Holiday Inn Express & Suites - Tampa East - Ybor City by IHG
Ybor City base with breakfast included daily
About this hotel
Ybor City's brick streets and cigar-factory history sit five kilometres from the Cruise Line Terminal, giving this hotel a genuinely different character from the interstate-adjacent cluster nearer Busch Gardens. Rooms include a flat-screen TV, private bathroom, microwave, fridge and coffee machine, and the daily American breakfast covers mornings without a stop at a diner. It suits a family building an Adventure Island day into a longer Tampa Bay trip that also takes in Ybor City's restaurants and historic district, rather than one focused purely on back-to-back park visits. Free toiletries and air-conditioning round out a straightforward, comfortable room for a multi-night stay, and the desk gives a parent working remotely a real spot to get an hour of email done before the day's outing begins.
- Breakfast included daily
- Ybor City location
- Air-conditioned rooms
Our take
This is a city-culture pick more than a park-proximity one: Ybor City's character is a genuine draw, but the drive to Adventure Island is longer than from the Busch Gardens cluster. It suits families splitting their trip between the water park and Tampa's historic district, less so those wanting to walk to the gates every morning.
- ✓Use the included daily breakfast to get an early start before driving out to Adventure Island.
- ✓Budget real drive time from Ybor City to the park, since this isn't a park-adjacent property.
- ✓Explore Ybor City's restaurants on a non-park evening rather than driving back for dinner near the hotel.
Why we love it
- Daily American breakfast included
- Historic Ybor City setting
- In-room microwave and fridge
- Free toiletries provided
Why guests love itWe used this Holiday Inn Express as our base for a trip mixing a day at Adventure Island with two days exploring Ybor City's restaurants, and the included breakfast made the early park morning much easier. The drive out to Busch Gardens took longer than we expected from a Tampa hotel, so we'd plan an earlier start next time, and pack snacks for the car since the drive runs longer than we first budgeted for.