The Villages

The Villages is an active retirement community in sunny Inland Florida. With about 115,000 residents as of 2015, it is still growing and new homes are being built across three Florida counties: Lake, Sumter and Marion.

Understand
Retirees are attracted to The Villages by its lifestyle, a combination of recreation facilities, entertainment venues and social clubs that are designed to enrich retirement living. The developer advertises The Villages as "Florida's Friendliest Hometown."

At the heart of The Villages are three old-fashioned town squares where you'll find plenty of modern day fun, including free nightly entertainment, modern movie theaters, and a colorful assortment of shopping and dining opportunities.

Residents own their homes in one of more than 50 named villages. The oldest, Orange Blossom Hills, was built in the early 1970s and is now referred to as the Historic Side. Each village ranges in size up to about 1,000 homes and has a mail station where residents collect their mail. All have a Neighborhood Recreation Center with an adult pool and facilities for shuffleboard, bocce, and horseshoes. Most have a larger Village Recreation Center that includes a family pool, meeting rooms, billiards and pickle ball courts. About a dozen Regional Recreation Centers include large event rooms, sports pools, tennis courts, basketball courts and a variety of limited sports like platform tennis and beach volleyball.

While visitors are welcome at all town squares, restaurants and businesses in The Villages, use of most recreation facilities is reserved for residents and their guests. Guest ID cards are available to those visiting friends and family, or renting a village home either directly from the homeowner or as part of The Villages Lifestyle Preview. Short term rentals in The Villages through sites like Airbnb usually include Guest ID cards.

By car
FL-44 runs through the city, crossing the state to New Smyrna Beach on the east coast. US-27 and US-301 are on the eastern and western sides of The Villages, respectively.

By bus
There is an Amtrak bus stop in The Villages for the Thruway Motorcoach, which goes from Jacksonville to Dade City.

Get around
The Villages is designed as a golf cart community and tens of thousands of golf carts share the residential roads with automobiles and bicycles. A system of multi-modal paths and tunnels keep golf carts separated from traffic on the broad boulevards where speed limits exceed 25mph. Dedicated golf cart parking can be found throughout The Villages, and it is common to see 4-5 carts parked perpendicular in a single parallel parking space, or 2 carts parked in a diagonal parking space.

A system of traffic control gates regulate the flow of traffic into residential neighborhoods. Despite the appearance of a gated community, all roads in The Villages are public. Residents swipe a card to open the gates and visitors need only to push the red button to open any gate. Numerous roundabouts regulate the flow of traffic on the boulevards.

Maps of The Villages are available for purchase at any of the Country Clubs. In addition, The Villages App is a free download and displays maps with routing for both cars and golf carts to any address or point of interest in The Villages.



Eat
There are more than 90 restaurants located within The Villages and all are accessible by golf cart. You can find everything from fast food to fine dining. Many are located in the town squares and all are open to the public.

Stay safe
Be prepared for tornado events, a weather radio can be used to keep on top of any alerts.

Go next

 * Wildwood