Lake Wales sits near the middle of the peninsula, roughly between Tampa and Orlando, which makes it an unusually efficient base. A lot of Central Florida is inside an hour, and the drives are mostly short highway hops rather than long slogs — but only if you group them by direction instead of bouncing back and forth across the county.
North: the chain of lakes
Winter Haven is the closest real change of scene, about twenty minutes up the road, and it is where the county keeps most of its bars, breweries, and weeknight stages. Go north for water, dinner, and live music. Haines City and the towns along the ridge sit in the same direction if you want main streets rather than nightlife.
West: the county seat and Lakeland
Bartow, the county seat, is a short drive west and is the daytime counterweight to Winter Haven — courthouse-square architecture, county records and history, and a slower downtown that rewards a walk. Continue past it and Lakeland is the largest city in the county, with the biggest concentration of museums, campuses, restaurants, and architecture.
South: citrus country
Head south along the ridge through Frostproof and the groves and you get the version of Florida that most visitors never see: working citrus land, small lakes, long straight roads, and towns built around packing houses. This is the direction to drive if you want the landscape itself to be the destination.
Staying home is often the right call
Before you plan a drive, remember what is already within a few minutes of downtown Lake Wales: Bok Tower Gardens on Iron Mountain, the Spook Hill gravity illusion, the murals and storefronts of the 1929 Olmsted-planned downtown, and the parks and lakes around town. Plenty of visitors drive an hour for something less interesting than what was ten minutes from where they parked.