Millions of people fly halfway across the world to stand in line at Magic Kingdom, ride a roller coaster, eat an overpriced burger, and go home with a sunburn and a smile.
Meanwhile, people live just 90 minutes away and haven’t booked a hotel room in Orlando since… ever? That’s the thing about staycations, they’re often overlooked because you don’t have to hop on a plane to get there!
But trust me, after basing ourselves in many places around the world, and going on weekends away, I can say that they can be just as fun – and less stressful – than an international holiday.
The feeling of being on vacation has almost nothing to do with distance and almost everything to do with giving yourself permission – to not check emails, to sleep in, to sit by the pool with a good book, and to just fill the day at your own pace.
Orlando is one of the top visited places in the USA and happens to be a great place to staycation. And if you’re a Florida or Georgia resident, you can get it cheaper than almost anyone else.
Here’s how to plan an Orlando staycation that actually feels like a trip away.
Why Orlando Works Better as a Staycation Than a Vacation
Most visitors to Orlando are on a clock. They’ve got four days, seven parks, a dining reservation at 8:15pm, and a return flight on Sunday. They’re not relaxing…they’re on a tight schedule!
For Florida and Georgia residents, you don’t have that problem. You can drive in on a Friday afternoon, do exactly one thing per day, and drive home Sunday night without that panic of “we flew all this way, we have to do the water park.”
That changes everything about how you should plan. Instead of trying to see everything at once, you get to pick and choose…because you can simply come back next month if you want!
It also means you can travel in shoulder season, whereas tourists typically visit when school’s out. You can come the second week of September, or late January, or the first half of May – when the parks are quieter, the hotel rates drop, and you’re not lining up 80 minutes for a ride that lasts just three.
Choosing the Right Area to Stay In
This is something to consider when you just have a few days to visit Orlando, and it’s also where most staycations fail. People book whatever’s cheapest near the airport, spend the whole weekend on the I-4, and wonder why it didn’t feel like a holiday.
Orlando is enormous and sprawling, and the neighbourhood you pick determines what your weekend will actually be like. For most people doing a classic Orlando staycation, it’s I-Drive or the Disney side – those are the two areas built for it.
International Drive (I-Drive): this is the resort corridor, it’s a long strip running roughly parallel to I-4, packed with hotels, restaurants, outlet malls, mini golf, the convention centre, and Universal a few minutes north. If you want everything within a short drive, this is the most convenient base in the city. It’s also where you’ll find the biggest resort properties with the best amenities.
Lake Buena Vista and Highway 192 (Kissimmee): this is Disney’s orbit. If you’re doing the parks with kids, staying on this side saves you meaningful time and traffic every single day. It’s more spread out and less walkable than I-Drive, but the accommodation options are more varied. You’ll find villas and multi-bedroom units rather than standard hotel rooms – which is exactly what you want with a family.
Winter Park is the opposite end of the spectrum. Here you’ll find leafy, historic, brick sidewalks, independent shops, boutique hotels. There’s nothing theme-park about it. If your staycation is a grown-up weekend without the parks, this is where to be.
Downtown Orlando works if you want the city rather than the tourist version of it. Check out Lake Eola, Thornton Park, Mills 50, the Milk District. Here you’ll find nightlife, restaurants, and actual local life.
Where to Stay: The Florida & Georgia Resident Discount
Westgate Resorts have properties in both of the main corridors – on Turkey Lake off I-Drive, and on the Disney side near Kissimmee, and Florida and Georgia residents get a discounted rate at all of them.
Their highly-rated villa-style units come with full kitchens, and separate living areas. Not to mention, there are multiple onsite restaurants, pools and more. Check the Florida & Georgia resident rates here.
Things to Do in Orlando That Aren’t Theme Parks
In case you’re not planning on visiting Disney World, there are lots of other things to do in Orlando to keep you busy. The city is one of the best places to go in Florida for a reason!
The Chocolate Kingdom Factory. This tour walks you through the whole bean-to-bar process. How cacao is grown, roasted, ground, and turned into the chocolate you actually eat. It’s a guided tour with lots of tasting along the way, and you finish by making your own custom bar. Click here for details.
Enjoy the view from the Florida Eye. One of Orlando’s most recognizable attractions is The Orlando Eye at ICON Park, the 400-foot observation wheel on International Drive. The ride takes about 20 minutes, and on a clear day you can see all the way to the Kennedy Space Center
Do the downtown thing. Lake Eola with its swan boats is the postcard shot, but the surrounding neighbourhoods are where the actual city lives. Check out Thornton Park area which is walkable and a great place to eat. On the first Thursday of every month, the neighbourhood’s galleries open their doors for an evening of art and live music – which has a more local vibe.
Kennedy Space Center. An hour east, and one of the most impressive day trips from Orlando you can do. Visiting this NASA facility is worth the drive. Click here for a highly rated tour, including transport.
Doing the Theme Parks Like a Local (Not a Tourist)
If you do want parks, do them differently than the people who flew in.
Buy an annual pass if you’ll go more than twice. Florida residents get substantially reduced annual pass rates at both Disney and Universal, often with monthly payment options. If you’re going to visit two or three times a year, the pass beats individual tickets and removes the “we have to get our money’s worth today” pressure, which is the opposite of what a relaxed staycation is about.
Go for half days. The tourist mindset is: arrive when the rope drops, and stay to the fireworks. The local mindset is: arrive at 4pm, ride four things, eat dinner, watch the show, leave. The evenings are cooler, crowds thin after the day-trippers leave, and you go home happy instead of exhausted.
