The sunny side of Tampa Bay holds a Guinness record and a world-class art scene

Florida’s other coast is calling

You know Tampa Bay. But the city on the other side of the peninsula, the one locals just call St. Pete, sits between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico with about 361 sunny days a year. That’s not a guess.

The city once went 768 straight days without a cloudy sky, enough to land a Guinness World Record. More than 265,000 people live here, and the reason they stay goes well beyond the weather.

A railroad town that became an arts capital

A railroad rolled into this corner of Pinellas County in the late 1800s and pushed a pier straight into Tampa Bay. By the 1920s, landmark hotels like the Vinoy were going up, and winter tourists were filling them.

That early momentum never faded.

Today, St. Pete ranks as a top arts destination among cities its size, with the Dali Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Chihuly Collection, the James Museum, and the Florida Holocaust Museum all packed into the downtown core.

The world’s largest Dali collection lives here

No museum on Earth holds more Salvador Dali than the one on St. Pete’s waterfront. Inside, you’ll find 96 oil paintings, over 100 watercolors and drawings, and more than 2,400 total works.

The building itself is half the experience. Architect Yann Weymouth designed a 75-foot geodesic glass dome called “The Enigma,” made from 1,062 triangular glass pieces.

The rest of the walls are 18 inches of concrete, strong enough to take a Category 5 hurricane. Your admission also gets you into augmented reality exhibits and an AI-powered “Dali Lives” experience.

Glass art fills a building designed just for it

The Chihuly Collection at the Morean Arts Center takes up 10,000 square feet, and every inch of it was built to display Dale Chihuly’s glass work.

No other Chihuly installation in the country has its own purpose-built space.

The Ruby Red Icicle Chandelier was made specifically for this collection, and the Mille Fiori glass garden fills an entire room with what looks like a thousand flowers frozen in color.

Your ticket includes a live glass-blowing demo at the Morean Glass Studio across the street. The arts center behind it all dates back to 1917.

A $92 million pier stretches into Tampa Bay

The St. Pete Pier opened on July 6, 2020, after a $92 million renovation turned 26 acres of waterfront into a full district.

You can eat at the restaurants, browse a marketplace of local vendors, fish from the deck, or just walk the length of the pier into Tampa Bay.

The Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center sits on-site with exhibits about the largest estuary in Florida. Families can hit Spa Beach for a small sandy shoreline and a splash pad.

A tram runs the full pier with four stops, and the gates open 30 minutes before sunrise.

Walk from Dali to Monet in 15 minutes

Central Avenue is the line that connects everything.

The Dali Museum, Chihuly Collection, Morean Arts Center, and Museum of Fine Arts all sit within walking distance of each other along this stretch.

The Museum of Fine Arts alone holds over 20,000 works spanning 5,000 years, with pieces by Monet and O’Keeffe on the walls.

Between the big museums, you’ll pass independent galleries, working studios, and public art at nearly every corner.

The Florida Orchestra, American Stage theatre company, and the Mahaffey Theater round out the performing arts scene.

Nearly 200 murals cover the downtown walls

Since 2015, the SHINE Mural Festival has put nearly 200 large-scale murals across downtown St. Pete and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Every fall, the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance brings in local, national, and international artists who paint over several days while crowds watch.

You can see every mural year-round for free, on foot, by bike, or on a guided trolley tour.

SHINE was the first mural festival in the world to offer an accessible audio tour, so you can hear the story behind each wall as you go.

Climb an 1898 fort on five connected islands

Fort De Soto Park covers 1,136 acres across five connected islands at the mouth of Tampa Bay, and more than 2.7 million people visit every year.

The fort itself dates to 1898, built during the Spanish-American War to guard the bay.

You can climb it for wide-open views across the water, then stop by the Quartermaster Museum for historic photographs and artifacts.

The park has 7 miles of waterfront, two fishing piers, a seven-mile paved bike trail, kayak launches, and 238 campsites.

After storms in late 2024, East Beach, the dog beach, a fishing pier, and the campground are open, but North Beach remains closed.

A plumber drained a lake and grew a garden

Sunken Gardens started because a plumber named George Turner Sr. bought land in the early 1900s, drained a shallow lake, and planted tropical plants in the rich soil underneath.

The four-acre garden opened to the public in 1936, and the City of St. Petersburg bought it in 1999 after residents voted to save it.

Today, more than 50,000 tropical plants fill the grounds, including a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree from Papua New Guinea. You’ll also find flamingos, rescued parrots, a Japanese koi pond, waterfalls, and a butterfly garden.

5,000 years of history on the mangrove trails

Weedon Island Preserve spreads over 3,190 acres along Tampa Bay’s western shore, and people have been here a long time.

The Manasota peoples first inhabited this land roughly 5,000 years ago, and the site still carries cultural weight.

You can walk boardwalk trails through mangrove forests, launch a kayak into the tidal waters, and spot wading birds without trying hard. The Cultural and Natural History Center has free exhibits and educational programs.

Most tourists skip it entirely, but locals know it well.

Barrier islands with sand, a lighthouse and dolphins

St. Pete Beach sits on a barrier island just west of the city, where soft white sand meets the warm Gulf of Mexico.

At the southern tip, Pass-a-Grille is a laid-back historic neighborhood with a walkable main street and an outdoor art market.

Take a ferry from Fort De Soto to Egmont Key, a state park with a lighthouse built in 1858 and the ruins of Fort Dade. Shell Key Preserve, reachable by boat, draws people for shelling and dolphin watching.

And the Sunshine Skyway Bridge stretches 4.1 miles across the bay with views that don’t quit.

Six ecosystems sit inside one lakeside park

Boyd Hill Nature Preserve hugs the shore of Lake Maggiore in the interior of St. Petersburg, far from the sand and saltwater.

The trails pass through six distinct ecosystems, from sand scrub to hardwood hammock to willow marsh, all in one park.

You’ll find a 19th-century pioneer settlement along the way and a visitor education center near the entrance. The preserve runs weekly nature programs for adults and kids.

Locals come here for birdwatching, photography, and walks where the only sound is what the birds make.

Explore St. Petersburg’s Gulf Coast in Florida

You can fly into Tampa International Airport, about 20 miles northeast, or land at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport even closer.

Once you’re in the city, 244 miles of shoreline wrap around you along Tampa Bay, Boca Ciega Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Downtown is easy to cover on foot, and a free Central Avenue Trolley connects many of the big attractions. Give yourself a few days here.

Between the museums, the murals, the islands, and the waterfront, one afternoon won’t be enough.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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