Go on a Thursday evening. That is the single most useful thing anyone can tell you about tampa museums, because three of the region’s four most expensive museums cut their prices sharply after five o’clock on a Thursday and none of them advertise it loudly. The Tampa Museum of Art becomes pay-what-you-will. The Dalí drops from $32 to $16. The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg runs $16 evenings with under-18s free. A family of four doing all three on the right evenings saves more than a hundred dollars over doing them on a Saturday afternoon, and sees exactly the same collections.
Then go on a Tuesday for the James, which does the same thing on a different night. Below: every museum worth your time across Tampa Bay, what each one is actually for, how long it genuinely takes, and the discount you are probably entitled to.
Short answer: the museum chooser
| Museum | What it is for | Adult | Realistic visit | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa Bay History Center | Understanding the region before you see it | $18.95 | 2–3 hours | Downtown Tampa |
| Tampa Museum of Art | Classical antiquities and contemporary art, compactly | $25 | 1.5–2 hours | Downtown Tampa |
| Henry B. Plant Museum | An 1891 hotel preserved as itself | Check current rate | 1 hour | Downtown Tampa |
| Ybor City Museum State Park | The cigar city, in a former bakery | $4 | 45 min | Ybor City |
| Glazer Children’s Museum | Under-8s, with all-day re-entry | $27.95 | 2–4 hours | Downtown Tampa |
| The Dalí Museum | The largest Dalí collection outside Europe | $32 | 2–3 hours | St. Petersburg |
| Museum of Fine Arts | An encyclopedic collection, properly done | $24 | 2 hours | St. Petersburg |
| The James Museum | Western and wildlife art, and a striking building | $23 | 1.5–2 hours | St. Petersburg |
| MOSI | Younger children only — see the warning below | Check current rate | 1–2 hours | North Tampa |
If you do one, make it the Tampa Bay History Center. It is the cheapest of the major museums, it is on the Riverwalk, and it is the one that makes everything else you look at in this region legible — the cigar industry, the Cuban and Spanish and Italian settlement, the land booms, the water. Everything else is better after it.
The cheap evening calendar
This is the part no aggregator page assembles, so here it is in one place. All checked September 2026.
| Night | Museum | Deal |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, all day, open to 8pm | The James Museum, St. Petersburg | $10 adults, $5 youth 7–18 (from $23/$10) |
| Thursday 4–8pm | Tampa Museum of Art | Pay what you will — the “Art on the House” program |
| Thursday after 5pm | The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg | $16 adult and senior, $10 ages 6–17 and college (from $32/$22/$12). IDs checked. |
| Select Thursdays 5–8pm | Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg | “Art After Dark” — $16 non-members, members free, under-18s FREE |
Two cautions. The MFA’s Art After Dark runs on select Thursdays rather than every one, so check the specific date. And the Dalí checks IDs on its discounted categories, so bring one.
Worked example. Two adults and two teenagers doing the Dalí at full price pay $32 + $32 + $22 + $22 = $108. On a Thursday after five they pay $16 + $16 + $10 + $10 = $52. Same museum, same collection, same evening of the week you were probably free anyway.
Discounts you may already qualify for
Several of these institutions participate in national access programs, and a surprising number of visitors who are eligible do not know to ask.
- Museums for All — free or heavily reduced admission on presentation of a SNAP EBT card. The Museum of Fine Arts gives free admission under it. The Dalí participates. The Glazer Children’s Museum runs an Access Pass at $5 for up to four guests with EBT, SNAP or WIC, and the Tampa Museum of Art is free with SNAP or EBT.
- NARM reciprocal admission — the Dalí participates. If you hold a membership at a NARM museum anywhere in the country, bring the card.
- Blue Star Museums — the Dalí participates in this military program.
- Standard concessions are broader here than in many regions. The MFA gives its $19 rate to seniors 65+, military with ID, Florida educators with ID and college students with ID alike. The James gives $15 to students, teachers and active military. The Glazer gives 20% off to active military, first responders, teachers and seniors 65 and over.
- Florida residency is worth producing. The Dalí gives $29 instead of $32 to Pinellas and Hillsborough ID holders — on site only, not online — and $26 on its discounted categories. The Glazer charges Florida residents $22.95 instead of $27.95.
- Under-6s are free almost everywhere — the History Center, the Tampa Museum of Art, the MFA and the James all admit children 6 and under free, and the Dalí admits under-6s free. The Glazer admits babies under 1 free.
