People tend to use the terms interchangeably, but Tampa and Tampa Bay don’t refer to the same place. Tampa refers to the city of Tampa, located along Florida’s Gulf Coast and home to around 400,000 people in and around a vibrant downtown core. Tampa Bay refers to the eponymous body of water as well as the greater region that encompasses surrounding towns around that body of water (Tampa Bay) and makes up the 17th largest metropolitan area in the U.S., home to more than 3 million people. Included in the Tampa Bay area are places like St. Pete and its beaches (located west of downtown Tampa), Clearwater and its beaches, and smaller towns like Dunedin, Apollo Beach, Brandon, and Riverview. The Tampa Bay region is also often referred to as the greater Tampa-St. Petersburg region.

The city of Tampa is surrounded by water in the form of Tampa Bay, the Hillsborough River, which runs right through downtown, and various canals and channels plied by everything from the smallest pleasure craft to large cruise ships that depart from Port Tampa Bay for ports across the Caribbean. South of the city lies the peninsula of South Tampa, lapped by the bay on three sides. While there’s water everywhere in Tampa, to get to a true Gulf of Mexico beach you have to drive roughly 30 minutes/30 miles west of the city, across bridges spanning the bay, to  reach the beaches in places like St. Pete Beach, Clearwater Beach, and smaller beach communities in between.

Downtown Tampa has had a major renaissance of late thanks to the booming Water Street Tampa district at the heart of downtown–a wellness-oriented residential and entertainment zone home to condos, restaurants, bars, and parks, all within walking distance of the city’s major entertainment calling card, Amalie Arena. This neighborhood connects to the Tampa Riverwalk as well as the nearby Channel District and cruise port (Port Tampa Bay) and is a quick trolley ride from historic Ybor City, where Tampa’s Cuban community and other European immigrant groups trace their roots. Other neighborhoods to visit around Tampa include Hyde Park Village, a leafier zone just south of downtown home to historic bungalows and more restaurants and boutiques, and Seminole Heights and Tampa Heights, north of downtown and more hipster-leaning.

Miami and Tampa will always spar over which city invented the Cuban sandwich. And Tampa has a thriving Cuban community of people who trace their roots here to the 1800s (as well as far more recent arrivals). And while you can get great Cuban sandwiches, cortados and guava and cheese pastelitos all over town, Tampa’s ethnic eating scene goes beyond Cuban and Latin fare. That’s particularly true in the area north of town around Busch Gardens and the University of South Florida, home to some great Middle Eastern markets, Asian restaurants, and kebab shops housed in unassuming strip mall locales.

If you’re limiting your visit to downtown Tampa, you can easily make do without a car and explore on foot–or take advantage of the free Teco Line Streetcar System to travel between Water Street Tampa, the Channel District, and Ybor City. The Pirate Water Taxi connects downtown with points along the Tampa Riverwalk and is another fun way to get around. And the Cross Bay Ferry catamaran even links downtown Tampa with downtown St. Pete in about 50 minutes transit time across Tampa Bay, where the joy is in the journey as long as the seas are smooth. If you plan to spend some at the beaches, however, or explore further afield along Florida’s Gulf Coast, you’re best off renting a car to maximize your time.