Clearwater Beach, Florida

After a lot of searching on the Internet for hotels and looking around, we finally decided to stay at Clearwater Beach for 6 nights.  We were able to get an Ocean view room at the Days Inn right across the street from the beach.  The popular Pier 60 was within easy walking distance.

Clearwater is a city of over 100,000 people, making it one of the bigger Tampa/St. Petersburg suburbs.  Clearwater Beach is one of the most popular beaches in the area.  We really enjoyed staying so close to the beach and Pier 60 made for easy access to evening entertainment with it's entertainment and vendors selling homemade crafts and art.  

The Clearwater/St. Petersburg area has a great deal of things to do.  In addition to several miles of beaches, there are several museums, a botanical center, an aquarium, several tour boat rides and a host of other activities.  We focused our time mostly on the beaches this year.     

Thoughts and Recommendations

• Everyone should stay in a hotel facing the ocean at least once in their life.  It was $25 a night extra for us, and it was worth it.  Frankly, our room wasn't that great except for the view, which made it totally worth it.   
• The beach is wonderful.  Try different beaches too, because each one is different.  Clearwater Beach had the best sand overall of all the beaches we've been in the area, but it was also the worst for shells if you want to find some of those.  
• Off-season is a great time to go if you can - it's not nearly so busy.