Tampa vs Orlando

[^Eagle^]

By server i meant getting a job at a restaurant. lol.

[Soorena]

I've lived in Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa. Orlando's UCF is the best 4 year school out of the bunch for Computer related programs, but I am not sure if you wanna go to a 4 year school or not. As far as night life goes, I haven't been in Tampa for long enough to tell you much about it, but generally it seems like Tampa is more liberal when it comes to certain things, and you have better access to bars and restaurants.
Orlando is a big city and you can't be in the center of it all and have access to everything that easily. One thing I find very annoying about Orlando is its toll roads and if you live near international drive or downtown, you'll have to spend at least 2-3 dollars on tolls (each way) just to get to the east side where UCF and college bars are (which are better than most of the downtown bars IMO).
Overall, for what you are looking for, I think Tampa might be a better choice, but ultimately, you have to decide which city you like better.

[^Eagle^]

Originally Posted by Soorena

I've lived in Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa. Orlando's UCF is the best 4 year school out of the bunch for Computer related programs, but I am not sure if you wanna go to a 4 year school or not. As far as night life goes, I haven't been in Tampa for long enough to tell you much about it, but generally it seems like Tampa is more liberal when it comes to certain things, and you have better access to bars and restaurants.
Orlando is a big city and you can't be in the center of it all and have access to everything that easily. One thing I find very annoying about Orlando is its toll roads and if you live near international drive or downtown, you'll have to spend at least 2-3 dollars on tolls (each way) just to get to the east side where UCF and college bars are (which are better than most of the downtown bars IMO).
Overall, for what you are looking for, I think Tampa might be a better choice, but ultimately, you have to decide which city you like better.

Thanks for the advice man. I have a few questions and comments. As far as it being easier to be in the middle of it all in tampa could you give me some examples of area's that I could check out that would give me a feel for what your saying? So far all I really can find is sprawl.

Now Im not a huge expert at either Orlando or Tampa. Ive spent MORE time in Orlando.

That being said I have a gps and find it easy to navigate around the tolls.

It seems easier to live near the bars by UCF but thats a heavy college kid scene and I am beyond college (although Im looking to go back).

The downtown area has a good choice of major clubs along with bars and is walkable, which is cool to me.

I hear that Tampa has nightlife hubs that are walkable too with housing neaby but I havent been into downtown tampa.

I HAVE however been in the area a few times. Today I checked out St petersburge and was very excited to see what the beachlife was like.

Now I didn't know where to find things, but I did talk to several people, I had my gps, and I drove up and down the pinninsula several times. While it is a nice stretch of beach I found that there seemed to be no "hub" or "spot" or "strip". Lining the beach were all condo's.

What bars there were seemed very tiny and spread out. There was no real "scene". There were young people scattered about but the average person was pretty old. The beach was nice but not all that populated.

Most of the area was just "sprawl" and it seemed to lack in character compared to many beach towns Ive been to. Even Daytona (Which I give a thumbs down to) seems to have more character. There is not a ton of spots but in fairness there are a few hubs that are walkable, where there are young people everywhere and a handful of bars and clubs compacted into one area to draw the crowd. Steets dedicated just to nightlife and fun.

In st pete there seems to be nothing like that. Its just a bunch of sprawl like gas stations and dollar stores along with condo's alongside a beach which is somewhat hard to access with no real hub or beach city feel to it. Here and there you see a small restaurant or a small bar but there is a bunch of sprawl in between. I was somewhat disappointed because so many people talk up the area but it seemed to me like a mostly uneventful place with no real scene or hub or place to go. Even when I would ask people they would seem confused as to what exactly they could tell me as to where to go to check out probably because there is no real "place" to go. They would usually tell me about some small bar.

I havent been into downtown tampa yet or checked out any of these hubs like ybor city and such. Clearwater also seems mostly sprawl with a lot of old people. I also notice that many people seem to have the life sucked out of them around here, as if someone ate all their cocoa pebbles for breakfast or something.

ANyways thats my first impressions. Please dont take it personally, if Im wrong or quick to judge please let me know specifically where I should go check out to get a better feel for the area. I only really legitimately have tomorrow to kill time and explore needlessly so if someone feels I have missed something and can better direct me to must see places that give tampa an identity, please let me know.

[DANNYY]

Ohh I thought you meant server as in the computer related. Sorry, when someone says Tampa, I think Wikipedia and how that is based there and how they have an enormous amount of servers for other companies as well.