Entertainment

  • Tampa Bay is packed with entertainment, cultural and leisure attractions.  Busch Gardens has thrill-seeker roller coasters, rides and exotic animals from the Serengeti.  Kids and the young-at-heart can also explore Adventure Island, a 30 acre water park, right next door.
  • The Florida Aquarium in Tampa’s Channelside District is home to more than 20,000 aquatic plants and animals both native to Florida and from around the world. The aquarium continues to receive accolades for its diverse programming. Guests can swim with the fishes, hand-feed live stingrays, grab a backstage pass to see the penguins and explore a shore. The Aquarium beckons kids to an outdoor water fun zone.
  • Lowry Park Zoo is located just north of Tampa’s downtown.  It’s been voted the “#1 Family Friendly Zoo in America” and has more than 2,000 animals in lush native Florida or similar habitats.
  • Arts and culture are prominent in Tampa’s ever-changing downtown. The Tampa Museum of Art is the city’s newest cultural landmark. Its must-see design features shimmering pierced aluminum exterior and innovative translucent ceilings in the gallery spaces.
  • The Tampa Museum of Art is situated along the Tampa Riverwalk in the city’s downtown.  The Riverwalk stretches more than two miles as a continuous pedestrian walkway extending from the Channelside area to Tampa Heights, along the east side of the Hillsborough River. It incorporates art, retail and restaurant uses, parks and open space and other urban amenities.
  • Just outside the museum and along the Riverwalk is the new eight acre Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. The park features a unique urban design with the Great Lawn, a dog run, public boat docks, two interactive fountains, a café and a playground featuring an interactive NEOS 360 Ring, which combines video games with aerobic exercise and is the first of its kind in the South East United States.
  • As the largest performing arts complex in the Southeast, the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa provides a wide variety of world-class events and artists. It boasts one of the nation’s leading Broadway series.  Just across Tampa Bay is Ruth Eckerd Hall, a medium-sized venue in Pinellas County presenting traveling and local theatre as well as concerts.
  • Art and history lovers will find much to enjoy in St. Petersburg at the Museum of Fine Arts, whose collection features many works from antiquity to the present.  The Salvador Dalí Museum, also in St. Petersburg, houses the largest collection of Dalí pieces outside Europe. The new and innovative Dalí building (double in size to the previous museum) opened in early 2011 next to the Mahaffey Theatre on St. Petersburg’s waterfront.
  • MOSI, the Museum of Science and Industry contains more than 450 hands-on displays, the innovative Kids in Charge, in addition to a hurricane simulator and planetarium that does double duty as Florida’s only IMAX Dome theater.  MOSI was recently honored with the 2009 National Medal for Museums, the nation’s highest honor for museums.
  • Tampa’s history gets front-and-center billing with the new Tampa Bay History Center on the edge of Tampa’s bustling Channelside District. It takes visitors on a walkthrough of 12,000 years of Tampa Bay history with interactive maps and exhibits. Tampa Bay’s story is richly dotted with native inhabitants, Spanish conquistadors, pioneers, presidents, sports legends and railroad tycoons. All played a role in its colorful heritage and adventurous spirit.
  • Known as Tampa’s Latin Quarter for more than a century, Ybor City is an exotic blend of aromas, flavors, sights and sounds.  Ybor City today is one of only two National Historic Landmark Districts in Florida.  Red brick buildings, wrought iron balconies and narrow brick streets give it an old-world charm.  During the day, Ybor offers an eclectic mix of shops, art galleries and cafes.  At night, Ybor transforms into Tampa’s party central with restaurants, nightclubs and cigar bars.
  • If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, the Tampa area has 200-plus parks. Golfers are in paradise with more than 35 private and public courses. Fishing, boating, canoeing and tennis are found in abundance.   For a listing of Tampa Bay’s courses, click here.
  • Florida is perhaps best known worldwide for its spectacular beaches and those in Tampa Bay are no exception.  Miles of white sugar-sand beaches along the Gulf of Mexico border greater St. Petersburg and Clearwater. The ever-popular Clearwater Beach has loads of activities, including pick-up volleyball games, Jet Ski rentals, swimming, sandcastle building and Pier 60, a family entertainment complex.
  • This is only some of what Tampa Bay has to offer – there are so many fun and interesting things to see and do, that it is almost impossible to list them all!