Best Of: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Best Of is and who runs it

Best Of, printed by Orlando Magazine under the working title Best of ORL, is a readers' programme that asks Orlando, Florida to name its favorites in dozens of fields. The magazine's own description of the programme lists breweries, bands, community leaders, art galleries, pet-friendly eateries and summer camps among the things readers select. The vertical is the classic city-magazine best-of contest, where the publication supplies the ballot and local readers supply every result.

Orlando Magazine hosts the ballot on its own domain, not on a separate balloting service. The programme page sits at orlandomagazine.com/best-of/, under the same masthead that carries the Orlando Magazine copyright for 2026. Because the form sits inside the magazine's own site, everything a supporter needs, from the nomination form to the winners list, sits a click away from the publication's regular News and Features, Food and Drink, Arts and Events, Lifestyle and Travel sections.

The programme's footprint on the site is broad. Alongside the main ballot, the magazine maintains a Best of ORL Winner Spotlight series, a Best of Orlando Voting page, a Sponsored Article featuring a Best of ORL Winner, and a Best of Wedding Hall of Fame for Orlando weddings. There are also Best Hair Salon recognitions among the phrases the magazine prints around the programme, which gives a sense of how far the format stretches across local life.

The facts table below carries the confirmed details a business or supporter needs at a glance.

The dates Orlando Magazine has actually confirmed

The confirmed dates for Best Of rest on two anchors. First, nominations are open March 1 through May 1, a phrase the magazine prints on its Best of ORL voting page. Second, the Best of ORL 2026 winners list posted in August 2026, alongside an Orlando Event Calendar entry for August 2026 and the 2026 winners feature on the same site. Together those anchors sketch a cycle that gathers nominations in spring and announces results in late summer.

Confirmed edition years for the programme are 2019 and 2026, and Orlando Magazine describes the Best of Orlando issue as its annual readers' vote, so the format recurs each year even though only those two edition years are the ones the magazine's pages confirm here. The magazine's own annual-issue coverage, the piece welcoming readers to the Best of Orlando issue, frames the vote as a yearly fixture spanning dozens of fields.

Two gaps matter for planning. Day-level opening and closing times for the nomination round are not printed anywhere on the magazine's pages; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. And the exact dates of any final voting round after nominations close follow the same pattern, because the magazine posts them on the ballot page rather than in a standing schedule.

For a business that wants to be nominated, the practical reading is simple. The window that matters most runs from March 1 to May 1, and anything a business does to earn nominations should be ready before the first of March. The August results post then closes the loop for the year.

How a supporter votes in Best of ORL today

The mechanic is a public readers' vote on the magazine's own website. During the open window a supporter visits the Best Of page, finds the category they care about, and submits the name of an Orlando business, person or place. The magazine's editors describe the exercise as an online write-in ballot that occasionally draws entries which confuse and amuse them. That description matters, because it tells supporters the form accepts written entries rather than forcing a pick from a fixed menu in every field.

The literal sequence a supporter follows looks like this. Open orlandomagazine.com/best-of/ while the round is open. Read the instructions beside the form, because those instructions are the operative rules for the round. Enter the category selections, either the handful of fields you know well or the full slate across the dozens of fields the magazine prints. Submit the form. Return after the round closes, when the winners list posts to the same section of the site.

What the form does not state is equally relevant. Orlando Magazine publishes no per-supporter vote limit on its Best Of pages, and no eligibility text explains who may nominate or how many times; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. That gap is the single most common question Orlando businesses ask about the programme, and the honest answer is that the round's own instructions govern it.

One habit protects a nomination. Note the confirmation the form gives after submitting, so a business can verify its entry landed during the March-to-May window rather than discovering in August that a pick never registered.

Where Best Of sits among Florida's readers' polls

Florida runs a crowded field of city best-of programmes, and Best Of is the Orlando Magazine entry into it. It shares the state with at least six separate ballots, each under its own publisher and each with its own rules: the Best of Florida Awards, the Best of Miami Readers' Poll, the Best of Tallahassee programme, Best of the Bay, Best in Destin, and the Best of Orlando readers' choice poll run by a different organizer from Orlando Magazine. A supporter who confuses two of these will follow the wrong instructions at the wrong time, because none of the six answers to the magazine.

What distinguishes Best Of within that field is the publisher behind it and the way the programme is woven into the magazine's regular coverage. Orlando Magazine carries News and Features, Food and Drink, Arts and Events, Lifestyle and Travel sections, and Foo Fest Topics coverage, and the best-of programme sits inside that editorial environment rather than on a standalone balloting domain. The winners list also feeds follow-on products, including the Winner Spotlight series, sponsored winner articles and plaques the magazine offers nominated businesses to order.

For an Orlando business deciding where to spend outreach effort, the comparison that matters is not between Florida cities but between the magazine's programme and any other local ballot a customer might mention. Winning the magazine's readers' vote carries the magazine's own audience with it. If a neighbouring market matters too, the separate Best of Orlando readers' choice ballot linked above is the one most easily mistaken for this programme, so read its page before treating the two as the same contest.

Earning support in Best Of the way the format rewards

A programme built on write-in reader selections rewards businesses that make nominating effortless for customers who already walk through the door. In Best Of, that means being specific: tell a regular exactly which category fits, from breweries to hair salons, and give them the ballot address so the entry lands in the right field during the March 1 to May 1 window. The magazine's write-in style means a half-remembered pick can end up in the wrong category, so precision is part of the ask.

The organizer publishes no guidance about outside help, paid or otherwise, on its Best Of pages, so there is no stated rule to lean on in either direction. What the format itself shows is the safer picture: results come from a local audience that can actually name your business when the form asks. That is why our award votes overview and the votes guide both start with the same advice, earn the organic base first, because no ballot, this one included, announces how its counts are weighed.

Time the ask against the calendar the magazine has already confirmed. Remind customers in late February that nominations open on March 1, repeat the reminder midway through the window, and use the final two weeks for a last push before May 1 closes entries. Then wait for the August results post rather than refreshing the ballot daily, because the winners list is where the magazine announces everything.