This post is brought to you by Julia, a Harry Potter (and Disney) loving muggle who has been all over in search of magical places to visit. She is the author of Planned Wanderings, where she gives advice to help your magical trips be as stress free as possible. If only we could all just travel by portkey…

If you’ve ever dreamed of drinking Butterbeer, shopping in Hogsmeade, flying on a broomstick, or getting your Hogwarts acceptance letter, I have good news for you (apart from the last one–I can’t actually help you there).

The good news is, you can actually visit all the memorable places from the books/movies (and eat all the memorable food–even exploding BonBons) at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida. 

The Wizarding World is spread out across the two (soon to be three) parks at Universal Orlando. It can be a bit overwhelming (and expensive!) to visit, but thankfully, I’ve got all the Harry Potter World tips you need to plan the perfect magical trip!

BONUS: Check out all these magical places where you can visit Hogwarts in real life!

First: Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Parks

Before we dive into the list of tips, let’s start with where exactly the Harry Potter World theme parks are located. There are currently two theme parks at Universal, Orlando, but a third one is scheduled to open in 2025:

• Universal Studios – Home of Diagon Alley & London
• Islands of Adventure – Home of Hogsmeade Village & Hogwarts Castle
• Epic Universe – (opening 2025)- Home of the Ministry of Magic

Each theme park has its own unique rides and attractions. If you want to visit all of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter sections, you will have to buy either a park-to-park ticket, or a multi-day pass.

Which leads me to my first Wizarding World tip:

1. Buy a Park-to-Park Pass

I suggest buying a park-to-park ticket to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We only spent one day in the Universal theme parks, but we were able to experience all of the Harry Potter attractions that we wanted to, plus some other parts of the park, and we still left several hours before the park closed.

By all means, you can buy multi-day tickets and spend a couple different days exploring the parks (especially once the third one opens), but you will save money if you buy a one-day ticket for both parks, rather than two single park tickets. You will also be able to ride the Hogwarts Express between parks, which you cannot do without a park-to-park ticket.

Bonus Tip: If you really love theme parks, and want to spend as much time as possible exploring the world of Harry Potter/Universal, you can usually find deals the more days you buy, like buy 3 days and get 2 more free!

2. Have Flexible Dates

Another tip for visiting the Harry Potter World in Orlando is to be flexible with your dates. Ticket prices and hotel prices can vary throughout the year, so if you don’t have fixed dates, you can book your trip around the cheapest prices (usually in the fall and winter, excluding holidays).

3. Have a Rough Idea of the Different Sections Before You Go

Here’s a quick guide to help you out.

Universal Studios’ Diagon Alley/London Park Section

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter section in the Universal Studios Park is home to Diagon Alley and London. Here are some of the rides and attractions you can find in this park:

• The Knight Bus
• #12 Grimmauld Place
• King’s Cross Station
• Escape from Gringotts ride
• Gringotts money exchange
• Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes
• Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour
• Knockturn Alley
• Fire-breathing Dragon!

Islands of Adventure’s Hogsmeade & Hogwarts Park Section

The Harry Potter section of Universal’s Islands of Adventure Park includes Hogsmeade Village and Hogwarts Castle. There are a couple more rides on this side than in the Universal Studios section. In Islands of Adventure you will find:

• Hogwarts Castle
• The Forbidden Journey ride
• Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure ride
• Flight of the Hippogriff ride
• Honeyduke’s Sweet Shop
• The Owl Post kiosk

4. Familiarize yourself with the Rides in Advance

There are a lot of really epic rides at the Universal Parks in Orlando. Currently there are 5 Harry Potter themed rides:

The Forbidden Journey: This ride takes places inside the Hogwarts Castle at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It was my favorite Harry Potter ride! You fly on a broomstick through all of the iconic Harry Potter World sites. It combines a fast moving ride with high-tech features.

Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Ride: The newest ride in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is this fun rollercoaster. The line is going to be reeeally long, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it! Apparently I am now at the age where I question my judgment when I ride rollercoasters… so I decided to skip this one. If you ride it, you’ll have to let me know how it is!

Flight of the Hippogriff: This smaller rollercoaster is great for younger Harry Potter fans, but is probably worth skipping for those of you who grew up reading the books (AKA those of us who are now at the age where we question our judgment when we ride rollercoasters). Anyway, there’s nothing super special about this ride, so it’s a good idea to spend your time elsewhere.

Escape from Gringotts: This ride, in the Universal Studios Park, is similar to the Forbidden Journey ride in the other park. It combines high-tech features with a fun ride. It’s not actually a rollercoaster, so there is no need to question your judgment here.

The Hogwarts Express: The Hogwarts Express ride in Universal connects the Universal Studios Park to the Islands of Adventure Park. If you’re used to Disney World, you might think this is a loooong ride, but in Universal everything is actually very close together. This is pretty much just a relaxing 5-minute train ride between parks.

