Travel agents and deals

Disney Packages and News

cruise travel agent near me

Travel Packages & Deals

Travel Agents Near Me

ASTA Accredited Agency
American Airlines Travel Agents
Disney Authorized Travel Agents
Universal Certified Travel Agents
Sandals Certified Travel Agents
Disney EarMarked Agency
ALGV Travel Agents
WeddingWire Agency
Aulani Travel Agents
IATAN Accredited Agency
TheKnot Agency
College of Disney Knowledge Travel Agents
Travel Leaders

Tampa Cruises Near Me, Deals & Cruise Travel Agents Near Me

We recognize that cruise vacations are not just an investment, but often the highlights of our lives, and we take that responsibility seriously. We want to ensure you have the best vacation experience. Interested in a job in travel? Click here to learn: How to Become a Cruise Travel Agent


Categories: Us Cities > Tampa

Tampa

Located on Florida's Central West region, Tampa Bay is a large body of water emerging from the Gulf of Mexico and is also the name of this region of Florida encompassing many cities including Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Tampa is Florida's third largest city and its cities surrounding the bay account for one of the state's largest metropolitan areas. While not as showy as Miami or as full of tourists as Orlando, the Tampa Bay area is in fact a great place for visitors with its many waterways, great beaches, family-friendly attractions and the outstanding African-themed Busch Gardens featuring exotic animals, amusement rides, wildlife habitats and nature exhibits.

Free Tampa Vacation Package Quote

Today, Tampa is known as a prosperous business center with many corporate headquarters located in the area. Tampa is home to the MacDill Air Force Base on the southern tip of the peninsula, downtown Tampa to the north and the Hillsborough River which runs through the city, Busch Gardens, University of South Florida and the University of Tampa. Across the sparkling bay to the west is the peninsula with St. Petersburg to the south on the bay-side of the peninsula and Clearwater on the north end of the peninsula on the gulf side. Made up of mostly residential neighborhoods known for its largely elderly population, this area is home to sandy beaches, serene neighborhoods with manicured lawns, plenty of parks to enjoy the nearly daily sun and of course plenty of retail shopping and dining. Those looking for a bit more life will want to head to St. Petersburg Beach with its late-night hot spots, restaurants and hotels.


Quick Facts

  • Climate:

    Summers last from May through October and are hot and stormy with temperatures ranging from 75-90° F, and temperatures throughout the rest of the year range from 55-75° F

Free Tampa Vacation Package Quote

Categories: Us Cities > Tampa

Overview

Introduction

Tampa Bay, Florida, has much to recommend it: Busch Gardens (which predates Disney World), impressive museums, winning sports teams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Lightning), fishing charters, state and local parks, one of the country's largest ports, rocking nightlife and a wealth of tourist attractions.

Tampa has sharks and rays at the Florida Aquarium and the more lovable manatees at the zoo. At Busch Gardens, you can ride across re-created African plains in a safari truck, stopping to hand-feed roaming giraffes. Or you can go to sea on a fishing charter and try to catch your own wildlife.

In Ybor City, the historic Cuban neighborhood, you can amble down brick streets, following your nose to bakeries to buy fragrant loaves of Cuban bread or to shops where tabaqueros hand-roll fine cigars. Lively Spanish conversation might lead you to an old-fashioned domino parlor where grandfathers with gnarled hands gather to play in friendly neighborhood matches. Antiques shops, boutiques and art galleries beckon. After dark, the nightclubs throw open their doors, and Ybor City metamorphoses into a hip nightlife spot.

St. Pete (the local name for St. Petersburg, Florida) is only a 30-minute drive away, and the gorgeous Gulf Coast beaches are about a 45-minute drive. The theme parks of Orlando, Florida, are about 90 minutes to the east.

Must See or Do

Sights—Check out the architecture, shopping and nightlife in Ybor City; spend a day (at least) at Busch Gardens; enjoy a movie at the historic Tampa Theatre; take in a Broadway musical at the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.

Museums—The Tampa Museum of Art; the Museum of Science and Industry; the Alhambra-inspired Henry B. Plant Museum at the University of Tampa; the Salvador Dali and Dale Chihuly museums in nearby St. Petersburg.

Memorable Meals—Authentic Spanish and Cuban cuisine (complete with flamenco dancers) at the Columbia Restaurant; a slab of beef at Bern's Steak House; authentic Italian fare at Bella's Italian Cafe.

Late Night—A comedy act at The Improv; drinks at The Hub, a Tampa institution; a warm evening of conversation and top microbrews at Ybor City's New World Brewery or club hopping among Ybor's outrageous nightclubs.

