Monday, March 1, 2021

Valentine’s Weekend in St. Pete Florida

 The Perfect Weekend in St. Pete, Florida

I’ve been dying to see St. Pete after many friends have told me I’d love it. So I finally booked a hotel, bought my Dali tickets, and I started obsessively planning.

Where we stayed

Hotel Zamora on St. Pete Beach
We weren’t overly thrilled with the hotel or the beach, so I won’t spend much time on it. I will get into details at the end of the post.  We absolutely loved St. Pete and we did not let the hotel ruin our trip! 

Friday Night

We drove up after work on Friday night. It was a super easy drive from SWFL. 

The initial plan was to check-in first and change, but we left later than we wanted. So we headed straight to Downtown St. Pete.

The first stop was supposed to be the St.Petersburg Shuffleboard Club. We were super excited because the 1920’s private club now opens its doors to the public on Friday nights. However, when we pulled up it looked closed, it was 9PM and they close at 10, so we didn’t inquire, but we really want to try it out on the next trip.

The Lure

While trying to find parking, we already started noticing the street murals! And best part? The street meters were free by the time we parked.

I did a lot of research on where to eat. This is a must so that every part of the trip is enjoyable. 

What I liked about The Lure is that it had a great menu with tapas and sushi. They also had pool tables and a fun environment. We were not let down! 

The menu had fun tiki drinks and the food was perfect to start our vacation.


After a late dinner, we checked out bars nearby and saw murals on the way.


The first bar was Intermezzo. It’s a coffee and cocktail bar. They had a cute Valentine’s drink menu. We sat out on the sidewalk and enjoyed the sights of the eclectic city. Being from Minneapolis, I’ve missed living in a big city.


We then walked to what became our favorite bar of the trip, No Vacancy. Imagine a late night 80’s tropical RV park!  They had amazing tiki drinks with Insta quality. We could sit out on the turf and enjoy the DJ and quirky lawn furniture.


Saturday

Our plan on Saturday was to get breakfast at Kahwa Coffee and then attend the downtown Saturday Morning Market. I had read about how amazing the market was, so we were excited to see it.

When the Uber picked us up, he was confused why we wanted to be dropped of at Kahwa. We later found out it was a drive-thru. Oh, but what good coffee! We stayed in the Uber and he took us to the market. Unfortunately, it started to downpour, neither of us had rain jackets or an umbrella, but we kept trucking. We were a little let down by the market. It wasn’t as big as I had read it was. But it could’ve been the weather or the season, or that we are spoiled by the great SWFL markets. But we did find a lady that was selling waffles! And even vegan waffles for me. We made our way into shelter and smiled as we were drenched but loving our coffee and waffles!