small towns – Orlando Citizen

Donnelly Street in downtown Mount Dora, with the One Flight Up Cafe on the left. Photo: MediaProMan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Forty minutes from downtown Orlando, Mount Dora runs on a different clock: an 1883 inn, a freshwater lighthouse, antique shops on Donnelly Street and a festival nearly every month. How the town works, and how to do it well.

Windermere Town Hall on Main Street. Photo: Ebyabe, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons.

Neighborhoods

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

Windermere: The Lake Town That Chose Slow on Purpose

A tiny town on an isthmus in the Butler Chain of Lakes that keeps its roads unpaved, its oaks towering and its Fridays sacred — here is how Windermere works, and how to do it well.

Tips & Guides

November 14, 2026 Staff Reports

Day Trips from Orlando: Mount Dora, Winter Garden and Sanford

Three small-town escapes under an hour from Orlando — Mount Dora’s antiques, Winter Garden’s Plant Street and Sanford’s brick-lined waterfront.