What are the best day trips from Orlando?

Staying in a vacation home in Kissimmee or Davenport gives you a car, a kitchen and your own schedule, which makes it easy to fit in a day away from the parks. The catch is distance. Florida is big, and a stop that looks close on the map can turn into five hours of total driving. The drive times below are routing estimates from downtown Kissimmee with no traffic, and every price was checked on the official page on October 6, 2026.

What are the best day trips from Orlando?

The best ones are within about two hours and give you something Orlando can’t: rockets, the ocean, a historic town or manatees. Here are the ten destinations in this guide.

Destination	Drive from Kissimmee (one way)	Highlight	Best for	Cost on the official site
Winter Park	about 40 min, 27 mi (44 km)	Park Avenue and a boat tour on the lakes	Easy day, couples, grandparents	Boat tour: $20 adults, $10 ages 2 to 11, tax included
Mount Dora	about 1 hr, 46 mi (73 km)	Old downtown on Lake Dora	Slow day, antiques	No official cost published
Kennedy Space Center	about 1 hr 20 min, 58 mi (94 km)	NASA’s visitor complex	Families, space fans	1 day: $77 (ages 12+), $67 (3 to 11), parking extra
Cocoa Beach	about 1 hr 20 min, 62 mi (100 km)	Closest easy Atlantic beach	Quick beach day, pairs with Kennedy	See the beaches guide
Tampa	about 1 hr 30 min, 73 mi (118 km)	Busch Gardens and the Florida Aquarium	Coasters, kids	Busch Gardens from $61.99 online, varies by date
Daytona Beach	about 1 hr 40 min, 79 mi (128 km)	You can drive on the sand	Wide beach	$30 per vehicle per day on the beach for visitors
St. Petersburg	about 2 hr, 96 mi (155 km)	St. Pete Pier on Tampa Bay	Families, sunset	Free to enter the Pier
Clearwater Beach	about 2 hr 5 min, 97 mi (156 km)	White sand and Gulf sunsets	Full beach day	Pier 60 lot: $3.50 per hour
Crystal River	about 2 hr 5 min, 99 mi (160 km)	Manatees in spring water	Nature, winter trips	Check the official site
St. Augustine	about 2 hr 35 min, 126 mi (202 km)	City founded in 1565	History, teens, adults	Castillo: $15 ages 16+, 15 and under free

Sources: OpenStreetMap (OSRM) routes from downtown Kissimmee, no traffic; prices from each attraction’s official page, checked October 2026. Traffic, construction and rain can add a lot of time.

Which day trip should you take on the Atlantic coast?

The Atlantic side is the closest to Kissimmee. Kennedy, Cocoa Beach and Daytona are all 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 40 minutes away. St. Augustine is the long one, worth it if you don’t mind a day on the road.

Kennedy Space Center. NASA’s visitor complex, with real rockets and exhibits on the missions. A one-day ticket on the official price list is $77 for ages 12 and up and $67 for ages 3 to 11, parking not included. We cover the full plan in whether Kennedy Space Center is worth a day trip from Orlando. If a launch is scheduled that week, see how to watch a rocket launch from Orlando.

Cocoa Beach. It sits on the same route as Kennedy, so the two fit in one day. We compare the area’s beaches in the best beaches near Orlando.

Daytona Beach. The draw is driving right onto the sand in marked areas. Volusia County charges visitors $30 per vehicle per day. The rules call for headlights on, at least one front window open and staying seaward of the conservation zone markers.

St. Augustine. The National Park Service dates the city to 1565, and the Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. Entry is $15 for ages 16 and up, good for 7 consecutive days. Kids 15 and under get in free with an adult, and the park takes cards only. At 2 hours 35 minutes each way, plan on five hours of driving that day.

How far is Tampa from Kissimmee, and what is there to do?

Tampa is about 1 hour 30 minutes from Kissimmee, roughly 73 miles (118 km) with no traffic. That is a full park day with a drive on each end.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. A park with roller coasters and animals that also sells combo tickets with SeaWorld Orlando. A single-day ticket starts at $61.99 when bought online in advance. The price changes by date, and parking is not included.

Florida Aquarium. It sits in downtown Tampa. The aquarium says ticket prices depend on the day you visit and that reservations aren’t required but help you skip the line. It works as a backup for a stormy day.

Clearwater Beach and St. Petersburg. Across the bay are the white sand of Clearwater and the St. Pete Pier. The Pier district covers 26 acres, with a playground, a splash pad, a fishing deck and an environmental education center, and you can enjoy it without spending a cent. In Clearwater, the city’s Pier 60 lot costs $3.50 per hour from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., paid at pay-by-plate kiosks or through the ParkMobile app. A Tampa park and a beach in the same day is too much. Pick one.

Where can you swim with manatees near Orlando?

The best-known spot is Kings Bay in Crystal River, about 2 hours 5 minutes from Kissimmee. It is home to Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls the only refuge created specifically to protect the Florida manatee.

The official rules matter most:

• Passive observation. The agency asks you not to initiate contact and to watch calmly from a distance, at the surface.
• Banned in all of Kings Bay: chasing a manatee, touching or disturbing one that is resting or feeding, diving from the surface onto one, cornering, holding or riding one, separating a mother and calf, and giving manatees anything to eat or drink.
• Manatee season runs November 15 to March 31. During that window the sanctuaries are closed to all activity.
• Three Sisters Springs. On land, you visit by boardwalk, with the trolley included in admission. Swimming is allowed, but only if you arrive by water, never from shore. Kayaks and paddleboards can enter the springs only from April 1 to November 14.

The City of Crystal River says your best chance to see a crowd of manatees is on a cold winter day. The refuge doesn’t sell in-water tours; permitted local businesses do. For springs where you can swim without manatee rules, see where to swim in crystal clear springs near Orlando.

Which day trips are under an hour away?

Winter Park and Mount Dora work as half days, with no early alarm.

Winter Park. The town has Park Avenue, lined with shops and restaurants, and the 11-acre Central Park with fountains and a rose garden. The Scenic Boat Tour runs one-hour trips through the lakes and canals, leaving every hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It costs $20 for adults and $10 for kids 2 to 11, tax included.

Mount Dora. A small lakeside town on Lake Dora with cobblestone streets, galleries, shops and cafes. Lake County tourism says the lighthouse at Grantham Point Park is Florida’s only registered inland navigational aid.

Is it worth going from Orlando to Miami for the day?

Not by car. It is about 4 hours and 216 miles (348 km) each way from Kissimmee with no traffic, so eight hours behind the wheel.

By train, the math changes. The Brightline station is attached to Terminal C at Orlando International Airport, about 25 minutes by car from Kissimmee, and the train stops in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura and Miami. Schedules, fares and parking are in how to take the train from Orlando to Miami. Even so, Miami is better with at least one night there.

How do you plan a day trip from a vacation home?

Leave early and get back before dark. That avoids a good share of the traffic, the heat and the kid meltdowns.

• Pack food from the house. A cooler with water, fruit and sandwiches saves money and time in lines.
• Sort out tolls first. SR 528, the route toward Kennedy and Cocoa Beach, has toll plazas. If you’re in a rental car, our guide on how tolls work in Orlando covers your options.
• Check the forecast. Beaches and manatees depend on the weather.
• Don’t mix coasts. The Atlantic and the Gulf are on opposite sides of the state.

In practice: on a first trip with kids, pick one day trip and put it mid-stay, between two park days. Kennedy with a late-afternoon stop in Cocoa Beach is the easiest combo: about 1 hour 20 minutes out, and the ocean on the way home.