What exactly is Outlet Shopping?

If you have never seen it in the US, you do most likely not know it from Germany. Huge outlet shopping malls are everywhere. They offer all kinds of products and items way cheaper than in the stores. These outlet malls are in every big city, usually a bit outside. They do not only sell one brand but severals in many different stores. A major asset is that the so called “average” brands are sold as well, not only high-end fashion brands and designers. If you read this blog you know that, when it comes to driving routes, I sometimes point out outlet malls on the road. We always made some great deals here and did quite some shopping, everyway much cheaper than in Germany in cheaper than in the regular stores.

Outlet Shopping in Orlando

I describe two very big outlet malls in this blog: Orlando and Las Vegas. Orlando has two malls: Orlando Premium Outlet Vineland Avenue and Orlando Premium Outlet International Drive.

We like these mall, they are a good opportunity to buy everyday clothes, clothes we still need at home on a daily basis (as opposed to e.g. cheesy tourist T-Shirts). Some things we always buy quite successfully are sporting clothes and running shoes (sometimes Adidas, sometimes Nike or Reebok). Also Jeans from some of the famous Jeans brands and T-Shirts were always cheap. Sometimes we also found more fancy clothes for work in an office or chic leather shoes.

Both Malls in Orlando are huge. It’s impossible to go to all the stores. You should focus on the brands and stores you like in particular. That’s what we always did: some American brands but sometimes even German brands like Adidas are cheaper. The discount policy varies in every store. Some stores are much cheaper than at home others not at all. All the stores with great discounts are full of people; basically just follow the crowd to find them.

Shopping in an Outlet Mall

A pair of Levi’s Jeans is usually 120 Euro here in Germany. Sometimes you get a discount a pay 80 to 100 €. In an outlet mall, we found them for 50 dollars. Nike running shoes are usually 100 € and more here, in the US outlet we paid 40 – 50 dollar. We also found a premium leather jacket for 55 dollars. You can see in all these examples how much money you can save.

One thing that is not so nice: these outlet malls are very busy. It’s not a relaxing way to shop. I almost had to fight for my Nike running shoes.

The good thing about these malls is: you find many American brands here. Some of them are not available in Germany like Gap, Banana Republic, Guess, Victoria’s Secret, Sean John (Puff Daddy’s fashion). There are also stores from the big fashion designers (Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Boss, Armani). Apart from that they usually have perfumeries and toy stores (Disney, Toys’r’us).

When Should I Go?

The basic rule is: the longer the day, the fuller the mall. In the evening, these malls are always crowded. From that point of view, going in the morning would be the right choice. But there are also some reasons to go in the evening: in winter, Florida is dark rather early; you can do something else in daylight (beach, ocean, hiking, etc.). Anything you need daylight for. You can easily do these malls after sunset. That’s what we did. The outlet malls are open a long time, in Orlando even till 11 pm.

I think it’s enough to do one outlet mall. The best option is to decide based on the brands and stores that are important to you. Their websites have lists of all the stores (link at the bottom). You don’t find all the brands in every outlet mall, for example Levi’s isn’t everywhere, whereas Gap can be found in literally every shopping mall. Both Orlando Malls are so huge, I think they have enough for everyone. If you are rather open when it comes to that, choose based on what’s closer to your hotel or your driving route.
One thing we could not find was an electronics store (something like Mediamarkt or Saturn in Germany).

To us, this was always a way to spend one or two evenings per holiday like this. You buy things that make sense, no tourist crap and you have done all your shopping this one time and have enough time for everything else Florida has to offer.

I list the two big shopping malls in Orlando. But there are many more.

See also Outlet Shopping in Las Vegas.

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Miami and Miami South Beach

The most popular beach on the Atlantic Coast is Miami South Beach, Miami’s City Beach. In fact, South Beach is not part of Miami but belongs to a different town called Miami South Beach. You reach the beach from the famous Art Déco Quarter at the Ocean Drive. The beach has all these typical colorful beach shacks of the lifeguards.

The beach is wide and clean, but quite crowded. Even in off-season quite an amount of people were here, also many posterboys and postergirls from the Ocean Drive. All of them are looking incredibly good, very beautiful, as if they just escaped from a film set. In two days, I saw two photo shootings here. All in all, we spent an entertaining day here.
You can find more information on Miami South Beach in this separate article.

Cocoa Beach

Cocoa Beach is Kelly Slater’s home. They make that very clear, the name is everywhere. This beach has the biggest surfing shop in the world called Ron Jon. Even to us, total non-surfers, seeing the store was interesting. There is also a Surfers Hall of Fame. Cocoa Beach is 100% a surfers’ beach. The beach has a pier with a restaurant in the end of it.