The Tampa museums
Tampa Bay History Center
801 Water Street, on the Riverwalk in the Channel District. Open daily 10am to 5pm.
- $18.95 adult · $16.95 senior 60+ · $16.90 college · $14.95 youth 7–17 · free under 6.
- 90,000 artifacts, and the Touchton Map Library, which is a genuinely serious cartographic collection and not a gift-shop afterthought.
- The Columbia Cafe is inside the building — an outpost of the Ybor City restaurant that has been running since 1905 — which makes this the rare museum where the lunch is a reason to go.
Do this first. It is the cheapest major museum in the region and it supplies the context for everything else: why Ybor City exists, what the cigar industry did to this place, how the water shaped the city, and why Tampa and St. Petersburg are separate cities that talk about each other the way they do.
Tampa Museum of Art
120 W Gasparilla Plaza, on Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10am–5pm; Thursday 10am–8pm; Saturday and Sunday 10am–5pm.
- $25 adult · $15 senior 65+ · $5 K–12 · free under 6 · free for college students with ID · free with SNAP or EBT.
- Pay-what-you-will on Thursdays, 4–8pm — the “Art on the House” program, and the best-value hours in Tampa.
The collection pairs Greek and Roman antiquities with modern and contemporary work, which is an unusual combination and makes it a more interesting hour and a half than its size suggests. It is next door to the Glazer Children’s Museum, which is a useful piece of geography if your party splits by age.
Henry B. Plant Museum
401 W Kennedy Boulevard, in Plant Hall on the University of Tampa campus, across the river from downtown. Tuesday to Saturday 10am–5pm, Sunday noon–5pm, closed Monday. Also closed 4 July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day — and, notably, during the Gasparilla invasion and parade.
This is the most unusual museum in Tampa and the one visitors most often miss. It occupies part of the former Tampa Bay Hotel, built 1891 and operating until 1932 — a National Historic Landmark whose silver Moorish minarets are the most recognizable silhouette in the city. It served as US Army headquarters during the Spanish-American War. The university has occupied the building since 1933, and the museum preserves rooms with their original furnishings.
An hour is right. Check the current admission on the museum’s own site; we have not verified it in this update and would rather send you there than print a figure we are unsure of.
Ybor City Museum State Park
1818 E. Ninth Avenue, in the historic Ferlita Bakery building. Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 4pm. $4 per person, children 5 and under free. Phone 813-247-6323.
It is the best four dollars in Tampa Bay. Self-guided exhibits with written and audio material plus a video, and an ornamental garden. The context it gives you is substantial: Ybor City is one of only two National Historic Landmark Districts in Florida, designated on 14 December 1990, holding more than 950 historic buildings across three enclaves, which the National Park Service calls the most outstanding collection of structures associated with late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Cuban and Spanish settlement in the United States.
Forty-five minutes, and the free streetcar drops you nearby. Our Ybor City guide has the district itself.
Glazer Children’s Museum
110 W Gasparilla Plaza, next to the art museum. School year (after Labor Day to before Memorial Day): Tuesday to Sunday 9:30am–5pm. Summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day): daily 9:30am–5pm. Select Mondays open in the 2026–27 school year.
- $27.95 general · $22.95 Florida residents · babies under 1 free · 20% off for active military, first responders, teachers and seniors 65+ · $5 Access Pass for up to four guests with EBT, SNAP or WIC.
- Re-entry is allowed all day on the wristband. This is the single most useful policy in any Tampa museum for anyone travelling with small children — you can leave for lunch and a nap and come back on the same ticket.
Best for under-8s. Our Tampa with kids guide builds a family day around it.
MOSI, and an honest warning
4801 E Fowler Avenue, north Tampa. Open daily, 363 days a year, 10am to 5pm.
MOSI is not the museum its reputation suggests. It closed roughly 85% of its building and its IMAX theater in 2017, and the plan to relocate it downtown was scrapped in 2022. It is still open and it is fine for younger children, but it is a fraction of what it was, it is a drive from anywhere else on this page, and it occupies one of the seven slots in the Tampa Bay CityPASS. Do not spend a CityPASS slot on it expecting the science museum people remember.
The St. Petersburg museums
Across the bay — 20 miles from Tampa International Airport by the airport’s own figure — St. Petersburg carries a concentration of serious museums that outclasses what a city its size would normally hold, and three of the best are within a short walk of each other.