5. Learn How to Ride the Hogwarts Express Ride Like a Pro

I do have some actual Harry Potter World tips for riding the Hogwarts Express in Orlando. First of all, as mentioned above, you need to have a park-to-park ticket in order to board this ride. You will have to scan your ticket in order to get in line (much like scanning your actual train ticket in London!).

The ride goes from King’s Cross Station in Universal Studios to the Hogsmeade Station in Islands of Adventure, and vice versa. The King’s Cross Station replica is much bigger and more intricate than the tiny station in Hogsmeade. If you choose to only ride the train one way, I would suggest riding it from London (Universal Studios) to Hogsmeade (Islands of Adventure).

Many people will suggest riding the train both ways, as the journey is different each way. This is true, and since it does not take long to get between parks, it is likely that you will probably ride it back and forth at least twice (and maybe more!). However, if you’re pressed for time, I don’t think there is enough of a difference for it to really matter.

As I said, if you can only ride it one way, I suggest London to Hogsmeade, but if you get early park access with your Universal hotel, you don’t have a choice which park you visit first. We rode the train from Hogsmeade to London first, and then back to Hogsmeade later in the day.

6. Save Time with the Single Rider Lines

One Wizarding World of Harry Potter tip is that you can save a lot of time if you go in the single rider lines, instead of the main ride line. I used the single rider line for every ride, and I barely waited 5 minutes for anything.

However, one caveat to this strategy is that you miss out on the intricately decorated interiors of Hogwarts Castle and Gringotts Bank.

I was disappointed in the lack of settings I experienced inside Hogwarts for the Forbidden Journey Ride and inside Gringotts for the Escape from Gringotts ride (although I did see these sets at the studio tour in London, which you can see in the London/Orlando comparison article I wrote). But in researching after I got home, I discovered they do have the sets in Orlando as well, I just missed them because I didn’t actually wait in line.

So the best way to do it, if you want to see the sets, is to wait in line the first time, but then use the single rider line to ride it again!

7. Bring a Small Bag (or no bag at all!)

My biggest beef with the Universal Orlando parks is that you have to pay to store your bags on almost every ride! There are a few rides (for example: the Hogwarts Express) on which you can take your bags with you, but most rides require you to store them in a locker.

You use your park ticket to access a locker–simply scan it to magically open and close the locker assigned to you. There are (very) small lockers available for free. These lockers can fit a small purse or utility belt fanny pack, but not much more. With my large camera bag, I had to get the paid locker to fit it.

Larger lockers cost $3 (Every. Time.). Once you pay for the locker, you can scan your ticket to open one. Thankfully for me, I saved a lot of money by my husband being afraid to go on rides, meaning he could hold my super heavy camera bag for most of them (#besthusbandever!).

8. Prepare Yourself for ALL the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Attractions

There are a lot of attractions to experience at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter besides just rides. Here are some of the different things you can expect to find:

• Live performances
• Interactive wand experiences
• Ollivander’s Wand Shop
• Gringotts money exchange
• Sending mail by Owl Post
• Exploring all the sites and shops
• Interacting with Dre’ Head
• Photo ops

Some of these attractions are specific to one park, but you can find most of them, like live performances and Ollivander’s Wand Shop in both parks. I will go over in more detail anything you need to know about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions.

9. Send Mail by Owl Post

You can send mail from either park, but the official “Owl Post” kiosk is in Hogsmeade Village, just outside of the Ollivander’s Wand Shop. Here, you can buy Harry Potter themed postcards, and get them stamped with the official “Owl Post” postmark.

You can mail the postcards right from the park, or you can take them home to mail from there. I came prepared with addresses, and used the feather pen station to write on the postcards, and then dropped them in the outgoing mail box. However, I still had some postcards leftover, so I got them pre-stamped, and then mailed them from home.

Pro Tip: It is faster to mail your postcards when you get back home (unless you want to mail one to yourself, which you should definitely do from the park!), as the, erm… “Owl Post” is a bit unreliable. The postcards we mailed after we got home arrived much faster than the ones we actually mailed in the parks.

10. Beware of the Gringotts Money Exchange

Gringotts Money Exchange was honestly a bit of a disappointment for us. We thought we would get sickles and galleons; instead, we just got paper “Wizarding World” dollars (although you can buy yourself a galleon… for the price of several galleons worth of muggle money).

It’s kind of a fun idea, to change your money into wizard money that you can use to buy things like ice cream from Florean Fortescue’s. However, if you’re short on time; I would definitely skip this attraction.

If you do exchange money and don’t spend it all (and don’t want to keep it as a souvenir), you can exchange it back at guest services.

