Why you should consider choosing Tampa as your home!
Tampa is an exciting and vibrant city with lots to offer. While it is impossible to list all of the great things about this city, I have tried to provide some of what I consider to be some of Tampa's more important features.
Climate:
With average temperatures of a low of 60 degrees in January and a high average of 82 in July, we are fortunate to enjoy a mild climate. Of course, when it drops below 60 here, we are mostly complaining about the cold!
Festivals:
Gasparilla: The largest Tampa festival is Gasparilla, and is held every year in January This mardi gras themed festival is a 100 year old tradition, when our city is invaded by pirates in honor of the mythical and legendary pirate Jose Gaspar. The "Jose Gasparilla" is the world's only fully-rigged pirate ship. The ship is 165 feet in length and is equipped with three masts, over 100 feet in height. With canons blasting, the 700+ pirates invade the city (accompanied by a flotilla of hundreds of private boats), and take the city mayor prisoner!
The parade is attended by a half a million people and all are looking to receive beads and gold coins from the parade participants!
Interested in a fun video of this festival?
Click on the pirates below:
Guavaween, coined as a "Latin Festival" is held during Halloween! Guavaween is held in Ybor City, a historic district known for its Cuban heritage and cigar factories!
Universities:
The two most famous universities in Tampa are the University of Tampa, with the famous minarets, and the larger University of South Florida. Other institutions of higher learning are found in Tampa too.
Tampa Neighborhoods and Tampa Real Estate:
Tampa has many different types of neighborhoods from which to choose. I am providing some information on a few of them:
New Tampa & Wesley Chapel:
This newer community of New Tampa offers "country club" like living, and most of the neighborhoods are CDD communities offering many amenities such as swimming pools, tennis, basketball, and volleyball courts, clubhouses with fitness centers, and lushly landscaped boulevards with entrances that are often gated and sometimes guarded too.
Within the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel area, you might consider viewing the following VIRTUAL TOURS:
Seven Oaks, Cory Lake Isles, Arbor Greene, Meadow Pointe, West Meadows, Lexington Oaks, or Tampa Palms!
This historic district was developed in the early 1900's and you will find charming bungalows from that era located in this national historic district.
Most of these historic homes are classified as Victorian, and some of these grand old homes are located on Tampa's crown jewel, Bayshore Boulevard. The 10 foot wide and four and a half mile long sidewalk along Bayshore, is claimed to be the world's longest continuous sidewalk! Homes along Bayshore have breathtaking views of Hillsborough Bay!
Other popular Tampa neighborhoods include: Westchase, Carrollwood, Temple Terrace, Town ‘N Country, and nearby Brandon. For additional information, please visit my Tampa Real Estate website: www.TampaHomesOnTheWeb.com
Downtown Tampa:
Downtown Tampa is the location of the Tampa Convention Center, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, the Tampa Museum of Art, City and Hillsborough County government offices, Channelside, and the Riverwalk. Downtown Tampa is booming right now with an expansion of the riverwalk and has multiple high rise buildings planned or already under construction, including the Trump building. Our skyline will change with the addition of these high rises. It's also fun to take the trolley to nearby Ybor City!
Professional Sports:
Tampa offers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium, the Tampa Bay Lightning at the St. Pete Forum, & Spring Training for the New York Yankees at Legends Field!
Lowry Park Zoo:
Voted the #1 Family Friendly Zoo in America by Child Magazine, our zoo has over 1,800 animals and a ZOO SCHOOL! The school has a 15,000 square foot learning center with 11 classrooms and over 80,000 people per year enjoy its education programs.
Theme Parks:
Busch Gardens:
In addition to the fun rides, Busch Gardens also has many animal attractions including a 65 acre "Serengeti Plain", the Myombe Reserve (gorillas and chimpanzees, the Bird Gardens, and more. Oh yes, and let's not forget the beer!
Adventure Island:
This 30 acre park offers plenty of fun in the sun and water!
Golf:
Tampa has plenty of public and private golf courses from which to choose. At times it seems that we have almost as many golf courses here as we do convenience stores!
Shopping:
Five major malls are located thoughout the city and they include: The International Plaza, Westshore Mall, University Square Mall, Westfield Center, Citrus Park Mall. Additionally, The Cypress Creek Town Center, a new huge regional mall is planned and awaiting final approval and the Shops at Wiregrass is underway. It will be located in the New Tampa / Wesley Chapel area.
Arts & Entertainment:
The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa Museum of Art, and the Museum of Science and Industry all offer plenty of cultural options to choose from.
The Florida Aquarium, where you can "swim with the fishes", or even "dive with the sharks" has a 200,000 square foot aquarium with over 10,000 aquatic plants and animals.
Dinner and Nightlife?
How about SOHO?--Home of the legendary Bern's Steakhouse (Winner of the Wine Spectator Award since 1981 and with over 6,900 unique wine labels), & other trendy bars and restaurants, or Channelside. Ybor (Pronounced "EEBOR") City, a fun place to visit, day or night is known for being an historic area and famous for its "cigar factories. Ybor is also home of the Columbia Restaurant, founded in 1905.
Tampa International Airport:
What a pleasure it is to fly in and out of this airport! With the airside shuttle car system, your walking is minimized. Each "shuttle car" has a capacity of 100 people and average wait time is only 60 seconds! You are then transported in the car at a speed of 25 mph to the airside terminal.
Beaches:
Our Ben T. Davis Beach is a fun place to visit. Additionally, the gorgeous beaches of Clearwater & St. Pete., are just a short drive from Tampa, and the short trip provides us with beautiful views of Old Tampa Bay!
Macdill Airforce Base:
This important base is the home of USCENTCOM (Central Command), USSOCOM and 51 other Mission Partners. With 12,000 military and 1,300 civilian personnel this, base is located on 5,767 acres of land in South Tampa, and receives occasional visits from Air Force One!
Virtual Tour of Tampa, Florida!
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