Tampa & St. Petersburg

A metro area on Florida's Gulf Coast, with Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Ybor City's Cuban cigar heritage, St. Petersburg's Dalí Museum and the white sands of Clearwater to the west.

The Tampa Bay Area lies midway along Florida's west coast and is made up of Tampa on the east side of the bay, St. Petersburg on the peninsula to the west, and Clearwater facing the Gulf of Mexico. Several bridges span the bay, linking the three cities, each 30–50 minutes' drive from the others. Tampa is the business hub, known for Busch Gardens, the Cuban cigar culture of Ybor City and the Riverwalk; St. Petersburg is the arts city, with the Dalí Museum, the St. Pete Pier and the Central Avenue arts district concentrated in its waterfront downtown; and to the west, a chain of barrier islands strings together Clearwater Beach, St. Pete Beach, Pass-a-Grille and Fort De Soto Park, considered one of the finest stretches of beach in the United States.

A suggested plan by area: spend one day in downtown Tampa and the Channel District (the Riverwalk, the Florida Aquarium, the Tampa Bay History Center and the Henry B. Plant Museum) and one day at Busch Gardens; one day at the museums and pier in downtown St. Petersburg; and choose beach days to suit your interests—Clearwater Beach, Fort De Soto and Egmont Key, or head north to the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs. In winter, go to Apollo Beach to see gathering manatees.

The best season is November to May, when it's dry and warm; June–September is hot and humid with thunderstorms almost every afternoon, and hurricane season runs June–November, so check weather alerts before you travel. Getting there: Tampa International Airport and St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport both have flights, and Orlando is about 1.5 hours' drive away. Public transportation is limited, so renting a car is recommended; downtown Tampa has the free TECO Line vintage streetcar, and in summer a ferry runs between Tampa and St. Petersburg. Plan on 4–5 days. Wear sun protection at the beach; from June onward, red tide may appear in the water, so check local water-quality advisories.

Top sights

• Busch Gardens Tampa Bay – An African-themed thrill park and zoo with the most major roller coasters in Florida and a Serengeti savanna animal area.
• Ybor City – A cigar city founded in the 19th century by Cuban and Spanish immigrants, with red-brick streets of wrought-iron balconies lined with cigar…
• The Florida Aquarium – A large aquarium in the Channelside district, tracing Florida’s ecosystems from wetlands to coral reefs, with penguins and otters.
• The Dalí Museum – The largest collection of Salvador Dalí’s works outside Europe, with the glass “Enigma” dome of its building itself a landmark.
• St. Pete Pier – A new pier park extending about 400 m into Tampa Bay, with seabird viewing, a beach, restaurants and a rooftop bar.
• Fort De Soto Park – A county park made up of five small islands, whose North Beach is often ranked among America’s best beaches, with a fort from the Spanish-A…
• Clearwater Beach – A white-sand beach that is consistently ranked among America’s best, with a sunset celebration and street performances every evening at Pie…
• Adventure Island – A tropical-themed water park across from Busch Gardens, with slides, a wave pool, and a lazy river. It is the top choice for cooling off in…
• Tampa Riverwalk – A waterfront promenade about 4 km long along the Hillsborough River, linking museums, parks, restaurants, and water taxis.
• Henry B. Plant Museum – A former Tampa Bay hotel with silver Moorish spires, built in 1891 by a railroad tycoon. Today it displays the luxury of the Gilded Age.
• ZooTampa at Lowry Park – A zoo known for its native Florida animals and manatee rescue work, where you can feed giraffes and visit the manatee rehabilitation pools.
• Tampa Bay History Center – A Smithsonian-affiliated museum that tells the story of Tampa Bay, from its Native peoples and Spanish conquistadors to pirates and the cig…
• Tampa Museum of Art – A modern museum beside the Riverwalk with ancient Greek and Roman artifacts and contemporary art, its exterior lit with changing lights at…
• Bayshore Boulevard – A seaside boulevard said to have the world’s longest continuous sidewalk, with a roughly 7 km railed promenade running along Hillsborough B…
• Armature Works – A food market in a 1910 streetcar barn, where you can watch the downtown skyline at night from the riverside lawn.
• Manatee Viewing Center – In winter, hundreds of wild manatees gather at the warm outflow of a power plant to escape the cold. Free wooden boardwalks let you watch t…
• Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg – A comprehensive art museum in a Mediterranean Revival building by the waterfront, with holdings ranging from ancient Egypt to Monet and O’K…
• Chihuly Collection – The permanent gallery of American glass master Dale Chihuly, with colorful large-scale blown glass installations.
• James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art – An art museum focused on American Western landscapes, cowboys, and Native peoples, with a dramatic entrance modeled on a sandstone canyon.
• Sunken Gardens – A century-old sunken tropical garden with waterfalls, koi ponds, and flamingos, hidden within a city neighborhood.
• Florida Holocaust Museum – One of the larger Holocaust memorial museums in the United States, housing an original railway freight car used to transport Jews during Wo…
• Weedon Island Preserve – A mangrove bay wetland preserve where you can walk boardwalks, climb an observation tower, or paddle through mangrove tunnels by kayak.
• St. Pete Beach – A white-sand barrier island beach along the Gulf of Mexico, lined with resort hotels, where sunset is a daily event.
• Pass-a-Grille – A historic small town at the southern tip of St. Pete Beach with no high-rises, where Eighth Avenue has small shops and seafood restaurants…
• Egmont Key State Park – An uninhabited island at the mouth of Tampa Bay, reachable only by boat, with a lighthouse, abandoned forts, and gopher tortoises. It is go…
• Sunshine Skyway Bridge – A yellow cable-stayed bridge spanning the mouth of Tampa Bay, about 6.7 km long, with the old bridge sections at each end converted into fi…
• John's Pass Village & Boardwalk – A boardwalk fishing village beside Madeira Beach, with colorful wooden buildings holding seafood restaurants and shops, and docks for dolph…
• Clearwater Marine Aquarium – A marine hospital-style aquarium focused on rescuing dolphins and sea turtles. Winter, the dolphin made famous by the 2011 film Dolphin Tal…
• Caladesi Island State Park – A natural barrier island reachable only by boat or by walking along a sandbar, whose beach has repeatedly been ranked number one in the Uni…
• Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks – A dock town where Greek immigrants have harvested natural sponges for a century, with sponge shops, Greek restaurants, and bakeries lining…

Where to eat

• Berns Steak House – A Tampa landmark steakhouse opened in 1956, known for its dry-aged steaks and huge wine cellar. It has been recommended…
• Columbia Restaurant (Ybor City) – Florida's oldest restaurant, founded in 1905 and run by five generations of one family. It serves Spanish and Cuban cui…
• Ulele – A Michelin-recommended restaurant in a former water-plant building beside the Riverwalk, inspired by local Florida ingr…
• Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish – A longtime smoked fish restaurant on the west side of St. Petersburg, known for red oak-smoked mackerel, smoked fish sp…
• La Segunda Bakery – A historic Cuban bakery founded in Ybor City in 1915, known for its handmade Cuban bread and Tampa-style Cuban sandwich…
• Bodega on Central – A popular Cuban sandwich shop in St. Petersburg's EDGE District, named to Tasting Table's list of the best Cuban sandwi…

Itineraries

• Florida Grand Loop Tour – Starting in Miami, explore the Keys, the Gulf Coast, Orlando, and St. Augustine.