5 Fun Things to Do In and Around St. Petersburg Clearwater

When I visited St. Petersburg Clearwater, it was on a business trip, so there wasn’t much time for sightseeing.  However, there was a little bit of time to enjoy some of the fun things to do in and around the St. Petersburg Clearwater area, just enough to make me interested in more.

Look for Manatees

Did you know that manatees, also known as the sea cow, are most closely related to elephants?  Florida is home to West Indian manatees that can be spotted in a number of places, including Fort De Soto Park at the tip of St. Petersburg.  If you have difficulty finding manatees, head north from St. Petersburg Clearwater to Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.  Here visitors can find manatees every day of the year in the park’s underwater observatory, along with other native Florida wildlife.  Because the park is also connected to the river, it is also possible to see wild manatee from the park’s observation pavilion.  Since the water is so clear, it is far easier to see the wild manatees than it is at Fort De Soto Park, where you can really only see them when they surface.

Paddle Board through the Mangroves

I was lucky enough to spot manatees twice during my short time in St. Petersburg Clearwater, and the first time was while paddle boarding in Fort De Soto Park.  Even if the water is a little rough in other places, many times you can still find calm water for paddle boarding in Fort De Soto Park.  Such was the case during my visit, and a few friends and I went paddle boarding with SUP Escapes.  The park, which is made up of five interconnected keys, has wetlands, mangroves, and 328 species of birds.  We saw lots of birds, fish that jumped out of the water, and even a small hammerhead shark.  At the very end of our paddle, we were lucky enough to have a manatee swim by.

Stay at the Legendary Pink Palace of St. Pete Beach

While my hometown of San Diego has the iconic Hotel Del Coronado, St. Pete Beach has The Don Cesar, also known as the Pink Palace.  The Don Cesar opened in 1928 and was visited by celebrities including F. Scott Fitzgerald.  During World War II the hotel was used as a hospital and later was converted into the VA Regional Office.  The Don Cesar was refurbished and re-opened in the 70s as a full-service resort and was added to the National Register of Historic Places.  The Pink Palace is right on St. Pete Beach and offers a full calendar of activities for its guests.  These include providing complimentary kayaks and paddle boards every morning for two hours, beach yoga, and more.  There are restaurants, bars, and Spa Oceana.

Take a Sunset Cruise

Photo Credit: Paladin27 cc

Since St. Petersburg Clearwater is surrounded by water, while visiting one wants to find as many ways as possible to enjoy the water.  One of the fun things to do in St. Petersburg Clearwater on the water is to take a sunset cruise.  StarLite Cruises offers a sunset cruise and evening dining experience aboard the Starlite Sapphire with a restaurant-style menu.  I was very surprised by how good the dinner was.  Two of the menu's favorites can be enjoyed with the Surf & Turf, a combination of the chateaubriand and the stuffed shrimp.  

Eat a Bowlful of Seafood

On our way back to St. Petersburg Clearwater from Homosassa Springs, we stopped at Peck’s Old Port Cove for a dinner of seafood and had an incredible dinner of Peck’s Famous Crabs, one dozen garlic sautéed blue crabs.  Peck’s Old Port Cove is a bit out of the way, in Ozello Keys, but is worth the trip, especially after spending the day at Homosassa Springs.  The restaurant used to be owned by Aunt Myrtle Clifton who installed bar stools in her house in the 1940s to serve beer to servicemen who came in via the nearby airstrip.  She sold it to Calvin Peck in the 1980s, and it has been expanded since then.  The restaurant has a blue crab farm, thus Peck’s famous crabs.

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The Ultimate 3-Day Death Valley Road Trip Itinerary

Death Valley is the largest U.S. National Park within the contiguous United States.  Death Valley is located in eastern California and has valleys, mountains, canyons, salt flats, sand dunes, and oases.  Death Valley also has almost 1,000 miles of paved and dirt roads, so is a multi-day road trip within itself.  There are so many outdoor adventures to be had in Death Valley.  Here are some of the best things to do in Death Valley to put together a full three-day road trip itinerary, including some off-road exploration.

Death Valley Attractions

Badwater Basin

Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America, at 282 feet below sea level.  The Badwater Basin salt flats cover almost 200 square miles.  Salt flats occur when there is an enclosed basin that doesn’t drain to the sea, a source of salts, and an arid climate where more evaporation than precipitation occurs.  A thin upper crust of salt forms over a mud layer below and salt crystals form along the cracks.

