St Petersburg condos - Isla del Sol and Upham Beach

02/01/2024

Freebee is a free, door-to-door, on-demand transportation service brought to you by the City of St. Pete Beach, Florida. Freebee vehicles are 100% electric, and emission-free! Service has been expanded service the whole city! Pick-up and drop-off locations can be anywhere from Pass-a-Grille to the Blind Pass bridge, including some of our favorite destinations such as St. Pete Beach Community Center and St. Pete Beach Library. Freebee caters to all ages, from children to seniors, and all types of pets. Download the Freebee app from the App Store or Google Play to schedule your free ride.

11/21/2023

We are owners of a 2nd St Pete Beach area condo! I need to get a better set of photos and an official listing, but we have a 1 bedroom / 1 bath condo a block and a half from Upham Beach on 68th st. It will be available for monthly rental beginning in 2024! DM me for details and rates.

05/30/2023

If yoga is your thing, you'll want to check out The Salty Yogis - Beach Yoga while in St Petersburg! They have daily practice at Upham Beach (a 15 minute drive from our condo). They post their upcoming schedule of classes every week with details and time for each day - if weather is iffy check the site before you go to confirm. All their instructors are great and very welcoming, and classes tend to be a mix of regulars and visitors. I especially like the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions that are well attended, and their sunset practices are great you can't beat the view! This is a donation-based group (I'd suggest $10 to 20), so no need to register just show up with your mat and enjoy! 🧘🏝️

05/29/2023

It's been a while since we've posted restaurant recommendations so I thought i'd list out some of our favorites. We are Publix/eat-at-home kind of people so there's a LOT more to explore, but here's some of our go-to's and "want-to-try-soon" places:

Circo Italian Kitchen, in Tierra Verde about a mile from our place, great NY style pizza and lots of other tempting italian dishes from what I saw when I picked up. Just what pizza should be in my opinion - NY style, crispy crust not flopped down by too much cheese and sauce, good quality toppings, not 'cheap' but around $20 a pizza for most of their items and they're good size pizzas. Bustling little place, it's in a strip mall but a very small/quiet one and the atmosphere seemed very pleasant especially with kids (outdoor area is shaded in evenings).

The Island Grille and Raw Bar, in Tierra Verde also about a mile from our place. Seafood joint but not quite as touristy as Crabby Bills and some others in the area (though we enjoy those too). Nice outdoor patio, casual but nice atmosphere, nice little outdoor bar area. Food is solid and not overly expensive. I loved the pasta seafood dish i got there. Really nice outdoor waiting area if there's a wait for a table.

Chile Verde, 4801 34th St (HWY 19) in St Pete. Great for mexican food take out, you can eat in but the atmosphere is not desirable (it's fine just very plain). The food exceeds the atmosphere by a lot. If you want good mexican food atmosphere, Grand Hacienda in St Pete Beach is popular (I did not love it), and we had great tacos at Agave up towards Treasure Island area.

Brass Monkey - Pass-a-grille beach. Our go-to for better-than-average wings, bar food and sunsets. Owners are from Baltimore area so ample crab offerings and old bay is plentiful. Small but fun place with a great outdoor 2nd floor patio.

Phila Deli - Tierra Verde. Sandwiches and other simple entrees. Nice comfortable eat-in for casual meals. Of course the cheesesteak is really good but a lot of good sandwiches and they're well known for their breakfast (I have not tried it).

Want to watch a game on TV? Burger-ish is a great spot in Dolphin Village, St Pete Beach. Great burgers and sandwiches etc. fun atmosphere with lots of tv's and very comfortable family dining spot.

I have to mention my favorite burger in the area - The Burg Bar and Grill near downtown St Pete on Central Ave. Relatively easy parking area (west of crowded downtown area), tiny place but has a nice little outdoor seating area. I always get the western BBQ burger with house-made chips. I also like Oak & Stone artisan pizzas if you want a little more upscale-not-fancy experience downtown, and they have a huge drink / beer selection.

Been wanting to try a couple of newer spots in st pete beach - Fo'cheezy (like Melt, I guess but i have not been yet), and Prima Cantina. Let me know if you try these!

