Has anyone stayed in the Tampa area?

[claraquack]

And if so where did you stay? We are planning a Florida trip next April but didn't want to stay in Orlando as our children are a little young to ONLY do theme parks. I am thinking of St Pete's beach area as it would be nice to be on the coast but as we will probably want to go to Busch Gardens and the waterpark, plus I am hoping to take my dd1 to Disney for a day trip, does this sound like we will be too far away from everywhere?

Have stayed at St Petes Beach and enjoyed our stay there but you will ideally need a car to get around.

Tampa is also a very nice airport to fly into (BA do flights directly there); far less crowded than Orlando. St Petes is certainly convenient for Busch Gardens (its about 30 minutes away).

How old is your DD1?. Staying on the coast though puts you about a 3 hours drive away from WaltDisneyWorld. Its a long way to travel there from the Tampa area for a day trip to Disney.

Ok three hours to Disneyworld is probably a little far! We will be flying into Miami as we actually live in the Caribbean. We have relatives just north of Miami so planning to stay with them for a couple of days then drive up to Tampa via somewhere like Fort Myers/Sanibel/Captiva.
My dd1 is 4. I wouldn't bother with Disneyland this time (we will probably be up in the States a couple of times a year while we are here, so Orlando can wait until they are both a bit older) but she is really into Mickey Mouse et al at the moment and desperate to go!
Perhaps we should stay closer in and do a day trip to the beach. Not that the actual BEACH is that important as we live near so many of them, we just thought it would be nice to be on the coast!
We will hire a car.

Sorry, forgot to say, thanks for that, that's really helpful.

Oh no, not Miami!. Its a terrible airport to fly into, so many people have complained about their Immigration "service" on arrival.
Basically you get shouted by anyone in uniform at and wait times at Immigration can be very long. You are thus warned!!.

I'd seriously consider flying into Tampa instead.

Yes I know about Miami having flown in ther several times when we lived in Jamaica. It is AWFUL and you do get treated appallingly....unfortunately, it is the only place in the States we can fly into direct from here (St Lucia). We could fly via Peurto Rico or transit Miami and fly direct into Tampa from there (although I fear that would still mean clearing immigration in Miami) but this all pushes both the price up and the travelling time....