Cocoa Beach is only a few kilometers south of Cape Canaveral. Cocoa and its close beaches (Viera, Melbourne and Titusville) are called the Space Coast.

The beaches closest to Cape Canaveral are Cocoa and Satellite. The Kennedy Space Center suggested these two beaches to see a rocket launch and not pay for the Kennedy Space Center. Both beaches are a bit closer to the mainland (kind of inside) than Cape Canaveral. I can image that you can really see quite well from here.

Daytona Beach

Daytona Beach is north of Cape Canaveral. The beach offers lots of entertainment for children and action, restaurants, a pier and lots of hustle and bustle. Daytona Beach is particularly interesting because of the close NASCAR race track that can be visited.

St. Augustine Beach

St. Augustine Beach is the only beach is clearly different from the others. It’s much less busy, maybe because it is located so far in the north. We were alone at the beach. There is no port promenade, no restaurants facing the ocean and no entertainment. We had food in town. The sand was a bit rougher, kind of gritty and torpedo sand-like. Not bad, not uncomfortable but just a bit different from the more southern beaches.

Similarities of all the Atlantic Coast Beaches

All the Atlantic Coast Beaches have some things in common. They beaches are wide, spacious and nonbuilt-up area. There are wooden piers on which you can walk a bit into the ocean. There are promenades full of restaurants, cafés and entertainment. It’s never really quiet here. The picturesque Ocean Drive as the background of Miami Beach is something that sticks out.

The water is always warm, you can always swim. But, as it is the Atlantic Coast, the water is a bit rough. There are waves and currents. Nothing bad, I would swim there anyways. But all the waves keep coming and get you quite well just standing in the water. You need to be aware of the fact that it’s a surfer’s hotspot and that means the ocean is a bit rough and full of waves.

One thing all these beaches have in common are their water streets everywhere, for example in Cocoa, Daytona and St. Augustine. In Cocoa and Fort Lauderdale, these water streets are everywhere. You can see how ocean becomes land, how saltwater becomes fresh water.

How To Reach These Beaches

All of these beaches can be reached easily by car. All of the mentioned beaches are on islands in front of the mainland. You almost don’t notice that, bridges and roads are everywhere. Sometimes, they charge a toll but you can drive anywhere. The coast road is called A1A and usually leads directly to all the beaches from Miami all the way up north. You can use the A1A as a reference point: this street covers all the small islands, whenever possible (except Cape Canaveral). On the mainland the highway that is closest to the coast is Highway Number 1. It is at the coastal end of the mainland and leads far north. You can see the ocean and all the islands from here.

The Atlantic Coast has close to no empty land: it is mainly covered with bigger cities and smaller towns (the closed area of Cape Canaveral is an exception). There are very few protected areas here, most Florida’s eco projects are somewhere else, for example in the Panhandle up north.

See also Part 2:

The Beaches of Southern Florida Part 2: Gulf Coast

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How to Reach Kennedy Space Center

The Kennedy Space is located at Florida’s Atlantic Coast right in the middle between Jacksonville and Miami. From Orlando, going to the Kennedy Space Center is easy: it only takes an hour to drive (85 km); from Miami it’s a longer drive. The closest towns are Daytona Beach and Cocoa Beach.

I’m usually not a big fan of theme parks, amusements parks and everything around it. I was not interested in seeing Disneyland for example. Kennedy Space Center is different. It’s not primarily about entertainment; they try to tell the history of space travel. This is the dominating motto in the park; everything else is arranged accordingly. The park has lots of interesting information about space travel in general.

Kennedy Space Center refers to a larger area, where some parts are restricted. NASA has their spaceport there, Cape Canaveral is right next to it. This is where all the rocket launches are operated. Larger areas on the island are uninhabited a make and important nature protection area.

Visitor Center Rocket Garden and Bus Tour

Parking is available right in front of the visitor center, even though a fine has to be paid. Finding a parking spot is, in the US, usually easy and not a big problem. A day pass gives you entrance to the Rocket Garden. Several old, discharged rockets and space technique can be seen here. Simply seeing how enormously large the rockets are is something special. The sheer size of the rockets only becomes visible when you walk around these rockets. Also there is a launch capsule. Sitting in it is funny in particular for taller men who can barely squeeze themselves into it.

The rocket garden is where the bus tour starts. It is not possible to take your own car; you need to do the bus tour. The bus stops several times on its route. There are smaller and larger attractions. At the larger ones, you can stay as long as you want und just take the next bus. The system is quite simple and runs smoothly.

Several things can be seen on the bus tour: the bus passes along a large building – the vehicle assembly building. This is where the rockets are indeed built and assembled. You also get to see a couple of launch pads and the engine of the first moon mission.

