Clearwater beach/Tampa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like the Sand Pearl more than Opal Sands. Both have access to the beach but Sand Pearl was more in the middle of things and seemed more kid-friendly. But both are great options.

Good to know thank you. Is it true that you have to walk across a parking lot with homeless people to get to the beach from opal sands? Read that in a review and it freaked me out a bit.

[Anonymous]

My inlaws live there Sandpearl is great! You can't go wrong with Clearwater beach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My inlaws live there Sandpearl is great! You can't go wrong with Clearwater beach.

Thank you,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have family in that area and were there for Thanksgiving. We wandered all around Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach etc. and everything was still a mess from the hurricanes. We had trouble finding a place that was open for a weekday lunch. Just FYI.

St. Pete is a beach town, a lot of the restaurants are seasonal.

If you went into St. Petersburg proper, there's a ton of stuff.

OP, Clearwater was great last year in mid April -- gorgeous beach weather and yes warm enough to swim. I don't care if it has a "middle class" vibe -- the white sand beaches there are some of the nicest in the US.

My parents live in Gulfport, and are friends with many business owners in St. Pete Beach. Lots of them aren't coming back. The restaurants aren't seasonal, they're year round because of so many snowbirds. Unfortunately, the entire island was swamped by Helene and now everyone is stuck in limbo with FEMA (as are a great many people in Pinellas County). Even if you manage to get a determination letter from FEMA so you can rebuild, the permitting process is incredibly backed up. No permit, no work. Can't reopen when you can't meet code.

A lot are just cutting their losses. Climate change is only making storms like Debbie and Helene and Milton more likely, and all three caused damage to the Tampa/St. Pete area in 2024. The risk just doesn't feel worth is to some people, so they are pulling out. The uncertainty around if they'll be able to rebuild and when they might be able to even start that work is also driving decisions about leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Split time between St Petersburg and Clearwater. Not much to do in Tampa.

Looks like the Don Cesar isn't opening back up until the end of March which makes me worried that St Pete isn't the best choice right now,

That's St Pete Beach - I live in St Pete the city and it is very much open

April should be beautiful weather, OP. I don't spend a lot of time in Clearwater, but if you're beach people you should have a good time. There is stuff to do for kids in Tampa - Busch Gardens, yes, also the zoo and the aquarium, among other things - if you want to go check things out. Only the aquarium is actually in downtown Tampa - it's in a fun little area where there are some restaurants and stuff.

There's the Clearwater aquarium, too - that's the one where Winter the dolphin lived. They suffered a lot of hurricane damage but they are open.

Thank you. Sounds like plenty to do for a week. Might try to go to a Rays game too.

They won't be playing at Tropicana Field - that was destroyed in the hurricane. But I think they're going to be at one of the minor league stadiums, that's in the area.

Yeah you won't get bored - there's tons to do in this area and April is usually a beautiful time to be here.

Thank you. I remembered seeing on the news that the roof was torn off and was impressed when I saw that they were playing. Just figured it was at Tropicana. Thanks for the intel.

The Rays are playing at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees Spring Training home, in Tampa this year. It's across the street from Raymond James Stadium.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have family in that area and were there for Thanksgiving. We wandered all around Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach etc. and everything was still a mess from the hurricanes. We had trouble finding a place that was open for a weekday lunch. Just FYI.

St. Pete is a beach town, a lot of the restaurants are seasonal.

If you went into St. Petersburg proper, there's a ton of stuff.

OP, Clearwater was great last year in mid April -- gorgeous beach weather and yes warm enough to swim. I don't care if it has a "middle class" vibe -- the white sand beaches there are some of the nicest in the US.

My parents live in Gulfport, and are friends with many business owners in St. Pete Beach. Lots of them aren't coming back. The restaurants aren't seasonal, they're year round because of so many snowbirds. Unfortunately, the entire island was swamped by Helene and now everyone is stuck in limbo with FEMA (as are a great many people in Pinellas County). Even if you manage to get a determination letter from FEMA so you can rebuild, the permitting process is incredibly backed up. No permit, no work. Can't reopen when you can't meet code.

A lot are just cutting their losses. Climate change is only making storms like Debbie and Helene and Milton more likely, and all three caused damage to the Tampa/St. Pete area in 2024. The risk just doesn't feel worth is to some people, so they are pulling out. The uncertainty around if they'll be able to rebuild and when they might be able to even start that work is also driving decisions about leaving.

This is really too bad. Are they relocating within Florida?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have family in that area and were there for Thanksgiving. We wandered all around Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach etc. and everything was still a mess from the hurricanes. We had trouble finding a place that was open for a weekday lunch. Just FYI.

St. Pete is a beach town, a lot of the restaurants are seasonal.

If you went into St. Petersburg proper, there's a ton of stuff.

OP, Clearwater was great last year in mid April -- gorgeous beach weather and yes warm enough to swim. I don't care if it has a "middle class" vibe -- the white sand beaches there are some of the nicest in the US.

My parents live in Gulfport, and are friends with many business owners in St. Pete Beach. Lots of them aren't coming back. The restaurants aren't seasonal, they're year round because of so many snowbirds. Unfortunately, the entire island was swamped by Helene and now everyone is stuck in limbo with FEMA (as are a great many people in Pinellas County). Even if you manage to get a determination letter from FEMA so you can rebuild, the permitting process is incredibly backed up. No permit, no work. Can't reopen when you can't meet code.

