Patch Picks: Staycations

Patch Picks highlight editor and reader favorites of great local businesses, destinations, services, organizations, ways to spend a day off, and more. Some of these are in our coverage area, and some are nearby.

You’ll find useful lists to help you, your family, friends, and significant others find the best places for everything from Sunday brunch to New Year’s Eve celebrations, pumpkin patches, date night destinations, florists, girlfriend nights out, kids’ party places, parks and more.

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Liven up your Spring Break with a “staycation” in Central Tampa and see your own town as a tourist.

• Tour the bungalows of Old Seminole Heights: The 13th Annual Home Tour will be held Sunday, April 3, from 11:30am to 5pm. The tour is self-guided with trollies provided, but you also can bring your bicycle. The tour starts at the Seminole Garden Center, 5800 N. Central Ave. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 on the day of the tour. To purchase tickets online or to see advance-purchase locations, visit http://www.oldseminoleheights.org/hometour.
• Cigar City: Learn more about the rich history of Tampa’s cigar industry, dramatized in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna In the Tropics.” Tour the Tampa Sweetheart Cigar Co. (1310 N. 22nd St., 813-247-3880),  or visit the Columbia Restaurant’s Cigar Store (2103 E. Seventh Ave., 813-247-2469) to see workers hand-rolling cigars. For a more organized tour, conducted daily, contact 813-428-0854 or e-mail cigarsoftampa@aol.com. Afterward, stop by Tre Amici @ The Bunker, 1907 N. 19th St., a historical building and former hangout for cigar rollers, to indulge in wine, beer, tea, coffee, and treats.
• Multicultural food: Ybor City has a diverse background with not only Cuban but Italian influences, celebrated in Ybor Aficionado Days. Start with the “Tapas Trail” and sample an array of tapas, hors d'oeurves, anti-pasto and mesa at over a dozen of Ybor City’s top restaurants (transportation included) from 4pm to 7pm on Saturday, April 9. Afterward, visit the Italian Club (1731 E. 7th Ave.) from 6:30pm to 9pm for an “After Party Smoker” of rum, wine, beer, café con leche, cigars, and desserts. Then at 11:30am Sunday, April 10, enjoy a traditional Spanish brunch buffet with contemporary jazz at the Columbia Restaurant.  Tickets available through the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center, 813-241-8838. Cost: Tapas Trail and After Party Smoker, $35 in advance and $40 at the door. Brunch, $45. All three events, $70 in advance.
• Tampa’s Haunted Past: Instead of focusing on just the cigar industry or the food, why not absorb it all -- and some mafia stories and ghost stories too?
  
  • Longtime Tampa resident Lonnie Herman conducts the Ybor City Historic Walking Tours daily; $15 for adults, $5 for children 6 to 12, and free for children ages 5 and younger. Highlights include a visa-free visit to the only Cuban-owned land in America, the game of Bolita, and the history of how orders for the Cuban uprising against Spain were smuggled from Ybor City to Havana. Tours meet at the statue of Vicente Martinez Ybor on the 7th Avenue side Centro Ybor. Call for the daily schedule: 813-505-6779.
  • For a quirkier tour, try Ghost Tours of Tampa, $15 for adults, $8 for children ages 4 to 12, departing nightly from Indigo Coffee, 514 N. Franklin St.  
  • Finally, “Cigar City Magazine” has organized two Ybor City tours in April focusing on the famous and infamous in this historic district. “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Tour,” on Saturday, April 23rd, leaves from King Corona, 1523 E. 7th Ave., at 5pm to visit landmarks large and small and the grand clubhouses that define this part of town. Tickets are $15 and available through the magazine’s Web site or by calling (813) 358-3455.
  • The magazine and Scott M. Deitche, author of five books including “Cigar City Mafia,” also are organizing a “Gangland” tour for April to visit the old gambling palaces, street corners, restaurants, and alleys where mobsters like Santo Trafficante Jr. held court and others met their demise. Contact (813) 358-3455 for more information.
  • Focus on the Arts: Create your own tour starting at the Tampa Museum of Art at 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza, or the Glazer Children’s Museum next door. Follow up with some relaxing and play at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, which features a dog run, two interactive fountains and an interactive NEOS 360 Ring, a playground feature that is the first of its kind in the southeastern U.S. and combines video games with aerobic exercise. Then head over to the Tampa Convention Center for a stroll on the completed Riverwalk up into the Channel District.
• Anything Goes: Why not visit a site you’ve heard about but never tried? If politics and Cuban coffee pique your interest, stop by the West Tampa Sandwich Shop (3904 N. Armenia Ave., 813-873-7104). Order authentic street food, specials such as chicken mole and Bistec Ranchero, and $8 weekend meal deals at the landmark Taco Bus, 913 E. Hillsborough Ave.  Browse a gigantic selection of Gasparilla beads and more than 10,000 costumes at Features Costumes Inc., 3015 West Barcelona St.  Then stop by nearby Datz deli, 2616 S. MacDill Ave., for a meal or an event such as “A Beer Snob’s Guide to Beer.”