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The Tampa/St. Petersburg region is a study in contrasts. Your day can begin at a family-friendly theme park and end on the dance floor of a hot nightspot.
Tampa provides a big city feel with its many museums, performing arts centers and International Plaza, where over 200 stores compete for the tourists’ dollars. It is also home to top attractions such as Busch Gardens, Adventure Island water park and the Museum of Science and Industry. Tampa boasts about its NFL Champion team, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and also is proud of the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning, MLB Tampa Bay Devil Rays and AFL Tampa Bay Storm. Many major league baseball teams have spring training camps in the central west region of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Ybor City, Tampa’s historic Latin Quarter, offers a fascinating idea of life in the Spanish and Cuban tradition at the turn of the century. It also offers the area’s hottest nightlife.
St. Petersburg Beach has long been a resort destination (F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald came to stay at the fantasy pink, historic Don Cesar Resort) and if it’s fun in the sun you are after, St. Pete Beach and nearby Treasure Island will make for memorable family vacations. Beachfront restaurants, watersports and other fun activities stretch for miles. An amazing 361 out of 365 days give cause to open your umbrella – your beach umbrella, that is! For the sun fails to shine only 4 days a year on average.
The city of St. Petersburg occupies a beautiful spot on Tampa Bay and fittingly so. Here’s where to head after a day of fun on the beach for more cultural activities such as a visit to the Salvador Dali Museum, home of the largest collection of this surrealist artist’s work in the USA. Art galleries, antique shops and the new BayWalk shopping district satisfy the shopper in you while the lively waterfront and downtown areas feature nightclubs and upscale restaurants. Don’t miss The Pier, five stories of fun rolled into one! There are many exceptional art museums in this area. Two notable museums are the Florida Holocaust Museum and the Dorothy Thompson African American Museum (by appointment).
Tarpons Springs is an interesting town that was originally settled by Greek sponge divers. Visit the sponge docks for fun shopping and tasty meals in authentic Greek restaurants. But don’t miss the antebellum homes clustered around the bayou and the more than 200 antique shops in the downtown area.
Ybor City
Busch Gardens
Salvador Dali Museum
Tarpon Springs
Tampa Bay Sports
The Pier
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