Walks—The Tampa Riverwalk through the heart of downtown; Bayshore Boulevard; nearby Clearwater Beach at sunset; walking along the piers at Channelside; an early-morning stroll through Flatwoods Wilderness Park to watch for wild boar, deer, egrets and sandhill cranes.

Especially for Kids—The Florida Aquarium; Adventure Island's Wahoo Run, a spiral waterslide; the Lowry Park Zoo, with its more than 1,000 animals and safari rides; Glazer Children's Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry for more inquisitive kids.

Geography

Greater Tampa, a major port city, sprawls around the northern end of Tampa Bay. The beaches of the Gulf of Mexico are west across Old Tampa Bay, and the city of St. Petersburg is southwest across the bay. Bridges and a long causeway stretch across Old Tampa Bay (with signs warning you to check your gas gauge) to link the city to St. Petersburg and the popular beachfront communities of Clearwater, St. Pete Beach and other smaller resort towns set along the narrow, interconnected barrier islands just offshore.

North of downtown are Busch Gardens, Adventure Island, the Museum of Science and Industry, a cluster of parks and the University of South Florida.

The Hillsborough River, the main source of Tampa's drinking water, weaves through the city from the northeast. The river passes right through downtown, providing beautiful riverside vistas, parks and walkways.

Tampa's streets are basically laid out in a grid. The east-west divider is Florida Avenue. Kennedy Boulevard divides north from south. Interstate 75, just east of downtown, and Interstate 275, running directly through town, are major north-south routes. Interstate 4 runs from Tampa to Daytona Beach on the Atlantic Coast and is the preferred route to Walt Disney World and the other Orlando-area attractions. I-275 continues west across Tampa Bay via Howard Franklin Bridge to connect with St. Petersburg.

History

The Calusan and Timucuan people were the original inhabitants of the area. Centuries later, around 1500, the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto arrived. Staking claim to the Native Americans' real estate, the Spanish also attempted to convert them to Christianity. The ensuing bloodshed lasted for more than 300 years. By then Tampa and the rest of Florida were becoming settled, and in 1824, Fort Brooke was built nearby to subdue the remaining resistant Seminoles, another of the fierce Floridian groups.

For several decades, Tampa remained a quiet little village surrounded by orange groves. Then, in 1884, transportation baron Henry B. Plant linked the city to Jacksonville by rail. Plant also established a steamship line that connected Tampa to Havana, Florida near Tallahassee, and he opened the Tampa Bay Hotel in 1891, establishing the city's profile as a winter resort for the rich and famous.

The city got another boost in 1886, when Vicente Martinez Ybor, attracted by lower taxes, moved his cigar factory to Tampa from Key West. He brought thousands of cigar makers with him, swelling Tampa's Latin population and intensifying its Latin flavor. Ybor City supplied money and men for the 1898 Cuban Revolution, and it was a staging ground for U.S. troops during the Spanish-American War.

Tampa became a shipbuilding center during World War I, and the city boomed again in the 1920s, when millionaire developer David P. Davis created Davis Islands by dredging the mud flats in Hillsborough Bay. World War II saw the opening of MacDill Air Force Base.

Today, Tampa is Florida's third-largest city after Jacksonville and Miami. The greater Tampa Bay area, sometimes referred to as the Tampa-St.-Petersburg-Clearwater area, has approximately 3.25 million people, making it the business center of west-central Florida and Florida's second most populous metropolitan area after Miami. In fact, the greater Tampa Bay Area holds nearly 20% of Florida's approximate 21 million residents. It's also an air and sea gateway to the western Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.

Potpourri

Ybor City, Tampa's historic district, is often referred to as the Cigar Capital of the World because of the millions of cigars produced there. You can still watch a master tabaquero hand-roll a cigar there, but Ybor City is also known as a mecca for nightlife and dining.

As a young journalist, Winston Churchill reported from Tampa on the Spanish-American War in Cuba.

Tampa retains its strong ethnic heritage: Spanish, Cuban and Italian. Not surprisingly, Tampa is home to La Gaceta, the nation's only trilingual newspaper (Italian, Spanish and English).

Tampa is the source of about 90% of the tropical fish swimming in U.S. aquariums. Some 12,000 to 15,000 boxes of fish are shipped each week via Tampa International Airport.

