The Alfond Inn Named No. 2 Hotel in Florida

Readers of Condé Nast Traveler have ranked The Alfond Inn at Rollins as the No. 2 best hotel in Florida. The boutique hotel located in the heart of downtown Winter Park previously ranked eighth among seasoned travelers but rose this year to the second spot on the list of must-stay destinations in the Sunshine State.

“We are honored to be recognized once again by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler,” says Jesse Martinez, the hotel’s general manager. “The Alfond Inn is a unique property with an artistic and philanthropic focus at its core. These awards are a reflection of our remarkable team, who deliver outstanding service every single day.”

In praising the hotel’s amenities, Condé Nast Traveler’s editors point out several features that set The Alfond Inn apart from competitors, including a seamless blend of indoor-outdoor living. The pet-friendly grounds feature lush tropical landscaping, a pool, and a fitness center, while the hotel’s interior spaces showcase rotating exhibits from the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, which serves as an extension of the Rollins Museum of Art. The on-site restaurant Hamilton’s Kitchen serves up world-class fare with a Southern twist, and members of the hospitality team wear the gold-crossed keys of Les Clef d’Or, an elite group of professional hotel concierges.

The Alfond Inn expansion will include additional guest rooms, a redesigned cafe, and a second swimming pool.

Rollins completed phase one of the hotel’s construction in 2013, and since then, it’s been a popular destination for local and far-flung travelers alike. In 2023, the College is set to complete an ambitious expansion of the property, increasing the room capacity from 112 to 183 and introducing new spaces like an expanded atrium and cafe, a state-of-the-art spa, more meeting and event spaces, and a second swimming pool.

Perhaps the most notable distinction between The Alfond Inn and other similar properties is its role in providing scholarships to academically gifted students from around the world to attend Rollins. Since its inception, The Alfond has supported more than 100 Alfond Scholars, providing full tuition, room, and board to standout students like Matthew Deveaux ’23, a public policy and political economy major.

From engaging in design thinking methods with the College’s Social Impact Hub to interning with nonprofit Black Orlando Tech, Deveaux’s time at Rollins has been focused on better understanding the interconnectedness of pressing social issues—something that wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Alfond Scholarship.

“The biggest takeaway away from my time at Rollins is that the issues we currently face are not those that can be solved through siloed solutions,” says Deveaux, who’s also minoring in ethics. “The challenges of our time—climate change, human rights struggles, war—are intersectional in nature and require interdisciplinary understanding to tackle them head-on.”

This accolade for The Alfond Inn comes just a few months after readers of Travel + Leisure also ranked the hotel as a premier destination. U.S. News & World Report has called the facility one of the best hotels in the U.S. while travel stalwart AAA conferred a coveted Four Diamond Rating on the Alfond—an honor bestowed on just 5 percent of nearly 30,000 AAA-affiliated properties across the nation.