BEST BEACH TOWNS In Florida | Tampa Bay Edition | Living In Tampa Florida

So you consider making a move to Florida and you're wondering what the best beach towns are for you and your lifestyle. Well, in today's video, we're going to jump into Tampa Bay and explore not only three of the best beach towns in Florida, but three of the best beaches in America. So grab your sunscreen and let's dive in. If we've never met before, my name is Juan Alcala. We make videos that are all things Tampa Bay, what it's like to live here, what it's like to work here, what it's like to play here, the food, the dining, the outdoors, the beaches and the sunshine. I'm also a licensed real estate agent and I help people just like you buy, sell, relocate, and invest here in the Tampa Bay area. If you're into that type of thing, make sure you hit that subscribe button and click that little bell. That way you can be notified every time we drop a new video. All right. So if you're digging into this video, my guess is that you're probably pretty similar to me and my wife and our family. We're beach babies. And when it came to moving to Florida, really we didn't have any other option other than moving to a coastal community. We were just absolutely enthralled with the idea of coming down and checking out a Gulf coast sunset or walking on the beach in the morning, having dinner on the beach at night. I mean, everything that we ever dreamed about revolved around being close to the water. Now, ironically enough, we thought we were going to live on the Atlantic side of Florida, right? On the ocean side. We have family over there. We were convinced for almost 10 years that's where we're going to live until we discovered a beautiful Gulf coast beach town that we absolutely fell in love with and it completely changed our plans. Well, in today's video, we are going to cover three of our favorite and three of, honestly, some of the best beaches here that we have in America, y'all. And two of them have been ranked and made the TripAdvisor's best beaches in America. We'll get into those details. Maybe we let the cat out of the bag a little bit, but I can't wait to share this with you. Now here in Tampa Bay, you know, people hear Tampa Bay and they think, you know, water and that's part of it. And absolutely Tampa has so much to offer, but what most people don't recognize is the Clearwater St. Pete area is almost 35 miles of white sugar sand beaches. And I got to be honest with you, y'all. It is very difficult to say that any one is better than the other. You know, the locals, we love to argue about which beach is the best in the community, but to be quite honest, it's absolutely stunning from tip to tail. I mean, 35 miles of white sugar sand beaches. There is so much to do. However, there are differences. And we are going to cover some of those today, because honestly, I think if you chose any of these, you're going to be happy with your decision, but Hey, one of them might be a better fit for you. So let's get into them. So first on our list is the world renowned Clearwater beach. Now Clearwater has been recognized by TripAdvisor as the best beach in America. And it's always in a dog fight with beaches like Siesta Key and St. Pete beach and treasure Island. I mean, these things are going round and round here in Florida and it is absolutely gorgeous. But one of the things that really is attractive about Clearwater is all the amenities that it has. Clearwater is about two and a half miles long of white sugar sand beaches. It has beautiful clear blue water, hence the name Clearwater. It's got so many restaurants and shops and boutiques, but you also have the Florida aquarium. You've got the pier pier 60, which is beautiful. There's all kinds of nightlife and incredible hotels in the area as well. One of the things that is a little bit unique about Clearwater beach is it does allow for some short-term rentals, which isn't commonplace in a lot of our coastal communities. And what I mean by short-term is overnights. Most of the beach communities are a seven day minimum which is a little bit longer stay for, for families or for you know, people coming in the weekend. It's not an overnight type of thing, but there are areas in Clearwater that do allow for that. Clearwater beach has about 7,600 residents in total beautiful area. I mean, you can go on dinner cruises, you can go on paddle pub tours, you can go jet skiing, you can rent a boat, you can go sport fishing out of Clearwater beach in the Marina there. There's just so much to do. Now one of the things to take note of living in Clearwater, it is a tourist destination in the United States. So during season in the winter, you know, from February to, especially in spring break time, right? So February through basically Easter, it can swell. There's a lot of tourists that come to the area. So just be prepared for that. If you live in the area. All right. Now, if you want to buy a home on Clearwater beach, that's going to