n0nsensical

Lived in Orlando previously; I can reiterate that it's definitely a car city. I very rarely saw anyone biking around. Lake Eola Park is pretty nice, near downtown, however if the water level is low it tends to smell like a fetid swamp, and there are a lot of homeless guys hanging around. There's a small amphitheater in the park where you can probably find a Shakespeare show or something similar during the summer. Winter Park Village is the shopping center the other posters are talking about, where you can also find other Hip Chain suspects like the Cheesecake Factory and Johnny Rockets. Just watch out for jailbait as it's the high school hangout of choice. I can’t offer too much useful advice about Winter Park because I didn’t go there very often. I went on a tour of Full Sail once as well, and I can say that it looked like a pretty nice place to be if you're really into the various subjects they teach, though I couldn't comment on the career opportunities after school.

Down in the southwest, 15-30 minutes from downtown depending on the time, is where I lived, and there you have primarily Universal, Disney, and the touristy stuff on International Drive. About halfway between downtown and I-drive is...the Holy Land Experience...a religious theme park, and I specifically recommend NOT going unless you are heavily into the history of the Jews and Christ in the Holy Land. There's also a new, somewhat upscale, mall a half mile from the Holy Land called the Mall at Millennia, where you will find, yes, another PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory, and the other usual Hip Chain suspects! You'll find lots of random restaurants and tourist attractions on I-Drive, also the location of the ever-expanding Convention Center, and at Universal Citywalk (pay to park, like $7) and Downtown Disney (free parking). Bahama Breeze is a good restaurant on I-Drive. My personal favorite for Mexican food is Tijuana Flats, which is similar to a Baja Fresh out west, except TJ owns Baja because the food is much better and it's cheaper. I actually only went to the one in Gainesville but they're also in WP and Orlando.

For clubs, downtown was once the place to be, but Citywalk, Downtown Disney, and the Orlando city government killed it off, though you will still find some clubs there such as Icon, Cairo, and Tabu, and I couldn't specifically recommend one. The Groove at Citywalk is popular. The main rock venues are, from largest to smallest, Hard Rock Live at Citywalk, House of Blues at Downtown Disney, and the Social downtown. TD Waterhouse Center is where the Magic and pop bands play. For theatre and classical music hit up the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center also near WP. As you can see, most everything to do is concentrated in the Southwest in the tourist areas, and the downtown/WP area.

General demographic information, most of the city is pretty nice as there aren't really any areas of urban blight, but the poorest area is immediately west of downtown around the Citrus Bowl and TD Waterhouse Center, and the richest is the housing development Isleworth, actually in the city of Windermere, west-southwest of Orlando. This is where I believe Shaq still has a huge mansion though Magic fans are still bitter. However it's heavily guarded so you can't just go driving around Isleworth if you don't know anyone who lives there. Do not speed in the city of Windermere because you will get a ticket. There apparently isn't any other crime there so the cops spend all of their time writing speeding tickets.