The landscape of the St. Pete area has changed dramatically over the years. For decades, it was a mecca for retirees looking to escape the harsh winters up north and to play a little shuffleboard in the sunshine. Families would visit, but it was normally to see grandparents. I have fond memories of eating ice cream at the now demolished St. Petersburg Pier and watching mermaids swim in a tank at Webb’s City which took up seven city blocks on Central Avenue and was billed as the “The World’s Most Unusual Drug Store.” That too has been gone for many years now and for a very long time much of St. Pete’s tourism had gone with it.
Fast forward to today and you will find that St. Petersburg has revitalized, revamped and become one of the hottest tourist destinations for families in Florida! World class beaches that rival anything you might find in the Caribbean, along with world famous museums such as the Dali and the Chihuly Glass Collection, and enough great restaurants to make it a family foodie paradise. Downtown St. Petersburg has a multitude of shopping venues, a weekly farmers market, and two different stadiums where you can catch a Tampa Bay Rowdies professional soccer match or watch the Tampa Bay Rays play a baseball game. Not to mention, numerous parks and walking areas right along Tampa Bay that are great for exploring, picnicking or hitting the playground. You can even take a Segway tour through the area if the kids are old enough.
Amazing art murals abound throughout the downtown St. Pete area
Getting There
Getting to St. Petersburg is simple. Located less than half an hour across the bay from Tampa, it makes a great combination trip when visiting area attractions like Busch Gardens or ZooTampa at Lowry Park. If you are in the Orlando area and have taken in all the amusement parks, you may be happy to head for the beach and the calmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The drive between many of those tourist spots near Disney and St. Petersburg is a short hour and a half away.
Clockwise: resident pelicans hanging out by Tampa Bay, view of St. Pete’s vibrant downtown, delicious chicken sandwiches at Better Byrd, outdoor cafes along Beach Drive.
Things to Do in St. Petersburg with Kids
Water Adventures
There is so much to do in and around the water in the St. Petersburg area. Pass-a-Grille beach is quiet and has a cute little downtown. St. Pete Beach is great for families as well. The water is calm; the beach is wide and the sand is pristine. Fort De Soto Park on Tierra Verde is another area that families flock to since the beach is beautiful and has a view of the Skyway Bridge. Picnic areas, a concession stand with a gift store and a historic fort can all be found there. If you are a bit more adventurous, you can rent a kayak or take the ferry out to Egmont Key where you can snorkel and collect shells. There are also countless fishing charters, dolphin watches and sunset cruises going out from several different docks in the area. Just don’t forget your sunscreen!
Visit the Flamingos at Sunken Gardens
Just a short drive from downtown St. Petersburg, you will find historic Sunken Gardens. The gardens have been there for over a hundred years. Until recently their flamingo flock was down to just two lonely flamingos. Through many fundraising efforts by residents of St. Pete, they have now increased the flock to twenty happy birds! The garden often offers kids crafts and scavenger hunts on the weekend. After you have walked the gardens and said hello to the flock, scoot next door with the kids to visit Great Explorations Children’s Museum. This is a great spot for the younger set to spend time playing and having fun.
Two great attractions rolled into one family-friendly spot
Museum Fun
Yes, it is true…museums really can be fun with kids in tow. The Dali Museum houses the largest collection of works by Salvador Dali outside of Europe and the building design itself is a piece of art. The museum offers StoryTime at the Dali and another program that includes arts and crafts called DillyDally with Dali.
To up the coolness factor with older kids, you may want to head over to the Morean Arts Center and the Chihuly Glass Collection to view other worldly glass creations. There you can watch live demonstrations of glassblowing at the Hot Shop or families can attend open art sessions on the weekends that involve working with clay or making arts and crafts.
For families looking for even more educational fun, St. Pete has plenty! The Museum of Fine Arts, the St. Petersburg Museum of History and the Holocaust Museum are all located within a short walk from each other. Baseball fanatics will be happy to know there is something here for them as well. The Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame are located right downtown as well at Tropicana Field where the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team makes its home. If you are lucky enough to visit during baseball season, don’t miss petting the live stingrays located in a large tank inside the stadium.
Looking for street art? St. Pete has become a mecca for urban mural artists and their bright and colorful work can be found on the sides of buildings and even down alleys throughout “The Burg.”
The Dali Museum houses the largest collection of Salvador Dali’s work outside of Spain
Shopping Galore
Shopping in countless stores with the whole family may not be the ideal thing to do on a sunny Florida day, but if you are a family that likes to shop then St. Petersburg is the place for you. There are countless stores featuring antiques, art, clothing and food. Browse the shops as you make your way around town on foot or bike. On Saturdays things come alive with the St. Pete Farmers Market in full swing most months. In the Grand Central District, the Brocante Vintage Market is an antique lover’s dream on the first weekend of each month and every day you can walk the aisles of Florida’s largest new and used bookstore- Haslams Books. While you are there, be sure to have the kids look for their famous bookstore cats who like to lounge on the shelves and near the cash register. Teacup is our favorite!
So much food, so little time
After all that sightseeing, museum hopping and shopping, the family will definitely be hungry. There are countless options in the area. Seafood restaurants abound out by the beach, downtown there are sidewalk cafes, wonderful high end restaurants, markets and delis. At Sundial, you will find Locale Market which is not your average market. Filled with gourmet food areas, this food hall has options for the whole family. Other family favorites in the area include The Hofbrau Haus (the same one you will find in Germany), Hawkers Asian Street Fare, The Lucky Dill NY-style deli, and Mazzaro’s Italian Market will have you feeling like you have taken a trip to Italy instead of Florida. Don’t forget to stop by The Hyppo for one of their delicious popsicles too.
