I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m in Orlando, I try to get out of Orlando. All those tourists whizzing down I-4 and International Drive make me nervous. A good place to stay, and still play the area’s golf courses, with maybe a side trip to Disney World, is the Mission Inn Resort and Club. It’s only about 35 minutes northwest of Orlando, but a world away in effect.

It’s in Howey-in-the-Hills, a place as funky as its name, with rolling land and orange groves and a small-town friendliness.

Mission Inn is a family-owned, family-run resort with untraditional resort activities. They have skeet shooting for example. But, the thing I like best about it is the boats for rent: they have everything from small bass boats to pontoon boats to 26-foot cabin cruisers. You can put in here and get to the Atlantic Ocean, though I doubt you could afford the rent on a boat for that long.

It’s got two nice golf courses, with one, El Campeon, being a very good, under-rated course.

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