Use the resident-only ticket offers. Both major park operators run Florida resident promotions throughout the year, particularly in the autumn and late winter. These are frequently the cheapest park admission available anywhere.
Skip the park entirely and do Disney Springs or CityWalk. There’s no ticket required. You get free entry, access to restaurants, live music, shopping, and a cinema. It scratches the theme-park itch for the price of parking.
Money-Saving Tips for an Orlando Staycation
The whole point of a staycation is that it should cost meaningfully less than a “real” trip. Here’s how you can save some money.
Use the resident rates – all of them. Resort resident discounts like with Westgate Resorts, Florida resident park tickets, resident rates at attractions like Kennedy Space Center and the aquariums. A surprising number of places will honour it if you simply ask. Make sure to bring your ID.
Book accommodation with a kitchen. Breakfast at home, pack a lunch, and enjoy dinner out. That’s one restaurant meal a day instead of three. A family of four eating three meals a day in Orlando restaurants can easily clear $200/day.
Drive, obviously. The great thing about a Florida staycation is you don’t have to pay for pricey flights, baggage fees, and there’s no rental car needed! You can bring a cooler, some of your own food, a case of water, your favorite coffee machine, whatever you need! Even things like beach chairs – and whatever else you’d otherwise be buying or renting at resort prices…just toss it in the car.
Travel midweek. Sunday-to-Thursday rates in Orlando are frequently a fraction of Friday-Saturday rates. If your schedule has any flexibility at all, you’ll be able to save quite a bit.
Avoid peak weeks. Spring break, Christmas week, Easter, and the July 4th stretch are the most expensive and most crowded times to be anywhere in central Florida. The best time to travel around Florida is September, early December, and late January – lower rates, fewer crowds, and better weather than July.
Pre-book parking or use resort shuttles. Theme park parking runs $30+ per day. If your resort runs a shuttle, use it.
Set a daily “one nice thing” budget. Rather than tracking every dollar, pick one thing per day that you’ll spend properly on. Maybe a good dinner, the spa, a special ticket – and keep the rest cheap. It feels indulgent without the hefty bill at the end.
How to Actually Make It Feel Like a Vacation
This is the difference between a staycation that feels like you went abroad, and one where you just…slept somewhere else.
Pack a real bag. Not a gym bag with a toothbrush. Pack a suitcase like you’re going somewhere. The act of properly packing makes it feel like you’re actually going on holiday.
Set an actual departure time and stick to it. The problem with the staycation mentality is leaving at 4pm on Friday because you “just had to finish one thing.” Leave at noon if you can and take the half day. The extra four hours is a quarter of your weekend.
Turn off notifications. All of them. Pretend like you’ve gone away on holiday to Europe. Don’t answer your emails, texts or anything – you’re offline!
Don’t plan every hour. The joy of the staycation is you don’t have to jam everything in…because you could just return a month later if you wanted! Pick two main activities for a weekend, and make sure to carve out some pool / relax time as well.
Eat somewhere you wouldn’t normally. Tourists eat at the resort, and locals eat at the same six places on rotation. Break both patterns and go somewhere new! Ask your hotel for recommendations, or check Google Maps or Yelp.
Sample Orlando Staycation Itineraries
The Two-Night Reset (no parks)
Friday: Arrive midday, check in, pool time, spa treatment, dinner on I-Drive, and finish with a sunset ride on The Florida Eye at ICON Park, which is a five-minute walk from most of the restaurants there.
Saturday: Winter Park morning, enjoy the Morse Museum and the Scenic Boat Tour, followed by a long lunch on Park Avenue. Back to the resort for the afternoon, followed by a food tour in the Milk District for dinner.
Sunday: Wekiwa Springs early, drive home by mid-afternoon. Day-use entry is $6 per vehicle and you need to reserve a slot in advance now, so book it before you go.
The Family Long Weekend
Thursday: Arrive, stock up on groceries, settle into the villa, resort pool time.
Friday: Sleep in and enjoy the resort, have a slow breakfast in the villa, pool until lunch, then head to the park rested around 3pm. Half-day park visits work well because you’re not exhausted by 3pm…being lazy in the morning in the point.
Saturday: Chocolate Kingdom in the morning, resort waterpark all afternoon, nobody drives anywhere else. Dinner at the resort.
Sunday: Disney Springs or CityWalk, before heading home in the afternoon.
The Space and City Weekend
Friday: Arrive, settle in, dinner and a wander around downtown. Saturday: Kennedy Space Center – it’s an hour each way and deserves a full day, so leave early and don’t try to pair it with anything. Back for a late dinner.
Sunday: The Historic Districts walking tour downtown, brunch in Thornton Park, home mid-afternoon.
The Cheap Weekend
Friday night arrival, cook all your meals in the villa except one. Saturday at Wekiwa Springs, which is $6 per vehicle, then Lake Eola and wandering around the downtown in the afternoon, which costs nothing at all.
Sunday morning spent at the resort pool, then head home. Cooking your own food, getting the resident accommodation rates, and doing free activities will really save you a lot of cash on your staycation.
Final Thoughts
Some of the best trips we’ve taken weren’t the most expensive or farthest away. They’ve been the ones where we actually slowed down, where the schedule was relaxed and we had a ton of time to be spontaneous.
Orlando is unusually well-equipped for that. It’s built for visitors, it’s stacked with things to do at every price point, and if you’re a Florida or Georgia resident, you have access to rates that people flying in from any other state (or abroad) would love to get their hands on.
You don’t need a passport. You don’t need a two week holiday. You just need a weekend, a tank of gas, and a room that isn’t yours.
