Vacation rentals in Holiday

Located just outside of Tampa Bay, Holiday combines the convenience of suburban living with easy access to Central Florida’s most popular natural attractions. The town’s Main Street offers everything from craft breweries to farmer’s markets, as well as an array of locally-owned shops and restaurants. Just west of downtown, you can find Key Vista Nature Park, a sprawling oceanfront park that has its own boardwalk and dog park, and is quite popular for hiking, fishing, and wildlife spotting. From Holiday, it is just a 30-minute drive to Honeymoon Island State Park and its four miles of white sand beaches leading to the Gulf of Mexico.

The three-mile Osprey Trail runs through a virgin slash pine forest, where you can spot eagles, great horned owls, and osprey circling overhead. Clearwater Beach, known as one of Florida’s best beaches, is only 20 minutes away, while the nearby city of St. Petersburg has a collection of world-class museums, such as The Dalí (Salvador Dalí Museum), the Florida Holocaust Museum, and the Chihuly Collection, which showcases glass sculptures.

There is no bad time to rent cabins in Holiday. Thanks to the warm weather, Tampa Bay is a popular summer destination, making local attractions more busy than usual during this season. Things are much quieter during the spring and fall, so you may find fewer people in the Key Vista Nature Park and Honeymoon Island State Park. Winter starts to pick back up again as people head to Florida to get a bit of sunshine.

The Tampa Bay/Clearwater area hosts many interesting events throughout the year, including a jazz festival in October, when the city’s waterfront becomes a venue for musicians from around the world. The Mainsail Arts Festival in April is a free open-air event with live music and a food court in addition to local works of art.

Key Vista Nature Park

Located just west of Holiday, the Key Vista Nature Park stretches out for more than 100 acres along the ocean and allows you to immerse in the beautiful natural surroundings without leaving the suburbs. The park features a lovely boardwalk through the forest, an observation tower looking over the Gulf of Mexico, and well-maintained hiking trails where you may see squirrels, peacocks, snakes, and an abundance of birds.

Whimzeyland

Part family home, part art installation, Whimzeyland provides a major splash of color to the nearby suburb of Safety Harbor. This rainbow-colored house started just like any other house in the neighborhood, but the owners have added works of art to the interior and exterior over the past few decades. You will find a psychedelic garden, a gallery of bowling balls, an enormous moon statue, and decorated cars. The house is accessible on guided tours and offers some fantastic photo opportunities.

Historic Sponge Docks

In the early 20th century, many newly arrived immigrants from Greece settled in Tarpon Springs to work in the local sponge industry. This fascinating waterfront area brings the region’s Greek culture to life with scores of authentic Greek restaurants and historic sailboats that wouldn’t look out of place in the Aegean Sea. The sponge docks are just a 10-minute drive from Holiday.