COMMENT BY
Sydney from Ocoee, FL
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Brandon, FL
COMMENT
The best of suburban, city, and beach living
I lived in Tampa for about a year and frequented the University of South Florida area during college because my boyfriend lived in the area. I love Tampa because the area is huge, and offers a great mix of city, suburbia, and beach terrain.
The downtown area is fun to explore with unique areas like Channelside and Ybor City. There are also some gorgeous views from the downtown city streets because the whole area is bordered by Tampa Bay. If you're in the area during hockey season, my favorite thing to do is see the Tampa Bay Lightening play. Tampa really loves this team, and getting plugged in with their games and fans is a great way to get involved with the Tampa community.
On the weekends, my boyfriend and I greatly enjoyed day trips to the beach, and our favorite spot to visit was John's pass because it was fun to visit the shops in the area, see the boats pass under the huge drawbridge, and the strip of beach always had entertaining people watching opportunities.
There are also a number of unique locally-owned restaurants in the area that were fun to try. I highly suggest using Yelp to find a few new places to try!
I gave this area 4 instead of 5 stars because I hated the constant traffic and confusing road construction, and I felt disconnected from the community at times.