Is Celebration a good place to stay in Orlando?

Celebration is a good base if you want a calm, pretty place near Walt Disney World and you have a car. The Disney parks are a short drive away, some hotels run shuttles to them, and the town's lakeside centre gives you somewhere pleasant to eat and stroll in the evening. It suits families, couples and anyone who wants a break from the theme-park crowds.

The area feels like an idealised American small town, with tidy streets, front porches and a lakeside promenade with fountains. Market Street has shops, cafés and restaurants, including a branch of the Columbia, Florida's famous Spanish restaurant, and in the festive season the street is sprinkled with nightly artificial snow. Celebration Golf Club and walking paths wind through the surrounding woods.

The downside is that Celebration is very quiet and car-dependent. There's little nightlife, public transport is minimal, and the bigger hotels sit on the edge of town by busy roads rather than in the pretty centre. Some visitors find the planned perfection a little too neat.

What makes Celebration worth considering is the balance it offers. You can spend the day at Disney and be back in minutes for dinner by the lake, in a peaceful town that feels nothing like a theme-park strip, often for less than a hotel inside Walt Disney World.