Say “bay area’”and many people think only of cable cars and a famous bridge on the west coast of the continental United States. Ah, but there’s another bay area on another west coast with another equally elegant bridge draped across its shoulders. And this bay area—the Tampa Bay area on Florida’s west coast—basks in a whole lot more sunshine every day of the year.
Largely ignored for almost five centuries by Spanish conquistadors, French and English explorers, and post–Civil War land speculators, Tampa and its neighbors, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, grew at a more leisurely, more thoughtful pace. But grow they did! Today, the three cities form a business, entertainment, and sports triumvirate rivaling those of older communities around the country while retaining the flavor of their yesteryear charm.
Want proof? Home Shopping Network, Jabil Circuit, Inc., and Rooms to Go are among the national and international businesses headquartered in the Tampa Bay area. The internationally acclaimed Bern’s Steak House leads a list of fine dining experiences awaiting you. We’ve got two international airports and two international seaports, three major-league sports teams—more, if you count the ones who make this area their spring training home—and three top-rated performing arts venues.
But that’s not all. There’s Ybor City, aka “Cigar City,” where you can watch artisans hand-roll cigars the way they have since 1886 when two brothers moved their business from Cuba to Tampa. Or you can stroll the docks of Tarpon Springs, a Greek community just north of Clearwater that still harvests natural sea sponges from the ocean floor the way they do in the Aegean Sea.
Around late February and early March, when the sweet smell of thousands of acres of ripening strawberries fills the air around here, we kind of forget that Plant City is named after late-1800s railroad magnate Henry B. Plant. After all, this area produces three-quarters of the nation’s winter strawberries, so you’d think the city would be named after these ruby-red globules of goodness. That’s okay. We make up for it with an 11-day homage to the bountiful berry at the Florida Strawberry Festival.
Busch Gardens provides roller coaster thrills and chills and a world-class zoo, water slides of every configuration fill neighboring Adventure Island, and the beaches of Pinellas County are rated some of the best in the nation.
So whether your tastes run to Broadway musicals or Grand Prix–style racing, soaking up some oceanfront rays or bashing a golf ball toward some far off tiny little cup, you’ll find all that and more when you visit our bay area.
And, after you’ve kayaked through a mangrove tunnel or windsurfed off the Gulf of Mexico, if you find you just can’t bear the thought of returning home to icy sleet and mounds of snow, well then, consider that our cost of living is generally lower than that of the rest of the country’s.
Right now, let’s take the nickel tour so you can get your bearings. Then you can explore the greater Tampa Bay area to your heart’s content. We’ve divided the region into three sections: greater Tampa, which includes the City of Tampa and parts of Hillsborough County; greater St. Petersburg, which includes the City of St. Petersburg and parts of southern Pinellas County; and greater Clearwater, which includes the City of Clearwater and parts of northern Pinellas County.
We thought about splitting this chapter into two parts, but so many attractions are kid-friendly. And so much so-called “kidstuff” appeals to the inner kid in all but the most curmudgeonly of us that we’re keeping it all together.
Up front, however, you’ll find Pint-Sized Fun for Little Ones. Here we feature attractions that are less overwhelming to the ages seven-and-under crowd—and to anyone looking for simpler pleasures than seeing just how many times one can be spun, looped, and twisted before flying apart at the joints.
We’ll give you the get-you-started info on Adventure Island and Busch Gardens, our major theme parks, as well as on zoos, aquariums, and historical museums.
Look for a Close-up on an entire town. Tarpon Springs, home to the United States’ largest concentration of people with Greek heritage, invites visitors to explore this north Pinellas town.
Many events listed in the Annual Events and Festivals chapter have carnival-type rides and other activities to keep kids busy. A couple of game places are listed in the Nightlife chapter. These places serve alcohol and are adults-only at night, but welcome parent-supervised children during the daytime.
Most attractions require shirts, pants or shorts, and shoes of some kind. Most outdoor attractions permit smoking only in designated areas, for the convenience of other guests. Smoking is not permitted in indoor attractions.
This chapter is organized by type of activity—Pint-Sized Fun for Little Ones, It Takes a Village, Amusement Parks, Aquariums and Zoos, History and Science Museums, Roller Rinks, and Skateboarding. Within each category, the attractions are listed alphabetically.
The Tampa Bay area sits smack-dab in the middle of a very diverse region.
Drive north, and you’re in a more rural area—you’ll see cows grazing off both sides of the road—with small towns like Brookesville and Inverness, historic state parks, and game management areas that have some great campgrounds. Mermaids, too, and not the cartoon version. You’ll also find the state’s oddest citizen. There have even been Elvis sightings. Further north is Tallahassee, Florida’s capital city and home of Florida State University.
To the east is the Orlando area with more theme parks than you can probably see in a year. Go even further east—we live in probably the only state where you can drive coast to coast in just a few hours—and you’ve got the Atlantic beach areas of Daytona, home of the Daytona International Speedway, and Cape Canaveral with its Kennedy Space Center.
Just south over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, if you’re in Pinellas County, or off of I–75, if you’re in Hillsborough County, is the Bradenton-Sarasota area with the Ringling Museum of Art, some great shopping, and Myakka River State Park. Drive further south, and you come to the Fort Myers/Naples area where Thomas Edison had a winter home.
Motor west by boat to the Middle Grounds for some great fishing, or cruise to Mexico.
We’d love to tell you about the whole enchilada, but we’re limiting this chapter to the smaller circle. Half circle, actually—we’ve already covered the Middle Grounds in the Parks and Recreation chapter’s fishing Close-up.
So we’ll go as far north as Crystal River, on the Gulf Coast, as far east as Orlando, and as far south as Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda. For those of you who like to keep track of such things, we’ll be touching on places in these counties (north to south): Citrus, Sumter, Lake, Orange, Hernando, Pasco, Polk, Osceola, Manatee, Hardee, Sarasota, De Soto, and Charlotte.
Pack your bag, then, and let’s go!