Hiawassee is a residential community in unincorporated Orange County, west of Pine Hills along Hiawassee Road between Silver Star Road and Clarcona-Ocoee Road. It is the farthest west of our areas, which buys quiet streets, more room, and quick access to the SR-429 beltway toward Ocoee and Apopka. Our Wekiwa House anchors it - a compact two-bedroom that suits a single professional or a couple. This is the most car-dependent of our four areas and also, by a distance, the greenest: two of Central Florida's best natural springs are a short drive north.
Groceries and everyday shopping
The Publix at Metro West Village (2435 South Hiawassee Road) is the closest full supermarket, rebuilt new and reopened in 2025. West on Colonial toward Ocoee you have another Publix (8863 West Colonial Drive) and a large Walmart Supercenter (10500 West Colonial Drive, open roughly 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.). For general shopping, West Oaks Mall (9401 West Colonial Drive, Ocoee) is the area's enclosed mall - anchored by JCPenney, a Dillard's clearance store and a fourteen-screen AMC theater, with a food court and around eighty-five shops. The Caribbean and Latin grocers of Pine Hills are a few minutes back east if you want them.
Where to eat
The everyday restaurant row is South Hiawassee Road through MetroWest, a couple of miles of plazas holding a real range: Tacos Don Andres for birria, Habibi Lebanese Grill for shawarma, Mecatos Bakery & Cafe for Colombian pastries and coffee, a sushi bar, and Marco's Pizza, with Teak Neighborhood Grill - craft beer, burgers and weekend brunch - just over on Kirkman Road. Chain dining lines West Colonial in Ocoee near the mall. For Caribbean and Jamaican, Golden Krust and the Pine Hills kitchens in our northwest guide are close.
Coffee
Mecatos Bakery & Cafe on South Hiawassee is the local sit-down option, strong on Colombian coffee. Otherwise the west side runs on drive-through chains along Colonial; the independent cafe scene is east in College Park and downtown.
Parks and the outdoors
This is why you would choose the west side. Wekiwa Springs State Park is about twenty minutes north in Apopka: you swim and snorkel in a clear spring that holds 72°F year-round, rent a canoe or kayak at the concession (roughly $17 for the first two hours, cash and reservations vary - check ahead), hike the trails, or camp. Entry runs about $6 per carload; the park is open 8 a.m. to sunset. A little farther, Kelly Park / Rock Springs in Apopka is a natural lazy-river run where you float the spring on a tube - admission is about $5 per vehicle, tubes rent for a few dollars from vendors outside the gate, and it fills to capacity early on warm weekends, so arrive in the morning. Magnolia Park on Lake Apopka (2929 South Binion Road) adds a lakefront with a fishing pier, a boat ramp, a playground, an eco-education center and free-roaming peacocks. Closer in, Barnett Park sits back toward Pine Hills.
Gyms and fitness
Planet Fitness has a 24-hour club on Silver Star Road in Ocoee, and Crunch and EOS sit along West Colonial near the mall. For the outdoors-minded, the springs and the Lake Apopka Loop Trail - a wildlife drive and bike path along the lake's north shore - are the real draw.
Pharmacies and everyday errands
Pharmacies are at the Publix and Walmart and along West Colonial. The closest hospital is Orlando Health Health Central in Ocoee, with AdventHealth's Apopka campus to the north; the Wekiwa House page lists the exact times.
Getting around
You will drive here, and the roads make it easy: the SR-429 Western Beltway runs north to Apopka and Ocoee, SR-408 heads east to downtown, and Clarcona-Ocoee Road, Silver Star Road and Hiawassee Road handle the local trips. Both expressways are tolled, so a SunPass or E-PASS transponder pays off on a longer stay. There is no rail transit out this far. Here is how the drive works from Wekiwa Home:
| Home | Downtown | Health Central | Wekiwa Springs | Universal | MCO Airport |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wekiwa HomeHiawassee · 2 bd · 2 ba · sleeps 6 | 17 min | 12 min | 18 min | 19 min | 39 min |
Typical road-routing times without traffic; each home page carries its full table.
Who books Wekiwa Home
Wekiwa Home is the smallest home in the Libema portfolio, and that is exactly the point for the guests who choose it. Two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a sleeping count of six make it the natural pick for a solo professional on a long assignment, a couple settling into Orlando, or two colleagues who each want their own bedroom and their own bathroom rather than sharing one down the hall.
The stays that land here most often fall into four groups: travel nurses and medical staff working a rotation at the west-side hospitals, remote workers who want a season in Orlando without signing a lease, corporate travelers on a project that runs a month or two, and people in the middle of a relocation who want a real house to live in while they look for a permanent one.
What ties those groups together is that none of them need six bedrooms or a group-sized kitchen. They need a clean, quiet house with two working bathrooms so nobody waits on the other, a kitchen that gets used instead of a microwave and a mini-fridge, and a street where a car sits safely overnight. Wekiwa Home gives them that on a residential block in Hiawassee, away from the plazas and the through traffic of Hiawassee Road itself.
