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The Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour
Founded in 1938 and located just 15 minutes north of downtown Orlando, is one of these lovely side trips that combine beautiful scenery, a bit of local history, some close-up exposure to local wildlife and vegetation with a relaxing outing in a slow-moving 18-passenger pontoon boat, all complete with expert narration provided by the boat’s captain.
The tour takes you through 3 lakes: Lake Osceola, Lage Virginia and Lake Maitland. Along the route you will pass hundreds of beautiful water-front estates, many of which were originally built in the 1920s.
In Lake Virginia you come up close to the grounds of Rollins College, one of the top rated private liberal arts colleges in the South Eastern United States, founded in 1885 by New England Congregationalists. Rollins College is the oldest recognized college in the state of Florida with a small student body of 1,700 students, housed on a beautiful 70 acre Mediterraean Revival Campus.
The narrow Venetian Canal takes you from Lake Virginia to Lake Maitland through interesting vegetation growing alongside the canal: Egyptian papyrus, Spanish moss, the Princess flower, colourful bougainvilleas and resurrection fern. You will meet a variety of birds, including an Osprey eagle, a snake bird, a great blue heron and a white egret.
At 450 acres and 30 feet deep, Lake Maitland is the largest of the 3 lakes. A dam controls the water level and interestingly, the lakes all drain northwards into the St. John’s River which flows into the Atlantic near Jacksonville. The Kraft Azalea Gardens, located on Lake Maitland on Alabama Drive off Palmer Avenue, feature thousands of azaleas, tropical shrubs and trees. Azaleas are in full bloom January through March.
The Scenic Boat Tour, a Winter Park institution for 80 years.
Scenic Boat Tour
312 East Morse Blvd.
Winter Park, FL 32789
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