All direct flights to Tampa St. Petersburg from the UK & Ireland

Destination Summary

Having almost doubled its number of residents in the last 25 years, this diverse and likeable city is fast building a reputation as a Florida hotspot to match its burgeoning population. Nowhere is Tampa's transformation more clearly demonstrated than its historic Ybor City district. Traditionally made up of a variety of nationalities from around the world, the city authorities have embraced this cultural diversity by cleaning up this once rundown Cuban neighbourhood and home to the local cigar industry. The result is one of the liveliest and most colourful parts of the city, and undoubtedly the best place in Tampa to spend a Friday or Saturday night. The rest of the city has benefited from this boom of innovation too, the modern downtown area having sprung up towards the end of the last century, along with a gleaming new convention centre and the St Pete Times Forum sports arena, home to the NHL ice hockey team Tampa Bay Lightning. American football has been going well down here of late too, with Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer's Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl in 2002. Tampa is also home to the Florida Aquarium, an impressive collection of over 20,000 aquatic plants and animals from Florida and around the world, and the popular Busch Gardens Africa amusement park, which offers some thrilling rollercoaster rides and an extensive zoo complex. Tampa isn't quite a coastal town, but it's only a short car journey westwards to the nearby Gulf Coast beaches at Clearwater and St Petersburg, both of which offer crystal clear waters and a taste of the holiday atmosphere that Florida is so famous for. What's more, its central location provides easy access to all the key Florida sites, such as Orlando's Disney World to the east or Miami and the Everglades to the south.