{"id":160034,"date":"2026-02-18T17:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/160034\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T17:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:03:07","slug":"gatorland-orlando-tops-list-of-u-s-roadside-attractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/160034\/","title":{"rendered":"Gatorland Orlando tops list of U.S. roadside attractions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gatorland.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gatorland<\/a> is the national\u2019s most popular roadside attraction, according to a new survey that weighs <a href=\"http:\/\/tripadvisor.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TripAdvisor<\/a> reviews, <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> posts and worldwide <a href=\"http:\/\/google.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a> searches.<\/p>\n<p>The Orlando animal attraction, operating since 1949, edged out <a href=\"http:\/\/sunstudio.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sun Studio<\/a> of Memphis, Tennessee, in the rankings, which were released by <a href=\"http:\/\/betway.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Betway Casino<\/a>, which analyzed the statistics for more than 80 roadside attractions in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Gatorland features hundreds of reptiles, as well as other animals, plus gator wrestling, a zip-line course that travels over the breeding marsh, an off-road attraction, old Florida charm and an iconic entrance that encourages visitors to walk through oversized alligator jaws.\u00a0 The survey says Gatorland\u2019s average TripAdvisor score was 4.4, the second-highest level in the final top 10, and it has been featured in 135,932 Instagram posts.<\/p>\n<p>Four California attractions made the top 10 list, including Winchester Mystery House in San Jose; Glass Beach at Fort Bragg; Salvation Mountain, a folk-art installation; and the bright pink Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. The closest, in physical distance, to Orlando beyond Gatorland was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.com\/Tourism-g48966-Blowing_Rock_North_Carolina-Vacations.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Blowing Rock<\/a> in North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>Other top finishers include House on the Rock in Wisconsin; Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas; and Devils Punch Bowl of Otter Rock, Oregon.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/02\/18\/epcot-animatronics-0220\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Disney World: \u2018Frozen\u2019 ride updates, seadragons arrive at Epcot<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/02\/18\/gatorland-roadside-0220\/mailto:dbevil@orlandosentinel.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/02\/17\/citywalk-combs-0217\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Universal CityWalk: Luke Combs\u2019 Category 10 debuts in 2027<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gatorland is the national\u2019s most popular roadside attraction, according to a new survey that weighs TripAdvisor reviews, Instagram&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,104,28,114,266,1335,139,141,140,1976,11384,109,76686,76687,76688,76689,2411,106,1316,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-160034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-osceola-county","18":"tag-pets-and-animals","19":"tag-social","20":"tag-social-business","21":"tag-social-entertainment","22":"tag-social-theme-parks","23":"tag-social-travel","24":"tag-theme-parks","25":"tag-things-to-do","26":"tag-tourism","27":"tag-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}