Author Archives: Dave

Historic Downtown Kissimmee

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Historic Downtown Kissimmee (not spelled Kisimmee or Kissimee or any other variation!) is situated in Osceola County, Florida, United States.  It’s worth a visit on a quiet day inbetween visiting the main Florida attractions and theme parks.  With a character of its own, a few hours can be spent relaxing and seeing what Kissimmee has to offer.  Lake Tohopekaliga also offers a few sights and variety to break up your vacation, why not try some bass fishing?

kissimmee

kissimmee

Historic Downtown Kissimmee is part of a redevelopment programme, offering great shopping, places to eat, restaurants, however whilst it doesn’t have the charm of Celebration it certainly has a bit more history to it.  There is a farmers market (as of 2013 this is on Tuesdays from 4pm), and loads of restaurants:

  • 3 Sisters Speakeasy (226 Broadway)
  • Azteca`s Mexican Restaurant (809 N. Main St.)
  • Breck`s Gourmet Cookies (24B Broadway)
  • Taqueria Tres Amigos (231 Broadway)
  • Broadway Pizza Bar (403 Broadway)
  • Savion’s Place (16 E. Dakin Ave)
  • Susan`s Courtside Cafe (18 S. Orlando Ave.)
  • Joanie`s Diner (120 Broadway)
  • Mrs. Mac`s Restaurant (215 Broadway)
  • Nadia’s Cafe (15 Broadway)
  • Natures Table (214 Broadway)
  • Nene’s Restaurant (324 Broadway)
  • Olga`s Restaurant (708 N. Main St.)
  • Pure Magic Ice Cream (520 North Main Street)
  • Robinson`s Coffee Shop and Diner (114 Broadway.)
  • Teresa`s Bar & Grill (219 Broadway)
  • Vintage Vino Wine Bar (14 E. Dakin Ave)
  • Wicked Step Sister (7 E. Dakin Ave)
  • Willy’s Wieners (108 E Dakin Ave)

Historic Downtown Kissimmee History

The history of Kissimmee (previously named Allendale) mainly lies with a chap called Hamilton Disston.  Southern Florida was mostly underwater in the 1800’s and Hamilton agreed to dredge and drain the land in exchange for half of everything he reclaimed.  This injected money into the state and a trading route was established to the gulf of Mexico along the river Kissimmee.  History shows that the main trade was citrus although cattle ranches were also a fairly dominant industry when big freezes ruined citrus crops in the early 1900s.

Retirements in the US population were encouraged to settle in Kissimmee – boosting the population until Walt Disney World came along in the early 1970’s, at which point Kissimmee doubled in population due to the staff required at the theme park.

Have a look at the Kissimmee main street website for more touring information.

Celebration Disney – what’s all the fuss about?

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Celebration Disney is one of the nicest places to visit in the Disney area of Orlando Florida. If there’s one place that you plan to visit, make it this one.

So, what’s all the fuss about? It’s just another town with neon signs, right?

celebration disney lake

celebration disney lake

Wrong. After travelling through mile after mile of badly designed neon signs, probably along the 192, you will no doubt be tired of the same old advertising and street layout in Florida. You’ll be eager to get to the theme parks, and probably avoiding any sort of sightseeing after a week or so. Make a detour to Celebration and you won’t regret it.  As you drift into the town you will soon see why it’s out of the ordinary, taking you back into an old style of the USA, with wonderful architecture and a welcoming feeling to every building in sight.

celebration disney architecture

celebration disney architecture

The first residents of Disney Celebration settled in 1996.  There are now over 4,000 buildings in the town and 9,000 residents.  The town enjoys a great downtown section, with boutique shops and an open area to walk in – no cars jostling past you with beeping horns.  Everyone just generally slows down and relaxes when they get to the town, and it’s a welcome break from the fast paced theme park attitude.

Be sure to take in the walking tour of Celebration, more information can be found here: Celebration Walking Tour.  The tour starts near the Preview Center (Charles Moore) on the corner of Celebration Avenue and Market Street near the beautiful fountain.   It’s a huge tower designed to show off the presence of the town.  As you progress through the tour you will see:

  • Celebration K-8 School
  • Stetson University building
  • Bohemian (Graham Gund)
  • The lakefront
  • The Celebration movie theater (Cesar Pelli)
  • The lake and the interactive fountain
  • Lakeside Promenade Fountain
  • Celebration Avenue
  • SunTrust Bank (Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown)
  • Welcome Center (Philip Johnson)
  • Post Office (Michael Graves)
  • Market Street
celebration disney lakefront seat

celebration disney lakefront seat

Venture further out by car and enjoy the wonderful architecture and resident’s houses.  Walk down by the lake and along the boardwalk to other smaller lakes.  Take it all in and enjoy the slow and friendly pace!