The drive from Hiawassee to work and the hospitals
Being the farthest west of our four areas means Wekiwa Home trades a few extra minutes into downtown for a fairly short run to the west-side hospitals. By road and without traffic, it is 12 minutes to Orlando Health Health Central in Ocoee, 16 minutes to AdventHealth Orlando's main campus, 18 minutes to Orlando Health / ORMC downtown, and 19 minutes to Arnold Palmer and Winnie Palmer, which share that same downtown campus. AdventHealth Altamonte Springs, which sits just up I-4 from this side of town, runs about the same as the ORMC drive, 18 minutes.
Downtown Orlando itself is 17 minutes from this house, and Universal Orlando is 19. Orlando International Airport is 39 minutes, and the Central Florida Research Park and UCF's main campus are both about 36 minutes, figures worth knowing if your stay is tied to a flight schedule or a research contract rather than a hospital shift. These are typical road-routing times without traffic; Orlando's rush hours add to the longer routes, which matters most on the airport and research-park runs rather than the short hop to Health Central.
The chart above is worth reading closely rather than assuming the west side wins every comparison to Health Central. The Entertainment House and the Cozy House, both in Pine Hills, and the Meet & Play House in Malibu Groves each run about 10 minutes to Health Central, two minutes quicker than Wekiwa Home's own 12. The Amelia House downtown ties Wekiwa Home at 12 minutes as well. What Hiawassee does offer, at Health Central and at AdventHealth's Apopka campus, is a straightforward run up SR-429 without the surface-street traffic the longer downtown routes carry.
- 1 Wekiwa Home 18 min
- 2 Downtown & Stadium Cozy Retreat 19 min
- 3 WinterPark Home 20 min
- 4 BlueEarth 20 min
- 5 Entertainment Home 24 min
- 6 Cozy Home 24 min
- 7 Meet. Play. Stay. 24 min
- 8 Amelia’s Arena Retreat 24 min
- 9 The Clue House 25 min
- 10 City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes 25 min
- 11 Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando 26 min
- 12 Fruit Tree Home 28 min
- 13 Piedmont 29 min
The map above places every home in the portfolio around Wekiwa Springs State Park by compass direction and drive time, useful context if the springs are part of why you are looking at this stay in the first place.
Working from here for a season
Wekiwa Home was not built with a dedicated office, so a remote worker here runs a laptop from the dining table for four beside the living room, under the same ceiling fan that keeps the room comfortable without the air conditioning working overtime. Wi-Fi is included at every Libema home and confirmed in writing at booking, and the quiet, low-traffic block this house sits on is part of the appeal, with no shared walls and no hallway noise carrying between units.
On a video-call day, the vaulted living room gives more usable space than a typical rental bedroom, and the second bedroom's own full bathroom, a walk-in tile shower, means a second remote worker, or a partner on a different schedule, can close a door and take their own calls without doubling up in one room. It is a plain setup rather than a purpose-built home office, and that plainness is exactly why it suits a month-long stay instead of a full lease.
Inside Wekiwa Home
The house is a single story, laid out simply. A vaulted living room opens off the covered front entry, furnished with a sectional, an armchair and a wall-mounted TV, with a dining table for four set just beside it.
The kitchen is white-cabinet and already stocked: a stainless range, microwave, dishwasher and refrigerator, with the cabinets holding glasses, plates and cookware so you can cook the first night rather than unpack a box of your own dishes first. Tile floors run through the whole house, and ceiling fans are in the living room and both bedrooms.
The first bedroom has a king bed and its own wall-mounted TV. The second has two full beds, which is what makes the house work for two colleagues on the same contract, or for a small family, rather than only a couple. Each bedroom is served by its own full bathroom, one a tub and shower, the other a walk-in tile shower, so getting ready in the morning does not turn into a queue for one sink. A full-size washer and dryer are in the house, and the covered front entry gives you a place to park that keeps a car out of direct sun through a Florida summer.
None of this is dressed up, and the home's own page says so plainly: it is the most compact house in the portfolio, best suited to one to four people, with an older exterior and a small front yard of shrubs rather than a lawn. For the single professional or the couple it is built for, that is the trade, a smaller house keeps the monthly rate lower and leaves less to clean after a long shift.
What's included and how a stay here is booked
Every home in the portfolio, including this one, comes with the same baseline: furniture, beds and linens, a stocked kitchen, a washer and dryer, Wi-Fi, and private parking. The exact list is confirmed in writing once you inquire, and the grid below is the short version.
Exact inclusions vary a little by home and are confirmed in writing when you book.
A stay of a month or longer is booked directly with Libema on a written agreement rather than through a listing site. That agreement names the home, the dates, the rate and the deposit, and the monthly rate itself is confirmed in writing once we know your dates, since rates are not published and change by season. If you would rather book a short trip first, a few nights or a week, Wekiwa Home also runs through its own Airbnb and Vrbo listings, which is the right route for a visit before a longer assignment starts.
