12 ways to fit in like a real Orlandoan

Orlandoans can come from anywhere, and in recent years, that has meant from everywhere.

Since 2020, this cultural center of Central Florida has added more than 144,000 residents, with more than 41% attributable to international migration, according to the Orlando Economic Partnership. The result is a diverse and welcoming community of wide-ranging opinions and lifestyles.

The one idea that binds locals is that they are not tourists, i.e. the people locals spend all of their time driving around. To residents, the Linton E. Allen Memorial Fountain in Lake Eola is a more common image than mouse ears.

The City Beautiful both clamors for tourists like a salivating pup and complains about them at bars all over town.

“As long as you’re authentic and genuine, you’re part of us,” said Heather Bedor, a 25-year veteran of the city, a marketing consultant for local restaurants, and the creator of Still Serving Orlando, a social media account of restaurant news started during the pandemic.

Here’s how to stop looking like you’re on vacation in Orlando:
 

Orlando is a sprawling community, with subdivisions and strip malls spread unevenly through its 119 square miles and even more through the three-county metropolitan area. The bus system, Lynx, covers 2,500 square miles with just over 400 vehicles.

If you opt to drive, be prepared to sit in your vehicle. “Always GPS your location,” Bedor said, “even if it’s only a couple of miles away, because it could be an hour in traffic.”

Bedor recommended learning when big groups are hitting the Orange County Convention Center and the theme parks are having their holiday festivals. “Learn them to avoid the areas at all costs,” she said.

It's also best to learn the surface streets to avoid the often-under-construction and always-packed Interstate 4 and crowded corridors such as State Roads 50 and 436.

Don’t add to the traffic by driving carelessly. Use turn signals and let people merge. Assurance IQ rated Interstate 4 the deadliest highway in America in 2024, and it has earned it.

“Forget everything you’ve ever known about driving [on I-4],” said Brendan O’Connor, former editor of Bungalower, a local magazine about culture and real estate.

Be considerate and pay attention to signs, like the one that tells people not to turn left at the busy intersection of Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive. If you've lost your temper at that intersection, you're a true local, O’Connor said.

If you recall no other rule, remember this: Every body of water where you can’t see the bottom can have an alligator in it. Do not splash around in what appears to be a muddy puddle.

If you don’t go near them (as some locals are wont to do) or their habitat, and you keep your dogs and children away, you should be fine. In 2024, there were 11 alligator attacks, none of them fatal, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That's not the case this year. In May, an alligator killed a Michigan woman while she was canoeing in Lake Kissimmee.

You also need to watch out for the mosquitoes, especially when the state has outbreaks of encephalitis, West Nile virus, or Zika. Wear bug spray all the time.

Are you familiar with the Orlando Sound, sometimes called "Florida breaks?" It's an entire genre of house music — a mixture of hip-hop, Miami bass and electro — that originated at clubs in Orlando, some of which are still around, such as The Beacham.

“It’s a unique and rich culture that we have,” Bedor said. “We’re not just the theme parks. We were one of the only stops on the railroad for a while.”

Let a local ramble to you about the heydays of Church Street Station. Know how Bob Ross and Mr. Rogers are connected to the area. Ross, the painter of "happy, little trees" was born in Florida and spent his later years at his home in Orlando before he died in 1995. Fred Rogers attended Rollins College in Winter Park, a neighborhood that would influence his long-running TV show, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."

And it's not just the people you should familiarize yourself with.

“Know your famous local animals,” O’Connor said, such as Barney the Buffalo and Billy the Swan.
Barney escaped from a "Wild Bill" Hickok traveling show in 1912 and visited shops along Orange Avenue, according to the Orange County Regional History Center.

Billy the Swan was "famous for his fierce personality," the center said, and "he nipped at children on their way to Delaney Elementary School and even chased after cars." That legendary "King of Lake Lucerne" played a central role in boosting the area's swan population, which stands as a symbol of City Beautiful.

If you really want to dive deep, sign up for a free moonlight tour of Greenwood Cemetery, one of the city's oldest burial grounds with connections to every point in Orlando's history. “It’s got a ton of interesting stuff,” Bedor said.

The Timucua is a world-class concert stage with state-of-the-art audio engineering that you enter through the owner’s kitchen. It’s literally just a part of a home.

Some of the best art in Orlando is produced at nontraditional venues.

The city has way more creative producers than institutions to house them. Orlando has the longest-running Fringe Festival of alternative theater in the U.S., which takes over theaters, clubs and museums. Art shows open in dive bars and lounges, and some of the best music is played in backyards.

