When planning our Florida vacations, we initially chose Sanibel Island for a short break. It is a beautiful, sparsely populated island located on the west coast of Florida near Fort Myers and Cape Coral. Unfortunately, Sanibel was one of the most damaged sites during Hurricane Ian. The bridge leading to the island was damaged, cutting it off completely from the mainland. Unfortunately, we do not know how much damage was caused to the hotel we booked, but it became clear that we cannot go to those regions. So, a month before the planned trip, we had to find a new place for 2-3 days of sunbathing. We considered both the east and west coasts from Tampa to the north. In the east (i.e. Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach) we couldn’t find anything at a decent price. Besides, we preferred the west coast, because the beaches there are more intimate. So the choice was between St Petersburg and Clearwater, because only there are nice, not destroyed by hurricane beaches. Ultimately, we decided to go to St. Pete Beach Suites in St. Pete Beach (one of the beaches of St. Petersburg). And we have to tell you that it was a great choice!

St. Pete Beach Suites is a relatively intimate place that was almost empty at this time of the year. You can choose between smaller and larger studios. Ours had 2 double beds, a sofa, a kitchenette and a bathroom. Everything clean and very pleasant. There are 2 swimming pools on the premises of the hotel (we guess they were originally 2 separate residences), there are games for children, there is a laundry room, you can also rent bikes for free (no bikes for kids though), sunbeds, umbrellas, beach toys and wagons to pack it all on your way to the beach 🙂 The only thing we can see as not prefect was that both pools were quite deep (both were up to 2m deep, only one started from 1m, but was getting deep quickly). Usually, however, the swimming pools in hotels are much shallower. Fortunately, there was also a supply of pool noodles and lifebuoys, so the children could easily use the pool.

The hotel is located literally 2 mins walk from the beautiful wide beach that we enjoyed walking to. It’s such a nice change after the problematic beaches in Oman or Jordan or the crowded Barceloneta. You can rent sun loungers and umbrellas on the beach ($ 30 a day for a set!), But we were happy to have our hotel equipment. The entrance to the water is gentle and the waves during our stay were only the result of passing motorboats. All in all a great place for kids.
The children could build sandcastles for hours, swim on a borrowed board, while I was reading a book and listening to the sound of the waves. What more could you wish for?

What to do in the area?
St. Pete Beach is approximately 17 km west of St. Petersburg (we can’t get used to the name either), about 23 km south of Clearwater and 48 km southwest of Tampa. We only had 1 day for attractions other than the beach, but I had a lot of places on my list of places worth visiting.

In St. Petersburg there are, among others Salvador Dali Museum and Great Explorations Children’s Museum. Considering that we were at the Dali Museum in Spain this summer, we skipped it this time, but maybe some of you will be interested.

We went to Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo (between St. Petersburg and Clearwater) and we loved it. The Botanical Garden is free and very large. There is also Heritage Village (which is some kind of open-air museum), but it was closed at the moment. In the garden, we managed to spot one large alligator and probably 8 small ones swimming in the pond. It’s more than we’ve seen in the Everglades! Plus turtles, fish and birds. Great walk for us!

Another attraction we managed to visit is the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. Despite the fact that we have already been to similar places, our children were again delighted with the possibility of seeing fish, jellyfish, sharks, rays, alligators, birds, etc. Adam fell in love with otters and necessarily wanted a small plush otter in the souvenir shop (Gabriela chose a stingray). In addition to watching the animals, the Florida Aquarium features two 4D movies (a shortened version of “Happy Feet” and a documentary about the octopus) – we both enjoyed them very much. Besides, there is a very large and nice playground with fountains for hot days (there are changing rooms where you can change into your bathing suit). Gabi and Adam were not interested, but if you have younger children, you might use it 🙂
Both Tomasz and I think that the Singapore aquarium was much better, especially considering relation of the price to what you get, but the kids liked it very much.