Whole-house rentals five to fifteen minutes from downtown Orlando

A stay built around downtown's calendar

Downtown Orlando keeps its own schedule. A weeknight might mean a show at the Dr. Phillips Center, a Friday might mean the Kia Center or an Orlando City match at Inter.co Stadium, and any night of the week there is a table waiting on Church Street or in one of the restaurants around it. A house near the edge of downtown puts all of that within a short drive and gives you somewhere to come back to that is not a hotel floor.

The difference shows up in small things. You park in your own driveway instead of paying a garage by the hour, and the kitchen is stocked whether you cook or not. A group can spread out across bedrooms and a living room, and nobody has to explain to a front desk why five people keep coming and going from one room.

The homes we point people to for a downtown stay sit in three neighborhoods along its edge: Parramore to the west, Holden Heights just south, and Washington Shores farther southwest by Camping World Stadium. Each one is a real residential street, with a yard that is yours for the length of the stay and neighbors who live there year-round, not a rotating cast of hotel guests.

The homes on the downtown edge

Four of our thirteen homes sit close enough to the core that we point most downtown inquiries to one of them first.

Downtown Orlando

Parramore / Downtown Edge

Amelia’s Arena Retreat

4 bd 2 ba Sleeps 8

7 min downtown · 9 min ORMC · 16 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

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

West Orlando

Washington Shores

Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando

4 bd 2 ba Sleeps 13

7 min downtown · 7 min ORMC · 16 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

West Orlando

Washington Shores / Lake Sunset

City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes

3 bd 1 ba Sleeps 8

7 min downtown · 8 min ORMC · 15 min Universal

Game Days, Concerts & WeekendsTravel Nurse & Medical

The Amelia House, at 3013 W Amelia St in Parramore, is about 7 minutes from downtown Orlando, 8 from Lake Eola Park, 7 from the Dr. Phillips Center and 7 from the Kia Center. It is a renovated block home with a white shaker kitchen, two updated bathrooms and a bedroom with its own attached bathroom, set up to sleep eight across four bedrooms. The yard is fenced and shaded, and the driveway is private concrete, which matters on a night when the Kia Center and Inter.co Stadium, both 6 to 8 minutes away, have an event and the streets around them fill up.

The 25th Street House in Holden Heights is the closest of the four: about 6 minutes from downtown, 8 from Lake Eola, 7 from the Dr. Phillips Center and 6 from the Kia Center. It is a three-bedroom bungalow with a full-size washer and dryer on site, a screened front porch, fruit trees in the yard and a private driveway, and it sleeps up to ten. The bedrooms are small and the laundry sits in an unfinished utility area off the porch, worth knowing before you book, but the drive to almost anywhere downtown is short.

The Dollins House and the Sunset Lake House both sit in Washington Shores and both run about 7 minutes from downtown, 8 from Lake Eola and 7 from the Dr. Phillips Center. Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando, with a published address at 510 S Dollins Ave, is the larger of the two: four bedrooms sleeping thirteen, a shaded lot of mature oaks, and blackout curtains in the furnished bedrooms for anyone sleeping in past a late show downtown. City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes keeps its exact address for booking; it is a small three-bedroom bungalow under a live oak, with one bathroom shared across the house, about 2 minutes from Camping World Stadium by road, so plan around stadium traffic on event nights.

A few minutes farther, still close

Eight more homes sit a few minutes farther out, and several fit better once group size or a specific amenity matters more than the last few minutes of drive time.

The Meet & Play House in Malibu Groves is the closest of this second group: about 9 minutes from downtown, 11 from Lake Eola, 9 from the Dr. Phillips Center and 10 from the Kia Center. It is the newest-built house in the portfolio, with a fireplace TV wall, a separate game room with a full-size pool table, desks in two bedrooms and an attached garage, and it sleeps up to nine.

The Head Avenue House, the Piedmont House, the Entertainment House and the Cozy House all run about 11 minutes from downtown, 12 from Lake Eola and 11 from the Dr. Phillips Center. Between them they cover a wide range of group sizes: The Clue House has six bedrooms and sleeps fifteen, Piedmont has a parking pad for several vehicles and sleeps fourteen, and Entertainment Home and Cozy Home are smaller three-bedroom homes, Entertainment Home adding a foosball table and table tennis.

