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Credit: image Courtesy Orange County Government<\/p>\nCredit: image Courtesy Orange County Government<\/p>\n
Kicking off our Newcomers Guide this year is a freeform and uncategorized tour through some local deep cuts. Try \u2019em or don\u2019t, but these are places and activities that lend Orlando unique character you won\u2019t find anywhere else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Acme Superstore Asian markets Austin\u2019s Coffee Bok Tower Gardens Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Casselberry Arts Center Central Florida Dragon Parade Commission Beer Chamber Hot Dog Heaven<\/a> Orange Tree Antiques Mall Orlando Urban Trail Orlando Zine Fest Zora Neale Hurston National Museum This article appears in July 1-7, 2026 \u2014 Newcomers Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t\t\t
acme-superstore.com<\/a>
The trip to Longwood is worth it for this strip-mall-as-collectibles emporium that has been making pop-culture heads\u2019 dreams come true for many years now. Comics, aisles stuffed with toys both vintage and modern, and cards and gaming supplies are features of this four-color mainstay.<\/p>\n
ifresh-market.com<\/a>
lotteplaza.com<\/a>
Break the big-box habit and keep your grocery dollars local, while also being turned on to new tastes and seasonings. Sure, H-Mart is fun, but iFresh Market, Lotte and Dong-A Supermarket<\/a> (among many others!) have garnered a local audience eager for veggies, proteins, spices and sweets you\u2019re not likely to find at a chain. Plus those three are all fairly close together in and around Colonial.<\/p>\n
austinscoffee.com<\/a>
Winter Park\u2019s bohemian hub is safely ensconced in new expansive digs on Fairbanks just down the road from their previous longtime address. With new ownership (Preacher Lawson among them) and energy, they\u2019re back to full 24-hour power and a packed calendar of music, comedy and drag. Expect the unexpected.<\/p>\n
boktowergardens.org<\/a>
Would you like to spend a few hours living in a new age album (and a good one, like Laraaji not Yanni)? Then the mystical and peaceful refuge of Bok Tower Gardens in nearby Lake Wales awaits you. The lush grounds teem with flora and fauna centered around a Gothic-style singing tower that contains a 60-bell carillon. There\u2019s nothing like it.<\/p>\n
cassadaga.org<\/a>
If you\u2019re heading up I-4 East on a lazy summer weekend and suddenly the thought of jostling for your two square feet of space on a crowded Daytona Beach gives you premonitions of disaster, take the road less traveled to Cassadaga. Cassadaga \u2014 the oldest and most active community of psychics and mediums in the United States \u2014 is a can\u2019t-miss destination for the psychically sensitive or curious traveler who wants to see a very different side of Central Florida\u2019s living history.<\/p>\n
casselberry.org<\/a>
Seemingly against the odds, quiet Casselberry is becoming a modern art destination of choice for the greater Orlando area. Curator Justin Luper programs a year-round slate of arts happenings that include residencies, installations, group shows and even the occasional foray into creative music.\u00a0<\/p>\n
centralfloridadragonparade.org<\/a>
This annual parade brings good luck to the Mills 50 neighborhood for the Lunar New Year in the form of a massive paper dragon snaking through the streets. Local officials often lead the parade along with representatives of numerous Asian organizations and, of course, a serpentine and flowing dragon as the star. This is a celebration that brings Orlandoans together with hopes for fresh beginnings, all without the usual Jan. 1 hangover.<\/p>\n
instagram.com\/the_commission_beer_chamber<\/a>
In NYC rock & roll lore, it was CBGB and Max\u2019s Kansas City. In modern-day Orlando, the indie and rock scenes have home bases like Will\u2019s Pub. But for the city\u2019s true-school hip-hop scene, it\u2019s the Commission Beer Chamber. This funky spot on Curry Ford serves up classic-hip-hop vibes alongside tasty beverages, complete with 1990s decor up to and including haphazard piles of VHS tapes \u2014 and even proffers mix CD of local artists.<\/p>\n
An Orlando staple, Hot Dog Heaven has been slinging authentic Chicago dogs since 1987, with an unwavering community following for this classic bite. In an era of enshittified fast-food and fast-casual spots ever more aesthetically homogenous, the time-lost exterior of Heaven \u2014 complete with speared wiener \u2014 is worth the trip alone.<\/p>\n
orangetreeantiquesmall.com<\/a>
Despite what misinformation you may have been fed, antique malls \u2014 far from being dowdy and fussy \u2014 can often be essential weekend shopping destinations. Particularly when said antique mall is Orange Tree, located at the dividing line of Orlando and Winter Park. The shop is a wonderland of furnishings, clothing and pop-culture ephemera going back decades. This is the only spot, we daresay, where you can walk out clutching glassware, a Ben Cooper Halloween mask and a wrestling action figure. (Or so we\u2019ve ahem heard.)<\/p>\n
orlando.gov<\/a>
And they say Orlando is unwalkable! (Well, it is, but this is a very notable exception bucking the trend.) This central Orlando trail runs right through downtown and is approximately three miles long. It\u2019s mostly an off-street path, and it has connections to six nearby lakes, Orlando Cultural Park and Gaston Edwards Park.<\/p>\n
facebook.com\/orlandozinefest <\/a>
Annual showcase of local and regional print creativity takes the classic zine aesthetic and process \u2014 punks clustered around a Xerox machine disseminating information via self-publishing \u2014 and brings it to new fans across generations. Now hosted at Blackbird Comics \u2014 an even more youth-forward and all-ages venue \u2014 OZF gathers scores of inky-fingered creators to sell and swap their tracts. Given the current state of the state (and country and capitalism), zines are ever more essential in representing alternative and marginalized viewpoints.<\/p>\n
preserveeatonville.org<\/a>
Eatonville has a festival \u2014 aptly dubbed Zora! \u2014 devoted to their legendary daughter, Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote beautiful and profound novels like Their Eyes Were Watching God and the autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road, was a prime mover in the Harlem Renaissance, and later wrote incredible anthropological works. But for the other 50 weeks of the year, you owe it to yourself to visit this museum.<\/p>\n![\"Stay](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783828829_799_OW_JoinNewsletter_970x250_1.jpg\")
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