Belleview Biltmore Resort, Golf Club, Spa & Beach Club (Clearwater Beach) and City of Tampa Information
The thriving west coast city of Tampa is out to prove that not all the action in the warmly welcoming southern state of Florida happens at Miami Beach or Cape Canaveral. At the heart of its revitalisation is Ybor City, the historic heart of the old cigar industry.

Tampa is also living testimony to the fact that not every Floridian has an incurable predilection for Gloria Estefan and a sartorial insensibility that teams B-Grade actors, five-o'clock-shadows and pastel jackets with rolled-up sleeves. Miami Vice, you have a lot to answer for.

While it's true that Tampa, in combination with nearby St Petersburg, is energetically promoting the sundry pleasures of holidaying off the annoyingly pleasant Gulf of Mexico, it's also attempting to throw off the big-haired, buffed-bod, rollerblading stereotype that sticks like fake tan to any city south of the 30° parallel.

Orientation

Thrusting out towards Cuba from the southeastern corner of the USA is the fat little peninsula that the majority of the state of Florida calls home. Strung out along the peninsula's east coast are prominent Florida sites like Cape Canaveral, Walt Disney World and the garish pastels of Miami's art deco architecture. Refreshingly, the western side of the peninsula is a far less trammeled and fashion-conscious stretch of coastline. About halfway along the west coast are the sheltered confines of Tampa Bay, on the northern shore of which is its urban namesake.

Tampa's highway-threaded downtown area is mainly on the eastern bank of the sizeable Hillsborough River. Making up the rest of the main local watercourses are Garrison Channel, which is the southern boundary of the downtown area, and Ybor Channel, which skirts the inner city 1km (0.6mi) to the east. Franklin St, which runs north-south, is a pedestrian mall for most of its length. Lying in Tampa's northeast is the distinctive Ybor City district, once the hub of the country's cigar industry and now the hub of Tampa's nightlife.

Tampa International Airport is located 21km (13mi) west of downtown, while the city's Greyhound bus terminal is on Polk St - just east of Franklin St - and the local Amtrak train station is further east on Nebraska Ave.

When to Go

The best weather and the greatest crowds occur from December until May, when temperatures average between 60°F and 80°F (15°C and 27°C), rainfall is slight and communal spirits are high. From June to September, soaring heat and pouring rain combine to create one huge open air humidor, a dramatically clammy and unpleasant atmosphere in which ferocious thunderstorms are frequent early-afternoon visitors.

This is also part of Florida's hurricane season which officially runs from June through November. The season regularly passes without catastrophic incident but as recently as a decade ago, a category-4 hurricane (innocuously and rather deceptively called Andrew), generating winds of up to 155mph (250kmph) and ocean surges over 18ft(5.5m)-high, passed through Florida on its way to becoming the most expensive natural disaster in US history. Oh, and did we mention that Florida has about 70 types of blood-sucking mosquitos? The only real reason for considering an extended visit at the peak of summer is that many other tourists will seriously consider staying away.

Busch Gardens

Competing with Walt Disney World to empty the wallets of Floridian fun park aficionados is Busch Gardens, an African-themed exercise in big-budget amusement that's located on its own boulevard about 5km (3mi) north of downtown Tampa. Busch is equipped with a number of rides designed to scare the crap out of you and everyone in your immediate vicinity.

Rides include an inverted roller coaster called Montu that has a 31m/104ft- vertical loop and another coaster (Kumba) with a 360° spiral and an endless supply of loop-n-puke twists. The park also has a mock Egyptian area that would make King Tut weep with nostalgia, a landscaped domain stocked with gorillas and chimps, and an 32ha (80ac) imitation of the Serengeti that's inhabited by lions, zebras, giraffes, camels and other large mammals. Next door to Busch Gardens is Adventure Island, a 14ha (36ac) water park with various slide rides, swimming pools and waterfalls.

Florida Aquarium
The wonderful three-storey Florida Aquarium's thematic exhibits range from a wetlands recreation - complete with limestone cave, mist-topped water, mangroves and resident turtles (plus some alligator spawn) - to an indoor dune-studded beach and a coral reef that's held prisoner in a very large tank.

With its coral-littered interior, fish-starred waters, and staff divers that take turns cataloguing the incredible display of sea life to a watching crowd via an intercom system, the colourful reef is a highlight of any visit to the aquarium.

Tampa Museum of Art
Down by the river in the heart of downtown is the huge home of the Tampa Museum of Art, which offers a satisfying selection of art, sculpture and photography, including the work of up-and-coming Florida artists.

Stand-out exhibits include a glassed-in terrace (where avant-garde sculptures pose dramatically with the Hillsborough River as their scenic backdrop) and a gallery of Grecian and Roman antiques, which includes a collection of old lamps, vases and trophies plucked from a 2nd-century grave altar. The museum also has a well-stocked book and souvenir shop.

Clearwater Beach
White-sand beaches, fresh seafood, and a short ride to Tampa and St Petersburg will help you see through the overdevelopment of beachfront cookie-cutter hotels. If you can live with days of kayaking, shelling, bicycling and broiling yourself on the beach then this is clearly the place for you.

On a barrier island directly north of Long Key - barrier islands are the natural buttresses lying along the coast - is Clearwater Beach, a fine spot for swimming and sunbaking, not to mention canoeing, kayaking, cycling and shell-collecting.

Hillsborough State Park
Accessible only by car, this popular park is spread out over 3400ac (1360ha) on a spot 9mi (14.5km) to the north of Tampa and makes a refreshing changes from the commercial artifice of the area's theme parks. Here you can accompany a ranger on educational walks around the greener; rent a canoe and plough along the docile Hillsborough River; randomly select a hiking trail; feed yourself over a picnic table; or plunge into the onsite swimming pool. To see a bit of pseudo-history, fork out a buck to take a self-guided tour of a reconstruction of Fort Foster. The original structure was erected in 1836 to help defend a river crossing during the Second Seminole War.

Salvador Dali Museum
In St Petersburg itself is the largest collection, outside of Spain, of Dalís distinctive creative weirdness. The connection between the well-moustachioed surrealist and this southwestern Florida city is...fish. You can gawk at works representing every period of the artist's development from his early Impressionism and Cubism, through to the surrealism for which he's best known. Marvel along the way at the inspired lunacy (or arguably just plain idiocy) of canvas titles such as The Hallucinogenic Toreador, or the infectious disease-sounding Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid. The museum has a total collection of nearly 100 of Dalí's oil paintings.

St. Pete Beach
On the St Petersburg-occupied side of Tampa Bay, at the southern end of the low wafer-thin island of Long Key wrapped around the city's Gulf coast, are the enticingly blue waters and expansively white sands of St Pete Beach. It's a popular day trip from Tampa's metropolitan neighbour, St Petersburg.

Dominating part of the foreshore is the big pink outline of the Don CeSar Beach Resort, built in 1928 and a regular stopover for well-mannered society types like F Scott Fitzgerald and Al Capone. It was completely restored in the late 1980s and recommenced its career as a resort hotel shortly after

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