The Best of St. Petersburg, Florida

It was a steamy 90 degrees when my daughter Valerie and I arrived in St. Petersburg early that May afternoon. Valerie, no fool, headed straight to the outdoor pool at the AAA Four Diamond Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, a century-old pastel pink luxury hotel on the North Yacht Basin. I was on a personal mission, though, so I beelined the few blocks to the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, which I’d been dreaming of visiting ever since it opened four years ago.

The only museum in the world dedicated to the American Arts and Crafts movement, it’s one of numerous important art institutions in St. Petersburg, known colloquially as St. Pete. There’s also The Dalí Museum, honoring surrealist artist Salvador Dalí; the Imagine Museum of contemporary glass art; and, if you want to immerse yourself in today’s most famous artist of the medium, The Chihuly Collection presented by Morean Arts Center, with its permanent collection of 18 pieces; and, surprising here on the East Coast, The James Museum, which features Native American, Western and wildlife art. The free Downtown Looper trolley connects them all.

All that museum wealth is tucked into this central Florida city of 250,000 located near Tampa on the Gulf of Mexico. Sure, the sprawling beaches and blue waters of the coast attract many of those who visit, but if you’re looking for something to do in addition to sunning and swimming, St. Pete has it in abundance.

Museum Mania

The city’s stunning museum scene developed fairly recently. Yes, the Museum of Fine Arts with its small but varied collection has graced the downtown waterfront since 1965, and The Dalí opened in St. Pete in 1982 (after moving from Beachwood, Ohio). But it was the 2011 debut of The Dalí’s new avant garde home designed by architect Yann Weymouth that garnered wider recognition for both the museum and the city as an arts destination. Then, 2018 brought both the Imagine Museum and The James Museum, followed in 2021 by the Arts and Crafts museum.

While Valerie lazed by the pool, I learned more about the Arts and Crafts movement that emerged near the end of the Victorian era as a reaction to the development of mass production. It lasted until the early 1930s and emphasized craftsmanship as well as simplicity, beauty, functionality and depictions of the natural world.

At any given time, the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement displays some 800 to 1,000 objects, including furniture, pottery, tiles, lighting, metalwork and fine arts by well-known American creators such as Gustav Stickley, Frank Lloyd Wright, Newcomb Pottery, the Roycrofters and many more. I spent more than two hours perusing the exhibits before my feet began to ache.

We dined that night at Pan-Asian Fortu, sharing small plates like chilled corn salad and napa cabbage. Valerie, a vegetarian, chose the seasonal mushrooms for her main course, while I indulged in a succulent Wagyu strip steak, medium rare.

The following day, Valerie and I museum-hopped together. First up was The Dalí, a striking building on the bay featuring a large, freeform geodesic glass bubble. We were greeted at the main entrance by a fountain crawling with oversized metal ants. Being only vaguely familiar with the work of the 20th-century Spanish artist, I found the 11-minute film about Dalí and surrealism helpful in understanding the artist and the art, which included works influenced by religion, science, nature, history and, of course, Dalí’s dreams.

The Imagine Museum took us completely by surprise. Its rather vague name and unassuming exterior doesn’t convey the wealth of glass-art beauty contained inside. Drawing from a collection of some 4,000 works by contemporary glass artists from the US and abroad, the museum showcases about 500 works at any one time in exhibits that change seasonally.

During our visit we were particularly drawn to the Blue Madonna gallery—an homage to mothers and women—featuring Gottfried Helnwein’s acrylic blue paintings of women based on Renaissance depictions of the Madonna and other women alongside Trish Duggan’s cast-glass cerulean faces of the Madonna inspired by the Blessed Mother’s visage from Michelangelo’s Pieta. Completing the collaborative exhibit are Duggan’s handblown glass urns emblazoned with the word “mother” in various languages.

We also toured The James Museum, an impressive collection of 20th- and 21st-century Western, Native American and wildlife-themed art showcased in a stunning building in the heart of town. The lobby, punctuated by a waterfall, features sandstone tiles that mimic the striations seen in the landscapes of the Southwest.

Through it may sound otherwise, we didn’t spend all our time inside museums. We also popped into clothing boutiques, home décor shops and jewelry stores, all of which exist in abundance. We treated ourselves to artisan ice cream at Mayday and had an excellent meal alfresco at fine-dining Birch & Vine. And, of course, we returned to that refreshing pool at The Vinoy.

Beachin’ it

Who goes to Florida without hitting the beach? Not us. On the last full day of our trip, we packed our beach bags and headed to the sands at Fort De Soto Park, just about a 20-minute drive from St. Pete. Fort De Soto had come highly recommended by our server the night before, and he steered us in the right direction. Parents Magazine has repeatedly called out the park as a top family destination, and in 2024, it also received the stamp of approval from Dr. Beach, who named it 10th best beach in the country. (It boasts three miles of white sandy beach.)

The fort that gives the 1,136-acre county park its name is a Spanish American War-era fort at one end of the long, narrow strip. Besides exploring the fort, visitors come to bike or stroll part of the park’s seven-mile paved trail, or perhaps to canoe, kayak or birdwatch. There’s also a 2,200-foot barrier-free interpretive nature trail accessible to those with physical challenges.

We contented ourselves with basking in the sun and cooling off in the temperate Gulf waters, so clear that we could see our feet in the sand. We swam and floated and relaxed for what seemed like hours before returning to our rented beach chairs to read for a bit before packing up.

We wanted to check out St. Pete Beach, named the number one beach in the US in 2021 by TripAdvisor users. The beach is at the heart of the barrier-island town of the same name. Here, we found the same soft-white sands, this time backed by high-rise resorts and condos. Perhaps best of all, St. Pete Beach is easily reached from downtown St. Pete via the $5 all-day SunRunner trolley.

Uber-popular Clearwater Beach with its many resorts, shops and restaurants beckoned to the north, but we’d had enough sun and headed back to The Vinoy for a before-dinner drink on its expansive veranda with sink-into upholstered furniture. Beauty was all around us in St. Pete, Valerie and I agreed, and not just in the museums.