Lovely Vinoy Park in Saint Petersburg
/On the coast of St. Petersburg, Florida is the beautiful Vinoy Park with tall banyan trees, lively outdoor cafes, iconic museums and the historic Vinoy hotel overlooking Tampa Bay. We spent the day strolling around this gorgeous area.
It's mostly street parking along Bayshore Drive, but you will also see some parking garages around the corners as well. Some restaurants offer valet service. Make sure you have some cash/coins with you for those parking meters.
We spent time strolling in the park under the grand banyan trees. Some people were climbing these trees to get a cool picture, but we decided not to since I'm the biggest klutz and hurt myself anytime I try to do anything adventurous.
We made our way towards the Vinoy Hotel to cool down and explore a bit. We have stayed here once before and I highly recommend anyone visiting St. Petersburg to stay at this hotel because their customer service is top notch! Just note that this hotel is said to be haunted (although we never experienced any ghost encounters).
The Vinoy Hotel, built in 1926, has a stunning lobby area with an indoor and outdoor bar with lounge areas designed like you're in a library.
A few blocks away is an awesome upscale grocery market called Locale Market. There is a little grocery store, ice cream shop, meat department, pasta station, bakery, fresh juices, sandwiches, soups, salads, chocolates, wine and more! There's just so much in one place.
Downstairs is the grocery area with different food stations and upstairs is the chocolate and wine selection with the Farmtable Kitchen restaurant and bar.
For lunch, we ate at Cassis American Brasserie. The restaurant was gorgeous and the food was fantastic, but the service was a little off. We're pretty sure our server was a little high on something or he was just really sleepy. The host and server just acted really odd the entire time and it was both uncomfortable and entertaining.
In the evening, we walked around the park and the marina to take in the scenic view of the bay. We stopped by Bella Brava for some appetizers and drinks and everything was incredible! Make sure you get the Bella Bruschetta. The sweet, fresh tomatoes are to die for!
Wish we could have made it to The Canopy rooftop bar too, but it started raining, so we had to call it a night. It's a beautifully decorated bar with stunning views of the bay.
We absolutely loved our time at Vinoy Park and will be sure to make more frequent visits. We'd like to check out the Dali and Chihuly museum and try out more restaurants in the area. There's just so much to choose from!
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