Hi lovelies, so this May I went to Florida with my beautiful family as you might have seen some snippets from my Instagram stories and the vlog is coming soon as well. We rented a small 2 bedroom house with a full kitchen and I did talk about my Airbnb experience (things to be aware of) as well in my vlog. First of all, Tampa is known for its beautiful beaches, so if you are not a beach person just like my sister, you’re going to be very disappointed. Yes, I am a very beachy person (is it even a word?) so I love Tampa.
Overall it was such a relaxing family trip. So the breakdown of our 10 days can give you some ideas of what to do in Tampa. Here I take you with me for the 10 days Tampa trip……
Day 1: First day we landed in Tampa by car after a 16 hrs ride literally at 1 am in the morning. I put Eda to sleep right away and then I put my things in place and we all went to sleep around 3 am. The next morning after breakfast we walked around the Pinellas Park area where we were staying just to make sure the site is good enough to walk at night, so it passed out vibe check.
Day 2: We drove around the second day and went to the mosque of Tampa Bay for the prayer and then on our way back we went to Gandy Beach. It probably wasn’t a proper beach like Clearwater but it was a such nice private-looking beach. It’s interesting I’ve been to Tampa before but, I never thought of seeing this beach. We spent the remaining of the day at the beach. Just to let you guys know the best time to be at the beach is after 3 pm or before noon so anytime from morning to 10 am or anytime after the sun’s peak hours passed from noon till 3 pm. If you don’t mind being badly burnt out or tanned to the point where your skin hurts then anytime is better. I’m one of the crazy ones so I can be at the beach anytime but being a mom now I go to the beach according to the weather to protect my infant’s eyes and skin.
Day 3: We went to walk around and later went to Tampa Aquarium. If you have a child, you must take them to the aquarium. Edanur was 6 months old when we went there but still, she really enjoyed looking around the fish. We didn’t do anything else that day because we waited to be part of the dolphin boat tour and later got to know that boats were working during the Pandemic.
Day 4: We went to the beach again…what a surprise. First, we walked on Gandy beach because it was like 4 miles away from our Airbnb stay then later in the evening we went to Hawks Bay Beach which was like another 5 to 7 miles away from Gandy Beach in the same line towards the north. I bought Edanur the cutest rash guard swimsuit in blue color. She was obsessed with the beach.
Day 5: We went to walk around Tampa University. It was the hotel at one point turned into a university. It is definitely a must-see place other than a beach. Outside the university, they had a beautiful canal where boats were going around. I saw some couples who came there to get married. We spent most of our day there and came back home by sunset.
Day 6: We literally stayed home because we were exhausted so in the evening we just went to Walmart and I got some chicken and sunscreen for Edanur. I would share with you guys some nontoxic sunscreen options for the kids. In the evening we went to the Lebanese restaurant known as Lebanese Taverna. The food was fine but really small portion sizes. I notice that more and more restaurants are doing this during pandemics. Anyways we came back by 7 pm because even on holidays I don’t mess up Edanur’s sleep routine. Every night she went to sleep around 8.30 pm so we kept our schedule around her time.
Day 7: We went to Clearwater the show stopper finally. We spent there obviously all day. It was super duper crowded. One piece of advice I’d give go to the Clearwater on weekdays if you are there for a while because the weekend
Day 8: Erol wasn’t off from work so he stayed back and I, Aliza, and mom drove to Saint Petersburg Beach. Saint Pete Beach was like 20 min away from the Pinellas Park area, so that place I’d highly recommend if you want to be in the center and at the same time wants to stay within the budget. Anyways the beach was so calm and the weather was beautiful. I collected shells as usual and Edanur sat on my mom’s lap enjoying looking at us. Call me crazy but I thought Saint Petersburg Beach was better than Clearwater. Calm, pristine, low tide and I could swim far. Aliza enjoyed it too even though she is not a beach person. The best part was the weather was great. lightly windy and clear blue sky. We drove back home in about 3 hours.
Day 9: We went to Clearwater again and did the boardwalk and bought some snacks. Me being a healthy eater and picky eater at the same time hardly enjoys food outside so I just took some popcorn and coconut water. Later we went on a dolphin sightseeing boat tour. Edanur loved the windy weather but as the day passed she started hiding in me lol. Funny enough we didn’t see many dolphins as it was their feeding time, so another piece of advice, go to the boat tours early not like 7 pm. I did some Vlogging at the boat so will add the clips. It was quite noisy there and alcohol-free if you’d like to take kids.
Day 10: We drove back home at 6 am in the morning and I took photos of the sunrise. We were a little sad going back home but it was so much fun. We got home at literally 4 am in the morning because we stopped everywhere for 10 to 20 min. There was this beautiful outside shop set up in North Carolina and we stopped there for a good one hour. We were exhausted and went to sleep at 5 am in the morning
