Takin’ Our Time in Tampa

Tampa Bay area-St Petersburg, Florida

Thursday, April 11, 2024 – Sunday, April 14, 2024

Written June 24, 2025

A Little Bit of Background

Originally, our trip to Tampa was scheduled for April 2020, the flight and hotel were already booked, and loose plans to visit with a childhood friend. It was postponed due to the pandemic. It was also in early 2020 that I began planning a long weekend trip in early Spring each year with the intent of visiting an additional baseball stadium each year or at least one new stadium a year. A lot of trips happened between 2020 and 2024, but I finally re-scheduled a short visit to Tampa.

We’ve been to Florida several times, both separately and together, and are familiar with driving and flying from NYC. Although we hadn’t been to the Tampa area, I tried to keep this trip inexpensive, as I expect we’d be back if we enjoyed ourselves. To start with, I wanted to find inexpensive flights. Frontier airlines had reasonable prices to and from MacArthur Airport in West Islip, NY. Flying out of MacArthur Airport in Islip worked better for us. Being one of the smaller airports in the area, it is less chaotic than the city airports, the drive to get there is easy, and the parking lot is reasonably close to the terminals. With the flight to Tampa a little over 3 hours, our travel days wouldn’t be long. Unfortunately, our 7:15AM flight to NY on Sunday wasn’t the best, but at least we’d be home early enough to eat breakfast at home! (Always look at the bright side, right? Hehe!)

Slight Delay!

Our flight to Tampa was at 11:05AM and we arrived in plenty of time to check our bags and get through security. While waiting at the gate, we were told that the plane was delayed. What wasn’t clear to us was how long the plane was delayed. Approximately 20 minutes after our take off time, I received an email that the flight was delayed until 3:46PM. Well, now THAT’s a delay. It was sad that we didn’t hear the announcement from the terminal, but at least for us we could easily recover from this. We had no defined plans for the day of arrival in Tampa. Our car was in the parking lot. It sucked that we needed to pay a parking fee for the time we were waiting, but at least we didn’t have to stick around or find public transportation to somewhere else for several hours. So, we went home. Ate lunch, watched T.V., and returned to the airport for our late afternoon flight.

Photo 1: Giant flamingo sculpture inside Tampa International Airport

Photo 2: Dolphin sculpture over the escalator inside Tampa International Airport

Dinner in Tampa

The rest of the day went without a hitch; we arrived in the Tampa Bay area a little after 8:00PM on Thursday night. Tampa International airport was easy to navigate; luggage retrieval from the carousel was painless as was obtaining our Hertz rental car. We left the airport within an hour. As I mentioned earlier, we were unfamiliar with Tampa, but leaving the airport and arriving at the hotel was like 15-20 minutes. We stayed at Holiday Inn Express & Suites Tampa-Anderson It’s in Town N Country – a suburb of Tampa, but Tampa seems to be across the street. As we drove to the hotel, we saw that there was a mall across the street with several restaurants. Luckily, we were still able to go to one after we checked in and dropped our luggage in the room.

Pal Campo Restaurant was about 3 minutes away by car and right down the street from the hotel. They specialize in Puerto Rican food which was something new for us to try. It was just about 9:00PM, which made me feel bad for entering for dinner an hour before closing. My concerns were that we’d be keeping the staff late and away from the chores they usually completed between 9 and 10PM. As we walked to the back of the restaurant to our booth, I noticed that there was still another table that had just been served their meals. I was relieved that we weren’t the only patrons. The walk also gave me the opportunity to peek around at the tables and decorations.

When our waiter arrived, we had only partially decided on what to order, sangria and mofongo as an appetizer instead of a main course. We asked the waiter what he recommended, but he said he liked everything! LOL! ! He suggested that we get our sangria in their plastic souvenir cups, so we did. He put in the first part of our order and gave us more time to look at the menu. When he returned, we ordered the grilled pork chop and the skirt steak. We’d sample from each plate, so we’d have a better experience. Every piece of food was amazing! We talked about returning for dinner for the rest of our time in Tampa.

Photo 1: Pal Campo building in Tampa, FL

Photo 2: Outside Pal Campo in Tampa, FL

Photo 3: Souvenir cup (plastic) from Pal Campo

A Leisurely Day

Since we had a busier travel day than expected, and no reserved plans for the day, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and drove over to J.C. Newman Cigar Co. cigar factory. It’s the last active cigar factory in Ybor City, which is a historic neighborhood in Northeast Tampa. The building and interior are so classy. There is a free museum to walk around in, and a media area to watch clips and reels about the cigar industry and its growth and history in Tampa (also free) and a gift shop. They offer guided tours too, which can include learning how to roll cigars, if that’s something you are interested in. We walked through the museum on our own and settled in on a bench upstairs to watch some of the reels in the media area. It was a leisurely afternoon, it wasn’t crowded, but there were visitors milling around in and out of the building. We ended our visit at the gift shop, where we met a local NY’er who was working there. He was about our age and from an area not far from where we grew up, so it was fun to catch up with him. My partner, although not a cigar smoker, bought some cigars for his co-workers who are. He also bought magnets for us.

