What are the best day trips from St. Petersburg?

Tarpon Springs, 48 km north of St. Petersburg on Alt US-19, is likely the best couples day trip from the city. The Greek sponge-diving community settled here in the early 1900s, and Dodecanese Boulevard still smells like grilled octopus and sea salt by 11am. One of you eats loukoumades at Hellas Restaurant (the honey-soaked dough balls run about $8) while the other walks the Sponge Docks and the Spongeorama museum. You reconvene for a $25-per-person seafood lunch at Rusty Bellies on the waterfront, where the grouper sandwich is better than anything on Beach Drive back in St. Pete. The drive takes 40 minutes without I-275 traffic. Worth noting, the town gets quieter after 3pm when the tour buses leave. Most shops on Dodecanese Boulevard close by 6pm, so a noon arrival gives you the best 4-5 hour window.

Sarasota sits 64 km south of St. Petersburg on US-41 and splits neatly for two people with different interests. The Ringling Museum (66 acres on Sarasota Bay, $25 adult admission) gives the history-and-art partner 3-4 hours of Ca' d'Zan mansion tours and Baroque paintings, while the food-and-shopping partner can spend that same window on St. Armands Circle. Columbia Restaurant there serves the 1905 Salad (a Tampa original, about $18) and the boutiques carry things you won't find at International Plaza. Meet back for sunset drinks at O'Leary's Tiki Bar on Bayfront Park, where the water turns copper around 8:15pm in June. That said, US-41 through Bradenton can add 20-30 minutes during snowbird season, roughly November through April. In summer, the drive is a clean 50 minutes.

For a beach day together, Anna Maria Island (56 km south of St. Petersburg, about 55 minutes) beats Clearwater Beach by a wide margin. Bean Point on the island's north tip has no concession stands and no jet ski rentals. The sand is a fine white powder that squeaks underfoot. The tradeoff is parking. Arrive before 9:30am on weekends or you'll circle the residential streets for 20 minutes. Caladesi Island State Park, accessible only by ferry from Honeymoon Island ($18 round trip, runs every 30 minutes, 20-minute ride), is the quieter alternative. The 4 km kayak trail through the mangroves tends to be the highlight for couples who want to do something active together. Fort De Soto Park (24 km south, 30-minute drive, $5 parking) works as a half-day option. North Beach there was ranked #1 in the US by TripAdvisor in 2009, and it still pulls steady weekend crowds from March through October.

Ybor City in Tampa (40 km east of St. Petersburg, 35 minutes via I-275) works best as an evening trip. Cigar manufacturers founded the district in 1885, and 7th Avenue still has hand-rolled cigar shops where warm tobacco smell drifts out onto the sidewalk from places like Tabanero Cigars. Columbia Restaurant's original 1905 location at 2117 E 7th Avenue seats 1,700 across 15 rooms. Order the devil crab, a deep-fried croquette rolled in Cuban bread crumbs, about $4 each. The neighborhood wakes up around 6pm, and restaurants fill by 7:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Mind you, the blocks south of 7th Avenue feel empty after dark, so stick to the main strip. For all of these day trips from St. Petersburg, a rental car is the realistic option. PSTA buses connect to a few nearby destinations, but headways of 30-60 minutes make them impractical for actual day-tripping.