An Afternoon Trip To Eustis, FL

Eustis, FL is a small city about an hour north of Orlando. It’s part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford Metropolitan Statistical Area and had a population of 23,189 as of the 2020 census. I ended up taking an impromptu trip to Eustis with my fiancee after work yesterday due to reasons I will not be writing about. I ended up having a nicer time than I expected to and figured I’d write about it here.

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The first thing we did was go to a pizza place that was about a block away from us called Roma Pizza. At this point the idea of writing about this trip hadn’t occurred to me so I didn’t get a picture. Instead, here’s this picture of the restaurant from Google Maps courtesy of Ellie Mitchell:

The food was great! It had a homemade feel to it. We ordered a medium margherita pizza and on a whim decided to get some garlic knots as an appetizer. The garlic knots were huge. I was expecting something like what Domino’s gives you, but each one of these was only a little smaller than my fist – which is bigger than the average fist. They were topped with minced garlic and came with some marinara sauce for dipping. The pizza, while not having anything that made it stand out like the garlic knots, was still good and I’d eat it again if I found myself back in Eustis for any reason.

After that, we went to the nearby Ferran Park, which is on the coast of Lake Eustis. This park has a playground, grassy areas, some walking paths, a fountain, and a Veteran’s memorial. Here we saw turtles swimming in the lake, a variety of birds, and a field of lily pads with a few budding lilies. Below are some pictures I took there.

But the standout attraction for me was the Eustis Lake Walk. This is a boardwalk that runs along the lake’s coast. There were people fishing, birds hopping along lily pads and checking under them for food, pavilions all along that you could sit and rest at, and it all contributed to a peaceful and fun atmosphere. It’s hard for me to put into words why I enjoyed the Lake Walk so much. I think I just vibed with it. Here’s some pictures I took there:

On the way back to the car we passed by this museum. Unfortunately it was closed, otherwise we might have gone in. It still looks nice from the outside, though.

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So that was basically my trip to Eustis. I didn’t plan to go spend an evening there, but I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. I don’t think I can recommend taking a vacation here, but if you’re in Orlando and want to see some small town vibes, some historical sites, and a neat park and lake, then it might be worth the hour drive.