set you back about $910,000. And the average home is a 1,580 square foot, two bedroom, two bath. Now asking prices range from $250,000 on the low end to 6.9 million as of today, but can go much higher. And if buying a $910,000 beach home isn't in your budget, if you drive just over the Clearwater causeway into the city of Clearwater, you can find a reasonably priced home right around $425,000. All right. Now we're going to head South to TripAdvisor's 2021 best beach in America. And if you hadn't guessed it, it is St. Pete beach. This beach is the quintessential old Florida laid back lifestyle. When you think of flip-flops and sunshine and sunsets to me, in my mind, I immediately think of St. Pete beach. I mean, it is a laid back vibe. You've got wonderful bars and restaurants, the rum fish grill. I mean, there's so much to do down there. And if you've never seen the Don Cesaro hotel, man, you got to check it out. This thing is a hidden gem. And, um, not everybody knows about this. This is why I say it's hidden, but it's a landmark, this beautiful pink hotel. You can see it when you're out on the Gulf coast. And when you're looking down the coast and you're just looking South, you can see it. It pokes out at the end of St. Pete beach and it's just the stunning hotel. And as you come up to it, the driveway actually goes up. There aren't many Hills in Florida, but the driveway to the hotel takes you up a few stories. Um, and it is just one of those incredible grand entrances that you've just got to see, you know, you've got the trade winds resort right next to it. And the beach is just absolutely stunning. We have friends and family that come down every year and they come stay in St. Pete beach and they just absolutely love it. And most people who have that laid back flip flop lifestyle, they find this beach extremely attractive with great parks like Fort DeSoto, which actually has one, uh, one of the two dog beaches in St. Pete beach. You've also got shell key and Egmont key, which is a wildlife refuge. There's just so much beauty in this area that is so attractive to a lifestyle. And when you go to Egmont key, like, it is like you're out in a whole different world. All of a sudden the entire world slows down. You lose all of the city vibe. And again, St. Pete beach is not like big city, like Fort Lauderdale, Miami by any stretch of the imaginations. It is old Florida. But when you get out into Egmont key, all of a sudden, I mean the whole world just disappears. It's absolutely incredible. And don't sleep on treasure Island, which is a another beach that makes trip advisors best beach in America regularly. It's absolutely beautiful. I mean, St. Pete beach is spoiled rotten with all of these gorgeous beaches up and down. You cannot go wrong. St. Pete beach has about 8,800 residents. And if you're looking to pick up a home there, it's going to cost you right around $914,000. It's a two bedroom, two bath, 1,556 square foot home. Asking prices currently range from $189,000 for our condo all the way up to 15.6 million for stunning single family home. And if that $914,000 is a little bit steep for your budget in St. Pete beach, you can jump over to the city of St. Petersburg and pick up a home for right around $395,000. And if you're watching this video and you have explored the Tampa Bay area and our beautiful Gulf coast beaches, I would love to know what your favorite beach is down below. I know these lists are so hard to make because trust me, there are beautiful beaches for 35 miles here. Y'all. It's the dirty little secret about Tampa Bay, but you know, we got to pick at some point what we think is going to be the best fit for you based upon what our clients say and what our experience has been. And I love sharing stuff like this. And Hey, if you have any questions about relocating or investing or buying here in the area, don't hesitate to reach out to me and my team. All of my contact information is down below. So while you're down there answering what your favorite beach is, do not hesitate to reach out to us. Be happy to help. And last but not least on this list is none other than Indian rocks beach and the interest of full disclosure, this is our beach. And y'all, I started out this video by telling you that we had a beach town, just absolutely steal our heart. And it was Indian rocks beach. Again, we thought for almost 10 years, we were going to live in the port St. Lucy Stewart Jensen beach area because that is all we ever really knew. And when we came over here, it literally just, it's, it just stole our heart, man. Like we walked out onto that beach. We looked at that Gulf coast sunset, the white sugar sand, the smooth, calm waters of the Gulf. They were nice and warm. And it just absolutely changed everything about what we thought we were doing when we were going to come move to Florida. And it's been almost five years now. And I gotta be honest with you, you know, we've had some challenges here in Florida because