11. Beware that you can ONLY buy interactive wands

One thing to know about Universal Studios is that if you want to purchase a souvenir wand, you can only buy interactive wands here. If you’re buying Harry Potter souvenirs in the UK, you can find wands for much cheaper than in Universal Orlando, where all the wands are interactive.

Even if you don’t want to cough up $65 on a wand, you can still appreciate the interactive wand experiences, as you are sure to see a line of kids (or kids at heart) casting spells to cause the umbrella outside of the Diagon Alley restrooms to rain down on unsuspecting visitors. There are several interactive experiences throughout the park, where if you stand in the right place and point your wand, you can cause “magic” to happen.

You can also visit Ollivander’s Wand Shop, where one lucky visitor (I have a friend who was chosen TWICE!) will be “chosen” by the wand (and get a free interactive wand!). Ollivander’s Wand Shop is in both Diagon Alley, and Hogsmeade Village, so you can do this experience in either park.

12. Don’t Be Fooled by Zonko’s Joke Shop!

This Wizarding World tip is to keep you from looking as foolish as we did, trying to find the entrance to Zonko’s Joke Shop…

That’s because there is no entrance to Zonko’s Joke Shop…because there is no Zonko’s Joke Shop! The tricky facade (boasting an exit only door) is actually just another part of Honeydukes Sweet Shop. If you want to purchase some wizard world jokes (extendable ear, anyone?), head to Wealey’s Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley.

13. Know Where to Find Wizarding World Photo Ops

There are plenty of good spots for photo ops during your visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Here are some of the best spots to take pictures:

• Fire-Breathing Dragon – The large dragon atop Gringotts Bank in Diagon Alley is without doubt one of the most eye-catching scenes in the entire Universal Park. But it gets even better every 10 minutes when it breathes out fire! And yes, you can feel the heat of that fire! You will hear the dragon start to grumble just before the fire shoots out.
• Hogwarts Bridge – There is a bridge in Hogsmeade Village (that leads to the Jurassic Park section of Islands of Adventure) where you can get the best view (and photos) of Hogwarts Castle.
• Hagrid’s Motorbike – In Diagon Alley, just across from Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, you will find Hagrid’s Motorbike and sidecar, just waiting for you to snap a pic with!
• Diagon Alley Side Streets – If you duck off the main walk in Diagon Alley (especially in the morning when it first opens!), you will find plenty of cute backdrops with very few to no people in them.

14. Learn How to Avoid Crowds in Your Photos

As I mentioned in the above section, the side streets of Diagon Alley are pretty empty early in the morning. When the park first opens, if you just pop off to the side, you can take pictures (and selfies) in the Wizarding World with no people in them. The best spot is at the Diagon Alley restrooms, where you can get a good view of the dragon, but this section is fairly empty early in the morning.

Another way to get a cute backdrop without any people in it is to just work some “magic” with the camera angle. You can stand in front of Honeydukes adorable facade in Hogsmeade Village, and angle it so that all you can see behind you is the building. Then you can pretend you are actually in Harry Potter’s world (I mean, we are… aren’t we??), and that there were definitely no cell phone toting tourists (muggles!) all around.

15. Try Plenty of Wizarding World Food

There is so much delicious Wizard World food to try at Universal! This was probably my favorite part of our trip (eating usually is…). We actually didn’t get to try Butterbeer at the Studio Tour in London, because we didn’t realize you could only get it at the Backlot Cafe! But the good news is, in Universal, you can find Butterbeer EVERYWHERE.

So here are some of the best foods to try, and where to get them:

Butterbeer: You can find Butterbeer all over the parks. There are kiosks selling it, both of the main restaurants, and there are even Butterbeer only restaurants. Trust me when I say you will have no trouble finding Butterbeer. What you will have trouble with, is deciding what Butterbeer to get!

• Cold Butterbeer – Your traditional Butterbeer. Cold, foamy and carbonated.
• Hot Butterbeer – Also creamy and delicious, like a butterscotch flavored hot chocolate.
• Frozen Butterbeer – Basically a Butterbeer slushy, and perfect for those hot Florida days!

Pumpkin Juice: I loved my pumpkin juice! It tasted like a holiday in a cup! I really want to go back at Christmastime to drink some pumpkin juice in a snow covered Hogsmeade Village. One thing I will say is that the flavor is strong! I read after our visit that someone added just a little bit of water to water down her pumpkin juice, which I think is a brilliant plan. I would love to try that next time (when I go back at Christmastime to drink pumpkin juice in a snow covered Hogsmeade…)

Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, & other sweets: There’s only so much food you can eat, so I unfortunately did not get to try any of the delicious looking treats at Honeydukes Sweet Shop (maybe when I go back for my Christmas pumpkin juice…). But you can find any of these iconic Wizard World treats at Honeydukes in Hogsmeade Village, so be sure to try one (or two) (or three).