Devils Golf Course

Devils Golf Course isn’t a real golf course (see further down for information about Death Valley’s golf course).  It got its name from a line in the 1934 National Park Service guide book which said, “Only the devil could play golf” there.  The jagged landscape is created by crystallized salt formations created by ancient salt lakes, wind, and rain.  When it’s warm, the expansion and contraction of the salt pinnacles create metallic cracking sounds.  The drive out to Devils Golf Course is along a dirt road.

Natural Bridge Canyon

Natural Bridge Canyon was carved by a stream.  A fin of rock formed by a sharp bend in the stream eventually had a hole punched into it by pounding floods, creating the 35-foot thick and 35-foot high natural bridge that connects the walls of the canyons.  The natural bridge is found about one-third of a mile into the hike, but beyond that there are some other interesting geological formations like dripping mud that looks like wax, hanging canyons, and dry waterfalls.  The drive up to National Bridge Canyon is a pretty bumpy dirt road.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Death Valley National Park has five sand dunes: Mesquite Flat Dunes, Eureka Dunes, Saline Valley Dunes, Panamint Dunes, and Ibex Dunes.  Eureka Dunes are the tallest in California, but Mesquite Flat Dunes are the best known and easiest to get to in the park.  Mesquite Flat Dunes are even easy to visit at night for astrophotography. 

Artist’s Drive

Artist’s Drive is a nine-mile paved road that winds through multi-colored volcanic and sedimentary badlands.  This is an especially nice drive for those that can’t take some of Death Valley National Park’s off-roading trails.  There are a few stops along the way, including the colorful artist’s palette. 

Salt Creek Trail

Salt Creek is a desert oasis situated more than 200 feet below sea level.  Salt Creek is the home of the rare Salt Creek Pupfish which thrives in the salty water.  A quarter-mile boardwalk follows along the creek to create Salt Creek Trail.

Keane Wonder Mine

Keane Wonder Mine was one of the few profitable mines in Death Valley.  The mine was discovered by Jack Keane and Domingo Etcharren in 1904 and it produced over a million dollars in gold from 1904 to 1917.  It is one of the best examples of a mine in the national park.  A unique feature of the mine is an aerial tramway used to carry gold ore from the mine to the mill.  Kean Wonder Mine only recently reopened in November 2017 after having been closed to the public since 2008.

Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point is a favorite spot for sunrises and sunsets because of how the badlands capture and reflect the golden and reddish hues.

Ubehebe Crater

Ubehebe Crater is a half-mile across and 500 feet deep.  The crater was created by a massive explosion that occurred around 2,000 years ago.

Furnace Creek Golf Course

Furnace Creek Golf Course isn’t one of Death Valley’s natural outdoor attractions, but it is a pretty cool outdoor attraction nonetheless.  Furnace Creek Golf Course is the lowest elevation golf course in the world, at 214 feet below sea level.  The greens are covered with a fine layer of crusty salt, easily mistaken at first for sand.  It’s surprising that grass can grow here at all.  The 19^th Hole Bar & Grill has a drive-through ramp for golf carts, a fun and unusual feature for a golf course.  Because Furnace Creek Golf Course appears in guidebooks as a unique destination because of it being the lowest elevation golf course in the world, people from all over the world come here to play a round of golf . . . even if they’ve never played golf before in their life.  We literally overheard a guest ask a golf shop employee if the ball goes on top of the tee.  But if you can get out on the course before the novice golfers, it’s a fun round of golf.  Beware that at such a low elevation, the golf ball doesn’t go as far.  The golf course is pretty flat, but it’s completely surrounded by mountains, and surprisingly there are some water features as well.

Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Racetrack Playa

One of the most fascinating spots in Death Valley is Racetrack Playa, a dry lakebed dotted with random rocks with trails that stretch behind them.  The tracks prove that the rocks move, but how was a mystery until very recently.  Scientists discovered through monitoring the rocks that when there is enough rain, the playa becomes a shallow lake.  In the winter, the surface freezes into a sheet of floating ice.  The ice sheets break in the morning and breezes push the floating ice sheets along with their embedded rocks.  When the ice melts and the water evaporates, the rocks are left in their new locations until this happens again, perhaps years later.  The trip out to Racetrack Playa is a pretty hairy 27-mile rough dirt road with jagged rocks.  A high-clearance vehicle with heavy-duty tires is necessary to make the two-and-a-half hour drive out to the playa.

