36 Hours in St. Petersburg, Fla.: Things to Do and See

Wake up early and head over to Cozy Uptown Eats for their excellent homemade scones ($5) and biscuits ($4), filling breakfast sandwiches on brioche buns, or their Gouda and white pepper grits with bacon, collard greens and a fried egg ($12), which sells out as often as the sun shines. Alternatively, drive west to Gulfport, a small, artsy city bordering St. Pete and Stella’s, a terrific breakfast option with plentiful outdoor seating that’s named after the owner’s late aunt, a nun from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Favorites like the Mel’s breakfast burrito ($14.99) are, as advertised, a “hard habit to break.”

Arrive early at the Saturday Morning Market, where you’ll have a chance to buy souvenirs at stalls like Blue Twist & Co, which has cool art prints, or treats from vendors like Caribbean Quenched, which has refreshing fruit smoothies. Then take a bike tour catering to your interests. There are several to choose from, including one with St. Pete Biking, which takes visitors to see more than 40 murals painted by local and international artists ($59 or $79 for an e-bike). Josette Green, a local historian, leads Black history bike tours to untouristy, historically African American neighborhoods like Pepper Town, Methodist Town and the Deuces, while detailing ugly aspects of the city’s history, such as the Jim Crow era, when Black residents were effectively prohibited from venturing north of Central Avenue after dark.

St. Pete was the venue for the first Major League Baseball spring training camp, in 1914, and the subsequent presence of Babe Ruth and other sluggers at hotels like the Don Cesar and the Vinoy boosted tourism. The city is still a great base for spring training (Feb. 21 to March 24), so try to take in a Yankees, Phillies or Blue Jays game, as they’re all within a half hour’s drive. Before you go, order a pair of lobster salad rolls (two for $10) online from Mazzaro’s, St. Pete’s deservedly popular Italian market, or a chicken tikka masala Bollywood bowl ($12.25) at Twisted Indian, a terrific fast casual Indian eatery on Central Avenue. If baseball’s not your thing, book a tennis or pickleball lesson at the Racquet Club of St. Petersburg and then enjoy lunch al fresco in the club’s delicious eatery, Root + Clay, which has superb chimichurri chicken sandwiches ($14). If shopping rather than sports suits your tastes, the Grand Central District has a host of shops. ARTpool, for example, has a huge selection of reasonably priced vintage clothing and records, and Tombolo Books is a small independent bookstore that’s particularly well stocked with L.G.B.T.Q. and progressive authors. Farther east along Central Avenue toward downtown, Florida CraftArt is a nonprofit gallery that sells original paintings, sculptures and crafts from more than 200 Florida artists at reasonable prices.

The Burg punches above its weight on the museum front, so pick one based on your interests. At the stunning Dalí Museum ($32) you’ll see every stage of Salvador Dalí’s life and work and will learn that he wasn’t always a surrealist. The Museum of Fine Arts ($22) is in a stunning building and has an impressively curated and diverse collection of art and artifacts from ancient to contemporary with something for everyone. The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art ($23) is a must for those who like Native American art. If you’re traveling with children, let your kids indulge their curiosity and have fun playing at the Great Explorations Children’s Museum ($15 kids/$12 adults), which has interactive exhibits like a mini Publix grocery store, a doctor’s office and a fossil park.

Book a table outside at Pia’s Trattoria in Gulfport and you’ll feel like you’ve been invited to a wedding party somewhere in Italy’s Mezzogiorno. Their homemade ciabatta ($6 half loaf/$8 full) with olive oil is absolutely worth the carb splurge and their veal parmigiana ($35) with house-made linguini and lasagna with grass-fed, free-range Florida beef ($21) are divine. Take a neighborhood passegiata (stroll) and then cap the night with some quality craft beers at Webb’s City Cellar or 3 Daughters Brewing, which frequently has bands on weekends. On a hot night, enjoy the people watching at the block of bars immediately south of Williams Park downtown or do a beach bar crawl on St. Pete Beach starting at Coconut Charlies heading south to Salty’s Tiki Bar in the Tradewinds resort.

Jack Kerouac’s estate was valued at just $91 when he died in 1969 and he left it all to his mom, Gabrielle. Years of legal battles followed after her death in 1973, and in 2020, Ken Burchenal, a local Kerouac fan, purchased it and turned it into a nonprofit arts center and vacation rental. For a $100 donation, you can book a private tour of this three-bedroom midcentury home, which has been preserved exactly as the writer left it. On weekends, the house is often the venue for poetry and book readings, Saturday night concerts and a host of other events. And if you’d like to drink at one of Kerouac’s haunts, visit the Flamingo Sports Bar, which has a mural on the wall of Kerouac shooting pool and still looks a lot like it did back when he used to frequent it, often during daylight hours.