El Parque Amigos de Marti in Ybor City contains soil from all of the provinces of Cuba and honors Cuban hero Jose Marti, who created the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

Native Americans from the Calusa tribe called the area Tanpa, which means "sticks of fire." Some believe this name stems from the high concentration of lightning strikes that Tampa Bay receives every year during the hot and humid summer. In fact, Tampa is known in the weather community as the "lightning capital of North America," as measured by the average number of days per year with thunderstorm activity.

The manatees that frequent the Gulf Coast are an endangered species: An estimated 3,500 are believed to live in Florida. The main reason they're endangered is the large number of pleasure boats that ply the waters. The manatees find it difficult to avoid the propellers of the boats—even those that have managed to survive often have visible scars from the blades.

European sailors were known to mistake manatees for mermaids. That they could imagine the homely creatures as alluring maidens of the deep suggests that they had been at sea for a very long time.

Tampa's nickname is the "Big Guava" after its failed attempt to grow guavas and in response to New York's popular "Big Apple" moniker. Every October, the city celebrates with a night parade and festival called Guavaween.

Tampa's biggest annual festival celebrates legendary pirate Jose Gaspar, "last of the Buccaneers," who terrorized the coastal waters of west Florida during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Gasparilla gets under way each January when 1,000 ersatz pirates sail into downtown on a fully rigged pirate ship, a replica of an 18th-century craft that is 165 ft/50 m long by 35 ft/10 m across the beam, with three masts standing 100 ft/30 m tall. The ship is met by a flotilla of hundreds of pleasure crafts intent on "defending the city."

Location

Cruise ships dock in Port Tampa Bay Cruise Terminal, set on Ybor Channel. Tampa is a busy cruise port offering a large variety of resplendent cruise vessels going to such places as the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.

Port Tampa Bay's three cruise-ship terminals have state-of-the-art boarding bridges and a waving deck from which family members can wish passengers bon voyage. Secured parking lots are adjacent to each terminal, and driving directions are available on the Tampa Port Authority website. You can also take a shuttle or taxi from the Tampa airport, which is about 5 mi/8 km from the terminals.

Staff from the convention and visitors bureau meet all the ships and provide tourists with brochures. The Florida Aquarium, American Victory Ship and Museum, Sparkman Wharf, Amelie Sports Arena and a whole slew of shops and restaurants at the Channelside entertainment complex are located within walking distance of the cruise terminal. And you can access complimentary Wi-Fi in the Plaza or at one of the restaurants within the center. The electric trolley connects the cruise terminals with downtown and Ybor City. For more information, visit https://www.porttb.com.

In a separate area of the city is Port Tampa Bay Container Terminal, a busy shipping center for citrus products, cattle and phosphates, petroleum and other products. Tampa is also Florida's largest cargo port by land and tonnage, handling nearly one-third of cargo moving in and out of the state. The port has greatly increased the efficiency and speed for shipping and created a large number of jobs for the Bay area.



Shore Excursions

Most cruise lines offer guided tours for passengers who arrive in advance of the cruise or elect to spend time after they disembark. Though not the least expensive way to see the sights, these excursions free you from having to make arrangements yourself, and the tour operator will be certain to get you to the ship—or to your flight home—on time.

Excursions and their prices vary from cruise line to cruise line. Typical offerings are a sightseeing tour of the historic areas of Ybor City, downtown Tampa, the University of Tampa, and a dolphin ecotour that departs from the aquarium. Other excursions may include an afternoon at the beach or nearby Busch Gardens theme park. Check with your ship's shore-excursion staff or your travel agent for additional information.


Key West Cruises: Sail from Miami or Tampa

Key West Cruises: Sail from Miami or Tampa

If you're considering a cruise from Miami or Tampa, Florida cruise departure, explore an itinerary that includes a stop in Key West. Cruising Key West offers a chance to visit the southernmost point in the United States and experience plenty of local history and culture. You'll find many spectacular sights to see and dynamic activities to do on a cruise to Key West, plus plenty of delicious dishes to try. Read on to learn why visiting Key West is a breeze with Norwegian Cruise Line.


2024 Cruises from Tampa: Sail to Belize, Mexico & More

2024 Cruises from Tampa: Sail to Belize, Mexico & More

Cruising from Florida offers plenty of opportunities to explore the tropics with cruises that stop in The Virgin Islands, Belize, and even Mexico. If you are researching cruises out of Tampa, you'll find two different cruises departing in late 2021. December is a great month to cruise, and what better place to spend the holidays than the warm and sunny Caribbean. Here's everything you need to know about 2021 cruises from Tampa.


