MP

We will be travelling to Clearwater Beach in March with three children (6, 4, 1) and are wondering if it is neccessary to rent a car while we're there. Anyone have and insight?

dan

absolutely. you didn't say how long you'd be staying there, but Clearwater Beach isn't a HUGE area with tons of things to do, do yo'ull probably get much more by having a car accessable.

One idea would be to drive a half-hour or so do near Sarasota area, and see Longboat Key, Siesta Key... beautiful. Or of course, you can go into Tampa or St Pete as well. ...not nearly as easy to do this with no car, and you'd run up quite a taxi cab bill in the process.

xxx

I was just on the St. Pete Beach website and noticed that they have a beach trolley which runs from Sand Key all the way to Pass a Grille. Reasonable rates, you can take your bicycles on board, sounds like a nice alternative to a car. Here's the url:

http://www.stpetebeach.org/trolley/map.htm

peg

I live in the area, and my mom just spent two weeks staying at C'water Beach and didn't rent a car. She took the trolley up and down the beach area. And she took the trolley and bus into downtown St. Pete twice, but that's about 2-1/2 hours by bus each way, including transfer time--which wouldn't be fun with little kids in tow. You can also trolley into downtown Clearwater, but there's really not much to see there. The trolley is a great way to just see the area, though, and your kids might enjoy just riding around on it.

If you plan to beach it most of the time, but want to sightsee for a few days (Busch, St. Pete, etc.) suggest renting a car for just those few days.

Agree with ideas for points south--especially Sarasota, which has the wonderful Ringling Circus Museum (and a great art museum), but your kids are pretty young, and having them does put a different spin on that idea. Beaches are lovely down there too, but really no better than C'water, in my humble opinion.

In C'water Beach proper, you can walk to most things. And I think there enough restaurants, boat excursions, miniature golf, etc. to keep you and the kids entertained for a few days.

Hope that helps. Enjoy your stay.

OliveOyl

I'd never depend on the trolley for getting around, especially with 3 small children. Much better to have a car, and you *will* need one to get most anywhere. Just the ride out to the beaches from the airport in a cab would probably amount to one day's car rental!