Royal Palm Bay Villas, Orlando, Kissimee, Florida , USA.

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Kissimmee used to have a small local rodeo every Friday evening at the local Sports Ground but it is no more. All that remains of this part of Cow Town's history are the two rodeos a year that are put on at the Silver Spurs Arena. Here you can also watch your favourite local team play.

Downtown is interesting to walk around as it is the commercial centre and has a pleasant frontage onto Tohopekaliga Lake (known locally as Lake Toho ) at Lakefront Park , but there is little if any night life or shopping to be had here. On the lakefront is the Monument of States built with stones from every state in the nation plus twenty-one foreign countries.

Better is Kissimmee Old Town on the 192 which has a wide selection of shops selling Route 66 style memorabilia and other tourist tat. There are many places to eat and drink, a number of fairground attractions, and classic auto cruises on Friday and Saturday nights preceded by bike night on a Thursday.

The area is teeming with fishing and golfing opportunities. Even the lake at Royal Palm Bay offers satisfying fishing and Kissimmee Golf course is friendly and reasonably priced. A short way down the road beside the local Wal Mart to the east of Poinciana Boulevard on the 192, is the Osceola County Pioneer Museum . This recreates with preserved buildings the life of the nineteenth century settlers. Volunteers take you around and bring to life how people used to live there over one hundred years ago.

Gatorland is a long-established local attraction which, unsurprisingly, has a vast selection of alligators, crocodiles and cayman. It is interestingly presented and an ideal introduction for children to these unattractive reptiles. There are many other animals to be seen here and a petting area where children can handle docile animals without fear of harm on either side. The ultimate hands-on experience can be found at the Green Meadows Petting Farm south of Royal Palm Bay on Poinciana Boulevard .

Further down this road at the junction with Pleasant Hill Road , turning right brings you to Disney's Wilderness Preserve which is run by the Nature Conservancy. Hiking trails and guided tours allow visitors to explore the real Florida countryside and observe some of their natural inhabitants. Turning left brings you to the Cypress Cove Naturist Centre.

Continuing on down Poinciana Boulevard leads to the best of the airboat experiences at Boggy Creek Airboat Rides on Lake Toho . Airboats are a totally different experience, and a noisy one at that. They skim the water which means they can access areas of the marches that would be inaccessible to conventional boats. The trip is thrilling but at the same time it enables you to see wildlife in its natural setting that would otherwise be hidden. Should you wish you can also parasail over the area or take a land based safari trip into the interior.