Things to Do in Orlando Besides Disney

Universal Orlando and Epic Universe: the other big resort

If your group says “Disney-scale rides, just not Disney,” Universal is the answer. The resort has three theme parks, Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and Epic Universe, plus the Volcano Bay water park. Universal sells its admission tickets directly, so buy them from Universal; our Universal ticket options guide explains one-park, Park-to-Park and multi-day tickets.

Epic Universe opened on May 22, 2025, and has five worlds: Celestial Park, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. If you have two days and have never been to Universal, spend one across Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios and one at Epic Universe. With only one non-Disney day in 2026, Epic Universe is the most tempting of the three because so much of it is new. Our Universal parks explained page compares all three, and best rides at Universal Orlando lists what to ride first.

Universal or Disney? Disney is usually stronger for younger children, classic characters and resort immersion. Universal suits teenagers, thrill riders, Harry Potter fans and Nintendo fans, and Epic Universe has made the comparison much closer than it was a few years ago.

You don’t need a park ticket for Universal CityWalk, the resort’s restaurant and entertainment district between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It fills an evening after a park day or if you’re staying at a Universal hotel; we wouldn’t build a trip around it.

Best for: families with older children, teens, adults, Harry Potter fans and gamers. Skip it if your goal is to get away from theme parks entirely.

SeaWorld Orlando: coasters and marine life

SeaWorld has changed a lot from the park many adults remember from childhood. It still has dolphin, penguin, manatee, shark and sea-lion areas, but it’s now one of Orlando’s best parks for roller coasters: eight of them, including Mako, Manta, Kraken, Pipeline, Ice Breaker and Penguin Trek.

Pick SeaWorld over Disney if your teens want coasters more than characters, you want a one-day park with no multi-day commitment, your family likes marine life, or you’re staying near International Drive. The SeaWorld Orlando park admission ticket (from $89, rated 4.1/5 from more than 2,200 reviews) has options to add Aquatica, Busch Gardens or a shuttle. Our SeaWorld tickets page compares the options, and SeaWorld rides and shows has heights and a one-day plan.

Airboat rides: the Florida most visitors never see

An airboat ride is the quickest way to see a completely different Orlando. You skim across the marshes and lakes that feed the Everglades, look for alligators and wading birds, and are back at your hotel by lunchtime. Rides run 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

The easiest first choice is the Wild Florida airboat ride and wildlife park ticket. You pick a 30- or 60-minute ride, and every ticket includes the park’s Alligator Park with a live gator show, so even if the wild gators stay hidden you still see some. Wild Florida is in Kenansville, roughly 34 miles southeast of Disney, and it’s closed on Sundays. Operators all say the same thing about wildlife: sightings are likely but never guaranteed. Without a car, the Wild Florida adventure package with hotel pickup and lunch handles the drive; it has only 48 reviews so far (4.4/5).

For a longer, quieter ride on Lake Tohopekaliga in Kissimmee, look at the Kissimmee Everglades airboat adventure, which runs 1 or 1.5 hours on smaller boats. If you don’t have a car, pickup options exist; our airboat tours with transport page compares them. The full comparison of rides, lengths and operators is on the Orlando airboat tours hub.

Who should skip it: anyone who hates noise (you wear ear protection) or who won’t be out early in summer. The operators themselves recommend mornings when it’s hot.

Gators and safari: Gatorland or Wild Florida?

Gatorland, at 14501 S. Orange Blossom Trail, has been open since 1949 and holds more than 2,000 American alligators on 110 acres. It’s open daily from 10 am to 5 pm, rain or shine, and parking is free. Adult gate admission is $34.99 and children under 3 get in free. The shows are the draw: “Alligators: Legends of the Swamp” with a handler and big gators, and Gator Jumparoo, where alligators jump four feet or more out of the water. Add the zip line if you have older kids. The Gatorland skip-the-line ticket covers the day; plan three to four hours.

Wild Florida adds a 4-mile drive-thru safari on 170 acres with more than 150 animals, including giraffes, zebras, bison and antelope. You drive your own car (no convertibles or motorcycles), so it doesn’t work without one, and a loop takes 45 to 90 minutes. Admission is $35 for adults and $25 for children, with the Alligator Park included. If small children aren’t ready for an airboat, the safari is the gentler option, and you keep the air conditioning on. Pair it with an airboat ride and you have a full, varied day in one place.

