A whole house on the city side of Orlando for a Disney trip

A theme-park stay in one of our houses

Most families who book one of our houses for a Disney trip are pricing it against two or three hotel rooms near the parks, not a single room. The math usually settles it before the drive time does: a three- or four-bedroom house holds the whole group under one roof at one rate, with a kitchen and a washer and dryer that a hotel room does not have. You trade the ten-minute shuttle to the gate for a driveway, a yard, and a place to make breakfast before anyone gets in the car. For a week built around early mornings and long afternoons in a park, that trade works for a lot of the families we host.

The routine settles fast. You land, stop for groceries on the way in, and by the second morning everyone knows where the cereal is and whose towel is whose. Rope-drop mornings start in the kitchen instead of a hotel lobby, and evenings end with wet park clothes going into the washer instead of hanging over a shower rod. A house with more than one bathroom matters here more than almost anything else: getting six or eight people out the door by park opening is easier with two showers running instead of one, which is part of why the larger of our homes get booked for this trip as often as the closest ones.

Because these houses sit on the city side of Orlando rather than in the resort district, a lot of families build the week around more than one park. The 25th Street House is about 13 minutes from Universal Orlando on top of its drive to Disney, and the Piedmont House is about the same, 13 minutes from Universal. That means a Disney morning and a Universal afternoon on different days both work from the same driveway, and a day off from any park still leaves downtown Orlando and the Camping World Stadium neighborhood close enough to fill an afternoon without a long drive.

The homes families book for a Disney trip

Eleven of our thirteen houses are set up for a family stay; the exception is our smallest home, best suited to one to four people rather than a full Disney-trip group. Among the eleven, three tend to come up first for this trip, for three different reasons: distance, sleeping space, and something to do on the day nobody wants to leave the house.

South of Downtown

Holden Heights

Fruit Tree Home

3 bd 2 ba Sleeps 10

6 min downtown · 5 min ORMC · 13 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

Northwest Orlando

Pine Hills

Downtown & Stadium Cozy Retreat

3 bd 1.5 ba Sleeps 8

14 min downtown · 12 min AdventHealth · 17 min Universal

Family Vacations & Theme ParksGroups & Reunions

Northwest Orlando

Pine Hills / Rosemont

The Clue House

6 bd 3 ba Sleeps 15

11 min downtown · 12 min ORMC · 14 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

The 25th Street House in Holden Heights posts the shortest drive of our homes to Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney Springs and the Vineland outlets alike, at 34, 25, 22 and 20 minutes. It is a modest older bungalow with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a full-size washer and dryer on site, a fenced backyard with fruit trees, and a glass-top dining table that seats four. It also carries more reviews than any other home in the portfolio, 142 on Airbnb at a 4.83 rating, worth knowing if a proven track record matters as much as the drive time.

The Londonderry House in Pine Hills is built for a family with more than one kid: three bedrooms holding a king, a queen, and a bunk room with two sets of bunk beds, for up to eight people. There is one full bathroom with a marble-look walk-in shower and a half bath, so mornings take some coordination with a full house, and the backyard is still being worked on, so treat it as a yard for now rather than a finished one. It runs about 42 minutes from Magic Kingdom, 33 from EPCOT and 31 from Disney Springs, longer than our closest homes but paired with a kitchen for six and a proper dining table.

For an extended family or two households traveling together, the Head Avenue House in Pine Hills has six bedrooms, three bathrooms and room for fifteen, with an in-home workspace and full-size laundry, the only one of our houses built to sleep this many people under one roof. It was originally set up as a themed mystery-game house, and each bedroom is still styled after a character from a classic whodunit board game, which tends to be a hit with kids on the one evening nobody feels like leaving the house. It sits about 40 minutes from Magic Kingdom and 28 from Disney Springs, a longer haul than the homes closer to downtown.

Beyond those three, the rest of the family-vacation homes each have a reason to look twice. The Piedmont House in Washington Shores sleeps fourteen across four bedrooms, has a large concrete parking pad for more than one vehicle, and a game corner with a foosball table and arcade basketball, about 36 minutes from Magic Kingdom. The Dollins House, also in Washington Shores, sleeps thirteen across four bedrooms with blackout curtains for anyone catching up on sleep, on a shaded lot of mature oaks, 37 minutes from Magic Kingdom.

