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After spending a few days in Orlando, Tampa Bay is a very close area filled with activities for tourists, with beaches both in Tampa as well as St Pete, St Petersburg and Clearwater, so getting the Tampa Bay CityPASS for a vacation there is a very good idea.
First things first… what is Tampa Bay CityPASS? It is a voucher card that you can purchase, and with it you get the entrance ticket to the most famous attractions in Tampa Bay.
As soon as we got to Florida, we got our booklets, so we can go around the area easily.
An interesting thing is that being a part of the CityPASS booklet for an attraction is basically a seal of excellence, as there are only a handful of attractions included; so in order to make the booklet appealing, the must do activities are in there. Maybe with the exception of The Dali Museum which is another must.
As soon as we got to our hotel, we sat down to do our scheduling with the CityPASS booklets.
Photo Credit: Dayana Barrionuevo
The attractions included on Tampa Bay CityPASS are:
- Busch Gardens
- The Florida Aquarium
- Tampa´s Lowry Park Zoo
- Clearwater Marine Aquarium
And the choice of either:
- Museum of Science & Industry
- Chihuily Collection
I am doing a particular article about each attraction, so you can follow either the links for them, or subscribe.
Something to note about the booklet is that it not only includes the entrance tickets for the attractions, but they also provide special discounts on the merchandising stores, or discounts on upgrades.
There are a lot of discounts available on the Tampa Bay CityPASS.
Photo Credit: Guillermo Paz
When you put together entrance ticket against entrance ticket of everything you can do, the booklet offers you a 53% discount… basically you pay half. But, if you consider that you are probably going to Busch Gardens on your Tampa trip, and that one is 79 bucks, and you think that if you add 20 bucks on top of that you get the booklet with tickets for four more attractions, you can´t doubt it. It´s a good deal. So as long as you have 2 or 3 days to use the Tampa Bay CityPASS, you will come up saving nicely. If you also use the discounts, that also chimes in.
Another thing that the booklet lets you save is in waiting times. It happened to us particularily even moreso in Texas, but in Tampa you will also skip some lines by presenting the booklet.
Tweet this quoteHow to schedule using of the Tampa Bay CityPASS?
I will try my best to give you some tips.
- Give Busch Gardens a full day. You will need it, and won´t regret it.
- Take one day for both Aquariums. You can do one in the morning, then take it easy and have a late lunch around 1PM and go to the other after lunch. You pick which one first, the order is interchangeable.
- A day to divide between Tampa´s Lowry Park Zoo and the afternoon for one of the optionals.
In conclusion, it is a very good deal to get the Tampa Bay CityPASS if you are travelling to the area, but if you are going on a family trip, say of four people, you may be saving 400 bucks minimum, making it a no brainer.
Have you used Tampa Bay CityPASS? Let me know your experience in the comments section. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for more travel tips and reviews.