Visiting Tampa & need some ideas / scoping out city to possibly move there (St. Petersburg: rental car)

[sto1986]

I'm going to be visiting Tampa in a little over a week. My girlfriend and I are driving down from Birmingham and we were hoping to find a nice place to camp that isn't too far from the city for a few days. We'd also like to spend a few days on or really close to the beach.

We have been considering Hillsborough River State Park and Little Manatee River State Park for close to Tampa. My priorities are clean restrooms and they need to have showers, since we will be drifting back into the city from the campsite.

Then for the beach part of the week, we were looking at staying at Fort Desoto Park, which I think it located somewhere in St. Petersburg? Any opinions?

What is the best beach in the area?

Any suggestions on places that would be good to eat on a smaller budget?

Fun places to visit and things to do?

While we are down there we are visiting the school. Hopefully going to the Salvidor Dali Museum. Checking out Ybor City.

My girlfriend loves the outdoors like the camping, kayaking, etc., and I'm an artist so I love galleries and the city. So any suggestions you can give me on either of those would be great.

We are considering moving there in a year, so we want to scope out whether or not Tampa is right for us. I'm looking at applying to USF for graduate school.

I really like the idea of living close to the school, in maybe a historic area of town. If that sort of place exists?

[TampaGuy32]

Ft. DeSoto is the best beach in the area in my opinion. Clearwater beach is more popular, but I am there more for the beach than the babes, so I prefer DeSoto. I'd recommend an afternoon wandering around downtown st. pete, you can see the dali museum while you're there. Downtown st. pete is pretty cool.

With all the rain lately, the river should be pretty full, so hillsborough river state park should be nice as well, pretty sure you can rent canoes/kayaks there. A kayak is more fun because you can head up some little tributaries and explore more. You just want to make sure to be prepared for the bugs in all cases. Some spray and maybe some incense..

I'm a bit older than you, but from what I have gathered ybor city has gone downhill as far as the nightlife, it's more thuggery now. I'd prefer downtown st. pete for nightlife. Ybor is great in the daytime for some lunch and some shopping. There's a good pizza place there on 7th ave, I forget the name. If you want a bar i recommend the James Joyce pub upstairs from Green Iguana (a good place to eat) on 7th, or new world brewery near 8th ave and 13th st.

If you want to live right near the school, like short bike ride distance, you're going to live in some crappy apartment near the ghetto. If you can handle being a few minutes in a car ride away, you can live in seminole heights. It's an area that is a real mix of poverty and middle class, but it's got great old bungalow houses that you can rent for cheap, lots of artsy types, and as a bonus it's right near the river. If you can find a place between Florida ave and the river, south of (or near) Sligh but north of Osborne you'll be in the best area of it. You might be able to get close enough to tote your boat and drop it into the water really easily. I have a friend that got lucky and managed to rent 3 bedroom ON the river for very cheap! I used to live near and walk down to this park on the river:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=28.005532,+-82.467558&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=28.005788,-82.466871&sspn=0.002941,0.00567&ie=UTF8&z=16

Well, I hope all this helps. I'll try to check back in case you have some more questions. Good luck!

[SunsetBeachFL]

You may want to consider Graduate Studies - USF St. Petersburg for your graduate program. It is an intimate campus with safe neighborhoods nearby. Also puts you into the downtown area which is chock full of the activities you identified as being desirable. Only a 15 minute drive to the beaches but public transportation is also available to get to the beaches.

Just an option.

[IAMSCIENCE]

TampaGuy32,

My family and I are moving to Tampa in early August and I am really attracted to St. Pete....if I have to work at MacDill, whats the commute like? Housing and school...i get such massively mixed reviews that im not sure if i should honestly look elsewhere....

I appreciate any input you might have....we really want to be near the water but I dont want an hour drive to MacDill every day and need somewhat reasonable housing with a wife a 4 kids.

(We are not military FYI)

Thanks in advance

[NameAlreadyInUse]

I just got back from a vacation/scouting trip to Tampa Bay. Gandy Bridge is the quickest way to MacDill from Pinellas County, imo, and not as crowded as the Howard Frankland Bridge, at least when I was there. The Howard Frankland was trafficky enough that I could not quite go the speed limit, whereas the Gandy was all but deserted going into Tampa. Of course, it also depends on where in Pinellas you're coming from. I only drove the Howard Frankland and Gandy bridges, not the Courtney Campbell.

To give you an idea of driving time, from Tampa International Airport to the Pinellas Bayway on I-275 was 20 minutes in my estimation. We got there quite quickly, quicker than I had expected. We landed at about 6 pm EST, got the rental car and went straight out onto the highway. It wasn't a bad drive at all, although I noticed over 50% of Florida drivers don't signal before changing lanes, and others only signal a few seconds before doing so.

[TampaGuy32]

Yes, I'd recommend the gandy bridge coming from st. pete to macdill. The base is on the part of tampa closest to st. pete, so you should have a workable commute depending on where you live. I don't know about the schools in st. pete, sorry, I only know about tampa in that regard.

Like everywhere else, there are good schools and bad schools. Live in a nice neighborhood and you'll probably be fine. A little googling can let you query individual schools to see the grades they have had in the recent past.

Those florida drivers people like to criticise are just aging yankees come down here to retire.

[Jimrob1]

Originally Posted by TampaGuy32

Yes, I'd recommend the gandy bridge coming from st. pete to macdill. The base is on the part of tampa closest to st. pete, so you should have a workable commute depending on where you live. I don't know about the schools in st. pete, sorry, I only know about tampa in that regard.

Like everywhere else, there are good schools and bad schools. Live in a nice neighborhood and you'll probably be fine. A little googling can let you query individual schools to see the grades they have had in the recent past.

Those florida drivers people like to criticise are just aging yankees come down here to retire.

How come so many of them are under 35 then?

[TampaGuy32]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

How come so many of them are under 35 then?

They reproduce.