Tampa, a Shockingly Quiet Place

Yes, Tampa means a lot of fun for lots of people, like cruise ships, the Busch Gardens, the nice beaches, the Lightning's games, even a trip to Orlando. But there is another face to this city: the downtown area can be very lonely in the afternoon-evening.

Quick Tips:

Although the streetcar line passes just in front of the hotel (not on rails, but still a streetcar) and that this is the center of the city, downtown Tampa can be quite boring after office hours. Take a cab to Ybor city to dine and watch some shows or go to Channelside for night entertainment. During the day you have the Florida Aquarium or go to Busch Gardens.

Best Way To Get Around:

Most of the restaurants and cafeterias in the area shut down around 4 to 6 in the afternoon, so you would need to go by cab to another place or eat at your hotel's restaurant.

Fortunately downtown Tampa is just 20 minutes at most from most of the fun places. Even if you are taking a cruise ship, it won't be more than 10 minutes away.

My stay in the Hyatt Downtown was a pleasant one, the rooms are clean and the beads are very soft, you get 4(veeeeery soft) pillows per bed and a small cushion. And I as a non-smoker loved a small detail, in your non-smoking room is totally prohibited to smoke, there is a $250 fine if you do, yahooo!

We used the conference rooms for breakfast and some interviews, the service was excellent and the food was good, nothing out of this world but fresh and prepared right. The staff was courteous and helpful. My only "complaint" in this department is that the silverware is way too big and heavy to eat.

The restaurant serves Starbucks coffee, for me is not a big deal as I don't enjoy their coffee, but for you it may be a plus. The food is very good and the prices are not on the expensive side but portions could be a bit bigger. My real complaint is the closing hours, 10pm is too early for anything, specially as there is no room service after that time and the surrounding area is completely dead, you have to take a cab to Ybor or as I did, to Wendy's.


The best part of the stay was the hotel's staff, at the front desk I had the fortune to be greeted by Jacklyn from Pittsburgh and she was extremely efficient and quick as a breeze, all with a big smile on her face all the time, I had a couple of difficult requests as I had a group of journalists requiring very late check out and also I had a last minute VIP guest arriving with just a couple hours notice and the very efficient staff managed to get me one room though they were at full capacity due to a couple of conventions.

The house preferred shuttle service Blue One, is a must, they are very convenient, well priced and are at the hotel all day long. The only wish I have in this area is that you could charge their service to your hotel account but that is not possible at this time as they are an external service provider.

If you are in Tampa for a business trip, you can't go wrong if you choose the Hyatt.

Moxie´s is a great place, and very popular with the locals, I went there at 1pm and the place was packed. It took me around 20 minutes from the moment I crossed the door until I got my food in front of me, but it was worth it.

The place is in the downtown area of Tampa, full of banks and offices, so I recommend avoiding lunch time, the line was a long one, even though they were taking orders along the line to relieve some pressure at the cashier and to have the food done faster.

As some friend recommended, I had the Cuban Sandwich pressed and "all the way". I got a hot, fat, short baguette stuffed way too much with sliced ham, cheese, tomato, and lettuce. Fortunately I didn't order the "meal" which is your sandwich, soup or salad, and a drink. It would have been too much for me.

I choose a counter seat as the tables were rapidly being taken, and I was eating alone, it was good as it gave me the chance to look at the really busy kitchen and appreciate the efforts of the staff. Besides huge sandwiches, they also have fruit smoothies, salads, real coffee (not Starbuks fortunately), pitas, and soups.

I noticed a lot of locals ordering "to go" and some of them ordered by faxing their request (take a look at their menu and they have a fax format www.moxiesdowntown.com, that helped a lot, so the staff wouldn't "waste" too much time on the phone taking complicated orders.

The thing I didn't like: they close at 4pm, and I needed some food in the evening.

Very good place, the food is fresh and tasty, and the prices are right. Too bad I didn't have a chance to eat there again as I stayed in Tampa just for the weekend and they are off on Saturday and Sunday, what a shame.

www.moxiesdowntown.com

A beauty!

A lot of friends told me that this airport was the best, I can now agree with them.

Easy to navigate, people flow is easy, you don't get lost so easily as in other airports. An extra nice touch is to divide the airport in Blue and Red areas depending on the airline you are flying with, so the lounge, the airtrain and the satellite will be color coded and you just need to know your airline and gate to be ready to go. On the arrival side, it is much easier, you disembark and follow the color/airline to your carousel in a route that will be straight forward.

Vehicle flow was a breeze due to the correct planning of all the access and the layout of the departure and arrivals areas, everything is perfectly organized and you don´t need to get in areas you don´t want to be in. If you are there for a departure, the traffic for arrivals won't bother you at all and vice versa. There are three lines at each section, just for download or pickup and a fourth one for through traffic. As long as the driver stays with the vehicle there are no problems with the cops or your car being towed away. At departures areas there are lots of curbside baggage check in counters. At arrivals area, there are big outdoor display board with the arrivals information, so drivers can stay at their cars while waiting for their passengers, neat. And also, a nice touch is that the carousels are assigned to specific airlines, so frequent flyer's are always picked at the same gates.

And for taxis and shuttles things are just neat, at the end points of the arrivals areas you get a waiting room and meeting point for the shuttle of your preference. I got arrangements with Blue One and they ask you to call them when your plane lands, in the time it takes you to walk from your gate to the carousels and go out they will be ready to pick you, great timing and planning.

Downtown Tampa is just 15-20 minutes away (except of course at rush hour) and it costs around US$10-12 by shuttle or US$20 by cab, prices are of Feb '07.

Take a look at Tampa's Airport website, very informative.
www.tampaairport.com