The best Hotels, Restaurants, Shopping, Cultural Attractions, and just plain Fun Stuff to do and see in Tampa, Florida.

HOTELS: TAMPA

Chart the path of the Hillsborough River from your private balcony at the posh Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk Hotel.
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Rest up in one of 16 rooms at the elegant Don Vicente de Ybor Historic Inn, a former land development office built by Vicente Martinez Ybor that later served as a community health clinic.
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Print out your boarding pass in the “e-room” after checking out at the self-service kiosk at Hyatt’s new high-tech chain, Hyatt Place, less than two miles from the airport.
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Watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico while cooling off in the pool at the ’50s-style Plaza Beach Hotel along the St. Petersburg coast.
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RESTAURANTS: TAMPA

Dock your boat at the marina (or park in the lot) for a tasty lunch of fresh oysters at Rick’s on the River.
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Let your nose lead you early morning to the smells of ground coffee and a café con leche at El Molino.
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Opened in 1905, the Columbia restaurant today the Spanish and Cuban restaurant takes up the entire block. Opt for the sangria; the tuxedoed waiters make it right at the table.
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SHOPPING: TAMPA

Pick up handmade Hemingway cigars at the Tampa Sweethearts Cigar Company. Arturo Fuente opened this four-story factory on 22nd Street in the 1960s and converted it into a family-run store in 1994.
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CULTURAL/HISTORIC: TAMPA

Take a trip back in time at the Ybor City Museum. By the late 19th century, Tampa was in danger of vanishing. But in 1886, Spaniard Don Vicente Martinez Ybor brought his cigar factory to the area, and within five years Tampa had grown 200 percent, to more than 15,000 people. At the museum, you’ll learn how Martinez Ybor’s planned community lured Sicilian, German, and Cuban immigrants away from the industrial slums of the Northeast.
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The Army began building Fort de Soto in 1898. Although the military decommissioned it within 25 years, today you can walk around the hulking Battery Laidley, on the National Register of Historic Places. Admire the only remaining 12-inch M1890-M1 mortars in America. Learn how the soldiers lived by taking a free look inside the Quartermaster Storehouse Museum, reconstructed in 2000.
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Take a canoeing trip down the 54-mile Hillsborough River, a preserved old Florida habitat just 12 miles northeast of downtown. This month, birds like egrets, ibis, and herons start flocking back to the area, and you might see up to 2,000 over a couple of hours. Start your trip at Canoe Escape, a family-run shop in Thonotosassa. While most visitors rent a canoe for a self-guided paddle, newcomers should opt for the three-hour interpretive guided trip on Wednesday mornings. As you slowly paddle through the tannin-filled waters, you’ll learn about the 16,000-acre Lower Hillsborough Wilderness Park. Keep an eye out for anhinga, big black-and-gray birds that sunbathe on exposed tree branches to dry their feathers.
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FUN STUFF: TAMPA

Find Florida critters—like alligators, red-bellied turtles, otters, and goliath groupers—at the Florida Aquarium’s wetlands exhibit in downtown Tampa.
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Head to the Centro Asturiano for swing dancing on Thursdays and get a peek into one of Ybor City’s remaining social clubs. Although you can no longer deposit wages or bowl here, you can still dance in the third-floor grand ballroom, as newcomers to Ybor and residents alike have done for more than a century.
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Build your own animated robot in the Tech Zone at kids’ science center G.WIZ in Sarasota.
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At the Museum of Science and Industry—the largest science center in the South—you can experience the basic building blocks of modern technology. The fun starts on the second floor at Disasterville, where you’ll explore Mother Nature’s version of technology: phenomena like hurricanes, lightning, and hail. Build a block house using braces and see if it can withstand an earthquake’s shaking as a tornado forms in water in a glass case nearby. Next, head upstairs to the new, couldn’t-get-more-hands-on exhibit, Amazing You. Try an Operation-like game where you carefully remove the patient’s vital organs and put on vision-impairing goggles that mimic the effects of alcohol and try to walk down a yellow line. End your visit, if you dare, at the high-wire bicycle. Strap yourself in and pedal down and back along a 98-foot-long wire suspended across the museum.
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Rent a kayak to look for manatees and dolphins around the mangroves at the Topwater Kayak Outpost in the park.
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While the crowds flock to St. Petersburg’s 35 miles of beaches, savvy locals head for the solitary spot that doesn’t sound like a beach, but is: Fort de Soto Park. At the tip of the city’s peninsula, you’ll find a three-mile haven of white sand spread across five barrier islands. Not only has it earned our vote, but TripAdvisor’s community picked its North Beach this year as the nation’s best beach.
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