Clearwater FL on a Budget

How We Got There

We flew Spirit for the first time. I was nervous about this because I heard that Spirit had low ratings of getting flights canceled or to the destination on time. I was doubly nervous because there was bad weather coming into Minneapolis and I did not want my quick weekend trip to Florida to be thwarted by either of these factors.

Luckily we had no trouble at all getting there! Our $80 flights straight from Minneapolis to Tampa was SO worth it. We were only gone for three days, so it wasn’t hard to pack light in backpacks to avoid the baggage fees. Collin and I always just use carry-ons when we travel anyways, so we found it was easy. So many budget airlines get you with the baggage fees, so it is important to look at what your airline’s policies include.

Where We Stayed

In Florida, we rented a car and stayed in an Airbnb in St. Petersburg. This one. Some people avoid rooms on Airbnb that are not “entire spaces,” but we have had great luck with single “private rooms.” These are spaces where some of the house may be shared with residents or other guests. Private rooms are usually much cheaper than renting a whole apartment or home to yourself. For some longer trips we like to rent out the entire space or get a hotel, but for a short weekend trip this worked perfectly.

Things We Did

The highlight of our trip was Caladesi Island. This island was nearly empty, and the sand was soft and white, and the water was light blue and beautiful. We had a hard time figuring out how to get to the island, and I had to do some research. I’ll make it easy for you and give you directions on how to get to the island:

Drive north past Clearwater to Dunedin, and then take Causeway Blvd to Honeymoon Island and into Honeymoon State Park. It costs a few dollars to get into the state park, but then you’ll continue driving and following the signs for the ferry. There’s a large parking lot for the ferry where you’ll park and proceed to the ticket booth. It’s a few dollars to ride the ferry, and it runs fairly often. The ferry takes you directly to the island and the beach.

We got on the first ferry of the day, and there were only about twenty people on it, which means there were only twenty people on the Caladesi Beach for the first hour or so, and there were probably only about fifty people there total that day. It is a long beach and we walked fairly far down before we chose our beach spot, so we barely saw anyone the whole time we were there. We spent hours on the beach, and it was heavenly. I love bringing a good book to a beach, and “You Can’t Touch My Hair” by Phoebe Robinson was a perfect beach read.

The other beach that we spent time at was Clearwater Beach. This beach was wonderful, but it was very busy. The main tip I have is to get there early to get a close parking spot, and then walk to the shops for lunch. We parked in a hotel parking garage that is right across from the beach. For drinks, we walked over to The Crow’s Nest. We also went there for sunset one night because the drinks we good and the views of the beach were phenomenal. 

Food and Restaurants

While we were on this Florida trip, we tried to eat at quick, cheap places near the beaches for lunch and nice places for dinner. We walked to Jimmy Hula’s restaurant for tacos and guacamole near Clearwater Beach for lunch while we were at that beach. At night we went to  for drinks to watch the sunset.  One of our friends recommended Dockside Dave’s for dinner, which was a bit pricier, but it was SO much delicious food. For breakfast, we stopped by a Target and picked up some bagels and cream cheese to have every morning. We also got stuff for a picnic lunch for the day we were in Caladesi Island.

It was a great trip, and we are definitely hoping to return again someday. What are some things you would recommend to us for that area?