Wedding season is looking a little different with this year, with many weddings having to be pushed back a whole other year! While I’m just an onlooker to the wedding planning portion of my sisters wedding – I totally get to hear the venue and RSVP frustrations – I am a bridesmaid, so I am heavily involved in the fun portion of her friends and I getting the opportunity to give her the fun send off to marriage any bride deserves.
Our chances looked iffy for a minute there planning her bachelorette party, with a change in venue (originally Nashville, switched to Orlando), change in people, and change in plans – no strippers – but in the end we put on a bachelorette party to remember, a shining moment for her to look back on in a time of global fear and uncertainty.
Our girls trip was centered around Becky becoming a wife, but the activities we did, work for any girl gang (or any group, really) looking to have a safe and fun getaway in Central Florida!
For the people currently thinking “isn’t Orlando all about the mouse?” I have so much to let you in on! While Orlando is famous for its theme parks, there is a whole city that has absolutely nothing to do with the infamous mouse ears. Orlando is a vibrant, trendy, metropolitan center. Downtown is filled with skyscrapers and districts housing nightlife, art, breweries, and more.
To start off, we stayed in the most adorable Airbnb in downtown Orlando, perfect for taking insta-worthy pictures inside, and easily accessible to all of Orlando and the trendy nightlife spots. The bungalow coordinated beautifully with all of our bachelorette decorations, and the full kitchen was perfect for housing all of our drinks!
Our first day was laid back and we just drank – I made my famous Rachie Juice – and ate at Agave Azul, a chain Mexican restaurant with jaw dropping and wow factor drinks. Seriously, they were bigger than my head. If you follow my Instagram you would have seen us all freaking out on my story about the drinks! The highlight is still up for all to see! Definitely worth the 45 minute wait.
The next day, we enjoyed Sunday brunch at the Island Grove Wine Company at Formosa Gardens in Kissimmee. No tours were happening due to a wedding and we could not do a tasting due to COVID-19 but that didn’t keep us from downing some wines and smashing some waffles.
They have a unique “tasting” style, instead of the traditional sitting at the bar and being told the background on each wine, at Formosa Gardens you can purchase a prepaid card (I put $10 on the card) and then go to their wall of wine and select which wine to try. Each wine shows the price for a 1 oz, 3 oz, and a 5 oz tasting. You can use their tasting card to keep track of which wines you tasted and liked best – I’m all for the Backporch Peach!
We topped off our wine with mimosas and a delicious brunch before we headed outside to take pictures among the flat, Florida landscape. We could only stay out for half an hour before the midday, Central Florida, humidity got the best of us… and our gray t-shirts.
When we were pleasantly buzzed, we headed back to our Airbnb for a couple of hours to wind down and prepare for our next excursion. We drank some more and played our group games we brought along for the party, and I had to Uber Eats some Dixie Dharma from Market on South – you can’t expect me to stay in Orlando for a whole weekend and not get my favorite vegan food at some point!
After I stuffed my face with some vegan tendies we headed out to our next activity, quite possibly our best one of the weekend! We did a Wall Crawl – probably the most Gen Z activity ever but 100% a blast. For those scratching their heads going “what in the world is a Wall Crawl?” Let me tell ya! Imagine a bar crawl but with bright colors and instead of drinks you’re drunk on insta-worthy pictures.
We booked the Wall Crawl for one hour thinking an hour was plenty of time, we were wrong. We could have easily spent another hour up there taking cute, funny, sexy, and boss a** b*tch pictures in front of their various walls! I didn’t even get to half the walls in the hour we got!
The Wall Crawl was loads of fun and surprisingly a great bonding experience with all of us hyping up our girlfriends and smiling at how well our own photos came out.
Be sure to get to the Wall Crawl on time because they will NOT put your missed time on the backend. Also, pro tip, bring two or more outfits so you don’t have the same outfit against every wall. Bonus pro tip, wear solid colors so you don’t clash with the eccentric backgrounds!
The Wall Crawl is just a short drive back into the downtown scene where we finished our night out at The Stubborn Mule – a trendy New American restaurant in downtown Orlando. The drinks were crafty and the food spectacular – with a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan options for my fellow veggies!
After dinner we headed back to our bungalow to pack up our belongings, drink, and play more games before our final day of fun!
We had to wake up early for our final excursion of our bachelorette party in Orlando, but it was definitely worth it. We did a clear kayak tour in Winter Park with Get Up and Go Kayaking. Our original plan was to do the glow in the dark tour but alas, the weekend glow in the dark tours fill up fast!
The daytime tour was still full of fun, plus our guide, Keith, was a fantastic tour guide and super knowledgeable about the area and easy to talk to!
The tour starts among the immaculate buildings of Rollins College and takes you around the lakes in the area and through the canals that connect them together. The canals are super tight so every time a boat passed we had to cling onto the canal walls hoping we cleared enough room for the boat to pass, terrifying for me but hilarious at the same time!
While we were in the lake part of the tour we ohh’ed and ahh’ed at all of the beautiful houses surrounding the lakes, and even got to see the house Mr. Rogers lived in while attending college!
After the tour we ate out in downtown Winter Park at 4 Rivers Smokehouse. An incredible BBQ place throughout Florida, built on the premise of helping the community and doing good. Plus, the first BBQ place I’ve been to that has vegan BBQ meat alternatives and a plethora or vegan sides!
When we finished up our lunch at 4 Rivers, we closed up our girls trip and said our goodbyes to drive home. The world may be in a state or turmoil, and there has been a record number of cancelled plans this year, but in a time when all seems bad there are still ways to safely go out and enjoy our “ruined” 2020.
Be sure to follow along on social to see behind the scenes on what I’m doing and get a sneak peek on where I’ll be next!
Like what you see? Email me at travelwithrachie@gmail.com or DM on Instagram to set up your own adventure!
