gracie

DH and I have the opportunity to get away from our home in Panama City the weekend of Feb 16-18. Our primary purpose is to visit our son, who attends college near Lake Wales. We visited 3 or 4 times in the fall and always stayed in Winter Haven as his football games were on Saturday. This trip, there is no football, so we want to adventure off and stay in either the Tampa or Orlando area. Not interested in Sea World, Disney or Busch Gardens -- just want to do a little shopping and sight seeing. Any suggestions or comments on location, shopping and hotels? We will be driving. Would like to spend less than $150. per night on hotel. Thank you for any advice.

mark99

Wow......"Not interested in Sea World, Disney or Busch Gardens"...then I'm at a loss as to why you would want to go to either!

OK so I guess Miami is not something you are interested in?

Having been to Tampa and Orlando a hundred times on business...and having ruled out the above items that you say do not interest you (i'm on board with that!) I would say DONT GO TO EITHER!!

But if it came down to STRICTLY shopping, then Tampa would be the one.

As an alternative...(and again I dont know why you would not want to go to Miami) I would strongly recommend Sarasota. It is clean, cute, and has a number of great restaurants and best of all has the Dali art Museum.

Sarasota (thanks to the wealthy seasonal condo owners) has a great arts community.

NewbE

The Salvador Dali Museum is in St. Petersburg, not Sarasota.

I would assume that Miami and probably Sarasota are too far from Lake Wales to make them practical for a weekend jaunt.

I would choose Tampa, in part b/c of its proximity to St. Pete. In Tampa, Hyde Park Village and the surrounding neighborhood are fun to stroll around, and International Plaza and Westshore Mall are the two big shopping malls. IP is higher-end, with some good restaurants, but Westshore is nice, too. St. Pete has a pretty waterfront park and pier area and a good fine art museum in addition to the Dali. Both Tampa and St. Pete have a wide variety of good restauants in all price ranges. An hour's drive from Tampa will get you to the beaches--Indian Rocks, Madeira, etc.

I'm not so good on hotels in Tampa--the new Embassy Suites downtown looks great, but since I live here, I haven't tried it out.

I agree that if you're not into the theme parks, skip Orlando.

Let us know what you decide!

samschack

As NewbE says, Dali is in St. Pete but Sarasota does have the Ringling Museum which is a wonderful museum and also on the same grounds has the circus museum and the Ringling mansion. You could easily spend a day here visiting those places and it is only an hour's drive from Tampa should that be your destination of choice.

gracie

Thanks for the replies. I think we will go to the Tampa area.
Mark99, let me clarify a few things. The main purpose of the trip is to see the son. It is a 7 hour drive to our his dorm from our home in Panama City, which is in northwest Florida. Driving to Miami would add another 8 hours, round trip. Due to work obligations, we cannot leave town until 4:00 pm on Friday, and we have to be back at work bright and early on Monday. Lake Wales is a very small town. There are no nice motels there.Winter Haven, which is 25 minutes from his dorm, has the nearest and only nice hotel -- a Hampton Inn. Also, we have completely explored the Lake Wales/Winter Haven area on earlier visits, so we wanted to see something new.

321go

You've received lots of great Tampa suggestions, so let me throw out some Orlando area ones in case you decide to go there.

Leu Gardens http://www.leugardens.org/ Fifty acres of lovely gardens in several different styles (cottage, rose, camellia, tropical, butterfly, etc.) and an interesting house museum.

Very near Leu Gardens, the Mennello Museum http://www.mennellomuseum.org/ and the Orlando Museum of art http://www.omart.org/ often have interesting exhibits.

For shopping and sightseeing, try Winter Park, just north of Orlando. Great shopping along charming Park Avenue, a lovely boat tour of the lakes surrounding the town, and the Morse Museum, with it's wonderful collection of Tiffany works. http://www.morsemuseum.org/

mark99

correct on the Dali...but it can be noted that Sarasota and St. Petes are practically twin cities.

I had not actually been to the museum myself...been trying for years and never seem to have the time.

It seems that Tampa is the place for you....also no one mentioned Ebor City, which has a lot of fun things to walk around and see.

The Hampton Inn Tampa airport is a super clean nice hotel. Don't let the name fool you...it is plenty far away from the airport that you do not hear any aircraft, and its location is not only quiet but great access to the mall with Saks and to pretty much any point you want to get to in the city or leave town to go to Sarasota.

Have fun!

Lex1

Perhaps no one mentioned "Ebor City" because the traditional spelling is "Ybor," the former cigar making capital of west central Florida, billed as the "Latin Quarter." Interesting architecture and history.

Tampa area is far prettier than Orlando.

rhmuir

You will add about 35 minutes to your trip but St Pete is hard to beat. You can find a boutique hotel for your budget. Yes the Dali is great, downtown is walkable, special lunch at Vinoy, visit the Art Museum, take a stroll on the Pier and you won't even need a car. Tampa is a business town. Ybor city is worth a lunch and a few hours but that's all.