As of 2013, these retail shops live in the town:

    • Carpet One
    • Casa di Bella Bridal Boutique
    • Celebration Hardware Company
    • Celebration Nutritio
    • Confetti of Celebration
    • Downeast
    • Evolve Bicycles
    • H.H. Fine Jewelry
    • Jewel Box
    • Market Street Gallery
    • Publix
    • Sanrio Surprises
    • Soft As A Grape
    • The Celebration Store
    • Unique Boutique
    • Water Tower Shoppes
    • Woof Gang Bakery

 

…and these restaurants:

    • Bohemian Hotel Celebration
    • Cafe D’Antonio
    • Celebration Town Tavern
    • Chick’fil’A
    • Cold Stone Creamery
    • Columbia Restaurant
    • High Octane Cafe
    • Imperium Wine Room
    • Joe’s Crab Shack
    • Kilwin’s Confectionary
    • Le China
    • Market Street Cafe
    • Melia Orlando Suite Hotel
    • Mulligan’s Pub
    • Pandaisia
    • Quiznos
    • Seito Sushi
    • Shannon’s of CelebrationStarbucks
    • Sweet Escape
    • Thai Thani
    • The Windmill Restaurant
    • Upper Crust Pizza

 

Tuscan Ridge Community Video

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When we were searching for our private villa in Tuscan Ridge we took a short video of the community drive to reach each villa we looked at.  This is one of the best ways to remember what the community was like when you’re looking at real estate.  If you see ten private villa communities in a day how on earth can you remember what each community looks like without a movie to remind you?

Tuscan Ridge Community Video

Tuscan Ridge Community Video

Tuscan Ridge Vacation Rental – the drive in to Dave’s Florida Villa

The drive down to our villa from highway 27 is fairly straightforward.  Enter Tuscan Ridge from the southbound carriageway and head down to the roundabout.  If you are travelling north on the 27 you will need to do a u-turn just after you pass Tuscan Ridge. This must be one of the rare roundabouts in Florida! Take a left at the roundabout (anti clockwise) past the community club house into the “countryside” section of Tuscan Ridge and then turn right at the end of the road onto Dolcetto Drive.  Take the next left on to Moscato Drive and again the next left on to Barbera Drive which is where our villa is located.

Wide plots and spacious surroundings are a highlight of Tuscan Ridge that you will recognise whilst driving to Dave’s Florida Villa.  Pine trees line the south western edge of the community, and no other communities overlook Tuscan Ridge.  It’s a fantastic location away from the hustle and bustle but still near to Disney and Golfing areas of Florida.

Restaurants and Dining near Tuscan Ridge

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Orlando and Tuscan Ridge have plenty of places and restaurants to eat out, to suit all tastes. Yes, America is renowned for its fast food and chains, but there are a lot of nice places to wine and dine as well as lots of places to grab something quickly. Dave’s Florida Villa have all you need to eat in every night, but it wouldn’t really be a holiday if someone always has to slave over a hot stove, would it?!

Disney is well known to have lots of different places to eat, so here are a few as well as restaurants near to Tuscan Ridge.  I’ve left out the major fast food chains.

Nearby Restaurants

Disney Restaurants

Other Restaurants

 

Public transport from Tuscan Ridge, Davenport

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Our private Tuscan Ridge Villa is located on the US highway 27 about 5 miles north of the I-4 junction, but can you jump on public transport to enable you travel without a car?

In order to travel by public transport from Tuscan Ridge it would be necessary to find the nearest bus stop and most likely take a taxi there. The Davenport area is not particularly pedestrian friendly and often the sidewalks simply end abruptly and you’re forced into another route to walk.

However, there are a number of bus routes you can take advantage of if you do want to use public transport.

On the US-27 there is a 427 main bus route that runs north-south from Haines City all the way up past the 192. Unfortunately there aren’t many stops on the route so the nearest bus stop to Tuscan Ridge is near Posner Park.

Links here:

http://www.golynx.com/plan-trip/route-details.stml?portalProcess_dd_0_1_1=showPublicPosting&calendar_entry_id=1145
http://www.golynx.com/core/fileparse.php/97363/urlt/0055370-link-427.pdf
http://www.golynx.com/resources/pdf/lynx-system-map.pdf

To get to Disney, take the 427 up to the 192 and then another bus East on the 192 that travels up into the Disney Parks. We can’t comment on timings as we personally haven’t tried this route ourselves, preferring to drive to the attractions as opposed to lugging our bits and bobs around on public transport. However public transport is certainly a viable option.