Don’t see only the acts Ticketmaster advertises. “Give every venue an opportunity,” Bedor said, from immersive drag shows at The Renaissance to burlesque at ME Theatre.

Orlando doesn’t have a National Football League or Major League Baseball team, but it does have the Pride, 2024’s National Women’s Soccer League champions. It's the only team in the city to win a major league championship. Sorry, Magic.

There is a lot to cheer for in town, from the Magic to the Golden Knights to quidditch teams to Team Dojo Wrestling. Out-of-staters with an allegiance to distant alma maters are likely to find at least one sports bar dedicated to their teams.

If sports aren’t your thing, you can cheer on the floats at the Come Out With Pride in October, which draws a big crowd. “We’re our own little rainbow island,” Bedor said.

The city just outside Walt Disney World where the movie “The Florida Project” takes place is called kiss-IM-ee, not KISS-uh-mee. That’s an easy one to miss but a dead giveaway you haven’t been here long. It is in the county of OSS-ee-O-la (Osceola).

Yeehaw Junction and Okahumpka sound just like they look.

The town of Christmas is named for the holiday, which is when soldiers during the Second Seminole War decided to build a fort there.

Road names can be tricky, but there are shortcuts. Don’t even try with Econlockhatchee. Just call it Econ. Semoran Boulevard (short for Seminole and Orange, the two counties it crosses) can be shortened to the 436, its state road number. Similarly, feel free to call Alafaya Trail by the University of Central Florida 434.

In Orlando, you can make more friends hanging with amateurs than rooting for pros. O’Connor recommends checking out the nightly karaoke at Big Daddy’s, and don’t be afraid to perform.

Open mic nights for comedy, poetry, music and more are available virtually every night. There are Scrabble clubs and kickball leagues and a wide array of interests in between represented.

“You’re going to be accepted for who you are,” Bedor said. “It means having pride in yourself, too.”

Transplants from anywhere north of Texas are going to learn what heat means here. Even those from the West will discover a dry 100 degrees is infinitely preferable to a humid 90. In summer, if it isn’t too hot to go outside, it’s because the sky has become a maelstrom of rain and lightning.

In fall (less consistently these years than before), the heat breaks, the storms get less apocalyptic, and the true beauty of Florida emerges. Take that time to visit Orlando Wetlands Park (at Christmas), a manufactured attraction with trails that reveal the state's primordial features.

Gardeners, be prepared: You sow in September now, reap in winter and spring.

Even though the ocean is more than an hour away, it’s available in two directions and enjoyable year-round. (Cold temps in winter are genuinely a day-to-day question.)

“Take a dip at Cape Canaveral sunny-side up,” O’Connor said, using a euphemism for swimming in the nude. He means to try Beach 13 at the Canaveral National Seashore, where there are nude sunbathers, too.

It’s just following the idea of relaxing at the beach to its logical conclusion: Letting it all really go.

On any beach, sunscreen is a must, Bedor reminds newcomers. And once again, she cautions to steer clear of massing tourists.

“I avoid spring break like the plague,” she said. “And I don’t like to pay to park at the beach, because the beach is free.”

Orlando is not merely a magnet for chain restaurants; it’s a test market. Residents have plenty of drive-thru and fast-casual options they’re familiar with, but locals need to be able to talk fluently about the local scene.

“You can eat at a different local establishment three times a day every day for five or six years,” Bedor said.

Be sure to try the “triumvirate” of sandwich shops, according to O’Connor: Beefy King, Kappy’s in Maitland, and Art’s Sandwich Shop. “And, depending on whether a hot dog is a sandwich, Hot Dog Heaven,” he said.

Unlike older, more established cities, Orlando doesn’t have a signature dish. So one can feel equally confident trying anything on offer. Just don’t be wedded to a sit-model. At a lot of the best places, you order at the counter.

The dirty secret: Orlandoans go to the theme parks — some go a lot. The trick is the annual passes.

As of July 1, an annual pass to Walt Disney World starts at $469 per person for Florida residents. At Universal, passes start at $335 down and $30 per month. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal has its own passes.

SeaWorld, Aquatica, Fun Spot, Gatorland and more attractions offer some kind of multiuse ticket.

Bedor likes to check out the holiday displays and festivals at the different parks. And if you’re a fan, there are ever-changing events that can make going regularly worth it.

Or maybe you just want to end a long workday by screaming on a roller coaster.