Forget saving room for dessert. In Mount Dora, you may want to build the afternoon around it.

You could come to Mount Dora for the lake views, antiques and art. But somewhere between 4th Avenue and Alexander Street, another itinerary starts to emerge, one involving handcrafted chocolates, Lebanese pastries, waffle sundaes, old-fashioned fudge and enough ice cream to make dessert its own downtown attraction.

The best part? Most of it can be discovered on foot.

This isn’t a town where the sweet options all look the same, either. Within a few downtown blocks, you can go from a pineapple soft serve to a pistachio-filled Dubai chocolate, then step into a chocolate boutique where bonbons are treated like miniature works of art before ending the day with a scoop of ice cream spiked with a little something extra.

Consider this permission to eat dessert first.

Start at the Mount Dora Marketplace

One address can get the afternoon off to a dangerously good start.

Inside the Mount Dora Marketplace, Waffles & Cream operates from a tiny space with a menu that considerably exceeds its footprint. Fresh Liège waffle bites, mini donuts, scooped ice cream and soft serve are all part of the equation, including its signature DOLE Pineapple Soft Serve.

The move here is not necessarily restraint. Pair the soft serve with waffle bites, build a sundae or see what combination is being served that day.

Then walk a few steps.

Also inside the Marketplace is Sweet Bites by Beirut Bites, where the dessert trail takes a sharp turn from classic American ice cream shop to Lebanese sweets. The family-run business specializes in authentic Lebanese pastries and desserts along with its signature Dubai chocolates. Recent creations have included the viral-style Dubai strawberry cup layered with pistachio cream and chocolate.

That contrast is part of what makes this little corner of downtown fun: pineapple soft serve and Lebanese pastries can be separated by little more than the time it takes to cross a room.

Then Find the Chocolate Hidden Down the Alley

A few blocks away, the Renaissance Building offers one of downtown Mount Dora’s more interesting detours.

Inside is KKO Chocolate, a boutique chocolatier where the sweets look almost too polished to eat. Almost.

KKO makes fine chocolates, caramels, chocolate bars and desserts in downtown Mount Dora, with a history that began when founders Gabriel Maisonet and Eugene Colón moved from Puerto Rico to Central Florida and ultimately chose Mount Dora for their business. The shop became known for handcrafted bonbons in flavors ranging from salted caramel and raspberry to more adventurous rotating combinations, with edible gold becoming something of a signature.

This is the stop for the person who says they “just want one chocolate” and walks out carrying a box.

And before leaving the Renaissance Building, take a minute to look around. Part of the fun of downtown Mount Dora is that some of its best finds are tucked into courtyards, alleys and buildings you might otherwise walk straight past.

Make Room for a Classic Scoop

From there, follow 5th Avenue to Scoops on 5th, the kind of old-school ice cream stop that feels right at home among downtown’s brick storefronts.

The shop serves a mix that includes small-batch Sweet Alps Ice Cream, whose chocolate has earned national recognition in ice cream competition.

There is something particularly satisfying about walking Mount Dora with an ice cream cone in hand. Take it past the shops, wander toward Donnelly Park, or simply claim a bench and accept that sightseeing can wait until the cone is gone.

Yes, Mount Dora Has a Fudge Stop Too

Because apparently ice cream, pastries and bonbons were not enough.

Meem’s Fudge Shoppe brings more than 80 flavors of handmade fudge into the mix, from familiar classics to more adventurous gourmet varieties. Its fudge can currently be found at Mount Dora Jerky Co., giving you the wonderfully strange opportunity to shop for jerky and fudge during the same stop.

That combination may not have appeared on your Mount Dora itinerary when the day began.

It should now.

Save the Boozy Ice Cream for Last

Eventually, make your way downhill toward Alexander Street and the lake.

Directly across from Mount Dora’s Historic Train Depot and Visitor Center sits Mystic Ice Cream, one of downtown’s newer arrivals and perhaps the most appropriate finale to this particular tour. The shop makes all-natural homemade ice cream, with traditional flavors alongside the alcohol-infused creations that have become Mystic’s calling card.

You can keep things classic with butter pecan, strawberry or cookie dough. Or, for the 21-and-up crowd, this is where an innocent afternoon ice cream run can become considerably more interesting.

Then take the cone outside.

Lake Dora is only steps away, the palms around the Train Depot are moving in the breeze, and downtown is still close enough to wander back for whatever you decided you absolutely did not need an hour ago.

The Sweetest Part of the Trip

There are plenty of destinations where dessert means finding the nearest ice cream shop after dinner.

Mount Dora makes it harder than that.

Here, a few blocks can take you from pineapple soft serve and hot waffle bites to Lebanese sweets, handcrafted chocolate, fudge and small-batch ice cream. The shops are independent, the flavors are wildly different, and the walk between them winds through the same historic streets, parks and storefronts that make downtown worth exploring in the first place.

So maybe the question isn’t where to get dessert in Mount Dora.

It’s how many desserts can reasonably be considered one afternoon?

We’ll leave that answer to you.