Cuban culture is big here, from the cubano sandwich (pork, ham, cheese on hot-pressed bread, with the local addition of Genoa salami) to the tradition of hand-rolled cigars. Ybor City isn't quite Ocean Drive, the main drag in South Beach, but the young, urban feel is unmistakable. St. Pete Beach has smaller waves but vast stretches of sugary sand that match the best of Fort Lauderdale. And if you are down by Boca Ciega Bay along the southernmost tip of the curve of barrier keys that drape from St. Petersburg, squint and you might swear you were wandering through palm- studded garden courtyards off Duval Street in Key West.
If Tampa-St. Petersburg doesn't have quite the surfeit of luxury accommodations that those other destinations do, it does have a singular splurge: the "pink palace," the Don CeSar Beach Resort, a flamingo-hued, wedding cake of a building on the Gulf of Mexico coast in St. Pete Beach. Built in 1928 by real estate magnate Thomas Rowe, who languished wealthily after forsaking his true love, an English opera singer, the Don CeSar makes a good base of operations and has a nice sense of place.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Clarence Darrow, Lou Gehrig, and Al Capone all partied there before the 277-room beachfront hotel fell on hard times, got used as an Army convalescent center for battle-fatigued World War II airmen and then for Veterans Administration offices in the late 1960s. The Mediterranean castle with Moorish bell towers and turrets was headed for a date with the wrecking ball when historic preservation-minded area citizens and a rescue investor stepped in.
Today, after millions in renovations, the most extensive of which were in the 1990s, the property is a Loews hotel with all the bells and whistles: spa, yoga, fine dining, classic chaises-lounge surrounding two big pools and dotted across an expanse of powdery beach.
Tempting as it may be to never leave, daily excursions are made easy by good highway access. Tampa is about a half-hour drive; Sea World and Busch Gardens are a bit farther but combined with a stop on the way back in Tampa proper, remain comfortably in the day trip category.
