City Walk?

Never been, but I think you can still find Elliot Dyson there. He is a very talented musician that used to headline Scat Cat at POFQ.

Lots of shopping and restaurants and it's FREE to just walk around. I believe there is also a movie theater and a miniature golf course there. (You have to pay for those, though.) Restaurants include Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, Hard Rock Cafe, Emeril's and Bubba Gump's. I don't know how vegan-friendly/gluten-free they are.

I've been a few times. The nightlife there is lovely - but we've had some bad luck with food and the like.

Many of the bars have live music in the evenings and are very lively themselves. I haven't tried the three big restaurants (Jimmy Buffets, Emeril's or Bubba Jump's) but we've done the Bob Marley Experience and one other that I can't recall the name of, but it had a lovely patio in the back. The food in both locations was okay - mostly pub style stuff that was all deep fried or heavily salted, and the drinks were darn near undrinkable due to alcohol content - but the locations were nice and prices were reasonable.

We've tried both the mini golf courses (haunted and alien) and quite enjoyed the haunted one. Lots of lizards running about! And the movie theatre there isn't usually to busy, so it's not a bad way to end a long day before you have to pile back onto a bus to your resort

City Walk is free to walk around but you'll need to pay to park - it's a lower price than for the park, but not by much.

You'll see Bubba's almost as you walk in on the left just behind the alien mini golf course - the haunted house one is on the right in front of the AMC theater. Further in, there is a very large Universal shop, Margaritaville (is that the one with the plane outside - I keep forgetting) and the franchise places - NBC, NASCAR, Hard Rock.

There is live music most days and behind the Universal store is a hot dog place - World of Hot Dogs or something. You can get a nice panoramic pic of the parks and the Universal logo and watch The Rip-Rock-It Rollercoaster burst out over the top of the Blueman Group building.

It's an ok place to spend a couple of hours but it's not like Downtown Disney where there is a lot more to do, even in its current state of being renovated.

Basically, City Walk is completely outdoors and is sandwiched in between Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. It's definitely a lot smaller in size compared to Downtown Disney. So when you come from the parking garages down the escalators, City Walk is the first thing you'll see. You'll reach a crossroad where you'll have to go left for Islands or right to the Studios. I've attached some PDFs for reference so as you can see, the parking garages are behind CityWalk and I'm pretty sure the taxi or bus stations are in the same vicinity.

https://www.universalorlando.com/Images/PrintableMapsUOR_tcm13-20826.pdf

https://www.universalorlando.com/Images/PrintableMapsCW_tcm13-20823.pdf

But if a park map doesn't do justice, here's some videos for a more visual perspective:

https://

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(Both were shot in 2014, so some of the restaurants and shops may have changed. I know from reading the news, the NASCAR Sports Grille closed last November, I believe.)

As for stand out restaurants and shops, well, I haven't been there in quite some time. From what I've read, Red Oven Pizza and Cowfish Sushi and Burger (Don't let the name fool you.) have good reviews. You have your fair share of chains like Hard Rock Cafe, Margaritaville and Bubba Gump and whatnot. With shops, I'm sure they have an official Universal Store, but probably not the size of World of Disney.

Cowfish is really good and has decent prices. I got a sushi roll and a drink then they added an 18% tip (groups lager then 6 get the tipped added in already) which all came to about $20 or a little less. I couldn't finish the sushi roll. They have burgers as well or both together. I can't really speak for any other restaurant.