Pride Weekend Celebration in St. Petersburg

We checked in Saturday morning to our hotel, the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront.. Everyone was trying to check in early, and they told us to have a seat and wait. The lobby was so cute and they even had a Starbucks! We had valeted the car and started drinking our High Noon’s in the lobby and about an hour later our room was ready! We ran up, put the drinks (and water) in the fridge, put our bathing suits on and headed to the pool.

I loved the set up of the hotel and the pool. It was a high rise building near downtown St. Pete’s and it felt so chic. The L shape pool was inviting and had the perfect amount of sunlight at 11AM. We swam for a bit until our friends arrived and we headed back to the room.

Of course we were here to celebrate PRIDE, so we popped Barefoot’s Special Edition Pride Rose Champagne and started getting ready for the festivals. Rainbow bandanas, flower crowns, stick on tattoos, glitter, and we were ready to celebrate. We called an Uber to the furthest bar (8 minutes driving). We started at The Crafty Squirrel for the DISCO PRIDE party we RSVP’d tickets for on Eventbrite.

There were so many people and you could feel the vibration of love walking through the city! Then we walked to South Straub Park for the Pride Picnic + Fireworks presented by Trulieve. It was so wonderful to see all of the small businesses and locals supporting the local community. This festival also brought people from all over the country, it was beautiful!

We ended up back in the room to eat our Subway (everything else had closed by then) and rest. I stayed in for the night, but my friends went out for the late night pride parties downtown. It sounded like a wonderful time! The next morning we tried to do a late check out, like everyone else, and still had to be out by 11. So, we headed towards downtown for Sunday Pride brunch!

I had heard of this great place Datz that had yummy vegan food, but we hadn’t made it on time the night before. They told everyone is was a 45+ minute, but we just asked about their vegan options and were seated immediately! I was SO pumped for their vegan egg croissant sandwich! Luckily it did not disappoint and I ate every single bite!

I loved the ambiance of this modern restaurant and they still had rainbow flags hanging all over. The prickly pear mimosa was the perfect Sunday treat and paired very well with my vegan eggs. I was absolutely blown away! After lunch we walked around for a bit and decided to head back to my friend’s hotel in Siesta Key. I was completely impressed with St. Petersburg, their loving community, and delicious vegan options.

On the way out we even stopped by Cider Press Cafe, a 100% vegan place that I had been dying to try. I got one of their Tirimisu Donuts to go, and it was AMAZING! I love that this is a short drive from Orlando and can’t wait to go back!