It’s that time of the year when everyone is over winter and thinking about warm weather. Whether you’re planning spring break or a summer vacation you should consider St. Pete’s Beach, FL for your next getaway! We’ve been twice and it’s a great option when you’re looking for a family friendly trip.
St. Pete Beach is about 45 minutes from Tampa on the gulf side of Florida. We flew directly from Chicago to Tampa. It’s the perfect flight when you’re traveling with little ones and clocks in at just over two and a half hours. We rented a car for the drive to the resort. The main area of St. Pete’s Beach is not big and most of the restaurants and resorts are located along the beach on Gulf Blvd. Both times we’ve visited we’ve stayed at the RumFish Beach Resort, which is apart of the TradeWinds Island Resorts. This resort is perfect for families as many of the rooms have a kitchenette in them which allows for more flexibility when you have a family. The property has many amenities, a casual restaurant and beach bar, pool, direct beach access with chairs you can reserve the night before. When we stayed there was no extra charge for the chairs it was apart of the resort fee which was awesome. There is also a more formal restaurant on property, the RumFish Grill which is worth checking out if you can. The food is great and features a 33,500 galloon aquarium perfect for keeping little ones entertained throughout dinner. I recommend making a reservation if you plan to go, as it does get crowded.
We spent most of our days rotating from the pool to the beach, some days going for walks along the beach to see the other properties. The beach is beautiful and very clean, we’ve been in both April and May and the water was warm enough for swimming. Tradewinds has another property a few resorts down, TradeWinds Island Grand, and you do have access to this property with the resort fee. This property is much larger with several pools and a huge inflatable water slide on the beach! My husband had a lot of fun going down it! 🙂 My absolute favorite part of staying at the RumFish Resort is that they do nightly bonfires with s’mores! They provide all the supplies and you can sit overlooking the beach at sunset roasting your marshmallow. It’s the perfect setting.
If you are looking to explore we’ve driven into St. Petersburg or Treasure Island for lunch and there’s plenty to do there if you’re looking for more action. Treasure Island is definitely much more of a touristy area in my opinion. My recommendation for lunch is the Taco Bus, they have a few locations, the one in St. Petersburg is an actual bus, and delicious!
Drop a comment if you have any questions, like I’ve said we’ve done this vacation twice and it was perfect when the kids were little and we wanted an affordable fun trip but also needed/wanted to be close to the hotel room for naps, feedings , etc. PS St. Pete’s Beach is less than two hours from Disney World. Read about that experience here.