Winter Garden

Winter Garden

Winter Garden is one of those miraculous places that manages to blend small-town closeness with a bustling, vibrant hipness. While some communities allowed themselves to be hollowed out as they grew, Winter Garden filled itself in — making investments in public spaces, keeping a careful eye on new expansion, and going the extra mile to develop a sense of community with rich recreational and retail experiences. There are wide, tree-lined streets in the historic downtown, through which one of the nation’s great bike trails runs. Sidewalk cafés and farm-to-table restaurants spill out onto the brick, and the public plazas are busy every weekend with a legendary farmers’ market, classic car shows, outdoor concerts, and pelotons and parades of two-wheeled locals. Ask a local (who may very well be driving a golf cart to dinner), and they’ll often tell you they came to visit the manicured theme parks, but found themselves living in something even more perfect.