Choosing your Vacation Home Guide

Here at Gemstone we know how hard it can be to choose the location of your Orlando Vacation Home. With so many homes to choose from, it can be extremely confusing. So we have compiled a friendly guide to some of the most popular Orlando/Kissimmee locations, simply match your Vacation home with your perfect location! We have been proudly matching guests with their ideal vacation home since 1999, so if you can't find exactly what your looking using our guide, please contact us and one of our team will be happy to help.

Interstate 4 (I4) runs from Daytona Beach in the east to Tampa in the west with Orlando and Disney World located in Central Florida. Disney’s exact location on the I4 corridor is about 25 miles southwest of Orlando and about 70 miles northwest of Tampa. While describing the general location of Disney World is a fairly straight forward task, detailing the nuances of some of the surrounding areas can be confusing due the sheer enormity of the Disney complex. Essentially, Disney World is the land mass of a large city. It encompasses approximately 47 square miles or nearly 30,000 acres of contiguous property. Another way to appreciate the scope of Disney World is that it is twice the size of the island of Manhattan or about the same size of the city of San Francisco. Thus, when people inquire as to the proximity of a property to Disney World it is rare that a simplistic response that can be given. To follow are some directional details that should help the consumer in deciding which area may be the preferred locale for their Disney area rental home.

World Drive is the main north-south artery that bisects the Disney World property. It runs from the southern terminus of the Disney Property at US 192 up to the Magic Kingdom at the northern end of the property. There are feeder roads that run off of World Drive that carry you to any of the other facilities on the Disney property including but not limited to the other three gated attractions; EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and The Animal Kingdom. Most guests enter the Disney World complex at this southern end of World Drive either from I 4 or US 192. Thus, as we discuss the areas around Disney World, we will use the intersection of World Drive and US 192 as our focal point.

There are four cities that surround Disney World; Kissimmee to the southeast, Davenport to the southwest, Clermont to the northwest and Orlando to the northeast. As you search the internet for vacation rentals, you will probably find mention of all four of these cities. To further confuse the issue, all are in different counties; Kissimmee is in Osceola County, Davenport is in Polk County, Clermont is in Lake County and Orlando is in Orange County.

When selecting a home to rent, there is truly no right or wrong locale to choose from but location should be a consideration. Again, to emphasis the scope of the area the consumer has to choose from, a home in Davenport could potentially be located 30 miles from a home in Kissimmee. On the other hand, all four of these counties meet at a location about 8 miles west of Disney World, where US 192 terminates at US 27 in an area commonly known as “The Four Corners”. Here a property in Clermont may be less than a mile from a home in Davenport.

While Orlando is certainly the most recognizable city associated with Disney World, it is not an option for rentals since there is no appropriate zoning for vacation homes in Orlando. Thus, in terms of deciding on where to rent a vacation home in the Disney Area, the consumer has Kissimmee, Davenport and Clermont locations to choose from.

On the Gemstone Website, we have divided up our properties into six areas or locations. Most of the homes are located within 10 miles of Disney with none being further than 18 miles away. To follow is an overview of each of these location categories:

Gemstone Properties hopes this information is helpful in helping you choose a vacation home for your Disney Area vacation. There is plenty more detail available on Disney and the surrounding areas. We encourage you to call the Gemstone offices and speak with any of our representatives to help clarify any rental questions you may have.

Gemstone Properties; Since 1999

"Rent with Confidence"