The Dalí Museum
The largest collection of Salvador Dalí’s work outside Europe, in a purpose-built waterfront building.
- Adults 18–64: $32 · discounted adult, meaning seniors 65+, educators, fire, police and military: $29 · local adult $29 and local discounted $26 with a Pinellas or Hillsborough ID, on site only · students 13–17 and college $22 · youth 6–12 $12 · 5 and under free · members free.
- Thursday after 5pm: $16 adult and senior, $10 for ages 6–17 and college. IDs are checked.
- The 360° dome experience is a $15 add-on per show for everyone, members included. Decide whether you want it before you are at the desk.
- On-site sales are cards only, no cash, and all sales are final. Online tickets release around 30 days ahead.
- Participates in Museums for All, Blue Star Museums and NARM.
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg
255 Beach Drive NE, (727) 896-2667. Tuesday to Sunday 10am–5pm, closed Monday, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- $24 adult · $19 for seniors 65+, military with ID, Florida educators with ID and college students with ID · $12 youth 7–17 · free for children 6 and under · members free · free under Museums for All with a SNAP EBT card.
- “Art After Dark” on select Thursdays, 5–8pm: free for members, $16 for everyone else, and youth 17 and under free.
- Paid self-parking in the south lot and along Bayshore Drive, via the ParkMobile app or a kiosk, with additional paid garages nearby.
This is the encyclopedic one — a genuine general collection rather than a single-artist museum — and it is the one most likely to surprise a visitor who came for the Dalí.
The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art
150 Central Avenue. Open daily 10am–5pm, except Tuesday 10am–8pm. Last admission 4:30pm Wednesday to Monday and 7:30pm on Tuesday. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- $23 general · $18 seniors 65+ · $15 students, teachers and active military · $10 youth 7–18 · free 6 and under · members free.
- “$10 Tuesdays”: adults $10 and youth 7–18 $5, all day, on the one day it stays open until eight.
- Parking at the South Core Parking Garage, 101 1st Ave S, at $2 an hour — which is cheaper than almost anything in downtown Tampa.
Western and wildlife art is a specific taste and the building does a great deal to make it work even if it is not yours. The $10 Tuesday with 8pm closing is the single best museum deal in the region and it is barely publicized.
Which museum suits which visitor
Collection fit matters more than ranking, and a museum that is superb for one visitor is an hour wasted for another. Sorted by what you actually like:
- If you like history and want the region explained — the Tampa Bay History Center first, then the Ybor City Museum State Park for $4, then the Henry B. Plant Museum. That is the full arc from the cigar industry to the land boom, for under $25 plus the Plant’s admission.
- If you like modern and contemporary art — the Tampa Museum of Art, then the Museum of Fine Arts across the bay for the broader historical sweep. The Dalí is superb but it is one artist, which is a different proposition.
- If you like antiquities — the Tampa Museum of Art is the unexpected answer. Its Greek and Roman holdings are the part visitors do not expect and the part that most rewards a slow hour.
- If you like buildings more than collections — the Henry B. Plant Museum, in an 1891 National Historic Landmark hotel with its original furnishings, and then the Tampa Theatre, a 1926 movie palace you can sit in for the price of a film. Both are better architecture than anything purpose-built for art in this region.
- If you are travelling with a child under eight — the Glazer Children’s Museum, and its all-day wristband re-entry, and nothing else on this page will compete.
- If you are travelling with teenagers — the Dalí. Surrealism is the one art movement that reliably survives contact with a bored fifteen-year-old, and the dome experience, for all that it is a $15 add-on, is genuinely effective.
- If you have one rainy afternoon and no strong preference — the Tampa Bay History Center, because it holds two to three hours comfortably, it is indoors throughout, it is on the Riverwalk so you can walk there under a short sprint of sky, and the Columbia Cafe inside it means you do not have to go back out for lunch.
- If money is the constraint — the Ybor City Museum at $4, the Tampa Museum of Art on a Thursday evening at whatever you choose to pay, and the James on a Tuesday at $10. Three genuinely good museums for under $20 and a bit of scheduling.
Efficient combinations
The gap most museum lists leave is how to do more than one without spending the day in a car. Here is how they actually cluster.
