The Central Region & Orlando

Compared to the rest of Florida, the central region is quite hilly though bear in mind that the highest point in Florida is only 340 feet (104 m) above sea level. What is more, no part of Florida is more than 62 miles (100 km) from the coast.

Some 40 million visitors come to Florida each year and over half of them head for Orlando and the theme parks. But central Florida is also home to many citrus groves and cattle ranches.

Gainesville

Gainesville is home to the oldest university in Florida aptly named the University of Florida founded in 1853. It is also home to the Gators American football team and the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, the second largest in Florida. South of Gainesville is the Paynes Prairie State Preserve where you can see the strange combination of buffalo and alligators.

About 19 miles north of Gainesville lies the site of the largest Civil War battlefield in Florida at Olustee. On February 20th 1864, roughly 5,000 Confederate troops fought a similar number of Union troops in what turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war in percentage terms. When the battle was over, some 2,800 soldiers were dead or wounded. Today the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park commemorates the event.

Orlando

Home to the largest theme park in the world, the Walt Disney World Resort was started in 1963 by Walt Disney when he bought up 45 square miles (120 sq km) of swamp and scrub land. Forty years on and it is still growing and now consists of the original Magic Kingdom, Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow), Disney-MGM Studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

Around it have blossomed a number of other theme parks including Universal Studios and SeaWorld. The number of visitors to Orlando continues to rise and is fast approaching 1 million visitors per week!

Kissimmee and St. Cloud

Kissimmee retains some of its old cowboy and cattle ranching roots with its annual rodeo at the Silver Spurs Rodeo. Nowadays most people know the area for its abundance of hotels, condos and villas and proximity to Disney World and the other Orlando attractions.