AT A GLANCE
AT A GLANCE
| Destination | Clearwater Beach, Florida |
| Time Needed | 3-7 Days |
| Best Time | Anytime |
| Budget | $$-$$$ |
| Must Do | Catch a Clearwater Threshers Game |
| Best Experience | Sunset at Palm Pavilion |
| Walking | Easy |
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT
Clearwater Beach makes it easy to have a full trip without filling every minute of your schedule. Spend the morning at the beach, cool off at the pool, walk to lunch or dinner and still have time for baseball or a Gulf Coast sunset.
Our hotel put us right in the middle of it. The beach was only a short walk away, restaurants were nearby, and we loved having an oceanfront pool to come back to. The hotel confirms that Clearwater’s public beach is about a five-minute walk away, and its heated outdoor pool overlooks the Gulf.
STAY AT HOLIDAY INN & SUITES CLEARWATER BEACH
We stayed at the Holiday Inn & Suites Clearwater Beach, and the location was one of our favorite things about it.
We loved the pool. It has Gulf views and a poolside tiki bar, making it a great place to spend a few hours when you want a break from the sand. The hotel sits along the Gulf on South Gulfview Boulevard, with Clearwater Beach about a five-minute walk away.
The location also made it easy to walk to restaurants and explore the beach area without constantly getting back in the car.
For us, that combination of a great pool, easy beach access and a walkable location made the Holiday Inn & Suites a really good home base for Clearwater Beach.
3 MUST TRY EATS IN CLEARWATER BEACH
We tried three very different spots during our trip.
Taco Bus was our casual stop. It’s the kind of meal that works perfectly on a beach trip when you want something quick and relaxed.
We also ate at Frenchy’s South Beach Café on Beach Walk. Frenchy’s has become almost synonymous with Clearwater Beach, and the South Beach location has open-air dining, a large sidewalk patio and ocean views. Grouper is a big part of the menu here, including its Super Grouper sandwich and grouper egg rolls.
Then there was Palm Pavilion.
This was our sunset spot, and the sunset view was the standout. If I were planning another Clearwater Beach trip, I would intentionally time dinner here around sunset. Sitting near the Gulf as the sun drops over the water is exactly the kind of simple Florida experience that makes a trip memorable.
CATCH A CLEARWATER THRESHERS GAME
You know we love working a baseball game into our Florida trips, and Clearwater gave us another one.
The Clearwater Threshers at BayCare Ballpark are the Minor League affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, and BayCare Ballpark is also the Phillies’ Spring Training home. The stadium opened in 2004 and has a 360-degree main concourse, grass berm seating and even a tiki-hut pavilion in left field.
There’s also some great baseball history here. The Phillies have trained in Clearwater since 1947, making it one of baseball’s longest-running relationships between an MLB team and its Spring Training city.
For us, a Threshers game was a fun way to break up the beach time and add something completely different to the trip.
WOULD I GO BACK?
Absolutely. Clearwater Beach works especially well when you want a Florida getaway that doesn’t require a complicated itinerary.
We could walk to the beach and restaurants, spend time at the pool, catch a baseball game and end the day watching the sun disappear over the Gulf.
And if I had to pick one moment to repeat?
Dinner at Palm Pavilion timed perfectly for sunset.
Dream. Dare. Dive.
