Tampa in Mid Oct., NEVER been there 7 have some questions??

Trying to book from Oct. 19th or 20th, til the 21st or 22nd. Short quick wknd getaway.

2 things we are going there for is, on the 20th a Lightning NHL game, we are avid hockey fans and LOVE to travel to see different arenas, and since we will be there we cant pass up going to Busch Gardens for the day on sunday..

Itll be my husband and myself and our 14yr old son.

We would rather NOT rent a car, and will be flying in from PA. to tampa.

Question is, should we stay closer to B.G.? or closer to the forum ?

If we get to tampa on Friday the 19th, say, in the early evening, the game wont be til Sat. at 730. So what is there to do or see , Sat. til then? If we get there,

earlier in the day Friday, we would want to do something , not just sit in the room. Is swimming good that time of yr down there? warm enough still?

Son has some difficulties with extended amount of walking, due to a disorder. So walking around downtown may or may not be a thing to do.. If things are a bit far apart, that is, if we decide down that way.

Ive read a lot of the reviews on hotels near the forum area as well as hotels near BG/USF.

If we stay near the forum, and can walk to it, as long as its not a long walk, then we would need a taxi to drop us off at BG...

If we stay close to BG, and the hotel has a shuttle to get us back and forth, then all we need is a taxi to drop us at the forum and bring us back to our hotel..

The latter sounds better, I dont want to hear all the noises of being downtown or having the unfortunate, that i read here, of music blaring in room next door of people partying...

We WONT be doing any partying etc etc. Going to the game at 730 and then going back to the room.

Then sunday going to BG for the day.. Leaving monday morning, OR maybe leaving sunday nite to come home to PA. not sure yet..

I have broken the list of hotels to these, and i read the reviews from them all but have not actually checked the rates yet or availability. Most of these are from the BG website preferred hotels

1. best western near BG and USF- reviews werent good

2 hilton gaden inn tampa north-great reviews

3. holiday inn exp. new tampa- great reviews

4. wingate inn near BG %26amp; USF- good reviews

5. grand suites near BG- OK reviews

6. fairfield inn tampa north- great reviews

7. la quinta inn tampa/USF- good reviews

8. embassy suites tampa-usf- great reviews

I hope this post isnt too much for you all, im just a detailed type person and like to be thorough and find things out.

anyways, hope to get some feedback soon as possible so i can make plans............ Thanks ahead of time

Tampa in Mid Oct., NEVER been there 7 have some questions??

***Tampa in Mid Oct., NEVER been there 7 have some questions??**

Supposed to say **AND** have some questions....NOT 7

sorry

Tampa in Mid Oct., NEVER been there 7 have some questions??

I would stay downtown. It%26#39;s not a 24 hour, noisy downtown like a Pittsburgh or Philly, especially quiet on the weekend. Your cab rides from the airport will be shorter to downtown than to BG. Very short cab ride to the Channelside district for entertainment, restaurants, the Aquarium, shops etc, as well as the Forum for the game.

Around BG, there just isn%26#39;t anything else to see or do, and will be no quieter of an area than downtown, especially on a weekend, save for the hockey traffic/crowd, but you%26#39;ll be part of that.

I think one of the lower $$$ downtown is a Howard Johnsons, which is near everything and is a decent place.

I agree with MarkBee, downtown area would be the best. The Marriot Riverside is a beautiful place with a great sports bar, it may be a litle pricey but I would check it out, it walking distance from the Forum and Channel Side. There is also a trolley that is fun to take around and maybe even check out Ybor City, have a meal at the famous Columbia Rest.

Thanks , both of you for replying.

I figured the airport ride to a hotel would be closer downtown then going to BG. But either way thats ok. If we arent going to rent a car we will need a taxi to get whereever we stay, from the airport anyways.

Thing is, if we stay downtown, then we have to get a ride to BG.. How does one take a cab to BG??? Then find one to get back?

Hotels ive looked at , have free shuttles to the park. So the only thing we would need to do is get a cab to the forum. ANd from what i read, cabs are all over the forum when there are events.. so we can easily get one to go back to the hotel.

I did mention, we wont be going to bars or clubs etc.. not with our son.. Not worrying about nitelife... This was just a quick getaway wknd to see a game and BG.

Thats why i thought , maybe we could get a flight thatll get us to tampa early saturday, and have time to get settled, if its warm that time of october, we could swim and hang out til game time...

then sunday take the shuttle to the park for the day. the go home in the morning...

what do you think?? what about the hotels i listed? anyone of them stand out more then the other for being better?

How come you say there isnt much to do , if we stay out by BG area??

Getting a cab from downtown to BG and back shouldn%26#39;t be a problem. Call a cab, or have the hotel desk call one. Same at BG for the ride back.

