Theme parks, lakes, and a city underneath
Orlando, Florida sits at the center of the state on a chain of freshwater lakes, a city that spent most of its history as a quiet citrus and cattle town before Walt Disney World rewrote its identity in 1971. The tourist corridor along International Drive is its own parallel universe — but the city proper has a distinct character. Orlando is one of the most genuinely multicultural cities in the South — shaped by Puerto Rican, Haitian, Brazilian, and Vietnamese communities who arrived long before the theme park buses.
