Flights to Orlando Any
Flights >
USA >
Orlando > ALL (ORL)
| Airport | Miles From City |
|
|
6 |
|
|
18 |
More suggestions for finding cheap flights to Orlando Any
Apart from New York, Orlando is the most popular destination in the United States for UK travellers. Situated in the centre of Florida, Orlando's two airports provide easy access to a huge range of attractions in Orlando itself, and also to nearby destinations such as Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral and the Tampa Bay area.
Scheduled flights to Orlando usually operate in to Orlando International (MCO), whereas most charter flights arrive at Orlando Sanford (SFB). Orlando International provides much easier access to the main resort areas, including the Walt Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks. Because most of the US domestic flights operating to Orlando also use Orlando International, there is a much wider choice of car hire companies here too, as well as a wider availability of transfer services to nearby hotels. On the other hand, Orlando Sanford is much smaller and easier to use, offering one of the fastest "jetway to freeway" transfer times of any airport in Florida.
Direct flights
Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic offer regular direct flights to Orlando from London, with Virgin additionally offering flights from Manchester.
A wide number of charter operators offer cheap flights to Orlando from most of the major UK airports, with a particularly good selection of flights being available from London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. Additionally, Flyglobespan have announced an ambitious programme of daily flights to Orlando from Glasgow starting this summer (2006). This represents the first true budget flights to the USA from the UK since the days of Freddie Laker.
Connecting flights
Because of Orlando's relatively recent emergence (even by US standards) as a destination city, none of the major US "legacy" airlines have a base there, and therefore there are no direct transatlantic flights to Orlando operated by any US airline. Connecting flights are offered through wide number of airports throughout the Eastern Seaboard of the USA. Hubs such as New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta are most popular transfer points for connecting flights to Orlando, as these airports have the widest range of inward feeder flights from UK. In particular, Continental Airlines have onward connections to Orlando coordinated with their daily flights from six UK regional airports, which all arrive and depart from New York Newark at similar times of the day.
Mini Guide to Orlando Any
Here’s what the Americans call a “disconnect”: two pieces of information that don’t immediately fit together. Historically, Orlando was so named for either Orlando Reeves, a soldier who died in the Seminole Wars of the 1830s, or Orlando Rees, a Welsh plantation owner caught up in the same conflict. Yet as the city Orlando has developed over the last two centuries, it’s largely ignored, trampled over, or forgotten about its past to instead set up a series of alternative realities or fantasy worlds. This is now the theme park capital of America. Whether Rees or Reeves, and wherever he is today, the original Orlando must be envious of all that leisure time.
The most popular of these fantasy lands is, of course, Walt Disney World, the planet’s one true Mickey Mouse attraction. A vast and staggering logistical achievement, the park breaks down into four separate zones (the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney-MGM Studios, and Epcot), and can constitute a somewhat unreal holiday in itself. Then there’s the Universal Studios park, whose grasp of history extends only as far as rides based on the blockbusters of the 1980s (Back to the Future), early 90s (Terminator 2 3D, Jurassic Park River Adventure), and late 90s (Men In Black Alien Attack). Don’t go expecting a hydraulic Battleship Potemkin or an IMAX version of Jules Et Jim.
Orlando does boast plentiful natural features, most notably a series of springs and lakes (most notably Apopka and Tohopekaliga) mercifully free from men dressed as cartoon characters. Yet even nature has been corralled here. It’s less Disneyfied over at the croc-tastic Gatorland, but the region’s most popular attractions of this ilk are Sea World, which has made a star of Shamu the dolphin, and Discovery Cove, a replica tropical island boasting the very best of the life aquatic. If space is more your thing, there’s the Kennedy Center to the east of the city, and Skycoaster, a spectacular gravity-defying ride. Those without a head for heights, astronomical or otherwise, might want to stick to the ever-popular Cirque de Soleil, and watch other peopleconquering their vertigo…
(C) 2008 Flightmapping.com | See also: Holiday Watchdog | About us |