If just hanging at the hotel pool, with a short walk, or short cab ride to a chain type restaurant is OK with ya%26#39;ll, then staying near BG would be fine (almost sounds like a try at an insult when I read that back to myself, not intended that way at all!) . It%26#39;s just not in an area with many %26#39;touristy%26#39; things to do or see (other than BG of course). Kind of just residential, businesses/industry type of area, but many tourists do stay in that area to be close to BG.

Thanks again for your reply.

no insult taken at all. not to worry

relaxing at the pool, given weather is good to swim, you never know

a lot of walking isnt what we have planned. but sitting in the room isnt what we will do either. out by BG area or temple terrace as its called, there are places to eat and things like that. itll be fine...

You have the Aquarium just a few blocks down the street from the Forum -- a great place to spend at least part of Sunday -- it was just named one of America%26#39;s top 5 most family-friendly aquariums.

About halfway between downtown and Busch Gardens is Lowry Park Zoo -- annually one of the top most family-friendly zoos in America.

The Museum of Science and Industry is specially geared toward kids, and is just down the road from Busch Gardens.

I%26#39;d stay downtown -- while BG is okay, some of the surrounding area is down at the heels.

Right next to the Aquarium is Channelside -- lots of decent restaurants . A short trolley ride from there is Ybor City, which is very family-friendly during the day --- the heart of the cigar industry in the last century, now converted to restaurants and shops, with a good museum (Ybor City State Museum) built into a former bakery.

If you stay near BG(which it sounds like you want to), then you will need to be taxi%26#39;d or shuttled to eat or do anything else in that area. Although a very short ride to the eateries(less than a mile), etc. From your list, my choice would be La Quinta USF or Embassy Suites USF(free breakfast at each, decent areas, closest to BG and also Museum of Science and Industry/IMAX theater). There are always cabs outside of the Forum to take you back to your hotel near BG.

If you stay downtown, you can walk to the Forum from Marriott Waterside, Embassy Suites downtown Tampa, and a few blocks from Hyatt regency, Westin Harbour Island, Sheraton Riverwalk. Less than a mile from Courtyard/Residence Inn Marriott, and Howard Johnson downtown Tampa. In addition though, you have the Entertainment Complex Channelside with many restaurants, Movie theater/IMAX, Florida Aquarium, Upscale Bowling/Restaurant %26#39;Splitsville%26#39;, Museum of Tampa Bay History, Tampa%26#39;s Streetcar which travels from downtown to stops like the Forum, Channelside and Ybor City(Historic District-great restaurants also and Movie Theater and Museum.

I hope this helps.

Thanks again to you all. Yes you did touch on the hotels info too, which helped.

I live outside the city of Philadelphia, away from it.....

Im not real sure now where we should stay. I actually found a good deal thru one of the combined flight and hotel comp. dont know if you can say it... but i was leaning towards the hilton garden inn in temple terrace. They have a restaurant on site and a bob evans is around the block and can walk to it. they offer a shuttle to BG for free. and it seems real nice and got great reviews. and just under 100$ a nite

But on the otherhand,, The airport is further away and im afraid itll cost a fortune to get a taxi from airport to temple terrace area. But we will need a ride from airport, both ways wherever i decide to stay, downtown is closer though im sure .... and yes we will be arriving on a friday afternoon, early evening in mid october and wont be going to BG til sunday for the day. and going home monday morning. so from friday later in the day til sat. nite when the game is on. we wont have much to do with NO car rented....not that we have to, we can swim and relax at the pool and thats fine too. son will love that...if weather permits. hopefully no hurricanes or storms that time of month of october.

If things are of short walking distance if we stay in downtown area, then that may be ok. As i mentioned, my son and walking is a struggle after so long....

The only real cost will be a taxi ride to BG and a ride back to downtown....if we stay in town.....and a short ride to and from airport

on the other hand, if we stayed out by BG it would be a costly cab ride from airport as well as going into town for the game. and my guess is traffic heading into town is a pain as in other cities..

I mentioned about noise and partying in the rooms in town , cause we ran into that before in baltimore MD and it was horrible. couldnt sleep and music blasting... I guess people/kids rent rooms in hotels to just hang and party. and i dont want to hear that or contend with it. and it will be a friday and saturday nite as well as a sunday.

anyways, i guess ill have to figure out what the hek to do... My husband wants to stay out by BG... i do too in a way, but dont want to have to pay a fortune for cab rides from airport and into town to the game.

by the way.... do any of you know what the taxi rates are? like where does the money machine start clicking at??

around here it used to be like a bit over 2 $, is where its set to start, then it goes from there.

forgot to add, i mostly chose the hotels i did for having a restaurant on site, a hot full brkfast at least and offer dinner. And for having a free shuttle to the park.... La quinta usf doesnt have a full brkfast, only continental and NO shuttle.

embassy is a bit pricey for me... thats why i chose hilton garden inn, they had all and price was good.

i read some downtown hotels left a lot to be desired. and werent all that great. and some more pricey due to being in town..