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St. Pete Beach (St. Petersburg)

St. Pete Beach is another overbuilt barrier island and on much of the island it's hard to tell you're even near the beach except for the names of the hotels and businesses which use beachy-sounding names. The upside to St. Pete Beach is the long beautiful white beaches and clean water that's great for swimming. Also there is plenty to do in the area and lots of excellent restaurants of all types where you can find something to eat any time of the day or night, something that's tough to do on some of the less developed islands. There is no shortage of hotels (including the world famous Don Cesar), condominiums, and other lodging. The southern part of the island, called Pass a Grille, is quite a nice little beach community with a wonderful beach. From the bay side of Pass a Grille, at the Merry Pier, you can catch the shuttle to Shell Key. I highly recommend going to Shell Key for snorkeling, or just a long beach walk. Egmont Key is also nearby and can be reached by ferry from Fort Desoto Park. You can find out even more specific information on the beaches and parks of St Pete Beach on my new St Pete Beach website located at www.best-of-st-pete-beach.com.

Do you have all the beach gear you need to be comfortable during your beach vacation? I've got some great suggestions & tips for you. Have a look at some beach chairs, umbrellas, totes, floating chairs, towels, kids gear, and a LOT more!


Helpful links: St. Petersburg weather Citizen weather station reporting weather, marine forecast, tides. Very detailed. Pass-A-Grille Beach Photos More of my photographs of the beach and the neighborhood of Pass-A-Grille.	Live Beach Web Cam Outstanding web cam shows excellent views of the beach at the Don Cesar hotel on St Pete Beach. Best Beach Restaurants Bob and Becky Griffin of Indian Rocks Beach have published a beautiful full-color book of recipes from many of the very best beach restaurants in the Tampa Bay area.

Buying a home in St. Petersburg

scott hoag mortgage expert in St. Petersburg, FL You know what a nightmare it can be these days to get financing for a home. It can be almost as bad as financing a used car! So you need someone you can trust. Someone who will go overboard for you, down to the last detail. You want someone who understands that the most important thing is YOU, not the commission. Well let me introduce you to Scott Hoag. Scott is with Gulf & Southern Mortgage and has been a mortgage consultant since 1994. You can call Scott at 727-344-3995, or you can stop by his website where he provides lots of free information for home buyers.

How about checking out his free information on "how to buy a home with zero down payment", or "how to sell your house in less than 24 hours," and read lots of other free info on his site www.livinginstpete.com.

I can tell you that Scott doesn't stop at "good enough," he goes all out to make sure you are happy and that you get what you need. And there aren't many people that do that anymore. This is not a paid advertisement and I don't get a cut of any business that may result from you reading this and giving Scott a call. Read more about Scott Hoag's qualifications as a mortgage expert.

Below you'll find a few photos of a recent evening I spent on Pass A Grille Beach. Below that are some pretty good daytime photos of St. Pete Beach.

A breezy early fall Sunday evening finds a few people stretching their weekend well past sunset on Pass A Grille.

The appearance of thousands of minnows in the shallows brings hundreds of seagulls within seconds.

Night falls on Pass A Grille. Not everyone is called away from the beach. Some are just arriving.

Pass-A-Grille Historic District "nightlife."

The center of activity on Pass-A-Grille (other than the beach) is the three-level Hurricane Restaurant.

The docks at the Merry Pier.



		Pass a Grille draws a pretty good crowd, especially on weekends and holidays, but the beach is never really packed with people, mainly because the parking is limited, though there is a lot more parking here than on most Pinellas County beaches. Actually the parking runs almost the entire length of Pass a Grille. Still it isn't quite enough on crowded weekends. More Pass-A-Grille Beach Photos

		During the week, the south end of Pass a Grille is fairly quiet and there is plenty of parking. Here a youngster enjoys floating in a very calm and very warm Gulf of Mexico in mid July.

		At the southernmost point of Pass a Grille, a quiet trail leads to the jetty and the beach.

		There's nothing like a late summer sunset over the Gulf. This is one of the most beautiful I've seen.

		After sunset, the lights of St. Pete Beach glow brightly.

		Sunset in the 8th Avenue historic business district. There are some VERY fine restaurants here, as well as arts and crafts galleries. And of course, a bar or two.

		The Hurricane Restaurant: a landmark multi-storied restaurant/bar/entertainment complex is situated across the street from the beach right in the middle of Pass a Grille and keeps the hungry and thirsty beachgoers happy late into the evening.

		Further north on St. Pete Beach there are a few public accesses amid the hotels and resorts. This is a typical beach scene on a St. Pete Beach public access.

		Another typical St. Pete Beach scene in front of the hotels and resorts. It's a pretty nice beach.

		The northernmost public access in St. Pete Beach is at Upham Beach. Upham beach is currently undergoing a construction project to create some kind of erosion control groins that stick out into the water so there is a bunch of construction equipment on the beach. Hopefully it will all be over soon. Note the funky concrete art deco wave facade that divides the beach from the parking lot.

		Upham suffers from severe erosion. This photo shows the beach after renourishment. Find out more about the controversy surrounding yellow Geotubes at Upham Beach installed to combat erosion.

		Here is another photo of Upham Beach. I've noted some of the landmarks on the photo. Below is an evening view of St. Pete Beach from Treasure Island, looking south across Blind Pass. No other island between here and Marco has this many lights at night. Many islands south of Tampa Bay have almost completely dark skylines at night.

		If you want to play, you've got to PAY! The signs at the beach entrance make it clear. Parking on St Pete Beach is generally 25 cents for 12 minutes. It adds up.

		Most Gulf beaches have a nice collection of shells constantly washing up on the beach. During the winter months shells seem to be much more plentiful. You never know what you're going to find on the beach. Here is a photo of the beach at low tide at Pass A Grille.


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Go back to index of beaches.		More Pass-A-Grille Beach Photos