Orlando · MCO
Car rental in Orlando
Everyone knows what's inside the parks. This page is about the rest — what sits half an hour away and can only be reached by car.
What to do
Water at 72 °F, all year round
Forty minutes from the airport there are springs coming out of the ground at 72 °F in any month of the year — January or July, the same temperature. The water is clear enough that you can see the bottom at ten feet.
At Wekiwa Springs you swim in a natural pool in the middle of the woods and can paddle the river by kayak. At Kelly Park the water moves: you get in a tube and float down the run lying back, walk up the bank and do it again. And at Blue Spring, between November and March, hundreds of manatees shelter in the spring — you watch them from a boardwalk, a few feet away.
There's no transfer, no tour and no bus. It's the trip that pays back the rental the most in a single day.
- Wekiwa ~40 min from MCO · entry per vehicle · closes when full
- Kelly Park ~1h from MCO · US$ 5 per vehicle · fills up before 10am on weekends
- Blue Spring ~50 min · manatees Nov to Mar · no swimming in that season
How it works
Where the car is at MCO
The exact spot is arranged for your flight, and you get the photo on WhatsApp with the level and the number.
There is no AZ counter at the airport, and that's on purpose: the car is parked up to 1h before your time, with the inspection photos already taken. You land, go up to the level and drive off. On return, the same route, in the public parking garage — never in the “rental car return” area. Pickup day, step by step.
What to do
Orlando has two Michelin stars
This is the part almost no visitor knows: since the Michelin Guide started covering Florida, Orlando has gathered 60 restaurants in the guide — six with a star, fourteen with a Bib Gourmand.
O Sorekara has two stars. Kadence is an eight-seat sushi counter. Camille e o Victoria & Albert’s round out the starred list. None of them is inside a park, and at almost all of them reservations open weeks ahead.
If stars aren't your thing, the good scene is in the historic towns around — and it fits in the same day as the springs. The five places we recommend are right below.
How it works
Tolls around Orlando
Almost every expressway here is a toll road and most don't take cash — SR-528, SR-417 and the Turnpike charge by camera or transponder. All our cars have a transponder, so you go straight through and we pass the usage on.
| Region | Per day | Cap per rental |
|---|---|---|
| Orlando and Tampa | US$ 11.99 | US$ 99.00 |
| Miami and Fort Lauderdale | US$ 19.99 | US$ 149.99 |
Orlando is in the cheaper band: from 9 rental days on, the amount hits the cap and stops going up. How tolls work.
What to do
You can watch a rocket go up
An hour from Orlando on SR-528 is the space coast. When there's a launch — and there are several a month — you can watch it for free from the beaches at Cocoa Beach and Titusville, or from inside Kennedy Space Center, which runs buses out to the pads and has a real space shuttle hanging from the ceiling.
The launch calendar comes out only a few days ahead and shifts at the last minute because of weather. If you have a car you decide the night before and go. If you depend on a tour, you don't.
And on the way back you can stop at Cocoa Beach — the closest beach to Orlando, on the Atlantic side, with real waves.
- Kennedy ~1 h on SR-528 (Beeline) · all day
- Cocoa Beach ~1 h · public beach, free
- Launches the calendar comes out at the last minute — a car is what gives you that freedom
How it works
Which car makes sense in Orlando
People coming for the parks usually underestimate two things: the trunk on the way back from the outlets, and the comfort of someone who spends ten hours out. Pick by what you're going to do — the photo changes with it.
People coming for the parks usually underestimate two things: the trunk on the way back from the outlets, and the comfort of someone who spends ten hours out and comes back tired. A family of four with big suitcases is tight in a sedan — a 5-seat SUV solves it, and the 7-seat minivan is what goes out most for groups.
And if it's a springs day, everyone comes back wet, with a deflated tube in the trunk and a half-empty cooler. See the whole fleet.
What to do
Where to eat along the way
After the water you get unusually hungry. The route runs between two historic little towns, and neither one looks anything like a theme-park food court. Not one of these five is a chain.
How it works
How long to where you're going
Tap a destination.