Everyone driving between Orlando's theme parks and Daytona's beaches blows straight past Sanford. That's a mistake, especially if you're travelling with kids. The Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens sits right in that corridor and holds a 4.3-star Google rating across nearly 11,000 reviews — numbers that put it among Florida's better zoos.

The animal count tops 300, but the draw for families is the hands-on stuff. You can feed a giraffe (one that stretches its neck down to take a snack from your hand), snap a photo with a tortoise, and even pet a rhino. Younger children get Barnyard Buddies, a petting zoo with goats, chickens, sheep and a llama.

There's a novelty ride too: a quarter-scale replica of an Atlantic Coast Line Railroad streamliner that adults can ride as well. The loop passes through subtropical plantings, and afterwards you can wander the botanical gardens proper — the pollinator section is where you're likeliest to spot butterflies and hummingbirds.

Timing your visit around the zoo's event calendar pays off. From May through September, Sunset at the Zoo runs on the fourth Friday of each month with music and food. October brings the Zoo Boo Bash on select weekends — games, a dance party, pumpkin decorating and costume trick-or-treating. Preschool storytimes and guided garden tours pop up through the year.

The standout is the Asian Lantern Festival, on select nights from November to January. The zoo's paths are lined with large-scale illuminated lantern scenes (no live animals during the event), with a few Santa appearances mixed in. Most nights are family affairs, but there are adults-only evenings if you'd rather skip the strollers.

Practically speaking, the zoo is about 40 minutes from downtown Orlando and 50 from Daytona Beach. Flying into Orlando Sanford International (SFB) is often cheaper than Orlando International, and Sanford itself is worth more than a pit stop — a brick-paved downtown, breweries and trails make it a low-key base for a Central Florida trip that doesn't revolve entirely around theme park queues.

For families who've done Orlando's big parks to death, this is an easy, affordable half-day or full-day switch-up — animals, gardens, a train and a calendar of seasonal events, all without the waistline-wilting price of the majors.