A lot are just cutting their losses. Climate change is only making storms like Debbie and Helene and Milton more likely, and all three caused damage to the Tampa/St. Pete area in 2024. The risk just doesn't feel worth is to some people, so they are pulling out. The uncertainty around if they'll be able to rebuild and when they might be able to even start that work is also driving decisions about leaving.

A lot in Gulfport is closed but a lot is open.

And in any case, April would be in-season for any tourist business. Things that are seasonal may close down in May or June until Oct or Nov - they won't be closed in April.

It's been a hard stretch in Florida. We had red tide, then COVID, then hurricanes and more hurricanes. I don't blame anyone deciding they don't want to live here anymore. If we were picking a place to move to today, we probably wouldn't choose Florida, either - we moved from DC about 10 years ago - in part because of all that and in part because the politics has gotten so much more extreme. (Though that's the case across America, I guess.)

But we're here. And we still really enjoy ourselves here. Today it's going to be 70 degrees. And if OP wants to come be a tourist in April, she'll probably have a good time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have family in that area and were there for Thanksgiving. We wandered all around Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach etc. and everything was still a mess from the hurricanes. We had trouble finding a place that was open for a weekday lunch. Just FYI.

St. Pete is a beach town, a lot of the restaurants are seasonal.

If you went into St. Petersburg proper, there's a ton of stuff.

OP, Clearwater was great last year in mid April -- gorgeous beach weather and yes warm enough to swim. I don't care if it has a "middle class" vibe -- the white sand beaches there are some of the nicest in the US.

My parents live in Gulfport, and are friends with many business owners in St. Pete Beach. Lots of them aren't coming back. The restaurants aren't seasonal, they're year round because of so many snowbirds. Unfortunately, the entire island was swamped by Helene and now everyone is stuck in limbo with FEMA (as are a great many people in Pinellas County). Even if you manage to get a determination letter from FEMA so you can rebuild, the permitting process is incredibly backed up. No permit, no work. Can't reopen when you can't meet code.

A lot are just cutting their losses. Climate change is only making storms like Debbie and Helene and Milton more likely, and all three caused damage to the Tampa/St. Pete area in 2024. The risk just doesn't feel worth is to some people, so they are pulling out. The uncertainty around if they'll be able to rebuild and when they might be able to even start that work is also driving decisions about leaving.

This is really too bad. Are they relocating within Florida?

Some are, some aren't. My parents are staying for now, but they're in limbo. Entirely possible that they are going to be told that they must raise their house, in which case they will almost certainly have to relocate--the whole point was single floor living with no more than 3 steps from ground level to the front door, nor do they wish to put in $300k+ worth of work to raise a house when they are both over 70. Whether they would go further inland in Pinellas County, elsewhere in Florida (extremely unlikely), or to another state entirely is TBD.

I know one business owner on Treasure Island who initially got flooded out during Debbie and is "temporarily" in Seminole. The damage from Helene, and the risk of getting flooded again, has them strongly leaning towards staying in Seminole. Another decided to cut their losses and move to Iowa to be near their grandchildren.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have family in that area and were there for Thanksgiving. We wandered all around Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach etc. and everything was still a mess from the hurricanes. We had trouble finding a place that was open for a weekday lunch. Just FYI.

St. Pete is a beach town, a lot of the restaurants are seasonal.

If you went into St. Petersburg proper, there's a ton of stuff.

OP, Clearwater was great last year in mid April -- gorgeous beach weather and yes warm enough to swim. I don't care if it has a "middle class" vibe -- the white sand beaches there are some of the nicest in the US.

My parents live in Gulfport, and are friends with many business owners in St. Pete Beach. Lots of them aren't coming back. The restaurants aren't seasonal, they're year round because of so many snowbirds. Unfortunately, the entire island was swamped by Helene and now everyone is stuck in limbo with FEMA (as are a great many people in Pinellas County). Even if you manage to get a determination letter from FEMA so you can rebuild, the permitting process is incredibly backed up. No permit, no work. Can't reopen when you can't meet code.

A lot are just cutting their losses. Climate change is only making storms like Debbie and Helene and Milton more likely, and all three caused damage to the Tampa/St. Pete area in 2024. The risk just doesn't feel worth is to some people, so they are pulling out. The uncertainty around if they'll be able to rebuild and when they might be able to even start that work is also driving decisions about leaving.

This is really too bad. Are they relocating within Florida?

Some are, some aren't. My parents are staying for now, but they're in limbo. Entirely possible that they are going to be told that they must raise their house, in which case they will almost certainly have to relocate--the whole point was single floor living with no more than 3 steps from ground level to the front door, nor do they wish to put in $300k+ worth of work to raise a house when they are both over 70. Whether they would go further inland in Pinellas County, elsewhere in Florida (extremely unlikely), or to another state entirely is TBD.

I know one business owner on Treasure Island who initially got flooded out during Debbie and is "temporarily" in Seminole. The damage from Helene, and the risk of getting flooded again, has them strongly leaning towards staying in Seminole. Another decided to cut their losses and move to Iowa to be near their grandchildren.

So sad. It's a beautiful area.