Titus Canyon

Titus Canyon is the most popular back-country road in Death Valley National Park, and it’s easy to see why.  This off-road drive has everything: a ghost town, petroglyphs, mountain views, and a drive through winding canyon narrows.  The drive is one way, from east to west, is 27 miles long, and takes a leisurely two to three hours.  The last three miles are two-way and can be handled by a standard vehicle.  The entrance is on Nevada Highway 374, two miles east of the National Park boundary.

The ghost town of Leadfield was a mining boom town.  It was one of the shortest-lived mining towns founded primarily on false advertising.  300 people arrived in 1926, and the town was empty by February 1927. 

Klare Spring produces 20 gallons of water a minute which creates a small wetland that bighorn sheep frequent.  The Native Americans also spent time here hunting bighorn and creating petroglyphs in the rocks.  Sadly, today the rocks contain both ancient and modern petroglyphs.

Twenty Mule Team Canyon

Twenty Mule Team Canyon is a relatively short (less than 3-mile) unpaved road winding through badlands.  The name comes from the Twenty Mule Teams which pulled huge wagons carrying borax from Harmony Borax Works to the railroad 165 miles away.

What to Drive Off-Roading in Death Valley

While many of Death Valley’s sites can be seen with any kind of vehicle, Death Valley’s off-road adventures really require a vehicle that’s up to the challenge.  Even Devils Golf Course is reached by a dirt road, though that one can be driven by a standard vehicle.  But the road to Natural Bridge Canyon and the off-road drives of Titus Canyon, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, and Racetrack Playa should really be driven in a high-clearance off-road capable vehicle.  That’s not to say that you won’t see a regular car on those roads, but the likelihood of an issue, like a blown tire, is a risk I wouldn’t want to take.

For our trip to Death Valley, we got a chance to test drive the 2018 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited Platinum AWD.  I was so thankful to have such a capable vehicle for our off-road drives through Death Valley.  Driving off-road on rocky, washboard, pot-holed dirt roads can be nerve-racking, but we had a high sense of security in the Highlander.  For off-roading, the features that made us feel safe were the high clearance, the tires that could hold up to sharp rocks, and the all-wheel drive.

We drove from San Diego to Death Valley, and even once there we were driving a lot of miles as Death Valley National Park is so huge, so it was fantastic having the hybrid feature which means we could drive a long time before having to fill up with gas.  The interior is also very roomy, with three rows of seats if you have lots of passengers.  Or, if going on a road trip with two people, two dogs, and all of the luggage that such a family requires, the last row of seats folds down, providing plenty of room for luggage, camera equipment, a dog pen, a dog buggy, a cooler, and a set of golf clubs.

Not that these features helped with the off-roading, but it didn’t hurt that the 2018 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited Platinum AWD also had a pretty luxurious interior with features like super soft leather, a panoramic sunroof, heated and ventilated seats, hands-free entry, and Toyota’s birds-eye view.  One feature I particularly enjoyed which was useful for a road trip was the in-dash shelf.  It helped me keep my phone, our itinerary, my camera lens cap, charging cord, GoPro, and whatever else I needed easily and quickly accessible.

Death Valley Pass

Visitors to Death Valley must purchase a permit.  The vehicle entrance fee ($25 at time of writing) allows all people traveling in a vehicle with a permit to enter and leave the park as many times as they wish during a 7-day period.  There are ranger stations and kiosks in a number of places throughout the park.

Death Valley Weather

There’s a reason why Death Valley has the word death in its name.  Death Valley gets deathly hot in the summer.  Death Valley has the dubious honor of being the hottest place on earth and having the world record for the highest air temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit.  120 degrees in the summer isn’t unusual.  The best months to visit are November through March, though April and October can be tolerable.

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Thank you to Toyota for letting us test drive the 2018 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited Platinum AWD for our Death Valley road trip.  As always, all opinions are our own.  This article may contain affiliate links.  Purchasing through them costs you nothing extra and we earn a small commission which goes towards running this website and bringing you more travel stories.

Lausanne Things to Do Plus Lake Geneva Day Trips

Lake Geneva is the Swiss Riviera and part of French Switzerland.  It feels very different from other parts of Switzerland, what with everyone speaking French, and Lausanne feels very metropolitan and fashionable.  It’s almost like visiting more than one country, yet you’re still in Switzerland with all of its benefits, like the delicious food and the ridiculously efficient transportation system.  Lausanne has many things to do, making it a great place to both visit and use as a jumping off point for Lake Geneva day trips to places like Gruyeres, Chateaux de Chillon, Chaplin’s World, and a walk through wine country.