If a company, a staffing agency or a relocation coordinator is the one paying rather than you directly, the agreement can be written in that organization's name with you as the occupant. We provide a W-9 and a certificate of insurance on request, since Libema carries a commercial landlord liability policy, and an established company or agency can be billed on net-30 terms under a signed agreement or purchase order once the first booking is paid.
Because this home publishes its neighborhood and zip only, 32818, rather than a street address, the exact address is shared once you book, along with keyless entry or lockbox instructions a few days before you arrive. If the stay runs long, extending is straightforward: tell us before the current month ends and we extend the agreement by the month at the same terms, the only extension pattern we offer.
Making a month out here work
For a remote worker or a relocating family, the calculus in Hiawassee is different from a downtown stay: you are trading walkability for quiet, and the springs are the payoff. Guests staying a full month tend to save Wekiwa Springs State Park and Kelly Park / Rock Springs for weekday mornings rather than weekends, since both fill early on Saturdays and Sundays once the weather turns warm. A weekday visit means you can swim the spring, eat lunch, and be back at the house within a couple of hours.
Wekiwa Springs State Park springs01 · Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0 · resized from 3264x2448
The rest of the week runs on the same short list most guests in this area use: a grocery stop at the Publix on South Hiawassee Road, a rotating dinner through the plazas along the same road, and West Oaks Mall in Ocoee for anything that needs a bigger store than a Publix carries. None of it requires planning around traffic the way a downtown-edge stay does, since these roads rarely carry the volume that SR-408 and I-4 see closer to the city core.
What guests said about staying here
Wekiwa Home carries 36 reviews on Airbnb at a 4.69 rating, and the word that comes up again and again is the same one the area itself is built around: quiet.
"Michelle’s place is in a great location you can get anywhere around Orlando in 20 minutes. She responds to any questions or concerns immediately. Neighborhood is quiet and peaceful. Close to restaurants and stores would definitely recommend her place."
"This place was super clean ! Had the perfect amount of space for our group ! Would definitely stay here again next time I come to Orlando !"
"The neighborhood was very nice and the airbnb host was kind enough to leave us a full bag of water bottles for our check in. 100% would recommend if you want something chill, small, and spacious at the same time. I felt like it was just enough room for everything we wanted to accomplish during our stay for around 6 days with 5 people."
"Worked out perfect for our occasion. Thank you for having such a beautiful place.!"
Santiago, who stayed in July 2026, wrote, "Michelle’s place is in a great location you can get anywhere around Orlando in 20 minutes." The same review calls the neighborhood "quiet and peaceful." Wilfrido, in September 2025, put it in one line: "Was clean, responsive to our questions and a calm area, thank you!" Dominick, in March 2026, stayed six days with five people and said the neighborhood "was very nice" and that the host left a full bag of water bottles for check-in, adding, "I felt like it was just enough room for everything we wanted to accomplish during our stay for around 6 days with 5 people." That is a fair description of what a two-bedroom house is for: enough room, not extra room. The full set of reviews is on our reviews page.
Parking, pets and the small stuff
Wekiwa Home does not have a fenced yard, worth knowing if you are traveling with a dog that needs to be off leash outside rather than walked. It does have a small yard with shrubs rather than a lawn, a covered front entry, and private parking right at the door, so unloading after a grocery run or a long shift does not mean carrying bags across a shared lot. The same spot works whether you are parking a sedan for a single-professional stay or a second car once a partner or a colleague joins for the month.
Several homes in the portfolio accept pets, and Wekiwa Home is one you should ask about directly. The policy and any deposit are confirmed in writing before you commit, the same way the monthly rate and the general deposit are. A pet stay here works the same as any other Libema home: tell us about the pet, we confirm what applies, and it goes into the written agreement alongside the dates and the rate.
Before you book Wekiwa Home
Guests who move in with the fewest surprises tend to sort out the same handful of things before they inquire, usually in a single email or phone call with us.
- Your group size. Two bedrooms and two full bathrooms suit one to four people comfortably; the house sleeps up to six with the two full beds in the second bedroom, so check that against who is actually coming.
- A car. This is the most car-dependent of our four areas. If you are used to walking or riding transit, budget for a vehicle here in a way you would not need to at our downtown-edge homes.
- Which campus or office, exactly. Health Central in Ocoee, AdventHealth Orlando, and AdventHealth's Apopka campus are three different drives from this house; tell us which one and we will confirm the exact time.
- A toll transponder. SR-429 and SR-408 are both tolled roads you will use often from this address; a SunPass or E-PASS pays for itself over a month.
- Your dates, with any extension in mind. If there is a real chance the stay runs past a month, say so early. Extensions run month to month at the same terms, and telling us early helps us keep the following month open.
- A pet, if you have one. The yard here is not fenced, so a leash rather than off-lead time in the yard is the plan; tell us about any pet up front so the policy is written into the agreement.
Send that list along with your dates, and we typically reply the same day with the exact drive time from Wekiwa Home to wherever you are headed.
