Best Things To Do in Tampa Bay Florida 2025 4K

What's going on everybody, this is Island Hopper TV coming to you from Tampa Bay. We're going to show you the best things to do. That's right, Island Hopper's coming to you from the Gulf Coast of Florida. We're going to go around to Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and show you all across Tampa Bay Metro. Let's do this. First up on the list, we're coming to you from Ybor City. This here is the old Cuban historical district of Tampa. Ybor City is considered the primary nighttime entertainment area in Tampa with nightclubs along 7th Avenue. They've also got a really nice authentic Cuban food scene down here, cigars, and culture. At one point in time, Ybor was known as the cigar capital of the world. Something else to know is there's a very famous restaurant here called Columbia Restaurant. It's actually Cuban food though. There's not many hotels down here, so you'll either arrive by Uber or you will actually arrive by streetcar here on the Teco streetcar system. This is actually free, so you can easily get down here to Ybor City on one of these streetcars. It is like a blast from the past riding one of these things. There's no AC, and it does move fairly slow, but hey, it's something fun to do. You can maybe ride it for 10 to 15 minutes. I mean, would you just look at the wood finish in here? I mean, that's super classic, isn't it? Anyways, now we're headed to the Tampa Riverwalk. This here begins down there by Water Street, right there on the Tampa River. It is a 2.6 mile open air riverwalk here along the Hillsborough River. Along this route, you'll find the conference center as well as many attractions including museums, food halls, and water activities. You can get a water taxi out of here pretty easily going into the bay or going up the river. You'll see a lot of boat traffic going in either direction. And if you look across the river, you'll see the plant park as well as the Harry B. Plant Museum, which is an art museum, and you'll see some nice structures. Now here we have Sparkman's Wharf. Now down here at Sparkman's Wharf, you're going to find an open air environment right along the waterfront with restaurants, shops, a beer garden, and what appears to be like food, street food stands. And you can see by this AstroTurf right here, it's really good for live music. So if you can, try to line up the times when they're doing an actual live music event. Now what do you guys say we go have some adrenaline pumping fun? What do you guys say we explore around Busch Gardens now? Yeah, so Busch Gardens is known for its roller coasters. There is about 10 thrilling coasters here, known for the fastest, steepest, and tallest coasters in the country, making this one of the best roller coaster theme parks in the world. They also have animals here. You'll see orangutans, they have tigers, and several other animals you'll see like a cheetah all across the park. But really, the main attraction here is going to be these roller coasters. There is more than 50 thrilling rides at this park, 29 attractions. Also there's two water rides, the log ride and the river ride. So do be prepared to get wet while here. Now general admission for the Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay is $139 per person. But if you're a veteran, you may qualify for 50% off. Just make sure you try to reserve that before you get there on the website using GovX. But other people can apply for discounts, you just gotta check online to see if you can get a better deal. This is a huge theme park, so expect to be here at least 6 hours if you want to see a large share of it, but try to do 8-10 hours at this park. It does close at 6pm. Now while here you can do some animal spotting. You can see the orangutan, they have the cheetah, the tiger exhibit, and you can see this tiger gets out and about. But the orangutans were probably my favorite. They also have the cheetah you can see walking around. And plenty of birds, they have flamingos, an aviary. So lots of animals here. I also saw an elephant exhibit, although it was closed when I was there, hopefully it's open when you're there. It was an Asian elephant. But I really enjoyed the Tampa Busch Gardens and would highly recommend this place while in Tampa. Now we're here at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. At the very least you can drive over it. It's quite an impressive bridge, it's one of the most impressive in all of the country alongside the Golden Gate or the Brooklyn Bridge. So it's a really amazing bridge. It actually connects you from St. Pete down towards Sarasota, but people like to go over here and fish around the bridge. You never know what you'll see when you go across the bridge. While in St. Petersburg you can head down to the St. Pete Pier, and this is a really cool area. If you go out to the end you'll be at Teak St. Pete, which is a cool restaurant. You also get great sunset views and just views all around Tampa Bay from this 360 degree. I love St. Pete. I think you guys will too. So just come on out here and hang out around the pier. St. Petersburg is actually considered one of the sunniest cities in all of the country, so that's a good thing about St. Pete. Also this is where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball. And just so you know, the three main areas of Tampa are going to be St. Pete, Clearwater, and actual Tampa City. So we're trying to show you all around Tampa Bay here, but let's