Things to Do in Lausanne

The Olympic Museum

Lausanne is also known as the Olympic Capital as it has been the home of the International Olympic Committee since 1915.  This happened during the First World War, and the reason was Switzerland’s neutrality.  The Olympic Museumis all things Olympics.  Outside there are Olympics inspired statues, a track, and a high jump.  Inside are displays of Olympics memorabilia through the decades, including the very first Olympic flag and previous Olympic torches and medals.  You’re sure to find something of your favorite Olympic sport or Olympic athlete in the museum.  Admission to the Olympic Museum and Park is included with the Swiss Travel Pass.

Quai D’Ouchy

The Ouchy section of Lausanne is on the shore of Lake Geneva and has a nice walkway along the lake.  Vendors set up shop along the walkway.

Lausanne Cathedral

Lausanne Cathedral is the largest church in all of Switzerland.  While the church used to be ornate, when it was turned into a Protestant church all of its icons were removed and its stained-glass was broken and replaced by plain glass.  There are some colorful windows now that were added in the 20^th century.

Self-Guided Walking Tour

The city center of Lausanne features a number of old buildings and plazas.  A self-guided walking tour can include the Place St. Francois with its church, Pont Bessieres, Lausanne Castle, which isn’t open to the public but has a terrace with a view, the Esplanade de la Cathedrale, the Place de la Palud, and Place de la Rippone.

The perfect way to cap off a walking tour of Lausanne is with a beer at De L’Autre Cote located a block behind Lausanne Cathedral.  If you time it right, you can be sitting back, sipping a beer, and listening to the church bells chime.

Lake Geneva Day Trips

During our travels through Switzerland, whenever there was a chance to take a day trip involving a train or a boat ride, we jumped on the chance.  There are a number of things to do in Lake Geneva that are a short day trip (or less) from Lausanne.

Gruyeres

The train trip from Lausanne to Gruyeres is just over an hour, and Gruyeres offers a good half-day worth of activities.

First and foremost is La Maison du Gruyere.  As you probably already guessed, Gruyeres is the home of gruyere cheese.  At La Maison du Gruyere, visitors can observe multiple steps of the cheese-making process, including the addition of the rennet, cutting the curd, checking consistency, filling the moulds, and removing the cheese.  The best time to visit in order to see the most of these processes is around 9:00 a.m., but we also found 2:00 p.m. to be a good time.  An admission ticket includes a packet of cheeses aged six, eight, and 10 months to taste while visiting the museum.

At the top of town is the Chateau de Gruyeres, Gruyeres’ castle.  Rick Steves doesn’t recommend touring the castle and calls it a “ho-hum interior,” but we actually enjoyed our visit to the Chateau de Gruyeres, thought the rooms were beautifully appointed, and entrance is included with the Swiss Travel Pass.  In addition to castle rooms to explore, there is a trail circumnavigating the castle walls and a pretty garden and maze within the walls.

A small but interesting museum within the town of Gruyeres is the Tibet Museum.  Tibetan treasures are beautifully displayed in an old church, which is quite a juxtaposition of eastern and western religion.  Admission is included with the Swiss Travel Pass.

If you’re a fan of the artist HR Giger, or of his movie Alien, you’ll definitely want to visit the Museum HR Giger.  It is odd and fascinating and disturbing.  It’s not really my cup of tea, but was interesting.  For even more HR Giger, the HR Giger Bar is across the street and features skeletal ceilings and bar stools.

Chaplin’s World

One of the coolest places we visited in Switzerland was Chaplin’s World.  Charlie Chaplin, a silent film era icon, spent the last 24 years of his life in Switzerland in his home in Corsier-sur-Vevey with his wife Oona and their eight children.  Visitors can walk through the rooms of his home, where he spent some of the happiest years of his life, and stroll through the gardens.

In the same building as the shop is a movie theater which shows a short movie about Charlie Chaplin.  But this is far more than a movie and should not be missed.  After the movie, the screen rises, opening the way to a world of Chaplin in the form of a studio filled with interactive sets from many of his films.  We probably spent more time in this area of Chaplin’s World than his house.  Did you know Charlie Chaplin acted in, wrote, directed, edited, composed the music for, produced, and distributed his own films?