Florida's Florida, right? We've got strong storms and hurricanes and all kinds of things that can happen here. Um, and there's always tourism going on and there's a lot of things happening. But the one thing I'll say is this, the people and the culture and the flip flop lifestyle. Like we came for that. You know, when we moved down here, y'all, I retired my suits. They literally have sat in the closet. My wife just asked me if she could get rid of them because we have not wore them. Not a single time since we moved down here. Cause we moved here for the lifestyle. And I know anyone who's still watching this video, you're watching this video because of lifestyle. And let me just tell you, any rocks beach is special to me. You know, we don't have big, tall buildings. There's only a couple of condos that are even over three stories. Um, and the rule here now is you can't make a building that's over three stories. They've done a really good job of preserving the line of sight. So as you're coming over the bridge, you can still see the coast. And you know, our beach is not littered with huge, tall, uh, high rises like Clearwater beaches and Clearwater is beautiful. It does its own thing. But the unique thing about Indian rocks beach is that Bel Air shores is just to the North of us, which is a private community. There's no commerce, there's no restaurants, there's no gas stations, any of those things on the Gulf Boulevard there. And what that does is it quiets all the noise from Clearwater because it goes Clearwater, Bel Air shores, and then Indian rocks beach. And it makes our beach feel very, very quaint. And as you travel South, the beaches start to get busier again, as you get into Redding, Reddington shores and, um, Indian shores and Madeira beach and nothing wrong with that, but just understanding there's a different vibe about them. And the thing I love about Indian rocks beach is I can drive down there on a Tuesday, get public parking, walk right out and go have a sunset and not really be bothered by a whole lot. Um, and it's pretty private in that respect, but we still have access to all of the wonderful amenities that you expect. I mean, you can't drive more than three miles in the state of Florida and not have hit a Publix. I say that tongue in cheek, but when you're on the coast, it definitely is, is like that. So we have fallen in love here. We've raised our three children here. They love the beach. We've met so many families that have come for the same reason as us. And if you're a beach baby or a boat or a fish, you know what being on the coast is all about. You recognize the sense of community that comes along with it. And I hope to convey that at some level. And again, it's so hard to say that one of these beaches is better than the other, or they're not because they all live so similar, but the thing for us with Indian rocks beach was just the, how quaint it was. It really did feel like old Florida without all the crazy, uh, tourism and hotel. And we still have that y'all it's still here, but because we don't have a public parking structure in Indian rocks beach, it's very difficult to have this immense overwhelm. So, you know, again, it gets busy. I'm not saying it doesn't, but it never feels crazy like Clearwater or St. Pete beach. Again, nothing wrong with those beaches, but just recognizing if you're looking for a more laid back lifestyle, it's definitely going to be Indian rocks beach. Um, taking the top of that list, then St. Pete beach and then Clearwater. Cause Clearwater is just busy. But if you're looking for that nightlife activity, things popping off all the time, it's definitely going to be Clearwater. Then St. Pete. And my hope is that this just really lends some perspective so you can make the best decision for you and your lifestyle. Indian rocks beach is definitely the smallest community of the three with 3,700 residents. It's going to cost you right around $910,000 on average, but you do get a three bedroom as opposed to a two like the other two beaches. It is still a two bath and it's 1,611 square feet. So 50 square feet more, just a little bit, right? Y'all and asking prices currently range from about $304,000 all the way up to 9.7 million. Well, I hope this was extremely helpful for you. The one thing I would recommend beyond anything else is get your behind on a plane, come see these beaches because you know what, these three beaches might not be the right one for you. My guess is you're going to love them, but we have 35 miles of beautiful sugar sand beaches here. We've got great communities like treasure Island, Madeira beach, Indian shores, North Reddington. I mean there's so many beautiful communities here. You are not going to be disappointed. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me and my team. I'm going to put two more of these videos up here, exploring these beach communities we talked about today. I hope you enjoy them and until next time go out and live that Tampa life.