Tampa Travel Forum

Does anyone know if there are any luggage storage facilities near downtown Tampa (like at the greyhound or train station)? thanks

Hello,
We are looking for hotels between the fairgrounds and Crowne Plaza hotel. We have a big NSRA SE Nationals there in Oct. They will probably cruise Martin Luther King and we want a hotel on this street so we can sit out and watch the cars. Great show...all come!!
Thanks in advance,
O

We live in the north of England and want to go to Clearwater in April 2008 can anyone tell me the cheapest way to get there, ie straight from Manchester to a US city and then down to tampa, or would it be better to book from Man to NY on one ticket and then get an internal flight down. I have looked online and the cheapest tickets I can find are £525. I was under the impression the earlier you booked the cheaper the tickets, or am I wrong.
Can anyone help please
Thanks Chris

I'm looking for a good beach near Tampa/Clearwater for shell searching this coming weekend. I'll be staying along Indian Rocks Beach. Any ideas?

My wife and I and our three year old duaghter are plannig a trip to North Redington Beach mid May and would love to have some suggestions for things to do and not to do....we love the beach, shopping, culture and of course dining. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

We are traveling from the (currently)very cold province of Nova Scotia and are looking forward to some heat! (We just had a blizzard a few weeks back...YIPES!)

Also any tips on doing a day trip to disney would be a big help....we will have rental car and want to at least have a few pics of our little girl with the big mouse nothing much more....this would just be a day trip.....our real purpose in taking the trip for the heat and the water!!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Randdog

My wife and kids and our three-year old children will be spending two nights in Tampa this June. We enjoy walking the riverwalks and historic San Marco district of our home city, Jacksonville, and are very interested in checking out Tampa's Bayshore Blvd. and Hyde Park neighborhood during our stay there. We were thinking of parking at Hyde Park Village one afternoon and making a walking triangle of South Dakota Ave., Bayshore Blvd. and Swann Ave. Of course, we have never been there so we don't know if that would be safe crime-wise, how long that might take, and if that would be a pedestrian friendly route. We have twin toddlers so we would want to make sure there are sidewalks. Does this sound like a feasible plan? Please provide us with the inside scoop on this part of Tampa. Also, does Hyde Park Village have any good but relatively inexpensive restaurants for dinner?

Thank you.

Steve

Traveling on Business to St Pete and Holiday FL in April. Could anyone recommend an area where to stay where one could walk to a nice area ie people watch, restaurants, pubs, natural beauty?

Hi there. Moving to Tampa in June 2007. Wondering about real driving time between downtown Tampa to Orlando Int'l Airport? Thanks.

Hello!

I will be visiting the Tampa area for 5 days in mid-may. We will be staying in downtown Tampa due to a conference on a couple of those day. I have a few questions:
1.)What is the best way to travel back and forth to Clearwater Beach or other beaches from downtown tampa? Is there a shuttle or should we rent a car?
2.)What days are the busiest at Clearwater Beach? Is there another beach we should check out that would be less congested?
3.)Are there any nice waterfront parks near downtown Tampa?

Thanks for any info you can provide!

Scott

Hi, I am moving to tampa this weekend, but dont know anything abt tampa. I want to be close to downtown, st. petersburg, and bradenton. So, reading through this forum I narrowed it down to Riverview or closer, and South Tampa. My reasoning is that I need activity, and closer to my wife's work. I need help from you guys.
1. How is Riverview? Anything good to do here.
2. What is the IT job scene in Tampa. I need to find a job yet, but have a few months time as I continuing to work for my current employer remotely.

Thanks for your help.

Hello and thanks for any help, we are arriving in Tampa on the evening of 9th March, will be hiring a car the next day for 7 days, than joining a cruise on the 18th March, will be back in Tampa for the night of the 1st April, flying out at 7am on the 2nd April. Hope to collect the car from Hertz at South Florida Ave (looks to be near downtown). What hotel should we stay at, and what street does the Downtown/Uptown connector trolley run in, also where do you get the Teco street car from. Is the complimentary catamaran cruise around the port worth doing?

I'm wondering where is good area to live and where i should avoid for sure. temple terrace sounds good but for now, it was a bit far for my convinience...so looking in more like in north tampa, north west area or something....after i get used to living in tampa then im planning to do a longer commute too.

If you can give me some street name or sections, I can look it up on map so that will be great!
is crossing areas of dale marbly HWY and hilsbough street or something...are they decent? how about dale and busch? or gunn HWY area? or more north area?
i'm looking for area where a young professional can afford and live safely...and hoping to understand the city a bit....so can avoid not to step into a bad areas without noticing...

also where is good shopping areas? any outlets?

thanks in advance!

Can anyone give me an idea what it's like to work in Clearwater and live in the suburbs, probably north of Tampa? I'm very close to accepting a position in Clearwater but I'm worried about traffic and commuting in from the burbs. Currently I live in Northern Virginia and traffic is a nightmare at just about any time of the week, so I'm no stranger to bad traffic.

