For most of us, the name Orlando conjures the image of theme parks. Hardly surprising, considering it’s home to Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld Orlando, not to mention Legoland Florida and numerous other roller-coaster rides and water parks. The clamour of younger family members for this kind of entertainment is likely to be loud and irresistible. But everyone has a limit – and if you really can’t face seeing Mickey at breakfast for a fourth day in a row, never fear, there is an alternative at hand.
Grande Lakes, Orlando, was once a 500-acre cattle ranch. Now it is a remarkable joint enterprise between two giants of the hotel business (Ritz-Carlton and Marriott), which have created a wildlife sanctuary, a farm that grows fresh produce for the hotels’ restaurants and a range of outdoor activities including fishing, archery, canoeing and, naturally (this is Florida, after all) a golf course. A sort of Floridian Lake District, if you like.
I took a golf cart with the hotel naturalist, Andrew, not to play a round, but for a sunrise safari. His passion for the rehabilitation of the site is palpable. “The creek here feeds the 12 lakes naturally and it’s now got so clean, it’s the water supply for several states.”
What used to be a dump for old cars and sewage overspill is now a nature sanctuary, the last stopping place for birds heading south to Brazil. “It’s a refuge from storms for them, too,” says Andrew, “but many of them now go no further and stay with us. We see around 125 different bird species during the year.”
The wildlife is indeed thriving. White-tailed deer bound into the woods as we approach and bats hang beneath a bridge. “They’re brown bats and they eat their weight in mosquitoes every night,” Andrew remarks. “We don’t need to spray.” There are bigger critters here, too – though, being shy, they aren’t seen often – Florida black bears, bobcats and coyotes, as well as passing visitors such as pelicans sheltering from cold weather on the coast. Around the trees and the lakes, we spotted herons and egrets, ospreys and hawks, and even a bald eagle.
In fact, if you want to get even closer to the birds, you can try your hand at a spot of falconry. Terry Arndt is a master falconer (there are just 70 of them in the entire US) and regularly brings his birds to Grande Lakes. For such accomplished predators, hawks are surprisingly delicate. “In the wild, only one in four survives their first year. Hurricanes are a risk, but we’re the main problem and it’s mostly cars, wind farms, electricity and rat poison that kill them.”
These birds are fiercely beautiful and it’s a moment of real wonder when a Harris hawk called Django flies on to your gauntlet to peck at the reward in your fist, or a spectacled owl (Lloyd) seems to rather enjoy it when you stroke the gossamer-soft feathers of his breast.
Of course, there are locals you may want to avoid, too. Early on our safari, I spotted a sign several rungs up from a simple “keep off the grass”. “Caution”, it read. “Snakes and alligators”. And so it proved. Just across from the kayaks waiting to be taken down the creek, Miss Margaret basked in the sun. One of several named alligators (we waved in passing to one-eyed Philip, who lives in one of the closer lakes to the hotels), Andrew and his fellow naturalists only move them on if they get too close to the hotel pools, as guests might find them disconcerting.
The rangers seem entirely unconcerned by these creatures. I, though, was firmly with the guests on this one and, tempting as kayaking through pristine Everglades sounded, I wasn’t sure I wanted to share the creek with Miss Margaret.
That said, I might have got alligators all wrong. As Brandon at Gatorland explained to me, “We look like predators to them and they’re scared – not like the crocs.” They do have crocodiles, too, here along with an array of birdlife including flamingos and ibis. There are capybaras, the world’s largest rodents, more the size of a real pig than the guinea pigs to whom they’re related, as well as turtles and giant tortoises and a pair of mountain lions (Florida panthers). But Gatorland is (unsurprisingly) all about the alligators.
It is a theme park of a sort and there’s even a zip wire (if you absolutely must), and a replica steam train to ride around the more than 100 acres. But the wildlife is the main attraction. There are hundreds of alligators, including rare white alligators (not albino, but with a recessive leucistic gene) that burn without protection from the sun.
You can see them as tiny babies (about 15cm when they’re newly hatched) or you can feed the adults, throwing beef and chicken into those gaping jaws. “Crouch down while I take a picture”, suggests Brandon. I’m a little uncertain about being on the ground with a couple of dozen alligators right behind me and no fence between us – just how fast can they move?
Brandon assures me that alligators are actually very peaceable creatures. “You’d have to really upset an alligator, canoe across its back maybe, to get it spooked enough to attack. There have only been 31 alligator-related fatalities in the whole of Florida since 1948.”
Coincidentally, this was the year that Gatorland opened – almost a quarter of a century before Mickey appeared on the scene – making this surely the great-granddaddy of Florida theme parks.
It’s a 10-minute taxi ride to Gatorland from Grande Lakes, and there are regular shuttles from here, too, to Florida’s best-known attractions. But once you’ve had enough of roller coasters, be reassured that there is an escape back to green spaces and grown-up restaurants, without a single life-size cartoon character in sight. You could say it’s the antidote to theme parks.
Essentials
Virgin Atlantic flies from London Heathrow to Orlando seven times a week, from £573 return.
Grande Lakes Orlando is home to The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes and JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes. Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton start from $544 (£397), and rooms at the JW Marriott start from $623 (£468), including taxes and service.