Pick Gatorland if you mainly want reptiles, have half a day and are staying near central Orlando or Disney. Pick Wild Florida if the airboat is the main event, you have a car and can spare more time. Our Gatorland vs Wild Florida comparison goes into the details, and the Wild Florida safari page covers the drive-thru.

Kennedy Space Center: the best full day away

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is about 50 miles east of Orlando on Merritt Island, a 45- to 60-minute drive. It sits beside NASA’s working spaceport, so this is a real launch site, not a theme park with a science label. It’s a full day: Space Shuttle Atlantis, displayed with its payload bay doors open, the Rocket Garden, and the bus tour out to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, which alone takes three to four hours with its stops. Most visitors don’t manage everything in one visit, and if a launch lines up with your dates, you get a bonus.

If you have a car, buy the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex ticket (4.7/5 from more than 6,200 reviews) and drive. If you don’t, the Kennedy Space Center trip with transport from Orlando handles the round trip, since the complex doesn’t run its own transport from Orlando. Our Kennedy Space Center from Orlando page compares admission, coach trips and small groups. It suits space fans of every age; small children may flag by the afternoon. Give it the whole day and don’t try to add another attraction.

ICON Park and WonderWorks: easy I-Drive half days

International Drive has the attractions that save a rainy, hot or jet-lagged afternoon without committing a whole day. ICON Park is free to walk around; you pay only for what you do. Its centerpiece is the 400-ft Orlando Eye, and The Orlando Eye with optional attractions covers the roughly 20-minute ride, with options to add SEA LIFE or Madame Tussauds. Check the Eye’s calendar first: it stops for thunderstorms and high winds and closes for annual maintenance.

• SEA LIFE Orlando has a 360-degree ocean tunnel with sharks, rays and turtles, and takes about 1.5 to 2 hours. It suits preschool and early-grade children who find the big parks overwhelming.
• The Madame Tussauds and SEA LIFE combo (4.6/5 from 425 reviews) is the simplest buy if you want both.
• The Museum of Illusions takes 30 to 45 minutes, so treat it as a filler between other plans.

WonderWorks, the upside-down building, is three to four hours of hands-on science, laser tag and a ropes course, open until midnight. Both are on the I-Ride Trolley route, which makes I-Drive the easiest non-Disney area without a car.

Discovery Cove: one day, all-inclusive

Discovery Cove, SeaWorld’s sister park, is a reservation-only day resort where attendance is limited each day. Breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks are included, as are snorkel gear and a towel. You snorkel the Grand Reef with rays and tropical fish, float the lazy river and hand-feed birds in the aviary. The dolphin swim is an upgrade, with a minimum age of 6 and height of 42 inches.

The Discovery Cove admission ticket can also add SeaWorld and Aquatica days. It’s expensive, so read is Discovery Cove worth it? before you book. Book summer and holiday dates early, since daily numbers are capped.

Dinner shows: an evening off your feet

After a long park day, a dinner show gives you a meal and entertainment without more walking. The Polynesian Fire Luau in Kissimmee is a two-hour indoor show with a buffet, a live band, hula and a Samoan fire-knife finale. The Medieval Times dinner and show is the choice for younger kids who want knights and horses; note that ticket is non-refundable. Compare them all on our Orlando dinner shows page, and see things to do in Orlando at night for more evening ideas.

Tree Trek and the Central Florida Zoo: smaller active days

Orlando Tree Trek Adventure Park, at 7625 Sinclair Road in Kissimmee, swaps ride vehicles for climbing. It has 97 aerial challenges across four adult courses of rising difficulty, two kids’ courses and a 425-foot zip line. The standard ticket gives you two hours in the trees, so allow two to three hours with the safety briefing. It suits active teens, families who like climbing and competitive siblings. Book a time slot on the park’s own site before you drive over.

The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens in Sanford, north of Orlando, is smaller and much less tiring than a theme park. It’s open daily from 9 am to 4 pm (last entry 3:30 pm), and online tickets cost $5 less than at the gate. It’s a good fit for younger families who want a low-key animal day, especially if you’re staying on the north side. Plan three to four hours.

Neither sells tickets on GetYourGuide, so book them directly.

Kayaks and bioluminescence: seasonal and special

On summer nights, the lagoons near Cape Canaveral glow. Tiny organisms light up whenever something moves, so every paddle stroke, fish and even passing manatee leaves a trail. The season runs roughly June to October, peaking July to September, and a new moon gives the best show. In the cooler months, from about November to May, comb jellies provide the glow instead.