I'm planning a trip to see some Yankees spring training games in March...I've never been to a spring training game before (never been to Tampa, either), so I was wondering if anybody here could give me advice on:
1. A hotel convenient for Legends Field (I was thinking of AmeriSuites Tampa Westshore)
2. Good restaurants near the field (I've researched two places named Crabby Bill's and Carrabba's Italian Grille)
3. Ticket-buying advice (They officially go on sale on January 5th, but if it's anything like buying regular season tix, my chances of getting good seats that way are small. Has anybody bought spring training tix on ebay or stubhub.com?)

Thanks for any help...happy new year, everyone!
Tara

I am going to Tampa May 3-7 2007. I would like to find some beachfront hotels, things to do, places to eat, etc. Any suggestions would be helpful!! thank you!

I'm going to Tampa for New Year's eve and wanted to know if i need to buy tickets in advance. I am interested in going to Ybor City and Channelside, and am driving from Orlando, but i didn't want to drive to Tampa only to find out i needed to buy tickets in advance. I did see Bannana Joe's is having a block party that is selling tickets, is that worth going to? Are there any other block parties worth going to? Thank you!

Hi I am intending to do a roadtrip from Miami to Indiana during the post-christmas-new year period and will be passing by Tampa and staying for abt 2 days to sightsee.

Can someone recommend what I can do there and whether the beaches are suitable to visit. Would it be too cold? Thanks.

I will be travelling to Tampa at the Begining of May 2007 for a conference. I was there a couple years ago (for 1 night) so I did not see much of it. What would be some sights a person should see ? I am very easy going and enjoy almost every thing. Anyone volunteer as a guide :-)

We will be going on a 5 night cruise in January and once we debark, we'll want to rent a car because we're spending 4 days in Treasure Island. My question is...is there a rental car agency near the Tampa Port or will we have to get back to the airport in order to do so?

Thanks for any help!

Deb

My family and I are spending a couple of days in Tampa. One day will be spent, inevitably, at Busch Gardens. The other one, well, that's not set in stone yet. We were trying to decide between a few different things. So, if you've been to Tampa and can help us decide, go ahead: Which would be more fun, the Lowry Park Zoo or the Florida Aquarium? We have a two-year-old.

Discuss!

Paula :)

Hello all!
I'm flying to Tampa on 23rd December (hopefully) and staying til Jan 3rd. Im looking for suggestions of the best flight company/website to get a cheap flight from. I'm not familiar with a site to get a cheap flight to this area. I'm hoping to fly from Edinburgh Scotland, but I guess I could go from anywhere else in the UK if it was worth a treck to the airport to save a couple more quid! Has anyone found a bargain that i'd be happy with? What price should I expect? I've seen flights around £700 at the moment and I feel that's a bit steep, but I don't want to hang about in case it gets worse than that! Cheers, meashX

We are flying in and out of Tampa and need a clean economy family hotel. We are considering the Quailty Inn at 400 E Bearss and I 275. We need to be at the airport by 7 AM . Can anyone tell me how the traffic is that time of day from the Quality Inn to the airport and is there any other places closer to the airport that are in a good location, clean and reasonable price.

I'm looking for options for a rehersal dinner for 25 people in November. We are all from out of town, so something different from the standard chains would be fun. We would like to keep a moderate budget so nothing incredibly fancy.

Thanks.

Hello. I will be in the Tampa/ St. Petersburg area in a couple of weeks, traveling around a lot, and was wondering what areas to avoid. I am no stranger to crime so I get very nervous in bad areas and would appreciate any and all advice. Thanks to everyone that replies!

Well that pretty much sums it up , will be in Tampa next month for 3 days. Do locals have a favorite? thanks:-)

I would like to collect different point of views in breif about persons who are living or been to Tampa city which is located in florida... I am doing this to try to understand my own feeling about being there ...thanks :)

Hi, friends, I know this belongs to the St. Pete Forum (I posted already there too), but it's hardly visited by anyone...

I'll be staying at Don Cesar soon, could you, please, let me know what's in the area around the Hotel. With that I mean at a walking distance ONLY (say a radius of maximun 10 bloks), since I know St. Pete myself already. Are there any recommended restaurant, dinners, etc. in the area? Are there shops, etc. around this area?

Thanks in advance!

Brandonmarlo

Staying in Orlando area as a home base and want to do day trips to Florida points of interest. Me, wife two teen daughters and two 5yr oldboys. Nice family beach around Tampa or Clearwater, and ideas? Also any reccomendations for other Tampa must sees?
Thank you
Jim

Hi,

I'm thinking about heading to Florida on a J1 working holiday visa this summer - maybe staying someplace in the Tampa/Clearwater/St. Petersburg area and hopefully working in the area from June to September.

Has anybody ever been there before, and if you have, can you give me any advice on how suitable it'd be for a j1 working holiday (nightlife, cost of living [food, drink, transport, seasonal jobs], any info you have at all really).

Appreciate any advice you can give.

Hi,

I'm thinking about heading to Florida on a J1 working holiday visa this summer - maybe staying someplace in the Tampa/Clearwater/St. Petersburg area and hopefully working in the area from June to September.

Has anybody ever been there before, and if you have, can you give me any advice on how suitable it'd be for a j1 working holiday (nightlife, cost of living [food, drink, transport, seasonal jobs], any info you have at all really).

Appreciate any advice you can give.