Sanford, FL Weekend Getaway

S a n f o r d

Joe and I like to explore our surroundings,  near and far. Just recently we decided to do a little weekend getaway to Sanford,  Florida. Sanford sits on the northern tip of the greater Orlando, Florida area. From there its a decent drive to more central Orlando themeparks etc. But unlike Orlando with its stop and go traffic the traffic in Sanford is within "normal range". 

So we booked house sitters for our boys as usual and were ready to go!

Now, we've never heard of Sanford before. But that just happened to be the location of an Eagles cover band concert we wanted to see. It being a 3 hour drive from our home, it was worth staying there overnight.

 Let me tell you, hotel or Airbnb rates for that area were insane. So we thought we lucked out when we finally came across a little motel online that was actually affordable. 

Holy cow,  it ended up being a dump. It took an internal pep-talk with myself to not opt for sleeping in our car that night. But the nice drama-free side of me ended up having the upper hand in this “conversation “ and therfore my husband didn't have to sleep alone in that lovely motel bed. 

So, let's focus on Sanford now, shall we!?

No crappy motel can take away from this cute little suburb of Orlando and we ended up having a great experience during our visit! The motto is: Focus on the positive.

The small town feel downtown consists mainly of a very walkable main street with lots of adorable stores. From interesting women's clothes to home decor and antiques to fill your home with things you want but don't necessarily need to a variety of eateries. 

To my surprise we found not 1 but 3 German stores, all owned by the same family.  One of them is a market with all kinds of yummy German food. The second one is a store to get your fix on Dirndl and Lederhosen etc 

and lastly their restaurant that had very tasty food and even came with old fashioned German entertainment. We got lucky and got in without a wait at lunch time. The evening before there was a long line at the front door. Obviously this place is very popular!

Lake Monroe is also within walking distance from downtown and we enjoyed the many benches and swings; all with nice views of the lake. 

We also discovered they have lunch and dinner cruises on the ship below. At about $ 71 for a lunch cruise we opted not to do that as we thought this was a bit pricey compared to similar cruises we've done around St Petersburg that were less. 

On said lake we were intrigued by a couple of floating houses. Upon further research it turns out these are rentable on VRBO. What a fun alternative to a hotel room, right? 

On our last walk on lake Monroe's “boardwalk” we were lucky enough to see a few manatees in the distance which is always exciting!

Just a couple of blocks from downtown we drove through the historic neighborhood of Sanford with gorgeous old homes on red brick roads that were surrounded by your typical Florida Live Oaks and Banyon trees. With branches that seem to intertwine above you as you drive.The abundance of Spanish Moss in these incredible trees makes them picture perfect. 

The concert ended up being great as expected. Making this a wonderful weekend! 

I posted some links below if you want to check out this area!

https://www.visitflorida.com/places-to-go/central/sanford/?view=list&sort=qualityScore&bounds=false

https://www.historicdowntownsanford.com/

https://www.stjohnsrivershipco.com/