Tampa Bay Area

Tampa Bay Area Travel Guide

Planning and an abundance of preserves have partially shielded the Tampa Bay area from the overdevelopment that saturates much of the Atlantic Coast. While this is one of the state's largest metro areas, it is less fast-lane than Miami. Granted, Tampa has Florida's third-busiest airport and a vibrant business community, but to counter that St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Sarasota have exceptional beaches, and the entire bay area has superior hotels and resorts that make this an excellent place to spend a week or more.

Native Americans were the sole inhabitants until Spanish explorers such as Juan Ponce de León, Pánfilo de Narváez, and Hernando de Soto passed through in the mid-1500s. Less than a century after the U.S. Army and civilian settlers arrived in 1824, industrialist Henry Plant created an economic momentum that was sustained into the third millennium. A military presence remains in Tampa at MacDill Air Force Base, the U.S. Operations Command.

Today the region embraces old and new Florida. Terrain ranges from the pine-dotted northern reaches to the coast's white-sand beaches and barrier islands. Tampa is a full-fledged city, with a modest high-rise skyline and highways jammed with traffic. Across the bay, St. Petersburg's compact downtown has interesting restaurants, shops, and museums on the southeast side of the Pinellas County peninsula. The county's western periphery is rimmed by barrier islands with beaches, quiet parks, and little, laid-back beach towns. To the north, communities such as Tarpon Springs, settled by Greek sponge divers, celebrate their ethnic heritage. Farther north, you will find land dotted with crystal-clear rivers, springs, and nature preserves, and to the south lie resort towns, including Sarasota, which, like the Pinellas County beaches, fill up in winter with snowbirds escaping the cold.

Photo: Graca Victoria/Shutterstock