Between Orlando And Fort Myers Is Florida's 'City Of Charm' With A Walkable, Artsy Downtown Mall

While Orlando has its world-famous theme parks and Fort Myers has its renowned Gulf Coast beaches popular with spring breakers, Avon Park offers a sense of calm in between the two. It has a reputation of conjuring up images of "Old Florida," the nostalgic era before the state's theme parks and sprawling resorts came to be. Citrus groves and natural lakes surround Avon Park, while its downtown is lined with elegant, historic buildings. These are some of the reasons it gets its nickname of the "City of Charm." Add in its pedestrian mall that stretches for a mile through downtown, lined with monuments and an art museum, and you can easily make a weekend visit of it.

The story of Avon Park's emergence is quite fascinating, and it lends itself to the city's charm. Of all the settlements in Highlands County, including Sebring, the unique circular city with a glistening lake just south, Avon Park was the oldest to be founded, per the Florida History Blog. It dates back to the 1880s and got its name from Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon. Avon Park still holds some nostalgic relics of its early days. Though not as old as the city itself, its downtown Hotel Jacaranda dates to the 1920s and still operates along the Main Street Mall. Walking down the plant-bordered mall, you can admire the historic hotel while discovering some of the other gems on an afternoon stroll down the strip.

Avon Park's Main Street Mall is one of the city's most walkable corridors. It's not a mall in the shopping sense, but rather cues an older meaning of the word, referring to a public promenade in a town's central area. Avon Park's mall area is designated "very walkable" by the walkability analyzer Walk Score, and from end to end (roughly from Highway 27 to Lake Verona), you can walk it in under 30 minutes. In fact, the Main Street Mall was designed that way. As a National Register of Historic Places form outlines, the mall has historically been Avon Park's commercial center, and over time, patriotic monuments and landscaped green spaces were added to make it a kind of elongated town square. One towering monument is the Davidson Flagpole, on a median on North Museum Avenue.

For art lovers, a highlight of the Main Street Mall is the Peter Powell Roberts Museum of Arts. Located about midway through the mall, the museum is dedicated to the works of Florida artist Peter Powell Roberts, plus exhibits that showcase works from other regional artists. Another floor of the same building is home to the Heartland Cultural Alliance, which hosts events like weekly line dancing. On the second Friday of every month, the city also hosts a Hometown Hangout with food trucks, music, and shows along the Main Street Mall.

One of Avon Park's best advantages is its abundance of opportunities for savoring the outdoors. There's one spot right at the end of the Main Street Mall: Lake Verona, which one Reddit user described as "a nice little hangout spot." According to the City of Avon Park, the lake is one of the oldest in Florida. You can swim, kayak, and go fishing here, and there are some amenities (including bathrooms) at Donaldson Park on its shores. Another lake with public access, Lake Tulane sits a bit more south in town, with a beach and a boardwalk. For more lake access, Avon Park sits about a 15- to 20-minute drive from Lake Arbuckle, one of Florida's few remaining lakes with an undeveloped shore.

If you're looking for a spot to get food, a restaurant that has largely positive reviews is Butlers 18 East, sitting along the Main Street Mall close to Lake Verona. The restaurant's menu serves up steaks, grilled chicken, and a range of homemade raviolis. It also occasionally hosts live music. For a daytime bite, you could try Dutcher's Diner. It's another spot on the mall, and it's got 4.3 stars from Google reviewers, who especially praise the homemade biscuits.

Those flying into the Orlando International Airport can drive to Avon Park from the airport in about an hour and half. The city is slightly farther from Fort Myers, about an hour and 45 minutes by car.