Orlando hotel recommendation - neighborhood

[TornACL]

Here's the situation.

Visiting friends/family in the Orlando area. Looking for a nice area potentially close to a few watering holes. We'll need to decompress and down a few adult beverages after family time is over, but we don't necessarily need to be in the thick of all the action...since most of our time will be spent getting beaten down with family stuff.

Are there any good non-Disney areas in Orlando besides downtown? Is downtown even worth a damn? I'm looking to Priceline/Hotwire a cheap room but I am not familiar with the different 'burbs/neighborhoods.

 

[SabreHorn]

Don't know exactly where in the area you will be, but a couple of friends of mine recently got a suite at The Mona Lisa in Kissimmee for under $100 per night. It's apparantly a new property on the freeway past Disney, at teh entrance to a new development called Celebration. They were very happy. I think they said the paid $79. May be too far to drive if your family is up by Sweetwater or Altamonte Springs.

 

[Bernard]

I used Hotwire last year for the UCF game and ended up in a really nice downtown hotel. I forget the name, but it was quite nice and was located a block or two from Church(?) Street where there are a bunch of bars and restaurants with bars. It was at least 4 stars on Hotwire. Highly recommended.

Here it is: Grand Bohemian

Bernard