assembled by Rollins alumni Barbara and Theodore Alfond, belongs to the Rollins Museum of Art, whose staff hang more than 100 of its works through the public spaces and rehang them every year.

The entry Classic King is 323 sq ft (30 m²) with a walk-in shower, and the Classic Queen 358 sq ft (33 m²) with two queen beds; both are also sold with a balcony. The Parlor King (435 sq ft, 40 m²) and Parlor Double Queen (448 sq ft, 42 m²) add a sitting area with a sleeper sofa, and the Deluxe King, the largest room below the suites at 630 sq ft (59 m²), has a deep soaking tub. Suites run from the 435 sq ft (40 m²) Business Suite, with a galley kitchen, to the 1,222 sq ft (114 m²) Grand Suite. Up to two dogs are welcome, at $50 each a night.

The hotel is chosen for a day without a queue in it. Park Avenue and Central Park are five minutes' walk away, the free Rollins Museum of Art ten, and Tiffany's chapel from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, at the Morse Museum, twelve. The Scenic Boat Tour, running since 1938, leaves its dock nine minutes away hourly from 10am to 4pm for an hour on the lakes and canals, at $20 for adults. Back at the hotel are a pool terrace and bar one floor above the street, open to all ages, and The Spa, with seven treatment rooms, a steam room and sauna in each locker room, and its own pool and cabanas for spa guests aged 18 and over. At 6pm on the first Wednesday of the month the museum's staff lead an hour's art tour from the lobby.

The trade is distance and extras. There is no park shuttle: with the roads clear, Universal Studios and Epic Universe are 28 to 31 minutes by car and the Disney parks 42 to 47. The $27 resort fee and valet from $37 add $64 a night before tax, and the new Rollins Museum of Art is being built across Interlachen Avenue until early 2028. Book it for days between park days or the quiet end of an Orlando week, if you would rather walk to dinner than drive. If every day is a park day, stay nearer the gates.