2024 Cruises from Florida: Sail from Miami, Orlando & Tampa

2024 Cruises from Florida: Sail from Miami, Orlando & Tampa

Whether you want a warm-weather Caribbean escape, a relaxing Transatlantic cruise, educational and entertaining eco-tourism, or the experience of cruising through the Panama Canal, Norwegian Cruise Line can make it happen from one of our Florida ports. Escape for a quick weekend cruise to the Bahamas or a two week full-transit of the Panama Canal. Our 2021 cruises from Florida will embark in Tampa, Miami, or Orlando (Port Canaveral). If you are considering booking a cruise, here's everything you need to know about our 2021 Florida cruises.


Vincent Vacations - Authorized Tampa Vacation Planner
Questions? Call us at
1 (888) 976-0061

No-Obligation Tampa Vacation Quote Request Form

Free Cruise Package Quote



Tampa Deals

Contact us for the latest Tampa deals.


For Groups of 10 or more rooms, or 8 or more Cabins, please use of Group Form
Click Here for our Group Department


Popular Locations & Brands - Experiences All Over The World!

Click on a location below to learn more. We recognize that vacations are not just an investment, but often the highlights of our lives, and we take that responsibility seriously. We want to ensure you have the best experience.

Business
Become A Travel Agent

Have you got what it takes to become a travel agent?

  • Do you have a huge love of everything travel?
  • Do you have a huge passion for helping people answer questions, like friends and families, who are booking their trips?
  • Maybe you love to talk about travel, even if it's not your own trip, or maybe you obsess over every single detail for your upcoming trip!
  • Have you been booking your own vacations for a long time?

All of these are signs that you are a great fit to become an independent travel agent, and turn your love of travel from passion into profit!

Learn More

Latest Blogs - Our Agents, All Over The World!

Our motto at Vincent Vacations is, we go so you know! We want to ensure you have the BEST experience, whether it's a river cruise, or a corporate group incentive trip, we want to ensure your vacation is a success.

Our services

Many of our travel agents have been in travel since 2002! With Vincent Vacations, all travel components are taken care of - this includes accommodations, air, transfers, tours, activities, insurance, contracts, EVERYTHING.

Romance Travel

Destination weddings, Anniversaries, vow renewals, honeymoons, engagements, elopements, retie the knot, babymoons, proposal trips and more

Group Travel

Corporate group retreats and incentive trips, seniors-only river cruises, friends & family getaways, special group anniversary celebrations and more

Family

All-inclusive resorts, Hawaii, cruises, Europe, African Safaris, exotic Fiji and the islands, there are so many travel options for families

Disney

Adventures by Disney, Disney Cruise Lines, Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Resorts, Aulani, Universal, MyDisneyExperience, Disney Genie, characters dining, and more

Europe

We know Europe! Paris, London, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Swiss Alps, Prague, Amsterdam, Venice, Athens, Vienna, Madrid, let's go!

Cruises

Ocean cruising, river cruising, yacht charters, expeditions, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Viking, Lindblad, there are so many options when it comes to cruising

And SO Much More!

We create custom travel itineraries and trips, and we know travel - Whether it's Universal, river cruises, safaris, yacht charters, Australia, Thailand and more!

Get A Free Quote

Our Great Team is Ready to Make Your Vacation a Success

We serve customers all across the USA
Debt free and in business since 2013. Vincent Vacations has agents in Dallas, Kansas City, Houston, Shreveport, Little Rock, Roswell, Oklahoma City and more locations.

Get your FREE Why Use A Travel Agent Guide Our FREE Guide
Get your FREE Why Use A Travel Agent Guide
Download Now

Travel agents can help save time and stress by doing the research and handling all your bookings for you. An experience travel agent is best at finding great deals and packages, as well as providing you with helpful information and tips. They can also help you plan special activities and experiences that you may not have thought of on your own. All in all, using a travel agent can be a great way to make sure you get the most out of your trip.

View our latest DEALS on our Facebook

About Us

In travel since 2002, and in business since 2013, our travel team serves clients all over the US! Planning a vacation away from home takes a great team. We have taken the time to build a team of dedicated, smart, hard-working personnel who are each committed to excellence and service. We work side-by-side, creating and ensuring INCREDIBLE vacation experiences for you and your group. Our store front in-office team, and our travel consultant independent contractors, work all around the US - we even have a travel agent who lives in Mexico!

travel agent near me
travel agent near me

Start Your Next Trip With Vincent Vacations Today!

In business since 2013, we are your #1 source for travel!

Free Cruise Package Quote