The Katherine House is about 13 minutes from downtown and 12 from the Kia Center, with a screened porch and a community park within walking distance. The Londonderry House, about 14 minutes from downtown, has a bunk room with two sets of bunk beds for a family or a team. The Wekiwa House, our smallest home and in the farthest west of our areas, is about 17 minutes from downtown and 16 from the Dr. Phillips Center. It suits one to four people, with two full bathrooms in a compact two-bedroom layout.

Getting downtown by road

Every drive time on this page is a road-routing estimate without traffic, and Orlando's rush hours add time to the longer ones. Two roads carry most of the traffic between our homes and the core: I-4, which runs along downtown's edge and separates Parramore from the office towers, and SR-408, the East-West Expressway. Both are tolled, so a SunPass or E-PASS transponder is worth having if you are staying more than a few days.

The map below places each home in its true compass direction from the Kia Center, with the distance from the centre showing drive minutes rather than miles. Homes to the south and west reach the arena on SR-408 or I-4; WinterPark Home to the north comes down US-441 or the interstate.

For the other two destinations on this page, here is every home against both.

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

None of the numbers above include traffic. I-4 through downtown and the SR-408 interchange near the Kia Center slow down the most on weekday mornings and evenings, adding the most time to the homes already running 11 to 17 minutes out. On an event night at the Kia Center or a game at Camping World Stadium, the streets right around the venues can back up even when the highways stay clear.

Amelia’s Arena Retreat and Fruit Tree Home are also the two within reach of transit: the LYNX Central and Church Street SunRail stations and the free LYMMO bus that circulates downtown. Everywhere else in this group, plan on driving. The trips are short, but there is no rail line running through Washington Shores, Pine Hills or Malibu Groves.

Lake Eola, the arena and the arts center

Lake Eola Park is downtown's front yard: a fountain, the resident swans, pedal-powered swan boats you can rent for about $15 a half-hour Tuesday through Sunday, an amphitheater and a sidewalk loop that runs about a mile around the water. On Sundays, a farmers market takes over the southeast corner from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with food stalls, local makers, a beer garden and live music.

The Dr. Phillips Center sits a few blocks from the lake, and it is the reason a lot of our downtown guests book in the first place: every one of the four downtown-edge homes is about 7 minutes from it by road. The Kia Center and Inter.co Stadium sit in Parramore, close enough to Amelia’s Arena Retreat that an event night barely changes the drive.

Dr Phillips Center, Orlando · Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized from 5184x3456

Creative Village, home to UCF and Valencia's downtown campuses and the EA Orlando studio, is about 7 minutes from Amelia’s Arena Retreat. Church Street, a few blocks over, is where most guests end up after a show or a game: restaurants, bars, and the historic Church Street Station building anchoring one end. None of this is a walk from any of our homes, but the drive is short, and coming back to a house on a quiet street beats finding parking twice in one night.

What's already in the house

Every home we rent, night or season, comes with furniture, made-up beds and linens, a stocked kitchen, a washer and dryer, Wi-Fi and private parking. The exact inclusions for the home you pick are confirmed in writing when you book.

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

A few specifics matter more here than the general list suggests. Coming back late from a show or a game, Fruit Tree Home has its own full-size washer and dryer, so travel clothes are not sitting in a bag until checkout. Amelia’s Arena Retreat has a bedroom with its own attached bathroom, useful if two people keep different hours. Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando has blackout curtains in its bedrooms, which helps the morning after a late night on Church Street. None of the four downtown-edge homes has a pool; none of our thirteen homes do.

Booking a night, a week or a longer stay

A night or a week downtown books the way most short stays do: through the home's own Airbnb or Vrbo listing, or by reaching out to us directly. For a longer run, a business assignment, a season, the monthly route is a written agreement booked directly with us instead of through a listing site.

The monthly agreement names the home, the dates, the rate and the deposit, all confirmed in writing when you inquire; we do not publish rates on the site because they change by home and season. Guests let themselves in with keyless entry or a lockbox, with arrival notes sent a few days ahead. If a stay runs long, extensions are handled by the month: tell us as soon as you know, and we will try to keep the same house available for the next stretch.

If a company, an event production or an insurer is the one paying, we can write the agreement in that organization's name with you as the occupant, invoice monthly, and provide a W-9 and a certificate of insurance on request. Established companies, agencies and insurers can be billed on net-30 terms under a signed agreement or purchase order, with the first booking paid up front. A family or a group of friends booking for a weekend pays the normal way instead: a rate, a deposit and an itemized receipt.