I am a Charlie Chaplin fan, but even those not familiar with his work will enjoy a visit to Chaplin’s World.  Romeo has never seen a Chaplin film (something I really need to fix), and our visit to Chaplin’s World was one of his favorite things we did in Switzerland.

Chateaux de Chillon

After spending much of the day in Gruyeres, we still had some free time, so from Lausanne we traveled to the Chateaux de Chillon aboard the Vevey, a historic paddle steamer built in 1907.  Chillon Castle was first built in the 12^th century, but has had add-on construction and alterations through the centuries.  Both entrance to the castle and travel on Lake Geneva’s paddle steamers are included with the Swiss Travel Pass.

Terraced Vineyard Walk

When we first arrived in Lausanne by train, we were struck by the beauty of the terraced vineyards overlooking Lake Geneva, even if it was early spring and the vines were just starting to show green.  We ended up having some extra free time, so we added a walk through Lake Geneva’s terraced vineyards to our itinerary.  Luckily, this was easy to do with the City Guide Lausanne App.  The app provides suggested tours, and we chose to add the Lavaux (Lutry) tour.

From Lausanne, we took the trail to the Grandvaux station.  The app provides turn-by-turn details for the two-hour, mostly flat and downhill walk, with a GPS enabled map so you can’t get lost.  The app provides information about points of interest along the way, such as ancient stone walls, monorails used for the grape harvest, and winemakers’ houses.  The walk ends at Lutry station.

Where to Stay in Lausanne

There are two main areas to stay in Lausanne, the old town and the Ouchy district on the lake.  We chose the old town and stayed at the gorgeous Hotel de la Paix Lausanne, a historic hotel which opened in 1910.  Even in the old town, at Hotel de la Paix Lausanne it is possible to have a clear view of Lake Geneva.

Hotel de la Paix Lausanne has both standard rooms and suites.  We got to enjoy the extra extravagance of one of the gorgeous suites with a living room area and dining table, a king bed, a ceramic room heater, and a balcony that stretched the length of the suite with a breathtaking view of Lake Geneva.

Knowing that not everyone wants to shell out for such an extravagant room (though $400 a night is awfully reasonable for such a room), we sneaked a peek into the regular rooms and found that, while not as large, they were also very nice and some also have balconies with beautiful views.

The hotel provides quite a breakfast spread for guests every morning in the restaurant.  The La Paix Restaurant also serves dinner every evening.  The Bar de la Paix has a sunny terrace, and Le Benjamin Bistro & Bar provides light fare.

Hotel de la Paix Lausanne is a short walk from the Bessieres metro station, which also connects with the train station.  The hotel provides guests with a card providing free access to public transportation within the city.  If arriving by metro, head up the elevator, and then walk down the hill of Rue Caroline.  If flying out from Geneva, the train from Lausanne goes directly to the airport and takes less than an hour.

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Lausanne Restaurants

Anne-Sophie Pic

It’s not every day you get the chance to dine at a two Michelin star restaurant headed by a three star Michelin chef.  Anne-Sophie Picin Lausanne’s Beau-Rivage Palace is such a restaurant.  The menu offers prix fix options as well as ala carte items.  A warning, the menus for men have prices while the menus for women do not. 

We opted for the prix fixe menu which included what can best be described as a fondue soup dumpling in a smoked green asparagus broth; surprising and delicious.  This dish, the berlingot, is one of Anne-Sophie Pic’s signature dishes.  The meal was finished off with a selection of fresh and aged cheeses, chosen from a cart loaded with smelly, melty, moldy, fantabulous cheeses.

It’s worth arriving early to have a pre-dinner cocktail at Beau-Rivage Palace’s bar, simply named Bar.  The cocktails are quite inventive and the atmosphere is retro-chic.

Pinte Besson

Pinte Besson is the oldest pub in Lausanne, having opened in 1780.  It comes complete with a squeaking, sticking door, a groaning dumbwaiter, and tiny stairs some use their hands to crawl up.  Because the building is so old and made of wood, fondue is not served upstairs.  However, rosti, raclette, and meringue with gruyere cream are.

Café Romand

Café Romand is a no-nonsense brewery and pub that opened in 1951 and serves Swiss classics in oak furniture and woodwork surroundings.

Thank you to Hotel de la Paix Lausanne and Switzerland Tourismfor hosting our trip and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are our own.  This article contains affiliate links.  If you purchase through them it costs you nothing extra and we earn a small commission which goes towards this website and bringing you more travel stories.