anything fun to do in...(drumroll)...TAMPA?
 

I have been there but once and only for a business trip. It seemed quite lovely.

Anything to do there for a long weekend? For me and my teenage soon.

Thanks!

richard,

We were in Tampa in March a couple years back with 2 teenage sons. The highlights included the Dali museum (huge collection, big canvas, informative docent) in St Pete and The Pier in St Pete - we ate, fished with rented equipment and fed pelicans. We shopped and toured Ybor City - all the boys wanted to do there was play video games at Jillians. There were a couple places to rent jetskis around Rocky Pt where we stayed and the Clearwater Beach was quite nice. Tampa has an aquarium. Nearby is an IMAX theatre, some decent restaurants and the cruise pier.

Have fun.

Use TPA
 

Best thing I can think of to do is to look in dreammaps, there are sometimes great cheap mileage runs available from Tampa. :D

ARe you ready for some football?
 

The Bucs will play there last game of the season this Sat. in Tampa. ;)

with a teenage son, I'd suggest Bush Gardens if you like theme parks

I know someone fun to do in Tampa, but with your teenage son in tow, probably best not introducing the two of you. :D

Not really a suggestion of 'what to do'...
 

... in Tampa, but a word of warning. Please make sure you arrive inside your airline's recommended minimum check-in time (which was 45 mins for NW).

We arrived at 44 mins before departure (literally one minute late) and we had already been off-loaded. They put us on 'standby' and we raced to the gate but the seats had been given away to other standby pax (who had just missed the minimum check-in time from the previous flight!) right on the 45 minute mark.

We then spent the next three hours waiting for a flight out.

Not a pleasant experience. (And one of us was a NW Plat so status didn't help us one bit!)

With regards

L/M/E FF

If you and your son are inclined towards the outdoors, you can take a jog along Bayshore Blvd, the view of the homes are beautiful and the people watching is interesting. In New Tampa there is Flatwoods Park, which has a 7 mile loop good for roller-blading, jogging, or bike riding. We used to see some interesting wild-life, wild boars, deer, etc. Canoe along the Hillsborough River, very nice way to spend a few hours, lots of alligators so I don't recommend swimming. In Dunedin take the Caladesi Island Ferry, fabulous and natural beach. Lots of sand dollars, dolphins, and sting rays, beautiful.

Busch Gardens has some good rides, as well as a wild animal park: www.buschgardens.com

They have a magnificant aquarium in Tampa and Channelside is right next store, which is a collection of restaurants, shops, and nightclubs. They often have live bands in the center area.
You can take the trolley to Ybor City, but that is more 20something oriented these days. But they do have shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, cigar making places, etc.
The zoo, Lowery Park is nice. The beaches in Clearwater, St Pete, Indian Rocks are very nice. Lots to do there - Dolphin sight seeing, water side places to eat, jet skis, etc.

Is that because their next opponent had a better record and has home field advantage? :p

great ideas and suggestions...what a wealth of knowledge you all have!!

I agree that the Aquarium was very nice. I loved the white sandy beaches of Clearwater and St. Pete.

I loved going to eat at Oyster Catchers at Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. And they have pink flamingos there at the hotel. I stayed there and it was great but expensive.

Oystercatchers for Sunday brunch is great! Definately make reservations if you wish to go.

If Tampa Bay *had* won tonight (they didn't, BTW), there still would have been a chance for them to have another home game. Next week, they would've played at Chicago (the #2 seed). If TB beats Chicago, and Seattle (the #1 seed) loses, then TB would host the NFC championship.