Tampa Guides
Tampa / Hillsborough County
The urban core and Hillsborough's suburbs, from the Riverwalk downtown out to the fast-growing eastern and northern suburbs.
Downtown Tampa
The urban core around a bend in the Hillsborough River: the 2.6-mile Tampa Riverwalk, the Water Street Tampa towers, and a fare-free streetcar out to Ybor City.
Davis Islands
An entirely man-made, bridge-connected peninsula built in the 1920s land boom -- Mediterranean Revival mansions, a municipal yacht basin, and one of the only in-city seaplane airports in the country.
Hyde Park
Tampa's premier historic streetcar-era neighborhood, built out from the 1880s -- brick streets, Bayshore Boulevard mansions, and the boutique Hyde Park Village shopping district.
Seminole Heights
Tampa's first streetcar suburb, platted in 1911 -- craftsman bungalows, brick streets, and the longest continuous stretch of riverfront parkland in the city.
Ybor City
Tampa's National Historic Landmark District, founded in 1885 by cigar magnate Vicente Martínez Ybor -- the immigrant cigar-worker city that made Tampa "Cigar City."
South Tampa (Palma Ceia / Bayshore)
The peninsula between Kennedy Blvd and MacDill Air Force Base -- 18-plus named sub-neighborhoods anchored by the 4.5-mile Bayshore Boulevard promenade.
Westchase
A roughly 10-square-mile master-planned community built starting in the early 1990s in northwest Hillsborough -- oak-lined streets, no billboards, and a genuinely walkable town center.
Carrollwood
An established, lake-dotted unincorporated community about 9 miles northwest of downtown Tampa -- calm, family-oriented, and governed through civic associations rather than a city hall.
New Tampa
A roughly 24-square-mile district in north Hillsborough that boomed from rural land into master-planned suburbia in the 1990s -- top-rated schools, USF and Moffitt Cancer Center nearby.
Brandon
Hillsborough's largest unincorporated suburb, about 11 miles east of downtown Tampa -- the classic affordable-suburb alternative, and home to the Lightning's practice rink.
Riverview
One of the fastest-growing communities in Tampa Bay -- a sprawling southeastern Hillsborough suburb built around the Alafia River, with newer housing stock than most of its neighbors.
Temple Terrace
A small, separately incorporated city bordering Tampa along the Hillsborough River -- one of the first planned golf-course communities in the U.S., incorporated in 1925.
St. Petersburg – Clearwater / Pinellas County
The peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico -- St. Petersburg's urban core, Clearwater, and the barrier-island beach towns along the coast.
Downtown St. Petersburg
Pinellas County's urban core: a walkable waterfront grid of high-rises and converted warehouses anchored by the Dalí Museum and St. Pete Pier, right on Tampa Bay.
Clearwater
Pinellas County's seat and second-largest city — a compact mainland downtown, Phillies spring training, and its own separate identity from Clearwater Beach across the causeway.
Clearwater Beach
Pinellas County's flagship Gulf-front resort strip — high-rise resorts, the nightly Pier 60 sunset celebration, and a barrier island in the county's highest hurricane-risk zone.
Dunedin
A small, walkable, Scottish-heritage city on Pinellas' northern Gulf coast — gateway to Honeymoon Island and Caladesi Island, and Blue Jays spring training.
Safety Harbor
A small, tight-knit city on Old Tampa Bay built around historic mineral springs — a walkable brick downtown and one of the shortest Tampa commutes in the county.
Tarpon Springs
The northern tip of Pinellas County and the nationally known center of Florida's Greek-American sponge-diving heritage — a working waterfront, not a themed one.
Largo
Pinellas County's third-largest city — a largely residential, inland community in the geographic middle of the peninsula, built around affordability and convenience.
St. Pete Beach & Treasure Island
Neighboring Gulf-front barrier-island towns built almost entirely around tourism and beach life — home to the pink landmark Don CeSar and Florida's self-styled “Sunset Capital.”
Pinellas Park
A working- and middle-class inland city in the middle of the county — no coastline, no flashy identity, and some of the fastest commutes to both St. Petersburg and Tampa.
Sarasota / Manatee County
Technically its own separate metro area, but part of the same Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota) media market -- Sarasota's arts-district downtown, its barrier islands, and Bradenton to the north.
Downtown Sarasota
Sarasota County's cultural and urban core — a compact, walkable grid of high-rise condo towers, galleries, and theaters wrapped around Sarasota Bay.
Siesta Key
A barrier island built around one of the most famous beaches in America — a wide crescent of pure quartz sand, and a small, affluent community defined by proximity to it.
Lakewood Ranch
A large, purpose-built master-planned community spanning both Manatee and Sarasota counties — new construction, golf and country-club amenities, and its own town center.
Bradenton
Manatee County's seat and a historic river city on the Manatee River — a revitalized Riverwalk, spring-training baseball, and a more affordable, working character than Sarasota to the south.
Venice
A planned Mediterranean-revival city laid out in 1926 by city planner John Nolen — arcaded downtown storefronts, traffic circles, and the self-declared “Shark's Tooth Capital of the World.”
Longboat Key
A narrow, low-density barrier island spanning both Sarasota and Manatee counties — prized for a quiet, height-restricted skyline unlike almost anywhere else on Florida's coast.
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