The new Starbucks in Dolphin Village - St Pete beach is great, nice and spacious place if you want to get out of the house for an hour it's a good 'stay a while' starbucks location.

04/18/2023

New patio furniture added today, just in time for sunset!

06/24/2022

01/11/2022

Adding some photos to show how the condo is stocked, kitchen supplies etc.

12/12/2021

Early morning December fog gave way to a beautiful day for a walk to the beach

10/21/2021

It's a 1 to 1.5 mile walk over the newly completed Tierra Verde bridge, and a great way to view the sunrise and skyway bridge in the distance.

09/16/2021

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch as seen from our balcony tonight

06/04/2021

New kitchen cabinets and quartz countertops.

05/02/2021

Probably our favorite beach area nearby is Passagrille, about 2 miles from our place. It has a great stretch of beach and a quaint little shopping and town area. It's home to the famous Hurricane Restaurant. It is less touristy than most of the gulf coast and St Pete beach areas, mostly locals and snowbirds, not many hotels south of the Don Cesar in south St Pete Beach. I like to bike or drive to 22nd ave as shown on the map below. There's a bike rack or car parking there and it's the furthest north point for the metered parking. When you go through the beach access, if you turn right (north) you will find less crowded beaches since you are heading away from the town and most of the parking. Go south and it's busy and crowded but not so much so that you feel cramped. Walk a mile or so south and you come to the little Passagrille town center. There's a gathering area pictured in photos called Paradise Grill on the beach, where folks gather and there's food and on weekends there's music and craft vendors, popular place for sunset. The town center has shops and restaurants that are quaint or rustic whatever you want to call it. I love Brass Monkey it has good pub-type food and nice balcony. We've eaten at Grace restaurant for higher end meals. More comments in the photos...

03/28/2021

Photos I took at sunrise / moon set from the newly completed pedestrian and vehicle bridge to Tierra Verde and Ft Desoto

03/25/2021

Just added a new sectional sofa to the living room.

02/11/2021

Early morning walk over 'the bridge'. The bridge from our complex to St Pete Beach is the Delgado Memorial bridge, it is a half-mile span and 80 feet tall at the top. The walk out our front door to the far side of it is almost exactly 1 mile (so 2 miles round-trip). My searches did not turn up who Delgado was so if you know please post in the comments!

02/06/2021

Great walk today. I go out our door, over the bridge toward the Don Cesar, then cut over to the beach at Cabrillo Ave. I walked all the way to the tip of Pass-a-grille. This is a great, long Saturday walk, although it gives me some blisters. Back home in perfect time for a big lunch as a reward from Phila Deli I got the 12 inch cheesesteak and highly recommend https://www.facebook.com/PhilaDeliFLA

01/01/2021

St Petersburg fireworks from our balcony

11/02/2020

Fall means great early sunsets! This is today at 5:45

10/07/2020

I came across Lazarillo Park while on a walk. It has a modern playground, nice tennis courts, and a shady shelter. Not certain it is officially available to anyone to use, but it was all open and no signs indicating otherwise. This is about a mile walk over the bayway bridge or there seemed to be ample street parking. Noon on a Tuesday and it was completely empty.

10/07/2020

The gulf coast is known for its sunsets but our condo specializes in sunrise views

09/27/2020

A few shells we've picked up jogging or walking on nearby beaches. We don't really even look hard for shells who knows what you can find if you do! There are tons of them along local beaches. Haven't found a fully intact sand dollar yet but have a couple there just with chipped edges.

09/08/2020

RESTAURANT INFO: Here are some meal and restaurant ideas, provided under assumption you can google specifics of location to get there. I'll try to update this over time as we venture out more. I'm sure there are many options that I'm missing or better than what i have here.

We don't eat out that much anyway, and with restrictions and Covid impacting eating out, the Publix supermarkets are a standard destination for us when using the condo. There is one in St Pete Beach west of us and one east of us on Hwy 19/34th street. They have nice prepared foods, great deli, awesome bakery (try the key lime pies or carrot cake cookies if available). There's also a small grocery that you don't have to go through toll booth to get to called Bayway Country store it has deli and prepared foods and butcher in addition to basic convenience store stuff.

