What: Think Pink
Where: The Vinoy Park Hotel, St. Pete; The Don Cesar, St. Pete Beach
Must-Do? Says Who? The old Must-Do List
Casualties: $40 for 4 drinks—a Bourbon and a 7&7 at the Vinoy; a Pina Colada and a Tequila Sunrise at the Don Cesar.
Sometimes it's fun to play pretentious. The Vinoy and the Don Cesar hotels are the perfect stages for this kind of make-believe.
The Vinoy has a sophisticated feel—think royalty, or at the very least stuffy British (or, if you can swing it, Welsh) accents. On our visit, we strolled up and down all 3 floors of the lengthy lobby, like the halls of Versailles, puffing our chests out. We made sure to sit for a spell in every chair, sofa, or divan. (Beware the two chairs directly outside of the gift shop—they have what is essentially a mantlepiece carved right where your head goes, and the idiotic design gave me a mean bruise.) We walked around the pool and up to the Greco-Roman looking forum above it, with its pleasant view of the multi-colored Pier. We listened to the roaring din of the contempo waterfalls. We got a drink at the bar where Ted was refused permission to play the piano, which was locked—an infuriating phenomenon that plagues public pianos everywhere. And we snuck into the banquet hall, which was hosting a dinner for several hundred vendors of yachts, yacht motors, yacht parts, yacht insurance, but alas, no Yahtzee sets.
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2007.