The Sunset Lake House is a small three-bedroom bungalow under a live oak that sleeps up to eight, 36 minutes out. The Meet & Play House has a pool table and dart board in its own game room and a portable crib on request, sleeps up to nine, and runs 38 minutes from Magic Kingdom. The Entertainment House and the Cozy House, both in Pine Hills, sit 39 minutes out, with foosball and table tennis at the first and a simple open plan at the second. The Amelia House and the Katherine House round out the list at 37 and 47 minutes.

The drive to Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Disney Springs

All thirteen of our homes sit on the west, northwest and downtown edges of Orlando, and Walt Disney World sits southwest of the city near Lake Buena Vista, so every route runs through I-4 or the 429 beltway no matter which house you start from. That is also why the numbers cluster the way they do: the widest gap between our closest and farthest home to Magic Kingdom is only 13 minutes, from 34 to 47, and the same pattern holds at EPCOT (25 to 38), Disney Springs (22 to 35) and the Vineland outlets (20 to 33). None of our homes are close to the parks the way a resort-district hotel is, but none of them is a dramatically worse choice than another either.

The map below places each home in its real compass direction from Magic Kingdom, with the distance from the centre showing drive minutes rather than miles. It is a faster way to see how your own cluster sits against the rest of the portfolio than scanning a column of numbers, and it is worth a look before you settle on a house.

EPCOT, Disney Springs and the Vineland outlets sit close enough to Magic Kingdom that a house's drive time to one predicts the other two fairly well. Here is every home against all three, so you can see the spread before you pick a house.

Typical road-routing times without traffic; Orlando rush hours add to the longer routes.

What's already in the house for a park week

A theme-park week runs on a short list of things, and every one of our homes has them before you arrive: beds and linens made up, a stocked kitchen with cookware and dishes, a washer and dryer, Wi-Fi, and private parking in a driveway, carport or parking pad. The exact list is confirmed in writing when you book, but the shape of it does not change from house to house. What changes is the extra: a desk in a bedroom, a game room, a dining table built for a crowd. Those specifics are worth reading on the home's own page before you decide.

Exact inclusions vary a little by home and are confirmed in writing when you book.

None of our homes has a pool; they are residential houses, not a resort property, and we would rather say that plainly than have you find out at check-in. What they do have is a kitchen that earns its keep on a park week: breakfast before rope drop instead of a hotel buffet line, a counter for packing lunches to carry into the park, and a stove for the night everyone is too tired to go back out for dinner. The washer and dryer matter as much as the kitchen once wet swimsuits, sunscreen-stained shirts and a week of park clothes start piling up in the corner.

Booking a house for a Disney trip

Most Disney-trip stays run a few nights to two weeks, which puts them on the same footing as any other short stay: book directly with us or through the home's own Airbnb or Vrbo listing, whichever suits your dates. The rate, the deposit and the pet policy are confirmed in writing before you pay; we do not publish nightly rates on the site because they change with the season and the house.

If your trip runs long enough to blur into a monthly stay, the terms shift to a written monthly agreement instead, with the same rate-and-deposit-in-writing approach and an itemized receipt, and extensions from there are by the month. For a standard week or two around the parks, the booking stays simple: confirm your dates and group size, get the rate and deposit in writing, and arrival notes with your entry code follow a few days before check-in.

Several of our homes accept pets, with the policy and any deposit confirmed in writing before you commit, worth raising early if the family dog is coming to Orlando too. Parking at the house is included at every home; parking at the parks themselves is separate and set by Disney.

Living here between park days

Groceries and a day off from the parks look different depending on which cluster your house sits in, and our local area guides go deeper into each one. Fruit Tree Home sits in Holden Heights, south of downtown, where there is a Publix on South Orange Avenue for a grocery run. Amelia’s Arena Retreat, on the Parramore edge of downtown, is close enough to walk to the compact Publix at The Paramount on Lake Eola (400 East Central Boulevard), about the only supermarket you can walk to in the city core. The Piedmont, Dollins and Sunset Lake houses in Washington Shores have three options nearby instead: the Walmart Supercenter on West Princeton Street, Presidente Supermarket on Pine Hills Road, or that same Paramount Publix a few minutes east downtown. Meet. Play. Stay., a little west in Malibu Groves, is close to a newer Publix at Metro West Village on South Hiawassee Road, or the Publix on South Kirkman Road. From the Pine Hills cluster around the Head Avenue, Entertainment, Londonderry and Cozy houses, Presidente Supermarket on North Pine Hills Road and the Caribbean Supercenter on West Colonial Drive round out the shopping.