We love the Pass-a-grille beach area around 10th ave., there are several restaurants within easy walk of each other as well as a little quaint shopping. Brass Monkey is a favorite, it has better-than-average bar food and some good seafood - the owners are from Baltimore so it is a big NFL/Ravens hangout and has a lot of crab dishes you'd find in Maryland (ample old-bay seasoning). Excellent patio for viewing sunsets, though a little small but it's not usually too crowded. The Hurricane is the best known restaurant in that area, built in an old victorian-style mansion, it has tons of seafood and great views from the rooftop bar/dining area. There are some higher end restaurants too we have not tried. There's also some daily catch restaurants right as you enter pass-a-grille area, the Wharf and Sea Critter cafe. There's a breakfast place called the Sea Horse that seems popular with locals (have not been). The pizza at Gennarro's is excellent... NY style but a little heavier their pies are pretty hearty. Seems like a mom-and-pop place and smells good in there the italian food is probably great too.

The beach front hotels in St Pete Beach have restaurants, some ocean front dining etc., nothing I feel strongly about recommending. Crabby Bills is a solid 'touristy' choice for seafood. Some places have live music in the evenings. I'm sure the Don Cesar hotel nearby has fine dining options too.

A little further away but for a good local burger i really liked a place called The Burg up in St Petersburg almost to downtown. It's a little local bar and you can order and sit outside (I went during lockdown so was only take-out).

There is tons of fast-casual on the 34th street area east of our place. I had tacos at Chile Verde on 34th st it was really good - think Taqueria Mixteca in Dayton but a little nicer place, if you're one of our Dayton friends.

There is a good south FL fast-casual chain called Pollo Tropical, char-broiled chicken, black beans & rice and really nice sauces, just a good solid simple food choice if looking for that. Get the bone-in chicken options they are better than the boneless.

07/18/2020

Sunrise at the beach

06/21/2020

The community pool for our building is a 2 minute walk through the parking area and there is a small waterfront 'beach' available too if you want to lay on the sand without going out to the busy gulf beaches. They are openly accessible we just recommend keeping the green tags with you that are stored in our kitchen, these show that you are a resident/guest.

06/21/2020

Fort DeSoto historical site and beaches are just 7 miles south where there is a fishing pier, world class beaches, and miles of bike and walking paths. There's plenty of parking but it gets crowded late morning on nice days so try to make it down there by 10am or so. There's one toll booth and a $5 per car fee to enter which includes parking.

06/19/2020

Can I walk to the beach from the condo? Sure! But it's about 1.7 miles. The walk is pleasant, the bridge is steep but great exercise (to walk to the far side of the bridge is about 1 mile it's a great morning routine). The Pinellas Bayway is busy with speedy traffic but there is a concrete barrier over the bridge between you and the cars so it feels safe. The rest of the walk is quiet sidewalk walking. There's a beach walkway on Cabrillo in St Pete Beach as shown in the picture or you can also cut through the Don Cesar hotel. Probably better to drive, about 2 miles to 22nd Ave in Pass-a-grille or down to the town center about 8th Ave. There's also a good beach parking area at 46th Ave in St Pete Beach across from the Publix grocery and shopping center. Parking is metered and you can use the Park Mobile app or pay at the kiosks with credit card.

06/18/2020

Our condo is on “Isla del Sol” at the very south tip of the St Petersburg peninsula. More well known nearby areas are St Pete Beach area and the Don Cesar hotel immediately to our west, Gulfport to our east, Tierra Verde to our south. It’s roughly a 30-45 minute drive from any of 3 airports – St Pete/Clearwater (PIE), Tampa (TPA) or Sarasota (SRQ). Orlando, Fort Myers and others are options but are more like 90 minutes plus. Allegiant is typically the cheapest option and flies into Sarasota and St Petersburg. I think you have to go to allegiant’s website to find flights, they don’t fly their routes every day, and some routes are seasonal. Note that the rental car agencies at PIE (maybe SRQ too) are not 24 hours so if you arrive very late you may not be able to pick up a car. There are rental car agencies near condo in St Pete Beach. Uber etc readily available in the area.

06/18/2020