Candy: You can also find loads of candy at Honeydukes, from Exploding BonBons to Puking Pastilles. So if you’ve ever dreamed of getting out of class (or work) with help from a little Weasley ingenuity, now’s your chance.

Ice Cream: Florean Fortescue’s is a well known ice cream parlour in Diagon Alley, where Harry spends quite a bit of time (and money) in the books. You can too, taste-testing a variety of flavors, from Butterbeer to chocolate chili (side note-I attempted to order a chocolate chili, and the server told me it was very spicy, so I got clotted cream instead. Apparently I look like I can’t handle any heat…)

You can also eat meals at The Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley or The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade Village. We ate lunch here and got some traditional British fare, as well as more Butterbeer and pumpkin juice. All the food we ate in the parks was delicious!

16. Stay at a Universal Resort

Now that I’ve fully covered the park sections, one Harry Potter World tip I want to add is to stay at a Universal Resort.

Universal has a variety of resorts to suit your style and budget. We stayed at the Endless Summer Resort, which was surprisingly affordable! Plus, the more nights you stay, the cheaper it is. There are plenty of options for where to stay in Orlando, but Universal’s Endless Summer value resorts are some of the most affordable.

Plus, if you stay on site, you get free transportation to and from the parks, which will save time and money.

AND, as a Universal Resort guest, you get entrance into one of the parks 1 hour early each day.

17. Pay Attention to Which Park Opens Early

Which leads me to this tip: Pay attention to which park opens early! I’m used to Disney World, where resort guests get into whichever park they choose early. But at Universal, only one park will be offering early park admission per day.

Thankfully (since it’s not Disney), the park entrances are basically right next to each other. So when you (and like 10 other people) leave the horde of people heading for the open park and realize you can’t get in the other one… you can just keep walking all the way around the lake back to the entrance that actually is open, and pretend like that’s what you meant to do all along…

It’s also good to note that only certain sections of the park are open early. This includes the Harry Potter World sections, which, let’s be honest, is really why we’re here. But if you get lost trying to find the entrance to Diagon Alley from London (muggles…), you will get kindly (but firmly) turned around by the park staff, since the section next to it is not open until later.

18. Pay Attention to Park Hours

It’s also good to pay attention to what hours the parks are open each day. Universal’s park hours vary greatly throughout the year. When we were there in February, the parks closed at 7pm (which was fine with us, since we were tuckered out by 3…)!

So be sure to make note of the park hours during your visit, so you know how much time you have.

19. Don’t Forget to Visit the Rest of the Park

Although the Harry Potter World is obviously why we’re here, you’ve paid good money to get access to the Universal Parks, so don’t forget that there are whole other parks out there outside of the Wizarding World sections! Be sure to at least see some of them.

My favorite ride was the Spiderman ride in Islands of Adventure. You can also get GIANT donuts in the Simpson World. Just sayin’.

20. Go Resort Hopping around Universal

Resort hopping is when you visit other themed hotels on property, even if you’re not staying there. I especially love resort hopping at Disney World, where every resort has its own unique personality and attractions.

I didn’t find the resorts at Universal as interesting to visit as Disney World; however, this is still an important tip for this reason: My husband searched all over for a popular Gryffindor pin he wanted to buy (my Hufflepuff pin was not so difficult to locate, for whatever reason…). We searched several stores in the parks and City Walk, and couldn’t find one.

However, we did find it at the Sapphire Falls Resort gift shop!! So take some time to go resort hopping while you’re at Universal.

Bonus Tip: If you are staying at a Universal Resort (besides the value Endless Summer resorts), you can visit any other resort’s swimming pool.

21. Know the Best Time of Year to Visit

Anytime of year is good to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. Since it’s located in Florida, the weather is warm (or hot…) year-round. That being said, it is good to come prepared for the weather, which could be extremely hot, or unpredictably rainy.

I would try to avoid the hot and crowded summer months, if you can. We came in February, and though there were a lot of people, the crowds were not terrible. September and October, or January and February are usually my go-to months for visiting Florida.

I would also try to avoid visiting right around any major holidays, especially right before Christmas. Other than the fact that I’m obsessed with the idea of drinking pumpkin juice in Hogsmeade at Christmas…

22. Use Uber to Get Around Orlando

My final tip doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but if you’re going to be staying at Universal Orlando, I found using Uber to get around was super easy and affordable.

It was easier/cheaper to use Uber to get to the airport from our Universal hotel than it was to book an airport shuttle. Plus there are so many other attractions to visit in Orlando (like SeaWorld and Disney!!). We had literally never used Uber before our trip to Universal (#smalltowngirl), but it was so easy to get around Orlando using it.

Any More Wizarding World Questions?

I hope you find these Wizarding World tips helpful to plan your own magical trip to the Harry Potter World in Orlando! If you have any other suggestions or advice about visiting Universal Orlando, be sure to share them in the comments below.