The downtown Tampa walk — no car needed
The Tampa Museum of Art and the Glazer Children’s Museum are adjacent on Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, and the Tampa Bay History Center is a walk along the Riverwalk from them — 2.6 flat, paved miles connecting the whole thing. The Henry B. Plant Museum is across the river from Curtis Hixon, and the Ybor City Museum is a free streetcar ride away.
A workable day: History Center at 10am, lunch at the Columbia Cafe inside it, walk the Riverwalk to the Tampa Museum of Art, then the streetcar to Ybor. Total transport cost: nothing. Total admissions: $18.95 + $25 + $4 = $47.95, or considerably less if you time the art museum for a Thursday evening.
The St. Petersburg walk — one car journey, three museums
The Dalí, the MFA and the James are all in downtown St. Petersburg within a walkable radius, with the St. Pete Pier at the end of it. Park once — the James’s garage at $2 an hour is the cheapest anchor — and walk.
The optimized version: go on a Tuesday and do the James at $10 with its 8pm closing, or go on a Thursday and do the Dalí after 5pm at $16 with the MFA’s Art After Dark before it. Doing both discount nights means two trips across the bay, which for most visitors is one too many — pick the night that suits your trip.
What does not combine
MOSI with anything. It is in north Tampa on the Fowler Avenue corridor, with no useful connection to the downtown cluster. And Tampa museums with St. Petersburg museums in the same day — it is 20 miles across a bay on a bridge, and doing four museums either side of that crossing is a worse day than doing three on one side.
Parking and getting there
| Cluster | Parking | Transit |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown Tampa museums | W.F. Poe Garage, $3/hr, $18 daily max; van-accessible spaces on levels 1, 2 and 4 | Free TECO streetcar; the Riverwalk on foot |
| Tampa Bay History Center | Channel District rates, $3 then $2 on-street | Streetcar, and it is on the Riverwalk |
| Ybor City Museum | $3 then $2 on-street; Centro Ybor garage $14 daily max | Free streetcar to Centennial Park |
| St. Petersburg museums | South Core Garage, 101 1st Ave S, $2/hr; MFA has paid lots via ParkMobile | Drive across; park once and walk |
| MOSI | On site | None a visitor would use |
Our getting around guide has the full transport picture, including why the free streetcar makes the downtown Tampa cluster a genuinely car-free day.
Accessibility
- The Riverwalk connecting the downtown Tampa museums is flat, paved and curb-cut for its full 2.6 miles, which makes moving between them the easiest museum circuit in the region.
- The W.F. Poe Garage, serving the art museum and the children’s museum, has van-accessible spaces on levels 1, 2 and 4.
- The Glazer Children’s Museum allows all-day re-entry on a wristband, which is a meaningful accessibility feature as well as a nap solution — it lets anyone who needs a break take one without buying a second ticket.
- The Henry B. Plant Museum occupies an 1891 building, and historic structures have constraints that are not obvious from outside. Contact the museum before visiting if access is a concern.
- For the St. Petersburg museums and the History Center we have not verified current accessibility provisions and are not going to describe them. Contact each venue directly; all publish contact details.
Is the CityPASS worth it for museums?
Mostly not, if museums are your reason for being here. The Tampa Bay CityPASS is $149.95 adult and $139.95 child for five of seven attractions over nine days, and the seven are Busch Gardens, the Florida Aquarium, ZooTampa, The Tropics Boat Tours, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, MOSI and the Glazer Children’s Museum.
Look at that list against this page. Only two of the seven are museums, and one of those is MOSI. The History Center, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Plant Museum, the Dalí, the MFA and the James are all outside it. CityPASS is an attractions pass with a science museum attached, not a museum pass, and buying it for cultural reasons is the wrong purchase.
What each combination costs
| Plan | Full price | Timed for the discounts |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown Tampa: History Center + Tampa Museum of Art + Ybor City Museum | $47.95 | ~$23 + whatever you choose on a Thursday evening |
| St. Petersburg: Dalí + MFA + James | $79 | $42 — James on Tuesday, Dalí and MFA on a Thursday evening |
| Family of four, the Dalí only | $108 (2 adults, 2 teens) | $52 after 5pm Thursday |
| One museum, cheapest possible | $4 | Ybor City Museum State Park, Wed–Sun |
Culture beyond the museums
Three institutions that are not museums but belong on any cultural itinerary here.