The next larger stop is an exhibit about the Apollo Program. Here, they tell all kinds of stories about the Apollo Program and its astronauts. Also, several rockets, space suits, equipment and a moon stone are shown. Highlight at this stop is the Saturn V, the biggest rocket that ever flew in space. At the entrance hall, the rocket hangs horizontally in about 5 meters high. You can walk along its body and watch it from an unusual perspective. A second larger stop is about the Space Shuttle Program.

You also get to see the launch center of the Apollo Mission; it looks just exactly how you know it from TV. A 4-D-Cinema imitates how a rocket starts, including special effects. This is all nicely done, even though a bit kitschy and cheesy, typically American.

You pass along the launch pad several times. Launch pad sounds a bit like its nothing. Anyways, these pads are completely the opposite. A launch pad is a highly complex piece of engineering with loads of single elements and technical equipment.

After about 3 hours, you reach the Rocket Garden again. Here, there is the astronaut encounter: a Q&A with an astronaut and an IMAX 3-D cinema. When I was there, they showed a movie about the Hubble Telescope. Now it’s a movie about the Mars Mission.

Special tour: Vehicle Assembly Building

In addition to the regular tour, there are many special tours available. We didn’t exactly plan to do a second tour but there was a rocket launch three days later and we decided to definitely come back for that.

A report about that rocket launch can be found here.

We did the special tour about the Vehicle Assembly Building on our second day. You have to pay for the regular one day entrance and the special tour. It was expensive but worth it! This time, we did not pass by the huge building but were allowed to enter it. The building itself can be described in only two word: incredibly huge. It is the largest building with only one storey. At the center is a huge, empty room where rockets are made. On every side are stairs and entrances. You can easily imagine how they assemble their rockets here. Anyways, you don’t get to see a lot in the building. The tour group is lead into the building for something like 50 meters, you need to stay behind ropes and marks.

A lady who works there or worked there, told the group many interesting facts about how they build things, which materials they used, what kind of problems they had and what they did to fix these problems. To me, it seemed like the lady really enjoyed talking about everything and that she could have continued for ages. Anyways, she was interrupted a bit harshly by our tour guide and we almost had to run to the bus because the next tour group was already waiting.

Is Kennedy Space Center worth a visit?

Definitely Yes! I have to say, I’m not a space travel enthusiast, nor am I particularly interested in engineering or a big fan of NASA, aviation or the space. That is why I wasn’t really sure if the Kennedy Space Center is right for me and worth paying that expensive entrance fee. Also, I didn’t know if two days is too much time there (the rocket launch was in the evening, we spent an entire second day at the KSC).

The Kennedy Space Center offers many attractions: a mix of facts and technical knowledge in their exhibits, entertaining presentations, original locations and old space technique. All of this is shown on the regular bus tour. Also, these several special tours are interesting and offer new aspects and ideas. The bus tour is funny and interesting you can learn more about space travel but never get bored. American kitsch and cheesiness is also there, as well as American pathos. Both is always present in the background. But I didn’t mind, it was ok. Of course you are taken to the gift shop, mandatory everywhere in the US. The restaurants are ok and not overpriced.

All bus drivers and tour guides are some kind of entertainers. I met several older gents, veterans; who clearly enjoyed their job and could totally crack up the entire bus. Telling jokes during the bus ride is part of it, yet the jokes weren’t even bad. Everyone was very helpful and all questions were answered friendly and in detail. You can easily spend a whole day here. I would highly recommend visiting the Kennedy Space Center.

Fun Fact: Manatees in the Nature Protected Area

According to Wikipedia, only 9% of the island is habitated, everything else is protected area where many animals find a place to live. All busses drive along standard routes, expect that traffic is weak, only a few employees. Fun fact: we did get to see a manatee. The manatee was swimming in one of the channels while we were driving past it in the bus. The tour guide said this happens regularly. In the Everglades, I wasn’t lucky enough to see a manatee but here in the KSC I got to see one.

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Space X Falcon 9

Space X was responsible for the rocket launch we saw. Space X is a private aerospace company, founded by Elon Musk (Paypal, Tesla). In the long run, the company wants to settle mars. In this case, a rocket was sent to supply the ISS.

While we were just visiting Kennedy Space Center, we have accidentally discovered that a rocket launch was about to happen soon. The rockets launch was scheduled to take place 3 days later. We definitely wanted to see that and decided to come back to the Kennedy Space Center from Orlando. The rocket was to take off at 8 pm (anywhere outside the US this is called 20 o’clock). Of course, I got it wrong the first time and thought the rockets launch was in the morning. Even though, I know that pm means evening, I still made that mistake.