The small-group Magic After Dark bioluminescence kayak tour meets off State Road 528 on the way to the coast, about an hour’s drive from Orlando. It offers a return voucher if the glow doesn’t show. You need your own transport, and you’ll get wet.

Helicopter flights over the parks

If you want to see the whole theme-park map at once, a helicopter flight is the way. The narrated day helicopter flight over the theme parks lets you choose a route over Universal, Disney and the Orlando Eye with a pilot’s commentary. The private 16-mile helicopter tour from Kissimmee Airport is a shorter private hop, with a two-person minimum per booking. Both helicopters take three passengers at a time and have weight limits, and every passenger is weighed. Hotel pickup isn’t included.

Springs and manatees: Wekiwa and a day trip north

Wekiwa Springs State Park, north of Orlando, is the cheapest good day out near the city: clear spring water for swimming, plus kayaking, canoeing and hiking, for $6 per vehicle with up to eight people. Florida State Parks now requires a day-use reservation, so book before you go. Rock Springs Run State Reserve next door has more trails and paddling if you want a quieter stretch of the river. Our things to do besides theme parks guide covers Wekiwa in detail.

At Silver Springs State Park near Ocala, about 1.5 hours north, the glass-bottom boat was invented in the 1870s, and the 30-minute boat tours still run every day. At Crystal River, one of only a few places in the world where you can legally swim with manatees, the best months are mid-November to March, when manatees gather in the warm springs.

Without a car, the manatee snorkel tour with hotel pickup makes Crystal River an 11-hour day with lunch and a visit to Homosassa Springs. Closer in, the small-group manatee and wildlife kayak tour paddles near Blue Spring State Park, best in winter. The day trips from Orlando hub covers these and the coast.

Cocoa Beach and the Space Coast

It’s easy to forget at Disney World that Orlando sits about an hour from the Atlantic. Cocoa Beach, straight east on State Road 528, is the most practical beach day from the city, and it shares the drive with Kennedy Space Center. Doing a full Kennedy visit and a proper beach day together feels rushed, so pick one of two plans:

• A pure beach day: leave in the morning, spend the day on the sand and come back after dinner, once the evening traffic has eased.
• Kennedy plus a short stop: give most of the day to the space center, then spend an hour or two on the coast on the way back.

On the water, the Cocoa Beach dolphin and wildlife tour (4.7/5 from 163 reviews) is a boat trip to look for dolphins and other wildlife; you need your own way to the coast.

Winter Park, Leu Gardens and downtown: Orlando as a real city

Drive north of the tourist corridor and Orlando looks like an ordinary, pleasant city. In Winter Park you get lakes, shaded streets, Park Avenue’s cafés and boutiques, Rollins College and the Scenic Boat Tour through canals lined with old homes. Harry P. Leu Gardens near downtown is a quiet couple of hours among palms and flowering collections, best in the cooler months. Downtown, Lake Eola is free to walk around, with Thornton Park’s cafés next door.

None of these has a booking link, and all suit couples, grandparents and repeat visitors. Our things to do besides theme parks guide has hours, prices and a full Winter Park half day, plus the Orlando Science Center for a rainy morning.

For shopping, the outlet centers near International Drive suit bargain hunters, The Mall at Millenia is the upscale indoor mall, and Park Avenue is the place for browsing. Set a time limit: an outlet visit meant to take an hour easily becomes six.

Free and low-cost days

Orlando isn’t known for free sightseeing, but you do have options:

• Wekiwa Springs: $6 per vehicle, with a day-use reservation.
• Lake Eola and downtown: free to walk.
• Winter Park’s Park Avenue: free to explore; the boat tour is the only cost.
• ICON Park and CityWalk: free to enter; you pay for attractions, food and parking.
• A hotel-pool day: after several park days, a late breakfast, the pool, a nap and dinner away from the parks can be the best day of the trip.

Non-Disney itineraries

One day, the “best of Florida” version: an airboat ride at Wild Florida in the morning, lunch there or on the way back, then the Alligator Park or the drive-thru safari in the afternoon.

One day without theme parks: the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour in the morning, lunch on Park Avenue, Leu Gardens in the afternoon and ICON Park in the evening.

Two days without Disney: Kennedy Space Center on day one, then Wekiwa Springs in the morning and Winter Park for the afternoon and dinner on day two.