Living downtown for a longer stay

Amelia’s Arena Retreat and Fruit Tree Home sit close enough to downtown that groceries, food and daily errands are a short drive or close to a walk, and the Dollins and Sunset Lake houses in Washington Shores are only a few minutes farther.

The Publix at The Paramount on Lake Eola (400 East Central Boulevard) is the downtown grocery store, compact and urban, about the only supermarket you can walk to in the core. South toward Holden Heights there is a Publix on South Orange Avenue, and from Washington Shores the Walmart Supercenter on West Princeton Street is the nearest big-box option.

For food, College Park's Edgewater Drive, a short drive north of Amelia’s Arena Retreat, is a walkable strip of neighborhood restaurants: Adriatico Trattoria for Italian, Zeytin for Turkish, and Christo's Cafe for breakfast and lunch. East of downtown, the Mills 50 district has the largest Vietnamese-American community in Florida, with pho and banh mi along Mills Avenue. Nikki's Place on South Orange Blossom Trail has served soul food since 1999, a few minutes from the Washington Shores homes. Downtown itself and Church Street cover everything from a quick lunch to a night out.

Coffee is more a College Park habit than a downtown one: Foxtail Coffee on Edgewater Drive is roomy and laptop-friendly, Cups & Pups Coffee is dog-friendly and pours local Lineage beans, and Tartine is a small French cafe for pastries.

Beyond Lake Eola's loop and Sunday market, Loch Haven Park north of downtown gathers the Orlando Museum of Art, the Orlando Science Center, Orlando Shakes and Orlando Family Stage in one place, with the Mennello Museum of American Art next door. Harry P. Leu Gardens, a fifty-acre botanical garden, is a few minutes past that. The Downtown Orlando YMCA on North Mills Avenue is the neighborhood's full-service gym, with two pools.

What guests said about the downtown-edge homes

The reviews below are real, taken verbatim from the homes' own Airbnb listings, with the reviewer's name and the month they stayed.

Chris, who stayed at Fruit Tree Home in January 2026, wrote: 'This was a lovely home within 10 minutes of downtown Orlando. Highly recommend.' Teagan, who stayed at Piedmont in March 2026, wrote: 'Very nice place. Close to downtown, would stay again.' Being close to the core is one of the things guests mention most often across the portfolio, whether or not the review is about a home built specifically for it.

Nadia, who stayed at City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes in April 2025 for a festival downtown, wrote: 'Stayed for one night for a festival in town. Home close to the venue and was convenient for low Uber and/or Lyft prices. Neighborhood isn’t the best but I never felt unsafe. Affordable prices for a big group.' It's a fair note to read alongside the photos: this is a modest, working neighborhood rather than a tourist strip, and guests who book it tend to be here for the location more than the surroundings. Full review sets for every home are on our reviews page.

Before you book, a short checklist

A few questions are worth answering before you send us your dates.

• What is the occasion. A show, a game, a work trip, or a longer stay while you are based downtown for other reasons. It changes which of the thirteen homes we point you to first.
• How many people and how many bedrooms. The four downtown-edge homes sleep eight to thirteen; if you need more room, several of the homes a few minutes farther out sleep up to fifteen.
• How long. A single night or a week runs through the home's Airbnb or Vrbo listing; a month or longer is a written agreement booked directly with us.
• Who is paying. A family or a group of friends pays the normal rate, deposit and itemized receipt. A company, a production or an insurer can have the agreement written in its name and invoiced monthly.
• A car or not. Amelia’s Arena Retreat and Fruit Tree Home are close enough to SunRail and LYMMO to leave the car parked more than you would expect; everywhere else, plan on driving and budget extra time on an event night.
• The plain parts. These are modest, real houses in working neighborhoods, and each home page lists what is worth knowing before you book: bathroom counts, yard condition, that kind of thing.

Send us that list with your dates, and we usually come back the same day with two or three homes that fit and real photos.

Two of our guides go deeper on the same territory: one on where to stay for a game at Camping World Stadium or the Kia Center, and one that matches all thirteen homes to the stays people actually book. Our neighborhood pages for Parramore, Holden Heights and Washington Shores go further into daily life in each of the downtown-edge areas.

Events · 5 min

Where to Stay for a Game at Camping World Stadium or the Kia Center

The venues, what plays where, how far our homes are from each, and how to handle parking on an event night.

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The Homes · 6 min

Which Libema Home Is Right for You

All thirteen homes matched to the stays people actually book: a solo nurse, a couple, a family of five, a crew, a reunion, a game weekend, a hospital assignment.

Read →