Clockwise: Shopping for flowers at the Saturday Morning Market, taking in a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game at Tropicana Field is a great way to spend an afternoon, giant pretzels are a hit at the St. Pete branch of the famous Munich Hofbrauhaus, and an adorable little Italian car permanently parked outside of Mazzaro’s Italian Market
Two Great Places to Stay
Even though we live locally, we love to come down to St. Petersburg for a long weekend. There are two hotels that we absolutely love to spend time at -The TradeWinds Island Grand Resort and The Don Cesar. Both hotels sit right on beautiful St. Petersburg Beach and both are well suited for families visiting the area.
View of the TradeWinds from our balcony just before sunset
The Terrific TradeWinds
Everything about the TradeWinds makes you feel like you have entered the tropics! From the swaying palm trees to the beach décor. Set on over twenty beachfront acres, the resort has so much to offer families. The tropical two-bedroom suite was a perfect fit for our family of five. There are five pools and a floating ocean water park located off the beach in the Gulf of Mexico. There is even a three-story high giant slide. If that doesn’t keep the kids entertained, there is even more: the KONK Kids Club, Dive-In movies in the evenings around the pool, and paddleboats that you can use to navigate through the waterways and under the bridges that make up the resort. Parents will love rejuvenating in the spa, playing a little tennis or just drinking a pina colada while lounging in their cabana and watching the gorgeous sunset. Everyone will love the fact that there are ten restaurants to choose from when dinnertime comes around!
Just a few steps away is the Island Grands sister hotel- The Guy Harvey Outpost. If you have spent any time in Florida, you have probably seen one of Guy Harvey’s paintings depicting every aspect of the sea and the creatures that live in it. This hotel is a must see for anyone who loves the ocean! We took a walk over just to see their 33,500-gallon aquarium that was designed by the guys from the television show “Tanked.” It is the centerpiece of their RumFish Grill and it is beautiful. You don’t have to just look at the tank, you can actually take part in their “Swim with the Fishes” program where you and the kids get a backstage tour and then go snorkeling in the tank. What an amazing experience!
Clockwise: Enjoying playing in the surf on beautiful St. Pete Beach, TradeWinds giant beach slide offers fun for the whole family, hammocks are a great place to take a break, divers cleaning the massive aquarium, and tropical foliage abounds at this beach resort
The Iconic Don Cesar
Looking for both luxury and history on the beach? Look no further. The Don Cesar is hands down the most recognized hotel in the entire region. Dubbed “The Pink Palace” by locals, it does not disappoint. Set on the dazzling sugar-sand of St. Pete Beach, there is no place more revered or interesting then The Don. Opened during the Great Gatsby era of the roaring twenties, the hotel has a long and storied history. Originally as a warm weather getaway for the rich looking to find both renewed health and adventure in the wilds of Florida. It has had many reincarnations over the years including being used as an army hospital during World War II. By the early seventies, it had become an abandoned building along the waterfront. A local group was formed to “Save the Don” and save it they did! Eventually it became part of the Lowes chain and the rest is history. Today it stands as a testament to the vison of its creator- Thomas Rowe. Nearly a century later it is still an iconic landmark on the west coast of Florida. The hotel is both classy and family friendly. After all, it is a beach hotel at its heart and the staff truly bends over backwards to make families with kids of all ages feel welcome.
The iconic “Pink Palace” is a large part of Tampa Bay area history
Activities are abundant here. Many are of course beach-centric. Swimming in the warm Gulf waters, building sand castles in the giant sand play area on the beach, starting up a family game of volleyball or renting a standup paddleboard, kayak or wave runner. There are plenty of options to keep everyone busy. The hotels lushly landscaped pool areas are located within a few steps from the sand and have plenty going on there too. Kids activities happen on a schedule around the pool and include everything from the limbo to potato sack races. A sun screen station and smoothie samples are always a hit with the entire family. Just past the pool area you will find the kids club. Camp Cesar is part of their Lowe’s Loves Kids program and children ages 4-12 can spend time here doing all kinds of activities and exploring. After dropping off the younger set, you may just want to spend some time indulging in either a romantic meal at Maritana Grille or relaxing at Spa Oceana.
As a family, we loved trying out the ice cream in their 50’s inspired Uncle Andy’s Ice Cream Parlor and taking the historical ghost tour offered by the hotel. We got to see parts of the Don we never would have found on our own and were treated to some pretty amazing stories without it being super scary for the kids. We walked through ball rooms that saw the flappers during the roaring 20’s and listened to tales of strange sightings of a World War II nurse being spotted in the halls of the hotel in recent years.
Clockwise: Shovels ready for little ones to build sand castles, view to the pool and pristine beach below, rooftop lookout, a refreshing swim at sunset, Camp Cesar offers lots of activities for the kids, and a beautiful tropical fruit welcome
Regardless if you believe or not, there is certainly one thing that you can be sure of… St. Petersburg, is a wonderful town for families. The beach, the shops and restaurants, the sporting events and the museums are just a small part of what makes this city a great family destination. If you are visiting Florida, be sure to put it on your bucket list. This is definitely an area full of fun for families with kids of all ages!
Resources
And here: http://www.stpete.org/
And here too: http://www.stpete.com/visit.html
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Happy Travels!
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