Inside of a Publix store in MetroWest, Orlando, Florida · Nielsoncaetanosalmeron · CC BY 4.0 · resized from 6000x4000

For a day away from a park, Lake Eola Park downtown has a roughly one-mile sidewalk loop, swan boats to rent, and a Sunday farmers market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., a short drive from the downtown-edge homes. Lake Lorna Doone Park, a twelve-acre park just north of Camping World Stadium that reopened in 2021 after an eight-million-dollar rebuild, has a walking loop, outdoor fitness stations and a splash pad, close to City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes and the other Washington Shores homes. Barnett Park in Pine Hills adds 159 acres with its own free splash pad, playgrounds and trails, a short drive from the Head Avenue, Entertainment, Londonderry and Cozy houses.

Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets, 20 to 33 minutes from our homes, is the other common stop on a non-park day, for a shopping list or an afternoon out of the heat. Getting around the rest of the metro is by car; SR-408 and I-4 are the roads you will use most, both are tolled, and Orlando's rush hours add to the longer routes, worth building into a morning that starts with rope drop.

What guests said about the homes families book

The reviews below are real, pulled verbatim from the homes' own Airbnb listings, with the guest's name and the month of the stay. Fruit Tree Home carries 142 of them at a 4.83 rating; the full wall for every home is on our reviews page.

Families show up in the reviews for other homes too. Angella, who stayed at The Clue House in August 2026, wrote: "My stay was very good. Close to everywhere without the traffic. My family and I was safe and felt at home." That mix, room for the group and an easy drive to everywhere else, is a lot of why this trip keeps landing on our houses.

Piedmont gets similar comments from groups. Thao, who stayed in February 2026, wrote: "Great place for a big group. The place was nice and updated." Sandon, in April 2026, wrote: "Thank you for hosting us! Perfect for our group for the weekend to have some fun and just use it as a home base" Both point to the same pattern, a group treating the house as its base for a few days out.

Before you book, a checklist for a park trip

A few questions settle faster with an answer ready before you inquire.

• How many people, and how many bathrooms you want running at once. Getting a group of eight out the door for rope drop is a different morning with two bathrooms than with one; check each home's bath count before you book.
• Which park days come first. Tell us your rough itinerary and we can point you to the home with the shortest combined drive, whether that is Magic Kingdom and EPCOT on back-to-back days or a Universal day mixed in.
• Whether the group needs one house or two. Some families split into The Clue House and a smaller home nearby rather than fit everyone under one roof; ask and we will tell you what is open.
• A pet, if one is coming. Several homes accept pets, with the policy and any deposit confirmed in writing before you commit.
• Your length of stay. A few nights runs through the home's Airbnb or Vrbo listing; two weeks or longer moves to a written monthly agreement with the rate confirmed up front either way.
• A car. Every home has private parking, and you will want a vehicle for the drive to the parks; the toll roads take a SunPass or E-PASS, or the transponder option through a rental car.
• The plain parts. Every home page has a section on what to expect: an older house, a yard still being worked on, a single bathroom in some homes. We would rather you read it before you book than be surprised at check-in.

More reading for a Disney-trip family

Two of our guides go deeper on this exact trip: how a whole house works for a theme-park week day by day, and what comes standard in a furnished rental so you know what to pack and what to leave home.

Family Travel · 5 min

Renting a House for an Orlando Park Trip: A Family Guide

How a whole house on the city side of Orlando works for a theme-park week, what it costs you in drive time, and how to plan the days around it.

Read →

Guides · 4 min

Monthly Furnished Rentals: What's Usually Included

A plain rundown of the furniture, kitchen, linens, utilities, and internet you can usually expect in a furnished monthly home, and the questions worth asking before you book.

Read →

If your group is closer to fifteen than five, our page on group and reunion houses covers the same homes from that angle. Each of the three area clusters also has its own guide: the downtown and close-in guide, the Washington Shores and west Orlando guide, and the Pine Hills and northwest Orlando guide.