Tampa: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
In 1886 the Spanish-born cigar maker Vicente Martínez Ybor moved his factory to a patch of scrub east of Tampa, and Cuban, Spanish and Italian workers followed. Within a few decades the district was rolling cigars by the hundreds of millions a year, and every community built its own club with a hospital, a theatre and a café. This walk follows that immigrant world through a few blocks of Ybor. About two and a half hours, flat; go in the morning, when Seventh Avenue is quiet and the bakeries are full.
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A short history of Tampa
Before the Europeans arrived, the Tocobaga people lived on the shores of the bay. In 1824 the US Army built Fort Brooke, and a small village grew up around it. The big change came in the 1880s: in 1884 Henry Plant's railway reached the town, and in 1886 Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his cigar factories here, and the Ybor City district filled with immigrants from Cuba, Spain and Italy. In 1898 American forces sailed from Tampa for the war in Cuba. Plant's Tampa Bay Hotel of 1891 is now used by the university.
The ten best sights in Tampa
1Ybor CityThe old cigar quarter: brick factories, iron balconies and Seventh Avenue's bars; mind the wild chickens
2Ybor City Museum State ParkStart here: the cigar story and a restored workers' cottage, an hour
3Columbia RestaurantFlorida's oldest restaurant fills a whole block; even without a meal, walk through the tiled rooms
4José Martí ParkA small park that belongs to Cuba, on the site where Martí stayed in Ybor
5Centro AsturianoGrand clubhouse of the Asturian immigrants; see it from the street
6The Italian ClubThe Sicilian cigar workers' club on Seventh Avenue, still used for events
7Tampa Bay History CenterSteps from the cruise terminals; good for the last hours before boarding
8Henry B. Plant MuseumSilver minarets over the river; the 1891 hotel's rooms are inside the university
9Tampa TheatreA 1926 movie palace still showing films; check for a tour or a classic screening
10Tampa Museum of ArtGreek and Roman antiquities and modern art, on the Riverwalk
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Tampa →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Tampa:
Free walking tours in Tampa
Cigar City
In 1886 the Spanish-born cigar maker Vicente Martínez Ybor moved his factory to a patch of scrub east of Tampa, and Cuban, Spanish and Italian workers followed. Within a few decades the district was rolling cigars by the hundreds of millions a year, and every community built its own club with a hospital, a theatre and a café. This walk follows that immigrant world through a few blocks of Ybor. About two and a half hours, flat; go in the morning, when Seventh Avenue is quiet and the bakeries are full.
- Ybor City Museum State Park · In the factories a lector sat on a raised platform and read newspapers and novels aloud to the rollers, paid by the workers themselves. The owners did away with the readers after a strike in 1931, and the museum tells the story beside a row of restored workers' cottages.
- José Martí Park · José Martí came to Ybor in the early 1890s to raise money and men for Cuban independence, and stayed at a boarding house run by Paulina Pedroso, an Afro-Cuban patriot, on this spot. The land was later given to Cuba, and the little park is still Cuban state property.
- Centro Asturiano · Immigrants from Asturias in northern Spain founded the society in 1902, and members' dues paid for doctors and a hospital of their own — an early form of health insurance. The present building, with its theatre and ballroom, dates from 1914.
- The Italian Club · Most of Ybor's Italians came from a few villages in Sicily, and their mutual-aid society, L'Unione Italiana, put up this building on Seventh Avenue in 1918. Members got medical care, a library and a cemetery of their own.
- Columbia Restaurant · Casimiro Hernández Sr. opened it in 1905 as a corner café for cigar workers, and it is now the oldest restaurant in Florida, run by the same family. It grew room by room until it filled the whole block, and flamenco is danced in the main hall most evenings.
- La Segunda Bakery · Juan Moré opened the bakery in 1915, and it still bakes Cuban bread the old way: a strip of wet palmetto leaf is laid along each loaf before it goes into the oven, leaving the split down the top. Much of the bread for Tampa's Cuban sandwiches comes from here.
Plant's railroad town
Tampa was a small fever-ridden port until 1884, when Henry B. Plant brought his railroad down to the bay. Trains, steamships and a fantastical hotel followed, and downtown grew along the Hillsborough River. This route walks from the station across the river to the hotel, and back along the Riverwalk to a meal in an old waterworks. About three hours with a museum; the Riverwalk is shaded in places, and the streetcar covers the start.
- Tampa Union Station · Opened in 1912, the station served the three railroads that then reached Tampa, under one roof. It closed in the 1980s and was restored, and Amtrak trains still stop here.
- Tampa Theatre · John Eberson designed it in 1926 as an 'atmospheric' theatre: the ceiling is painted as a night sky, with twinkling stars over a Mediterranean courtyard. A Wurlitzer organ still rises to play before many screenings.
- Tampa Museum of Art · The museum holds one of the largest collections of Greek and Roman antiquities in the south-east of the United States. Its building, opened in 2010, is wrapped in perforated aluminium that lights up in changing colours after dark.
- Henry B. Plant Museum · Plant opened the Tampa Bay Hotel in 1891 to fill his trains, with Moorish minarets and electric light in every room. In 1898 it was headquarters for the army gathering for the war in Cuba, Theodore Roosevelt among the officers; since 1933 the building has been the University of Tampa.
- Armature Works · The brick hall was built around 1910 as the maintenance barn for Tampa's electric streetcars, where their motors — the armatures — were repaired. After decades empty it reopened in 2017 as a food hall.
