...to want to find artistic, cultural, lefty-liberal, bohemian/hippie/gay alternative things to do in Orlando?

[WestleyAndButtockUp]

It can't all be amusement parks, can it?
Please help me escape the Mouse.

The Disney parks also have gay days in June, it’s unofficial but very well attended and appears on Disney planning calendars.

I was stuck in Orlando for 24 hours last week. I didn't go but got a strong recommendation from a guy in the hotel shuttle bus for this museum:
www.thehistorycenter.org/

He said it was great, he visits Orlando all the time and it seemed like he went regularly. (I nearly went but I was exhausted and had missed my flight home because of storms the night before so I slept in instead. I would definitely go if I were in Orlando again.)

You guys are great. Thank you for your recommendations! This gives me hope.

I love the sound of the museums, the airboat ride, and Bok tower.

Head to Celebration and hire bikes. I'm just back and it was probably one of the best days, even the teenager said the same. You get given a map and have a route to follow, we had tandem bikes for the young kids and for once there was no moaning from them about tired legs.

Pootle round Winter Park. Do the scenic boat tour around the Chain of Lakes and see many old Florida mansions. View the art at Cornell Fine Art Museum at Rollins College nearby. Have dinner in the Alfond Inn and admire their art collection.

If you’re distressed at the burning down of the Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, you might be interested in the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who had very similar designs.

He designed a whole college campus - 13 buildings inside and out - in Lakeland Florida, not far from Orlando. www.floridarambler.com/historic-florida-getaways/frank-lloyd-wright-florida-southern-college-lakeland/

The ancient Spanish fort at St Augustine is a good day trip from Orlando. It’s a pleasant walking town with little shops as well.

Celebration is lovely and you might like Mount Dora, it's about 45 mins from Orlando.

The Disney parks also have gay days in June, it’s unofficial but very well attended and appears on Disney planning calendars.

Also Disney was one of the first employers to give partner benefits to same sex couples, long before same-sex marriage became the law in Florida.

Orlando does have a strong gay community, which I think has been made even more stronger in the aftermath of the the Pulse nightclub shooting which happened 2 years ago this month.

Another recommendation for Winter Park. It has some really nice outdoor spaces and several museums.

I think as well you need to give Disney a chance.

Epcot's world showcase is great with lots of buildings from countries around the world. When we were there last year the kids could pick up a passport and get it stamped in each "country". They were also doing crafts - my kids spent about 30 minutes with a lovely Japanese woman learning origami and basic words in Japanese.

Also Animal Kingdom has a strong focus on conservation and education, and if you take the train up to the Planet Watch bit you can meet scientists and see the veterinary section. There's also a "Wilderness Explorers" thing in Animal Kingdom which the kids loved and is educational too. disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_GB/attractions/animal-kingdom/wilderness-explorers/

Yes there is cheese and schmaltz at Disney but there is so much more to the parks than that.

Yes there is cheese and schmaltz at Disney but there is so much more to the parks than that.

True, and so much more to Florida than the parks.

Oh absolutely - but I took from the OP that it was a family holiday to Orlando to do the Disney parks, and that she was looking for alternatives. It seems perverse to go to Orlando with a whole group of people who are all going to Disney, yet refuse to go because it's not your bag. Even though you've never been and don't really know what it's all about.

Absolutely, Polkerris. But as a long-time Florida resident, I do like to take every opportunity to point out that there is a lot more to Florida than the parks.

On balance, Disney has been very positive for the state of Florida.

I second St Augustine. We had an enforced family hol in Orlando and as well as St A, we ducked off to New Orleans for three days on a cheap flight.

I thought Orlando was quite conservative, as is Florida as a whole?

By UK standards, probably yes. But on the American political spectrum, Florida is somewhere in the middle. The state went for President Obama twice, and although in the last election it went for Trump, it was a close margin. And Orange County, which includes Orlando and its environs, went for Hillary.

In American political parlance, Florida is a swing state in presidential elections, and because we have a large number of Electoral College votes, it is usually a big battle ground in national elections. It is also sometimes referred to as a purple state, because Democratic states are blue and Republican states are red, traditionally.

As an example of the mix, currently we have one Republican senator and one Democratic senator in the US Senate.

I would also recommend st Augustine. A nice walk around the shops, looking at some of the oldest buildings in Florida. Have a walk around the Spanish fort and take a trolley tour around the city. It's lovely.
Space centre is also good. Cocoa beach is nice to get away and sit by the sea for a bit. And I would definitely say if you can spare a couple of days travel down to key west. They views on the way down are beautiful (7 mile bridge) and it is so interesting - Ernest Hemingway museum, lighthouse, party at Mallory square every night as you watch the sun go down with entertainers, escape artists etc. I loved it when my parents took me as a teenager.

Winter garden is very nice. Totally non Disney and there the locals go. Nice food market on a Saturday. It’s a proper and very nice town. Celebration is weird but worth a visit.

Downtown Orlando (as in the city centre) is lovely. There are some gorgeous parks (proper parks, not theme parks) where it costs a couple of dollars to park and there are play parks, walks, bbq spots etc. And Orlando has a thriving gay culture iirc. Celebration is fab.

Oh and crazy golf. DS was very keen on the crazy golf that year.

Daytona Beach still has a bit of an older Florida funky vibe.

What does ‘older Florida funky vibe’ mean, I wonder? What could we compare it to?

Not sure what to compare it to in the UK, Belfast, but to me "older funky Florida vibe" means fewer modern apartment blocks and hotels, lots of smaller mom-and-pop motels, residential neighborhoods with houses built in the 1940s and 50s, souvenir shops that are bit tacky, but in a good way, one of a kind bars and restaurants, rather than chain eateries, things like that.

What does ‘older Florida funky vibe’ mean, I wonder? What could we compare it to?

Florida pre-Disney...

Deep South
Low buildings with tin rooves
Spanish moss
The Yearling

St Petes beach is great.
Around an hour and a half from Orlando if I remember rightly.

My dc swam metres away from dolphins in their natural environment. It was incredible and totally unexpected.
The beach is incredible too, and the town is so laid back. Great to recharge the batteries.