Discover Orlando

Orlando is founded on fun and thrills. Theme parks are thick on the ground and the sun seems to be always shining (Orlando gets 233 sunshine days a year!). What's more, the city itself is super pretty, with tree-lined suburbs, lush gardens and nature reserves, and a lively performing arts and museum scene. In other words, you don't have to be a kid to love Orlando! The huge variety of things to do means you can alternate theme park days with more restful activities, like exploring the headwaters of the Florida Everglades or working your way through a southern-style restaurant menu and cocktail list.

Enjoy some all-American Orlando hospitality

It's like Orlando was purpose-built for holidays. From the moment you land, fun is coming at you from every angle. To come to grips with all the possibilities, the city has produced the Visit Orlando App for your phone. You'll find it highly useful as you try to manage the logistics of identifying things to do, buying tickets, navigating around the city and finding restaurants.

Part of the fun of Orlando is locating a hotel that you'll never forget. If you're travelling with kids, consider the upside of a hotel with a built-in waterpark. You can guarantee nobody will ever utter the words 'I'm bored', because it takes about 30 seconds to step out of your hotel room and onto a waterslide! If you're a couple or group of grownups, there are some surprising boutique hotels that will blow you away with their décor and points of difference.

As far as food is concerned, almost anything goes in Orlando. You can have a stellar dinner from a food truck, eat fish fresh caught in the Gulf of Mexico or enjoy a romantic tête-à-tête at a lakeside historic home. Then there are bodegas, southern kitchens, taverns, gastropubs, delis and taquerias to discover. You also have to try some southern-style barbecue while you're staying in Orlando - brisket, ribs, pulled pork, burnt-ends and stackers stuffed with smoked meats, cheese and coleslaw. Nothing says southern hospitality quite like a plate of baby back ribs smothered with habanero sauce.

A multitude of theme parks

It seems that Orlando's very reason for being is theme parks. Beginning in the 1970s, when Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park arrived, the city has acquired fun-park attractions like a fridge attracts magnets. Walt Disney World Resort itself is now home to four theme parks and two water parks, including Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Then, there are around 15 other theme parks in the Greater Orlando area. The question is, which ones are for you? Here's a quick guide to what is generally accepted as the Top Five of Orlando theme parks:

• Number one is Disney's Magic Kingdom Park, with its exquisite Fantasyland castle. Located on a massive 107-acre site, it encompasses six lands - Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Main Street USA and Liberty Square
• Number two is Disney's Hollywood Studios, where you can combine your family's love of movies with their addiction to thrills. Favourite places here include Toy Story Land, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog dash and the 14-acre Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
• Number three slot goes to Universal Island of Adventure, an award-laded theme park that includes the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Marvel Super Hero Island, Jurassic Park and Seuss Landing, among others
• EPCOT slips in at number four, and it's a must for any family holiday because it ticks a lot of educational boxes. EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, so you can catch up with advancements in technology from energy to space travel. There's also the chance to explore other cultures, via food, music, art and architecture
• At number five, Disney's Animal Kingdom mixes nature with world-class theme park fun. You can go on safari, explore a jungle, see rare wild animals and scream yourself stupid on some amazing thrill rides. Avatar Flight of Passage is a highlight - you'll explore the landscape of Pandora on the back of a mountain banshee

Visit the Kennedy Space Center

Spending a day at the Kennedy Space Center is as close as you're ever likely to come to taking a trip into space. While you're visiting, it's important to remember that it's not an amusement park - it's actually a working spaceflight facility. Pretty exciting!

On a one-day visit to the complex you can visit the US Astronaut Hall of Fame, take a tour around the Apollo/Saturn V Center, spend time with a real astronaut and experience the Space Shuttle Atlantis, complete with a shuttle launch. If you're a genuine space boffin, there are specialist tours designed for people who know a bit about the space programmes.

Explore the source of the Florida Everglades

Just south of Orlando is an area of natural lakes that form the headwaters of the Florida Everglades. Known as the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, it's a place for fishing, birdwatching, hiking, horse riding, biking and wildlife spotting. Bald eagles live here at all times of the year; there's also a good chance of seeing gopher tortoises, alligators, deer, wild turkeys, hogs and multiple species of wading birds. Once you've paid your entry fee, you can explore the dirt roads by car or head off on foot.

If you don't have much time for exploring wild places, Orlando has a solution - and in true Orlando form, it's kind of a theme park. Wild Florida Airboats & Gator Park on the shores of Cypress Lake is where you can meet more than 200 species of animals, zoom around swamps and waterways in an airboat, and eat great barbecue food. You'll get a refreshing view of Central Florida and gain more understanding of how the everglades ecosystem works.