Florida: The best of St Petersburg

Florida's Salvador Dali Museum has 96 of Dali's works on display. Photo / Getty Images

Florida's St Petersburg sits on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Locals often shorten the city's name to St Pete and residents of nearby St Pete Beach voted to formally shorten its name in 1994.

Salvador Dali Museum

The 1860sq m of gallery space at The Dali Museum is designed to display all 96 oil paintings in the collection, with key works arranged chronologically and explained in context. Look out for the museum's "contemplation area'', composed entirely of white walls and a window.

Great explorers

In contrast to many museums, the Great Explorations Children's Museum invites visitors to touch the exhibitions. The museum is one of eight accredited children's museums in the US and sits next door to the Sunken Gardens and its 50,000 tropical plants, a butterfly garden, walk-through aviary and a section devoted to orchids.

Science on show

Enjoy the observatory, theatre, planetarium, animal room with more than 30 species, a marine touch tank and exhibits featuring inventions, astronauts and scientists at the Science and Technology Education Innovation Center.

Up and away

Celebrating the city's status as the birthplace of scheduled aviation is the operational replica of the airboat at the St Petersburg Museum of History's Flight #1 Pavilion. On January 1, 1914, pilot Tony Jannus flew the Benoist Airboat from St Petersburg to Tampa on the world's first scheduled airline flight, transporting the city's mayor and a bag of mail.

Beach drive

People-watch in comfort while you sit at a cafe table on fashionable Beach Drive. Lined with waterfront parks on one side, shops and restaurants along the other, this is the city's hippest promenade, especially in the evening.

High way

The 6.5km-long Sunshine Skyway bridge, connecting the southern tip of St Petersburg with Manatee County and Sarasota to the south, is one of the Western Hemisphere's largest suspension bridges, soaring 19 storeys above the shipping channel leading into Tampa Bay. A one-way $1 toll rewards you with breathtaking views of the Gulf of Mexico.

CHECKLIST

Further information: See DiscoverAmerica.com for more on visiting Florida.