questions for people in orlando FL

[beckx]

i'm planning on a trip to orlando in february and have a few questions...

- are there any good juice bars/places that have fresh juice options in orlando? how available would you say juice is in the downtown?
- how is public transportation?
- any good produce stores/farmers markets?
- any good places for camping? (as of now i'm thinking about renting a car and driving north for a couple of days to camp but would prefer to walk or rent a bike and stay close... all i'm finding online is the disneyworld camping option though)

thank you :D

[D'vorah]

I live in Alaska, but I'm from Tampa.

Orlando has grown tremendously and continues to do so. A lot depends upon where you'll be. Some areas are dense hotel/resort areas, some are not. I'm not really very familiar with Orlando anymore.

Tampa has a raw and vegan restaurant called Grass Root. They've recently opened a second location in Lakeland, which is closer to Orlando, but I'm not sure about public transportation. Doable if you rent a car, though. They might also be able to recommend places for you.

Here's their website:

http://www.thegrassrootlife.com/

I googled and found these pages:

http://www.vegetarianusa.com/city/Orlando.html

http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/Newsletter/Orlando.htm

Enjoy that sunshine!!!

Deborah

[Eva]

I'm working on a website with that sort of info -- I'm not done with the FL page, but this might be helpful to you. All the raw restaurants in Orlando and everywhere but South Florida are already listed here: http://uncooking101.com/florida-raw-food-restaurants.html

Cafe 118 is supposed to be fabulous. Most restaurants that people go to in Orlando aren't downtown, they're more in the suburbs. All the friends I have in Orlando get around by car and have to go a fair distance to get to work. FL is not the greatest for public transportation. Of course, where there is a will, there is a way, and you may have luck when you dig a little deeper.

I second the idea of enjoying the sunshine!! I'll be in FL as of January 3, at least for a month or so (visiting my mom). I can't wait. She said it was 73 on Christmas Day! haha.

[beckx]

thanks eva and deborah!

i asked about juice in particular because i've just begun a juice feast/fast and am trying to decide if i can plan to stay on juice through my vacation... if not i'll want to give myself time before i leave to break the fast. cafe 118 sounds pretty tempting though ;)

i'm definitely looking forward to sunshine :) we haven't had much here in a few months.

[Eva]

Ha -- that's right, you're in Massachusetts! Funny, I'll be flying into Boston on the 31st and heading down to FL from there. :)

That's quite a long juice fast!

You could always check with Whole Foods -- it's pretty common for them to have juice bars in the stores.

I seriously can't imagine juice fasting on a vacation... but I can imagine "mono eating" stuff like apples and oranges. That might be a good compromise if it works for you -- so your body can continue healing with whole foods. Just CHEW WELL! And your teeth will be your juicer. ;)

[Sugar Snap Pea]

Beautiful weather in central Fla. right now!! We just had lunch at a restaraunt out on the deck by the river, beautiful blue skies, some clouds and sunshine! Be sure to visit the beach while you're here! There is a wonderful raw restaurant in Flagler Beach, let me check on their hours and get back to you. Would be 1-2 hrs drive, depending on where you are in Orlando. Almond Blossom Cafe. There is also a tiny one in Daytona beach, will look into that also. While we're at it, there's a fantastic one in St. Augustine, you really should visit St. Augustine! It's gonna be a fun trip!

[D'vorah]

:(

Nine below here in Anchor town today. :rolleyes:



Beautiful weather in central Fla. right now!! We just had lunch at a restaraunt out on the deck by the river, beautiful blue skies, some clouds and sunshine! Be sure to visit the beach while you're here! There is a wonderful raw restaurant in Flagler Beach, let me check on their hours and get back to you. Would be 1-2 hrs drive, depending on where you are in Orlando. Almond Blossom Cafe. There is also a tiny one in Daytona beach, will look into that also. While we're at it, there's a fantastic one in St. Augustine, you really should visit St. Augustine! It's gonna be a fun trip!

[Barbara W]

Best bets for fresh juice are the two Whole Foods locations depending on which side of town you are on. The Orlando location is much larger.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/orlando/

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/winterpark/

Cafe 118 mentioned by Eva is a few miles down the street from the Whole Foods Winter Park location and is very good. Although they are more of a dine in restaurant than a juice bar they will make your juices for carry-out. I frequent this place for fresh coconut water since I am too chicken to open the coconuts on my own yet.:o

As for transportation you are better off with a car, however, if you are willing to navigate the bus system you can check out the routes offered by Orlando's bus service. I have never used it so can't say how good or bad it is.

http://www.golynx.com/?fuse=cstm&app=route

[Raene]

Thanks for this thread...I'll be in Orlando in a few weeks too. I see that their meetup groups have two different raw potlucks...maybe happening when one of us is there? I'd love to go to one while I'm out of town (we'll have a kitchen in our room so I could whip up a little something, maybe...I'll be lost without a blender or food processor).

[Eva]

Hey Beckx -- I contacted the Whole Foods in Orlando to see, and they do have a juice bar. Here is the response I got:


Hi Eva,

Thank you for adding us to this website. We do have both salad bar & a fresh juice bar offering wheatgrass & green juices in the store. We also carry Glaser Farms raw food products in our Produce section. Produce offers a large variety of organic produce. If you haven't been in the store I would be interested in your feedback of what other products we should carry on the raw foods side to have more selections for the raw foodist. As I come across products that we do not have, I try to have the teams bring in the requests that our customers ask for. This is especially important for customers such as yourself who live the lifestyle. Since raw foods has become more popular over the last few years, we get more and more requests for the basic ingredients and I want to make sure we have them available in the store.

Thank you again & any feedback you have is greatly appreciated.

Lori Rockenstyre
Store Team Leader

:)