Mount Dora FL

Mount Dora FL's downtown area is a quaint, beautiful, and bustling spot. With shops, a pottery studio, dessert places, restaurants, and more. I visited last month when the Christmas lights/decorations were still up. Christmas makes everything more magical, but Mount Dora does it best. There are plenty of photo ops next to Santa, or wearing his massive boots, or a family of snowmen. My favorite was the giant, gorgeous trees with white and blue lights dripping down. Some neat non-Christmas related things around this particular area were a communal pickleball court and "rent a space" room.

Unfortunately, while there, the majority of shops had already closed. Fortunately, their Christmas were great. One had Santa, in his sleigh, pulled by reindeer on the roof and another had a (very well done) window display dedicated to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Towards the main drag, there was a small, veranda like section in the back. You could watch a light show, while smalling an amazing pizza place.

There was a Cuban restaurant that wasn't the best in my opinion. The dessert place had phenomenal ice cream (try the caramel brownie and Biscoff flavors) as well as fudge, candy, shaved ice, coffee, and truffles. A cool and unexpected element of this adventure was a person decked out in full Grinch costuming, on a motorcycle. They would ride through all of downtown blasting "You're a mean one."

Mount Dora is a great place to visit during and not during Christmas. I will definitely be back for that PIZZA! Until next time. Bye!