Each winter Tampa revels in a round of tropical festivals and fairs, complete with booming cannons, rollicking parades and dress balls.
And each year it seems more events pop up to tempt visitors: street parties with the scent of Cuban coffee hanging in the air, a vibrant art show that festoons the walkway along the Hillsborough River, open-air concerts that send a thumping beat across the bay and end in showers of fireworks and confetti.
Tampa`s treasure is its diversity, an intermingling of Cuban, Italian, Spanish, Indian and Afro-American cultures that began in 1824, when Col. George Mercer Brooke built a post at the mouth of the Hillsborough River alongside a little Cuban settlement.
Although Tampa and the surrounding towns of Hillsborough County, Fla., have grown into a metropolis of almost 1 million people, the area has managed to maintain the friendliness of a small Southern town.
Beyond the parties and festivals is great opportunity for silence and solitude on white sand beaches and nature trails.
Tampa Bay`s most obvious asset is the weather: day after day of sunshine, mild temperatures and big puffy clouds.
A cadre of new skyscrapers downtown glistens across blue water. The city`s signature Bayshore Boulevard-7.2 miles of uninterrupted sidewalk along the bay-teems with walkers, joggers and cyclists, and the pace of life can be as fast or as slow as you want it to be.
Attractions
The premier tourist attraction is Busch Gardens, 3000 E. Busch Blvd. It is a 300-acre park 10 minutes from downtown.
The park, with an African theme, has a splendid array of rides, trains and trams set among gardens. The food is good and the scale more manageable than Walt Disney World (85 miles east).
Busch Gardens is also one of the country`s largest zoos, with more than 3,700 animals. Admission, which includes all rides, shows and attractions, is $26.95; $22.95 for children 3 to 9; free for those 2 and younger. Parking costs another $3.
Special areas for children have kid-size rides, tree houses for climbing and fairy-tale sculptures. For more information: 813-987-5082.
Just a 10-minute drive from Busch Gardens is Lowry Park Zoological Garden, 7530 North Blvd., and the newly renovated amusement park and new children`s museum adjacent to it.
Admission to the Lowry Park Zoo is $5.50; $3.50 for children 4 to 12 and $4.50 for the elderly; children 3 and younger get in free.
The newly built zoo has 1,600 animals in enclosures designed to resemble native habitats; attractions include a 175-bird aviary and an underwater view of a manatee-a gentle mammal similar to a large seal that is one of Florida`s official state animals.
Children love the petting zoo and the fountain at the entrance where they can wade. For more information: 813-932-0245.
Fun Forest at Lowry Park, 7520 North Blvd., has 19 rides as well as a playground and a ”fairyland” walk. Admission to the amusement park is free, but it takes three tickets to board each of the rides; individual tickets cost 40 cents, a 20-ticket book costs $6.95; an all-day wristband is $9.95. For more information: 813-935-5503.
For a cheaper day there`s the new hands-on Children`s Museum of Tampa, 7550 North Blvd., behind the Lowry amusement park. Admission is $2; $1.75 for the elderly; free to those 2 and younger.
Upcoming on calendar
Tampa`s homegrown festival, Gasparilla, is back again by popular demand after a one-year lapse, during which the main sponsoring organization-Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla-became integrated, admitting black men to what was once an all-white men`s group.
Gasparilla began in 1904, when a Tampa Tribune columnist established a carnival based on the antics of the legendary pirate Jose Gaspar, whose band supposedly pillaged 36 ships during the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.
The latest incarnation of Gasparilla, a monthlong celebration that began Feb. 2, has parades, street parties, concerts and, on Feb. 29, the 12th annual Artists and Writers Ball in Ybor City, a costume party and dance staged as an alternative to Tampa`s society balls.
For more information on all festival events: Tampa-Hillsborough Convention and Visitors Association, 813-223-1111 or 800-826-8358.
On Feb. 29 and March 1 is the 22nd Gasparilla Sidewalk Art Festival and Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center Open House, during which the downtown river walk is jammed with art, food booths, free entertainment and exhibits. For more information: 813-223-1111.
Museums, too
The Henry B. Plant Museum, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd., is exhibiting through Feb. 29 photos of the eight hotels built or acquired by the Florida railroad magnate Henry B. Plant.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free. For more information: 813-254 1891.
Throhe New York photographer Sandy Skoglund.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday; and is closed Monday. Admission is free. For more information: 813-223-8128.
The new Museum of African-American Art, 1308 Marion St., houses the Barnett-Aden collection-more than 140 works by black artists. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and traditional African handmade items were brought together by the late James Herring and the late Alonzo Aden.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. For more information: 813-272-2466.
Entertainment
The new Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Pl., on the banks of the Hillsborough River downtown, is a three-theater complex.
The Cleveland Orchestra appears March 22. Tickets cost $17 to $35, with a pre-performance brunch for $16.95 with tax and tip. Reservations are needed. For more information: 813-222-1076.
Recreation
More than 28 miles of powdery white sand beaches can be found 30 minutes west on Highway 60 in Pinellas County. Best bet: Pinellas County Sand Key Park in Clearwater, Fla., with 95 acres of natural dunes and sea grass.
For hiking, the Hillsborough River State Park, 2250 N. U.S. Highway 301, has 9 miles of nature trails, 118 campsites and canoes for rent. Admission is $3.25 per vehicle a day. For more information: 813-986-1020.
Where to stay
Downtown is the Hyatt Regency Tampa, 2 Tampa City Center, between the Performing Arts Center and a newly opened Tampa Convention Center. A room for two is generally $150 a night but can drop as low as $89 with certain weekend packages, depending on availability. For more information: 813-225-1234.
The elegant Wyndham Harbour Island Hotel, 725 S. Harbour Island Blvd., is a few blocks from the Hyatt Regency. Its sunny double rooms on the bay are $159 during the week and $119 on weekends, depending on availability. For more information: 813-229-5000.
The Sheraton Sand Key, 1160 Gulf Blvd., Clearwater, (adjacent to Sand Key Park), has rooms overlooking the gulf. Prices range from $143 to $178, depending on the view. Weekend packages for two, with breakfast, are $138 a night. For more information: 813-595-1611.
Budget choices: The Holiday Inn, across from the Performing Arts Center at 111 W. Fortune St., charges between $65.50 and $85.50 a night. Days Inn Downtown, 515 E. Cass St., costs $55 for two. For more information on these inns: 813-223-1351 and 813-229-6431, respectively.