For lunch, we headed to Goody Goody Burger. It’s a diner in Hyde Park Village (South Tampa). Referred to as “Goody’s” by the locals; the name has been familiar with Tampa natives for close to a century! While there we had their famous P.O.X, burger with cheese (pickles, onion and super-secret sauce), but we skipped the butterscotch pie because we were stuffed! The diner itself was like stepping back into what I think the 1950’s malt shops might have looked like. There was plenty of counter space seating with several tables scattered on the outer part of the restaurant for larger parties. (author’s note: this Goody Goody Burger has closed, but you can still sample their burgers and pies at Tampa international airport and Columbia Café on Water Street).

Photo 1: Media room at J.C. Newman Cigar Co.

Photo 2: Ladie's room at J.C. Newman Cigar Co. (I love the style!) (no one was in there, I swear!)

Photo 3: Inside Goody Goody Burger

Dinner Time!

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Target for some bottled water and snacks for the hotel room. A few hours later, we were back on the road to pick up dinner.

For dinner, we drove a little further into Tampa to the Flan Factory. Listed as a Cuban eatery, we weren’t sure what to expect in so far as staying there to eat. So, we planned to pick up our meals and return to the hotel room to eat. Using the online app, my partner ordered two Cuban sandwiches (I’d never had a Cuban sandwich) and two orders of flavored flan, one Café con Leche and one salted caramel. Can we BE more touristy? Seriously though, they are known for having several flavors of flan. We couldn’t pass up flan!

Flan Factory was approximately a 30-minute drive from the hotel (not that we had anywhere to be), it was nice to have a purpose to visit other parts of Tampa. The parking lot was an unpaved lot of grass, dirt, and gravel and was located behind the restaurant. We stashed our rental there for the few minutes we went inside to pick up our order. The dining room was very intimate and busy. I think our plans to drive back to the hotel worked out best for us. Especially since I’d be driving after dark if we stayed.

An Afternoon in St. Petersburg

This day was dedicated to St. Petersburg, which is about 20 miles southwest of Tampa. We left the hotel a little before noon and drove to La Segunda Bakery and Café for lunch. Known for their Cuban bread we were both excited to try it. Additionally, as a business that has been run by the same family for 4 generations over the past 100 years, La Segunda piqued my curiosity. Considering it as as one of the historic places to visit. There are four locations in total, this one was in the corner of a strip mall with parking behind the stores. Walking into the eatery, the first thing I noticed was how open and airy it was. I told my partner what I wanted, and he ordered at the counter while I snagged us a table. To take full advantage of the bread, we both ordered Cuban sandwiches. Yes, again! I also asked for a guava turnover. It was all too much for me to eat, but I really enjoyed the sandwich and trying a guava turnover for the first time. I’d go back to eat there for sure. Plus, they listed a muffaletta sandwich which I’d love to try.

After lunch, we headed over to St. Petersburg’s Pier. The area near the parking lot was very congested and I was saddened and surprised that I was unable to find parking in or near it. My hope was to have some time to ride the Downtown Looper trolley and see some of the neighborhood as well as walk along the pier.  We did find parking along the street that was near a trolley stop, but the trolley stop seemed to be no longer operational. A wandering person asked us if we needed help and directed us to another stop, a few blocks away. We thanked him and followed his directions, but when we arrived, we waited there with several people for approximately 30 minutes without a trolley in sight. I was getting deflated from our plans being thwarted. By 2:00PM, I felt we wouldn’t be able to complete the trolley ride and get to the game on time. So, we walked back to the car, and drove to the baseball stadium, arriving about 90 minutes early.

Photo 1: Inside La Segunda Bakery and Cafe in St. Petersburg, Florida

Photo 2: Cuban sandwich from La Segunda Bakery and Cafe in St. Petersburg, Florida

Photo 3: Ponce de Leon hotel - 100 year old building

The rest of our St. Peterburg afternoon was taking in the sights and sounds of the Rays game. (The Tropicana Experience).

Last Few Hours

After the game we stopped back at the hotel to decide how to play out what time we had left on our trip. Pal Campo was packed, but we did take a couple of photos since we missed our opportunity to do so when we visited the first time. We then headed over to Tampa Joe’s for a light dinner. Tampa Joe’s was less than a mile away from the hotel, and in the same area as Pal Campo. To me it is similar to Applebee’s or TGI Fridays. We were seated in the bar area at a table; the place was upbeat with music playing and televisions showing different sporting events. As we waited for our food, we talked about all that we had seen over the past few days. It was a low-key trip, but sometimes that’s what you need. An opportunity to get out of your general routine and be somewhere else for a while.

Sunday morning arrived, and we were at the airport by 4:15AM. Our drive to the airport, rental car drop-off, and flight back to New York were unremarkable. Even the drive back home was quiet.

Things I learned from attending this trip: St. Petersburg Pier was mobbed on a Saturday afternoon. I had hoped there would be available parking somewhere, but the lot was filled. This was the one area the whole weekend that was overly populated. Maybe if we arrived in the morning or on a weekday our experience would have been different.

Things I keep in mind when organizing a trip for myself: Go back for more! Curious how the new stadium will be. More time in St. Petersburg, especially the pier. I’d also like another opportunity to ride the trolley. Spend time near the shore, even if it’s only for an afternoon or evening or meal. We drove by Mission Barbecue several times, maybe if we go back, we’ll have time to stop there for a meal.

Some information, such as baseball game information and directions were sought by using ChatGPT or Perplexity.  Blog title brainstorming too!

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