Three days outside Disney on a first trip: one at Universal (Epic Universe or Islands of Adventure), one at Kennedy Space Center, and one outdoors at Wild Florida or Wekiwa Springs. That mix gives you another style of theme park, real space history and natural Florida.

Four days with no theme parks at all: Kennedy Space Center, Wekiwa Springs plus Winter Park, Wild Florida’s airboats and wildlife, then Cocoa Beach. Add downtown, Leu Gardens or the Science Center depending on the weather.

If you dislike theme parks, Orlando still works as a base for a Central Florida trip; just don’t spend the week on International Drive.

How to fit it all around the parks

• Put outdoor experiences (airboats, safari, kayaks) in the morning from June to September. Afternoon storms are the rule, and lightning in this part of Florida peaks between noon and midnight.
• Use a non-park day as a rest day. Discovery Cove, Gatorland and a dinner show are all lower effort than a park.
• Group by area: Gatorland, the airboats, Tree Trek and the luau are all on the Kissimmee side; ICON Park, WonderWorks, SeaWorld and Titanic are on or near I-Drive.
• Check transport before you book. Kennedy, Wild Florida, Cocoa Beach and the springs need a car or a tour; Universal, SeaWorld and ICON Park are easy without one. Our Orlando without a car guide explains the options.
• Book ahead for Universal tickets, Kennedy tours, airboats, Tree Trek, Discovery Cove and Wekiwa Springs. Leu Gardens and downtown are fine on the day.
• Traveling with kids? The Orlando with kids hub sorts these by age. With teens, start with Epic Universe, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, Tree Trek and an airboat; with small children, SEA LIFE, the Science Center, Gatorland and the Central Florida Zoo.

Frequently asked questions

What is there to do in Orlando besides Disney and Universal?

Plenty. The most popular choices are SeaWorld, airboat rides in the Everglades headwaters, Gatorland, the Wild Florida drive-thru safari, Kennedy Space Center, Discovery Cove and dinner shows such as the Polynesian Fire Luau. On International Drive, ICON Park, WonderWorks and the Titanic exhibition fill rainy afternoons. Wekiwa Springs, Winter Park and Cocoa Beach suit a day with no park at all, and seasonal extras include bioluminescent kayaking in summer and manatee trips in winter.

What is the best Orlando attraction other than Disney?

For another big theme-park day, Universal Orlando, and Epic Universe in particular. For something completely different, Kennedy Space Center. For a taste of Florida itself, an airboat ride at Wild Florida.

What are the best things to do in Orlando besides Disney for adults?

Kennedy Space Center is the standout full day for adults. After that, a longer airboat ride, Discovery Cove with its included beer and wine for guests 21 and over, a bioluminescence kayak tour on a summer night, or a helicopter flight over the parks all appeal more to grown-ups than to small kids. Winter Park and Leu Gardens make a relaxed day, and in the evening you can try Blue Man Group at ICON Park, CityWalk or a dinner show.

What can you do in Orlando besides Disney with kids?

Gatorland is the easiest win with kids: close to Disney, open every day, with jumping alligators and a zip line for older children. WonderWorks keeps 6- to 14-year-olds busy for hours, and SEA LIFE at ICON Park suits toddlers. Teens usually head for Universal, SeaWorld’s coasters or Tree Trek. Airboats have no age minimum at most operators, though small children need life jackets. See our Orlando with kids hub for picks by age.

Do you need a car for things to do outside the parks?

For some of them. Universal, SeaWorld, Gatorland, the I-Drive attractions and the dinner shows are easy by rideshare or trolley. Wild Florida’s safari needs your own car, and Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, Crystal River and the bioluminescence tours need a car or a tour with transport. Several airboat and Kennedy tours include hotel pickup, which is often simpler than renting a car for one day.

Is Kennedy Space Center in Orlando?

No. The visitor complex is on Merritt Island on the Space Coast, about 50 miles east of Orlando, so treat it as a full-day trip from the city.

Are there free things to do in Orlando?

Yes. Walking around Lake Eola, exploring downtown and strolling Park Avenue in Winter Park are free, and ICON Park and CityWalk are free to enter, though you pay for attractions, food and parking.

Can you see alligators near Orlando?

Yes. Gatorland has more than 2,000 alligators on site, and Wild Florida’s Alligator Park is included with its airboat and safari tickets, so you’ll see gators at both. On airboat rides in the wild, alligators are often spotted, but no operator guarantees a daytime sighting. For the best odds on the water, avoid the hottest midday hours in summer.