Mount Dora throws 30 festivals a year and still has time to be one of Florida’s best towns

It’s Central Florida’s best-kept secret

Mount Dora sits 30 miles northwest of Orlando, but it feels like a different state. The town perches on a plateau 184 feet above sea level, which in Florida passes for a mountain.

Below it, Lake Dora spreads across thousands of acres of the Harris Chain of Lakes. The historic downtown runs thick with antique shops, art galleries, and restaurants packed into old storefronts.

More than 30 festivals fill the calendar every year, and the town earns its nickname of “Festival City” without trying too hard. The real draw, though, is what happens between the events.

A family, three kids, and a renamed post office

The first settler here was David Simpson, who arrived with his family in 1874.

Six years later, Ross C. Tremain took over as the town’s first postmaster and called the place Royellou, a name he stitched together from his three children: Roy, Ella, and Louis. That name lasted only three years.

By 1883, the town picked up the name Mount Dora from the lake, which had shown up on government survey maps as far back as 1848.

The “Mount” part came from that 184-foot elevation, a real conversation starter in a state known for being flat.

The railroad put Mount Dora on the map

When the railroad pulled into town in 1887, everything changed. Money followed the tracks, and so did people.

By 1910, the population sat at just 371, but the town got its official charter that year with J.P. Donnelly as its first mayor. Donnelly left his mark in more ways than one.

In 1893, he built a Queen Anne-style home as a gift for his wife, Annie McDonald Stone. That house still stands today.

The Donnelly House landed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 4, 1975, and now serves as a Masonic lodge for Mount Dora Lodge No. 238.

You can walk right up to it, and most people do with a camera in hand.

Florida’s oldest hotel still rents rooms on the lake

The Lakeside Inn opened in 1883 under the name Alexander House, and it has not closed since. That makes it the oldest continuously operating hotel in Florida.

The inn holds 90 guest rooms beneath moss-draped oak trees on the shore of Lake Dora, and it sits on the National Register of Historic Places.

President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge stayed for an entire month during the winter of 1930. You can book a room in the same building where a sitting president once spent his January.

The only inland freshwater lighthouse in the state

At Grantham Point Park, a 35-foot lighthouse stands on the shore of Lake Dora. It is the only inland freshwater lighthouse in Florida.

Local fishermen and boaters had trouble finding their way from Tavares to Mount Dora after dark, so the community raised over $3,000 to fix the problem.

The red-and-white striped brick-and-stucco tower went up on March 25, 1988, with a 750-watt photocell and a blue pulsator that guides boats at night. You can spot it from across the lake.

Lake Dora opens into 75,000 acres of water

Lake Dora alone covers about 4,500 acres, but it connects to the Harris Chain of Lakes, a system of eight primary lakes that totals around 75,000 acres in Lake County.

Anglers come for largemouth bass, black crappie, and bluegill.

If you take a pontoon boat tour, you can travel through the Dora Canal, a cypress-lined waterway that links Lake Dora to Lake Eustis. Keep your eyes on the water and the trees.

Alligators, bald eagles, herons, otters, and turtles all call the canal home.

Walk a boardwalk through old-growth cypress and oaks

Palm Island Park covers eight acres just south of downtown, and you do not need to pay a dime to get in.

A boardwalk winds through old-growth live oaks, ancient cypress, and tall cabbage palms right along the edge of Lake Dora.

Alligators sun themselves near the water, turtles slide off logs, and wading birds stand still in the shallows. The park opens at sunrise and closes at sunset.

It is wheelchair and stroller accessible, and nature trails branch off from the main boardwalk if you want to go deeper.

A 1923 firehouse now holds the town’s history

The Mount Dora Historic District earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Downtown is compact and walkable, with restored buildings lining the streets as shops, galleries, and restaurants.

The Mount Dora History Museum sits inside the town’s original 1923 firehouse and jail.

Every Sunday morning, the Mount Dora Village Market fills Sunset Park with local vendors selling everything from produce to handmade goods. You can cover the whole downtown in an afternoon and still have time for lunch.

Renninger’s draws 800 antique dealers three times a year

Renninger’s Antique Center sits on 117 acres just outside downtown along U.S. Highway 441.

The indoor antique center and flea market open on weekends, and three times a year the place explodes with the Antique Extravaganza.

Up to 800 dealers from across the country set up shop, making it one of the largest gatherings of antique dealers in the Southeast.

Downtown Mount Dora adds its own collection of smaller antique and specialty shops, so you can spend a full day hunting for something worth bringing home.

One craft fair here was named America’s all-time favorite

The Mount Dora Arts Festival lands each year in late January or early February, with hundreds of juried artists and more than 150,000 visitors.

Every October, the Mount Dora Craft Fair pulls in over 350 exhibitors and 100,000 visitors.

Sunshine Artist Magazine named it the number one all-time favorite craft festival in America in its 2021 special edition.

The calendar fills out with the Blueberry Festival in April, Florida’s oldest Bicycle Festival in October, and Light Up Mount Dora during the holidays.

The Scottish Highland Festival, Seafood Festival, and Sailboat Regatta round out a year that rarely slows down.

Fine art meets a 270-seat theater in a former ice plant

The Modernism Museum opened in 2013 on East Fourth Avenue, dedicated to the Studio Arts Movement where fine art meets craftsmanship.

A few blocks away, the Mount Dora Center for the Arts runs gallery exhibitions, education programs, and monthly Art Strolls through downtown.

If you want a show, the Sonnentag Theatre at the IceHouse holds 270 seats inside what was once an ice plant.

Between the galleries, the museum, and live performances, the town’s cultural side gives you a reason to stay past dinner.

A pirate-ship playground sits right by the marina

Gilbert Park lines the shore of Lake Dora near the lighthouse and downtown. Families head straight for the large pirate-ship playground, and kids take it over fast.

Simpson’s Cove and the nearby docks give you a place to sit and watch pontoon boats drift in and out of the marina. You can rent a pontoon boat or kayak right there, or book a guided tour.

The lakefront connects directly to Palm Island Park, so you can start at the playground and end up on a boardwalk through cypress trees without ever moving your car.

Explore Mount Dora’s lakefront and downtown on foot

You can park once in Mount Dora and reach almost everything worth seeing.

The historic downtown overlooks Lake Dora and sits within walking distance of the Lakeside Inn, the lighthouse, and both Gilbert Park and Palm Island Park, all free to visit.

The town sits in Lake County, about 30 miles northwest of Orlando.

With more than 30 festivals packed into the year, check the events calendar on the official website before you pick a weekend. You might land right in the middle of one.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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