- Ulele · The restaurant fills the city's 1903 water works building, beside a spring that once supplied Tampa. It is named after a native girl of local legend who is said to have saved the Spaniard Juan Ortiz from execution in the 16th century.
The bay before sailing
Tampa Bay is a wide shallow estuary, and the day before a cruise is a good time to see it from both shores. This route starts at the piers, follows Bayshore Boulevard and crosses to St Petersburg for two serious museums, ending at the beaches of Fort De Soto at the mouth of the bay. It needs a car and most of a day, about 100 km in all. Watch the time on the way back; the bridges jam at rush hour.
- Florida Aquarium · Opened in 1995 on the Channelside waterfront, it was one of the first projects that turned the old port warehouses into a visitor district. Its coral reef tank is a copy of the reefs off the Florida Keys.
- Tampa Bay History Center · Its map gallery holds one of the largest collections of Florida maps, from the first Spanish charts of the coast onwards. Upstairs a full-size pirate ship tells the story of the Gulf's real privateers.
- Bayshore Boulevard · Every January the Gasparilla festival, held since 1904, sends a pirate ship into the bay to 'invade' the city, followed by a parade of krewes down this boulevard. The legend of the pirate José Gaspar behind it has no historical evidence at all.
- Florida Holocaust Museum · It was founded by Walter Loebenberg, who escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager and later settled in St Petersburg. The centrepiece is an original railway boxcar of the kind used for deportations to the camps.
- The Dalí Museum · The collection began with Reynolds and Eleanor Morse, an Ohio couple who bought their first Dalí in 1943 and became friends with the painter. It is the largest Dalí collection outside Spain, in a building of 2011 with a free-form glass bubble bursting out of its concrete walls.
- Fort De Soto Park · The fort on Mullet Key was built around 1898–1900 to guard the entrance to Tampa Bay during the Spanish-American War. Its heavy 12-inch seacoast mortars are still in their pits, a short walk from the beach.
Getting to Tampa and getting around
- Port Tampa Bay Cruise Terminals · A cruise departure port: ships for the Caribbean and Mexico leave from the terminals on Channelside Drive, beside the aquarium. From Ybor the free TECO streetcar runs down to Channelside; with luggage a taxi takes about ten minutes. Check whether your line uses Terminal 2, 3 or 6
- TECO Line Streetcar · Free vintage-style streetcar linking Ybor, Channelside and downtown — the easy way to the ships
- Tampa International Airport · About 20 minutes to the cruise piers without traffic; many passengers fly in the day before
Cheap eats in Tampa
Tampa eats the food of its cigar workers: Cuban bread, black beans and rice, roast pork and strong sweet coffee, with an Italian touch from the Sicilians of Ybor. The local Cuban sandwich is a matter of civic pride, and the deviled crab is the snack nobody outside Tampa knows. Seafood comes from the Gulf, grouper above all, often as a fried grouper sandwich.
- La Segunda Bakery · Cuban bread, pastries and café con leche, about $3-10
- Carmine's · Cuban sandwiches and deviled crab on Seventh Avenue, about $10-16
- King Corona Cigars · Cuban coffee and a pastry in a cigar café, about $3-8
- La Teresita · Cuban cafeteria counter in West Tampa, a full plate about $10-15
- Wright's Gourmet House · Big sandwiches and cakes in South Tampa, about $12-16
Museums in Tampa
- Ybor City Museum State Park · Cigar history in an old bakery, with workers' cottages
- Tampa Bay History Center · Maps, pirates and the Cuban story, by the cruise piers
- Henry B. Plant Museum · Gilded Age hotel rooms under the minarets
- Tampa Museum of Art · Antiquities and modern art on the river
- Florida Museum of Photographic Arts · Photography exhibitions in Ybor; small, an hour
- Florida Holocaust Museum · Survivors' testimony and a deportation boxcar, St Petersburg
Nature and day trips near Tampa
- Fort De Soto Park · Beaches, kayaking and the old fort, an hour away
- Clearwater Beach · Fine white sand and a sunset pier, 45 minutes west
- Hillsborough River State Park · Shaded trails and small rapids, 40 minutes north-east
- Bayshore Boulevard · Bay views and dolphins at dawn, a few minutes from downtown
- Tampa Riverwalk · Waterside walk, with manatees sometimes in the river in winter
Things to do in Tampa with kids
- Florida Aquarium · Sharks, penguins and a splash pad, next to the ships
- Busch Gardens · Coasters and a safari truck ride; a full day
- ZooTampa at Lowry Park · Manatees and Florida wildlife, smaller and calmer than Busch
- Glazer Children's Museum · Hands-on play for small children, on the river
Where to eat in Tampa
- Columbia Restaurant · Spanish-Cuban dinner and a flamenco show; book ahead
- Ulele · Florida-native cooking in the old water works, by the river
- Kojak's House of Ribs · Barbecue ribs on a porch in South Tampa
- Cigar City Brewing · Tampa's best-known brewery and taproom
- Armature Works · Food hall with many counters, open late
Frequently asked questions about Tampa
What is there to see in Tampa?
The top sights in Tampa are Ybor City, Ybor City Museum State Park and Columbia Restaurant. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Tampa?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Tampa without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Tampa?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Tampa, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Cigar City.
How do you get to Tampa and get around?
The main ways are Port Tampa Bay Cruise Terminals, TECO Line Streetcar and Tampa International Airport. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Tampa, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Tampa that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Tampa for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.