This might be shocking to someone from outside Florida, but I\u2019ve never really thought of St. Petersburg as a beach city. Clearwater Beach and Caladesi Island make regular appearances on lists of the world\u2019s best beaches ,but if you live in Florida, where beaches are as abundant as alligators, St. Pete is something else entirely. It\u2019s a place for quirky art, unusual bars, and a relaxed lifestyle compared to many cities. It\u2019s got beaches, sure, but it\u2019s also got loads of history, culture, and pro sports\u2014a visit to St. Pete is more than a trip to the shore.<\/p>\n
I say this because there is some perception that St. Petersburg and Clearwater, the biggest cities in Pinellas County, are resort destinations where you might check in at a beachside hotel, order a pi\u00f1a colada, and do nothing else for three days. And that\u2019s totally possible. But if you\u2019re the type who likes to explore all the things that make a city special, St. Pete might be the best place in Florida.<\/p>\n
So for the resort skeptic, the kind who gets antsy on a beach chair, here\u2019s how to spend two packed days (or more, if time allows) in St. Pete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This might be shocking to someone from outside Florida, but I\u2019ve never really thought of St. Petersburg as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[6104,6103,3458,6100,123,6099,202,204,203,199,201,200,6101,6098,6102,107],"class_list":["post-5550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-beaches","tag-cities","tag-global","tag-matt-meltzer","tag-miami","tag-nation","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-standard","tag-thrillist-editorial","tag-thrillist-itineraries","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}