Lakefront · The Butler Chain
Windermere and the Butler Chain
A small town at the edge of a chain of clear lakes, west of Orlando. People move here for the water and stay for how quiet the evenings are.
- The houses
- Lakefront estates, boathouses, wooded lots
- The pace
- Slow, and proud of it
- Getting around
- About 25 minutes to downtown Orlando, outside rush hour
- It suits
- Anyone who wants a boat at the end of the lawn and a reasonable drive to the city.
The water
The Butler Chain is about a dozen lakes joined by narrow canals, and on a summer afternoon you can cross most of it by boat. The water is unusually clear for Central Florida, and the state protects it, which helps keep it that way. Lake Butler is the largest of the chain and the one with the long, open sunsets.
The town
The Town of Windermere is small: a town hall, a handful of shops and restaurants, quiet streets under big trees. It feels much further from the city than it is.
The houses
Lakefront estates on deep lots, many with boathouses, beside older lake cottages that are slowly giving way to new houses. Away from the water, houses sit on generous wooded lots inside a few gated communities.
Where it is
Tonight in Windermere
Sunset times change by a minute or two across the region. These are worked out for Windermere today, in your browser.