keep this tour moving. Here we are now at the Florida Aquarium. Now the adult general admission for the Florida Aquarium is $38.70. Be sure to ask for a military or veterans discount and see what you can get. There is another aquarium in the area of Tampa Bay at the Clearwater Aquarium where they actually have dolphins. But this one down here is actually in Tampa right there next to the wharf and the cruise ship terminal. But you can see here they're going to have lots of immersive experiences for the kids with the coral reefs. And also they have some different microclimates that you can go through. So really a nice experience. Good to get out of that Tampa heat sometimes. And this being right there in the downtown area really does a great job. Now as we continue to show you around Tampa Bay, I want to let you know that I did go to Florida and visit Miami and Orlando. And I will put those links below in the description and in the comments. If you guys plan to visit Florida and you want some more information, be sure to watch those videos. I also put the 17 Best Places in Florida to Visit video below. So let's keep this tour going from Tampa Bay. Which means we're going to head 45 minutes, which means we're going to head about 35-40 minutes west to Clearwater Beach. One of the most beautiful beaches in the United States. And it's actually nicknamed Florida's most beautiful beach with this white sand right along the Gulf Coast here. Lots of sunshine. And I've even seen some crazy videos from water spouts occasionally popping up over here. I never saw one because every time I come here it's always sunshine and just lots of people on this beach enjoying themselves. And they have some nice hotels lining up along the beach. I would say do check out the Wyndham or maybe the Hyatt. They've also got a Hilton down here. Lots of good food and eats also. And check it out. Also consider doing some of the water sports. They've got these banana boats. They've got jet skis. They've got wind and parasailing that I saw out there. So lots of activities here for the whole family. And Clearwater Beach, definitely one of my favorite beaches in the country. And even in Florida. But there are so many beaches in Florida, that's the thing. One of my favorite things to do is do some shopping around these cool surf shops that they got in Clearwater. Also head over to the Clearwater Marina. You can get a pirate cruise. You can get a dolphin adventure cruise. They've got ferry boats. They've got water taxis. They've got tiki's that you can go out onto the bay area around Clearwater. So lots to do out here in this Clearwater Marina area. I would say you can even go over to the main town of Clearwater. Ah, if you also enjoy fishing, do check out some of these fishing charters at the marina. Now we're going to take the Clearwater Ferry going from Clearwater Beach to Clearwater. Now in Tampa Bay there's a few different ferries. This one's going from Clearwater Beach to Clearwater. But they also have one that goes from Clearwater to Dunedin. And then they have one that goes from Tampa to St. Pete. So plenty of ferries around the Tampa Bay area. It just depends on where you're trying to go. The ferry that goes from Clearwater Beach to Clearwater takes about 15 minutes. If you wanted to go from Clearwater to Dunedin that would take around 30 minutes longer. Now what we're going to do is head back over towards Tampa. This here is Hyde Park. This is an upscale shopping area with some restaurants. It's another place to hang out at night like Ybor, except this is going to be a little bit more modern and upscale, a little bit safer as well. So it just depends on what kind of entertainment you want to do at night. But Hyde Park is definitely one of the best areas of all of Tampa. So do try to get out here if you're looking for a nice relaxing day. Chilling out and eating some good food. And if you're looking for some nightlife in Tampa aside from Ybor, maybe consider coming down here to Howard Street to Soho. This here is Soho Corner and this whole area has a strip of bars. Now this area of Soho and Howard Street is where more of the college scene is going to be for the nightlife. And there is like a strip of bars and restaurants around here. I'd say there's probably about 6 to 10 just bars and stuff around Howard Street. So if you're looking for a little bit more of a younger crowd, or if you're a young person, you may just end up wanting to come down here to Howard Street. And if you're looking for an art museum, maybe consider checking out the Tampa Museum of Art. They've got a lot of exhibits in here. It's right along the riverfront. It's a beautiful structure. And just in that area around Tampa Museum of Art, you'll also find several different museums. There's the Children's Museum and there's the History Museum around here. So it's a good area for museums. Now let me give you some facts about Tampa Bay. There's 3.1 million people, almost 3.2 million people living in the Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg, Clearwater metropolitan area. And the population is growing rapidly. So this is one of the fastest growing areas in Florida. Tampa is also known for being one of the top places in the country for organ donations or organ transplants. So that's interesting. But anyways, if you guys enjoyed this one, please consider liking the video, subscribing to the channel. And we'll see you on the next one from Orlando or Miami. Click one of these links next.