Time Out in Tampa
by Paris Permenter & John Bigley
With its location on Central Florida's west coast,
Tampa is a prime vacation spot for sun, sand...and a
break from the crowds and prices of Orlando, just a
little over an hour's drive away. While the city makes
a good home base for a more budget-based to the theme
park heaven, the two of you will find that Tampa is
a destination all on its own.
Tampa dates back to 1824, with the establishment of
Fort Brooke. The city really started to grow in 1885
when Henry Plant brought railroad service to Tampa.
The next year, Vicente Martinez Ybor lead a wave of
Cuban cigar manufacturers who settled in the city, founding
the Latin community known as Ybor City. For fifty years,
the area was the "Cigar Capital of the World,"
a boom town with over 4,000 cigar workers. Production
was severely cut back in the 1930's, when machines could
produce cigars much faster than skilled cigar rollers.
Today, however, Ybor City is as busy as ever, filled
with shoppers, diners, and history lovers. Spanish-style
architecture and cobblestone streets will take you back
to the early days of the Latin Quarter. At 9th Avenue
and 19th Street, visit the Ybor City State Museum, housed
in the old Ferlita Bakery, for a look the process of
hand rolling cigars. Next door, you can tour an original
cigar worker's house. During the Spanish-American War,
many of these cigar workers pledged part of their salary
to help fuel the revolution. They also paid 10 cents
a week for medical care, one of the earliest examples
of socialist medical services in the country.
During the past several years, much of Ybor City has
been renovated and restored to its former glory. One
of the largest projects was the revival of the the V.M.
Ybor Cigar Factory. Today these three red brick buildings
are known as Ybor Square, a marketplace filled with
specialty shops. Here you can buy anything from hand-blown
glass to antiques to (you guessed it) hand-rolled cigars.
The fine art of cigar rolling is demonstrated every
day but Monday.
One of the highlights of Ybor City is a visit to the
Columbia Restaurant, a Tampa favorite for over 80 years.
You'll be served Latin meals such as Salteado (a dish
of Spanish onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, potatoes,
Spanish sausage, and steak, pork or shrimp), Pincho
de Camarones (shrimp skewered with tomatoes, green peppers,
Spanish onion and mushrooms), or Paella Espanola (yellow
rice with seafood, chicken, pork, Spanish sausage, onion,
peppers and tomatoes). Every week, flamenco dancers
perform a special show for lucky diners.
Columbia Restaurant often has long waiting lines, but
don't worry--the two of you will find plenty of dining
options in Ybor City. Our romantic favorite is La Terrazza
(1727 E. 7th Avenue), an intimate, candlelit eatery
that's perfect for talking over your day over a glass
of wine and a dish of excellent Italian fare.
While you're downtown, take a drive along the waterfront
for a look at the Port of Tampa. Besides the shipping
industry, the port is also home to several cruise ships
who use the port as a home base from which to sail the
Caribbean.
It may seem like a long way from the luxury yacht docks
to the jungles of Africa, but in Tampa it's just a drive
across town. Busch Gardens (http://www.4adventure.com)
is a combination amusement park, zoo, and shopping extravaganza
in one. The park includes several themed sections: Bird
Gardens, The Congo, Stanleyville, Nairobi, Serengeti
Plain, Morocco, and Timuktu. You'll want to budget a
full day to see everything, and if you're a big fan
of roller coasters and other stomach-churning rides,
two days might be a better choice.
Make your first stop the Serengeti Plain, an area where
animals roam much as they would in the wild, with very
few fences. This area has earned Busch Gardens a place
as one of the top four zoos in the country. You can
view the animals from a small steam locomotive or aboard
a monorail for an air-conditioned ride through the cageless
wildlife area.
And, if you're ready for a look at the creatures beneath
the sea, make a stop at the downtown Florida Aquarium
(http://www.flaquarium.org) on Channelside Drive. The
newly built facility features alligators, rays, sharks
and also birds found along Florida's wateways.
For more information on Tampa, see http://www.gotampa.com.
Copyright Paris Permenter & John
Bigley
Lovetripper.com editors John Bigley
and Paris Permenter are a husband-wife team of travel
writers. Longtime residents of central Texas, they make
their home in the hill country west of Austin. John
and Paris write frequently about romantic destinations
for numerous magazines and newspapers; the couple has
also authored 27 guidebooks. Their travel coverage has
included destinations from Malta to Morocco, Cyprus
to the Cayman Islands. Both Paris and John are members
of the Society of American Travel Writers.
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