Visiting Tampa, United States: Top Sights on Foot

The best things to do in Tampa include exploring its waterfront museums, discovering the history of Ybor City, and seeing landmarks shaped by Florida’s changing identity. From the former Tampa Bay Hotel to a preserved Second World War cargo ship, Tampa offers plenty of places worth visiting. Neywo has a free audio guide for Tampa with 47 narrated places, available in 11 languages.

Tampa is in Florida, on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Its attractions range from historic buildings and art museums to major sports venues, interactive science exhibits, and the dramatic rides of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

What to See in Tampa

Henry B. Plant Museum

The Henry B. Plant Museum occupies the south wing of the former Tampa Bay Hotel, now part of the University of Tampa’s Plant Hall. The hotel opened on February 5, 1891, with 511 rooms, near the terminus of Henry B. Plant’s rail line.

Its Moorish Revival architecture gives the building the appearance of a palace, with minarets, domes, and richly decorated interiors. Inside, the museum uses a historic house format: furnishings and objects are displayed to suggest their original placement and use. Many were collected by Henry B. Plant and his wife during travels in Europe and Asia, creating a vivid picture of Florida’s Gilded Age.

Tampa Museum of Art

Beside the Hillsborough River and Tampa Riverwalk, the Tampa Museum of Art combines modern and contemporary works with ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. Its collection includes ancient pottery and tools, as well as modern works such as pieces by Abstract Expressionist Paul Jenkins.

The building is part of the experience. Designed by Stanley Saitowitz, it uses aluminum, glass, and fiber optic lights that change color within its exterior walls. The museum moved into its current building in 2010.

Glazer Children’s Museum

The Glazer Children’s Museum is a hands-on museum in downtown Tampa where children learn through play. Its permanent collection is organized into themed areas with interactive exhibits, while traveling exhibitions occasionally add new experiences.

It is a useful stop for families exploring downtown, particularly alongside the museums and public spaces connected by the Riverwalk.

Florida Museum of Photographic Arts

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts focuses on photography as an important part of contemporary life and culture. Its exhibitions bring together photographic art from different periods and viewpoints, and its permanent collection contains more than 8,000 photographs, from vintage prints to contemporary works.

The collection includes Harold Edgerton’s strobe-light photographs, Len Prince’s celebrity portraits, Dorothea Lange’s work, and Judy Dater’s image of Ansel Adams. Founded in 2001, the museum relocated to Ybor City in 2023. It also offers photography courses, community outreach, and programs for adults and young people.

Tampa Bay History Center

The Tampa Bay History Center tells the story of Florida, Tampa Bay, and the Gulf Coast across three floors and 12,000 years of history. Its exhibitions cover the area’s first Indigenous inhabitants, Spanish conquistadors, maritime trade, the people who shaped the region, and the changes brought by commerce and migration.

The galleries include detailed maps, personal stories, pirate legends, and a reproduction of a 1920s cigar store. The center also has a map gallery, the Witt Research Center, a museum store, and the Columbia Cafe, a branch of Ybor City’s Columbia Restaurant. It opened on January 17, 2009, and is a Smithsonian Affiliate.

SS American Victory

In Tampa’s Channel District, the SS American Victory is a preserved 1945 cargo ship and the main attraction of the American Victory Ship and Museum. Built in June 1945, it carried ammunition and other cargo from Los Angeles to Southeast Asia. It later served during the Korean War from 1951 to 1954 and the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1969.

A self-guided tour leads through the ship’s nine decks, including cargo holds, crew cabins, the engine room, and gun turrets. Steep ladders and metal stairs form part of the experience, while enclosed spaces can become warm. The ship became a museum in 1999 after being turned over to a preservation organization.

Museum of Science & Innovation

The Museum of Science and Innovation, or MOSI, is a nonprofit museum in Tampa’s Uptown Innovation District. Its hands-on exhibits, live demonstrations, and immersive experiences cover space exploration, robotics, engineering, health, and natural disasters.

Permanent displays include a simulated lunar colony. The Saunders Planetarium and Digital Dome Theatre reopened in 2025 with new digital projection technology; it occupies the former IMAX Dome Theatre. Outdoors, the museum also has a butterfly garden and a science park.

University of South Florida

The University of South Florida is a major educational landmark north of Tampa. Founded in 1956, the public university has 44,517 undergraduate and graduate students.

The campus is also home to the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum. Its current location has welcomed visitors since 1989, and the museum maintains USF’s permanent collection of more than 5,000 works of art. Much of the collection can be explored through an online visual database.

Columbia Centennial Museum

In Ybor City, the Columbia Centennial Museum tells the story associated with the Columbia Restaurant. The original restaurant has operated continuously since 1905, making it Florida’s oldest restaurant. It began as a 60-seat café and remains family-run by the Hernandez Gonzmart family.

The restaurant’s history is closely connected with Tampa’s cigar workers, local communities, celebrities, and visitors. The museum provides context for a landmark whose recipes have changed little over the years.

Iron Gwazi

Iron Gwazi is the hybrid roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. It combines a steel track with much of the wooden structure from the earlier Gwazi ride, creating a transformed version of the original attraction.

The coaster rises 206 feet, reaches 76 miles per hour, and has a track 567 feet longer than the original. When it opened in March 2022, it became North America’s tallest, steepest, and fastest hybrid roller coaster. The earlier Gwazi opened in 1999 as a wooden dueling coaster with Lion and Tiger tracks.

Tampa’s Stadiums

Benchmark International Arena is an indoor venue whose main tenant is the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League. It also hosts basketball, arena football, concerts, and other events. The arena opened in 1996 as Ice Palace and was renamed Benchmark International Arena in 2025.

Raymond James Stadium is home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the University of South Florida Bulls. Opened in 1998, it is recognizable for the replica pirate ship behind the north end zone. The stadium has hosted three Super Bowls—in 2001, 2009, and 2021—as well as college football, soccer, concerts, and other events.

A Tampa Self-Guided Walking Tour with Neywo

Neywo offers three walking tours in Tampa, plus one bus route and one bike route. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule.

The three walks are:

• Riverwalk Tampa: From Moorish Minarets to the Movie Palace — 2.67 km, 86 minutes, 10 narrated stops
• Channelside: Ships, Fish and Florida’s Past — 1.74 km, 55 minutes, 6 narrated stops
• Ybor City: Cigars, Cuban Bread and Immigrant Clubs — 1.64 km, 52 minutes, 7 narrated stops

The bus route, Route 30 Through Downtown Tampa, covers 3.4 km in 15 minutes and has 6 narrated stops. The bike route, Downtown Tampa by Bike: Riverwalk Museums to Franklin Street, covers 3.5 km in 18 minutes and has 3 narrated stops.

Together, these routes connect Tampa’s historic architecture, museums, waterfront, Channelside, downtown, and Ybor City. Download Neywo’s free Tampa audio guide and explore the city by listening to its stories exactly when you arrive at each place.