This is post two of three about my trip to Clearwater Beach, Fl in August 2012.
Related posts
Hyatt Regency Hotel review
Flight+getting to the hotel
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| I paid for an early morning Southwest flight to Tampa. |
At the time I was planning the trip, I didn’t quite have
enough points for a free flight, so I paid for my ticket (using my Chase
Sapphire Preferred for double points on travel). I was able to book during a
sale on Southwest, so my flight cost $205.20.
 |
| Welcome to Tampa! |
It is 30 minutes or so from the Tampa airport to the hotel,
and since we (my mother and I) weren’t renting a car, our options were to use a shuttle or take a
taxi. I priced both and the Super Shuttle seemed like the cheapest option, at
$25 per person each way. I used a 10 percent off discount code and our total
came to $90. To even our costs, my mom paid for the shuttle since her flight
was $100 cheaper than mine.
Activities
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| Used a Groupon to pay for a surrey rental and biked along the beach area. |
Prior to departing for Florida, I had been monitoring the
Tampa Bay area
Groupon
and Clearwater
LivingSocial
pages, looking for good deals on restaurants and/or activities.
I bought a Groupon for a
Dolphin Exploration boat tour for $11, regular price was $22. I was really looking forward to
this activity, but unfortunately, it rained and my scheduled boat tour was
cancelled, and I was leaving the next day, so was unable to return. I called
Groupon and told them of the issue and they nicely refunded my money.
I bought a second Groupon for $15, which provided $30 of
bicycle rentals from
Wheel Fun Rentals. This worked out well as the rental place was located right
outside of the Hyatt. I rented a single surrey and my mother and I biked up and
down the beach area for one hour. My mom gave me $7 toward this cost.
The beach and Pier 60
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| Dolphin exhibit near the pier |
We walked down to the beach on our first evening in town.
Every evening around sunset, vendors set up tables and sell goods along the
pier. There was also a cool dolphin exhibit on display while we were there.
Each fiberglass dolphin was sponsored by a local business and was designed by a
local artist. On our second day, we rented 2 beach chairs and an umbrella for
($20, $10 apiece) to sit outside for a few hours.
Free shuttle
When we checked into the hotel, the front desk clerk gave us
a card for a
free shuttle bus (tips are
welcome, of course) that would take us anywhere on Clearwater Beach. We used
the shuttle to take us to and from the Publix grocery store to buy lunch one
day.
Food
 |
| My happy hour drink from the hotel bar |
I’m not much of a foodie, so it was my goal to eat as cheap
as possible. Food spending included:
Day 1(arrival day)-$10.99 for lunch at Frenchy’s restaurant,
$1.28 for snack from McDonald’s and $8.82 pizza for dinner from Pier 60 .
Day 2-skipped breakfast, $7.47 for lunch from Publix (took
the aforementioned shuttle), $9.23 for frozen mojito from Hyatt’s lobby bar
during happy hour, reheated leftover pizza for dinner
Day 3 (departure day)- $4.47 for breakfast at McDonald’s and
$6.37 for lunch from local pizza place.
Total costs
- Flight: $205.20
- Airport parking in Dallas: $18
- Activities: $17 (my share of bike & beach chair rental)
- Food/drinks: $48.63
- Transportation: $0 (mom paid for it)
- Hotel: $0
- Tips/Miscellaneous: $10
Total: $298.83
So, three days on the beach for $300. It would have been
nice if I had gotten a free flight as well, but overall it was a good trip.