Rockets launches can also be seen from outside the Kennedy Space Center, at the beaches of the Space Coast (that means all beaches south of Cape Canaveral that are open to public). Like that you do not need to pay. I dunno how well you really see. We didn’t do it; we went to the Kennedy Space Center.

Another Day in the Kennedy Space Center

We were not expecting to spend another day in the Kennedy Space Center but that is how it happened. Watching the rockets launch requires to pay the regular one day ticket. For us that meant, we could have done the same program again, anyways we decided to pay some extra money for one of the special tours. Even the rockets launch required and extra ticket. I cannot recall how much it was but it wasn’t expensive. I think it was something like 20 Dollar but I’m not sure. Since we already had a day ticket (from 3 days before) that ticket was changed to an annual pass for just 5 more bucks. That was really nice and made things a lot cheaper. We did not need to pay for parking anymore (it’s included in the annual pass) and could also visit the Astronaut Hall of Fame for free (also included). If this had been possible in Germany, I strongly doubt it. “You have already purchased a daily pass, I cannot change it to an annual pass.” Something like that would have been the answer in Germany. In the US, customer service is much more important, people are more friendly and helpful.

An article about our first day at Kennedy Space Center can be found here.

Rocket launch: Space X Falcon 9

Busses took all visitors to a field. There are also bleachers but when we came, all the seats were already taken. We had taken the last bus and watched a movie about the ISS in the IMAX Cinema to kill time before that. 20 busses are available to reach the field. To keep a kind of organized system, we were asked to return to the same bus for the way back. “Only come back to exactly this bus and no other, only bus number 5.” Because all the busses look the same, it’s really easy to get into the wrong one.

Finally, everyone is on the field and the bleacher. The ocean is only a few steps from the field. Right now, it’s time to wait and see. The rocket is already forms a layer of smoke and fumes and looks ready to start. The rocket and the launch pad are on a small island and can be seen in distance on the other side of the water. How far that really was, is difficult to say but we could see the rocket and the launch pad perfectly.

Of course, there is a countdown. At zero, the rocket is released. A giant explosion is taking place, the earth is shaking and all of a sudden it is extremely light and bright. The rocket rises slowly but steadily to the sky, straight upwards. When the rocket reaches a certain height, it appears to be as bright as a second moon. At some point the rocket gets out of sight. As long as the rocket is visible, all visitors are totally banned by the rockets and cannot look anywhere else. All the power that is needed for the rockets launch can literally be felt. All in all this experience blew off my mind.

You can see on the picture how light everything had become because of the rocket. All of pics are taken without flash or artificial light. Even though, light came from far away, it still gave me enough light for my pics.

Driving back to the Kennedy Space Center

Everyone gets up at the same time and walks around, a bit confusing to everyone. Now, it’s clear why everyone needs to go back to “his/her” bus. Because we had taken the last bus, it was waiting at the very end of the line and it took as a while to walk there. On the way to the start, every single seat in the bus was taken, now two seats were empty. The driver was totally confused about that and wanted to make sure we had not forgotten anyone. His advice was to return to our original seats to make sure this does not happen. Of course, that did not work. When I came to the bus, my seat was already taken. Two people in the bus said they were sitting in the now-empty seats but are now somewhere else in the bus. Now, the driver was even more confused. “This would not have happened if everyone had returned to their seats.” After waiting for a while, the driver finally took off and left. The field was entirely empty, no one there anymore. These two people must have disappeared, gotten into another bus or were never there.

Our bus then reached the final station at the visitor center. We were supposed to get off last because we were the last bus. The driver didn’t care at all; he just took over all other busses and opened the doors. The Kennedy Space Center itself was closed; everyone just walks to the exit and leaves.

Watching a Rocket Launch in Your Holidays?

The rockets launch was an absolutely unique experience, something totally unexpected and new. The driver did a lot of talking on the way to the launch. He said things like “an earthquake”, “a giant explosion”. To be honest, I thought he was exaggerating. I thought, that’s an American thing, they are always enthusiastic about everything and tend to exaggerate things (everything is always the best and the greatest). In this case, I was wrong. He was right and wasn’t exaggerating at all. The Earth shivered, a gigantic explosion happened. An extraordinary experience I am so glad we came back for that launch.

The Website provides information about rocket launches. But that’s a bit tricky, three days before the launch, when we bought our tickets, they still claimed plans can changed due to weather or technical problems and that launch date is never guaranteed. Dates can be pushed on very short notice. Being lucky is necessary to make something like that work in your holidays. But if you are lucky enough, it is something totally unique. I would always recommend taking that risk and buy tickets even though you don’t know for sure.

The Kennedy Space Center publishes information about rocket launches on its website: http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com

Also the Website of the Space Coast, the beaches near Kennedy Space Center, has information about rocket launches: http://www.visitspacecoast.com/

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