Orlando, Florida is known for its pleasant weather and its location in the center of one of the country’s fastest growing real estate markets.
Orlando is the principal city of the Orlando-Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area known as Greater Orlando or Metro Orlando. It encompasses Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Lake counties and is currently the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the state of Florida behind Miami and Tampa with a population of approximately 2 million.
There are 2 major seasons for Orlando’s subtropical climate. From May through September is the hot and rainy season with temperature highs from the upper 80s to mid 90s and the lows from the upper 60s to the mid 70s. You may see thundershowers in the afternoons but they are usually fast moving and do not last long.
From October to May is the cooler season and daily temperature highs range from low 70s to mid 80s and in the evening the lows range from low 50s to mid 60s with an occasional freeze between December and February. If you plan on visiting the Orlando Area between October and May we suggest you take a light jacket or sweaters for your evening excursions.
For the recreational sports enthusiast there are many things to do in Central Florida. There are over 80 golf courses and more than 800 tennis courts in the area.
For the person who prefers to be on the water there are approximately 2,000 freshwater lakes in the Central Florida area. For the sea lovers, the Atlantic Ocean is only 1 hour east and the Gulf of Mexico is only 1.5 hours west of the city of Orlando.
The city symbol for Orlando is the Fountain of Lake Eola. The Orlando International Airport (MCO) is the primary airport for the area and is the busiest airport in the State of Florida. The Orlando Sanford International Airport is located in a far northern suburb and serves as a secondary airport.
Orlando has become one of the most popular Vacation Destinations in the world with an estimated 52 million visitors per year. It has the second largest number of hotel rooms in the Country, only behind Las Vegas, Nevada. The
Orange County Convention Center is the second largest convention complex in the country, in terms of square footage, behind McCormick Place in Chicago. Tourism has become the centerpiece of the Orlando area economy.
The City of Orlando is one of the most diverse metropolitan cities in America. Tourism is very important to the area but if you will take a closer look, you will see a vast cultural arts scene, enthusiastic sports fans, one of the fastest growing retail markets, and some of the best fine dining in the state.
Take a look at our
Event and
Sports Calendars and you will see the array of different things going on in the Orlando area.
Orlando History
Historians date Orlando’s name back to 1837 during the Second Seminole War when Orlando Reeves, an American soldier on sentinel duty for a scouting party shot at an approaching native disguised as a log. The shot woke his fellow soldiers and saved them from the ambush but Orlando Reeves was not so lucky and died from an arrow shot by the native. Later, pioneer settlers simply found his name carved in to a tree and assumed it was his marker for his gravesite. They then referred to the area as Orlando’s Grave and later simply as Orlando.
Most of the pioneers did not arrive to the area until after the Third Seminole War in the 1850s. Orlando, Florida was founded in 1857 and incorporated in 1875. It became a city in 1885. During the 1880s some of the pioneers started growing citrus trees.
The growth of Orlando at that time was associated with the citrus growers need for better transportation to get their product to the market place. This was known as Orlando’s Golden Era but then disaster struck in 1894 when a 3-day freeze destroyed nearly all the citrus trees in Orange County. This created the “Citrus Barons” who shifted their operations to the south, primarily around Lake Wales in Polk County.
Between 1910 and 1920 the population of Orlando doubled, transforming the small citrus growing area to a major city. During the 1920s Orlando experienced a building boom aided by its prosperity and evidenced by the opening of the Orlando Public Library in 1923 and the Municipal Auditorium (now the
Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre) in 1927. That boom ended in the late 1920s when several hurricanes hit the state of Florida and the Great Depression arrived.
The biggest announcement that would change Orlando forever was in 1965 when Walt Disney made public his plans to build
Walt Disney World just outside of Orlando.
Walt Disney World opened in October of 1971 and the explosion of the population and economic growth followed.
Sea World of Florida opened in 1973 and
Universal Studios opened in 1990. With these 3 mega Theme Parks, the Orlando area would become the Mecca for Theme Park entertainment.