The Tampa Theatre, 711 N Franklin Street — a 1926 atmospheric movie palace in the Mediterranean-courtyard style, 1,238 seats plus a 43-seat screening room, running around 1,000 events a year. It is still a working cinema, and a film ticket buys you two hours inside one of the finest surviving movie palaces in the American South. On a pure value basis it beats every paid museum on this page.
The Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. W.C. MacInnes Place — five theaters from the 130-seat Shimberg Playhouse to the roughly 2,600-seat Carol Morsani Hall. Note that the Jaeb Theater has no elevator and the venue advises orchestra-level seats if access is a concern.
The Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, open since 1905 — Florida’s oldest restaurant and the largest Spanish restaurant in the world, with flamenco nightly Monday to Saturday in the Siboney Room, ticketed separately. It is a working cultural institution rather than a preserved one.
Our nightlife and live entertainment guide covers all three in their evening context.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best museum in Tampa?
The Tampa Bay History Center, for a first visit — $18.95, on the Riverwalk, two to three hours, and it supplies the context that makes everything else in the region make sense. For art, the Tampa Museum of Art pairs Greek and Roman antiquities with contemporary work in a compact ninety minutes. Across the bay, the Dalí holds the largest collection of his work outside Europe.
Are there free museum days in Tampa?
The Tampa Museum of Art is pay-what-you-will on Thursdays from 4pm to 8pm under its Art on the House program, and free at any time for college students with ID and for anyone with SNAP or EBT. The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg is free under Museums for All with a SNAP EBT card, and its select-Thursday Art After Dark evenings are free for under-18s. Children 6 and under are free at almost every museum on this page.
How much is the Dalí Museum and when is it cheapest?
$32 for adults 18–64, $22 for students and 13–17, $12 for ages 6–12 and free under 6. Thursday after 5pm drops it to $16 for adults and seniors and $10 for ages 6–17 and college students, with IDs checked. A Pinellas or Hillsborough ID gets the $29 local rate at the desk, on site only. The dome show is a separate $15 add-on for everyone. On-site sales are cards only.
Can you walk between the St. Petersburg museums?
Yes. The Dalí, the Museum of Fine Arts and the James Museum are all in downtown St. Petersburg within a walkable radius, with the St. Pete Pier at the end of it. Park once — the James’s South Core Garage at $2 an hour is the cheapest anchor — and do the lot on foot.
How long do you need at each Tampa museum?
Two to three hours at the Tampa Bay History Center and the Dalí, about two at the Museum of Fine Arts, ninety minutes to two hours at the Tampa Museum of Art and the James, an hour at the Henry B. Plant Museum, and forty-five minutes at the Ybor City Museum. The Glazer Children’s Museum runs two to four hours depending on the children, and allows all-day re-entry on a wristband.
Is MOSI worth visiting?
Only for younger children, and with lowered expectations. It closed around 85% of its building and its IMAX theater in 2017, and the plan to move it downtown was scrapped in 2022. It is a fraction of the museum its reputation describes, it is in north Tampa away from everything else here, and it occupies one of the seven Tampa Bay CityPASS slots — which is the strongest argument against buying that pass for cultural reasons.
What is the cheapest museum in Tampa Bay?
The Ybor City Museum State Park at $4 per person, with children 5 and under free, open Wednesday to Sunday 9am to 4pm in the historic Ferlita Bakery. It is forty-five minutes, it is reachable on the free streetcar, and for context on one of only two National Historic Landmark Districts in Florida it is extraordinary value.
Do Tampa museums honor reciprocal memberships?
Some do. The Dalí participates in NARM reciprocal admission, Museums for All and Blue Star Museums. The Museum of Fine Arts participates in Museums for All. The James Museum’s page made no mention of those programs when we checked. If you hold a museum membership at home, ask at the desk before you pay — it costs nothing to try.
Related Tampa Guides
- Best Things to Do in Tampa — the museums in the context of everything else.
- Tampa Riverwalk and Downtown Visitor Guide — the 2.6 miles that connects the downtown cluster.
- Ybor City Visitor Guide — the district around the $4 museum.
- Best Things to Do in St. Petersburg Florida — the city around the Dalí, the MFA and the James.
- Tampa with Kids Family Vacation Guide — the Glazer, and which museums suit which ages.
- Tampa Nightlife and Live Entertainment Guide — the Tampa Theatre, the Straz and the Columbia’s flamenco.
- Tampa Bay Itineraries for Every Trip — where a museum afternoon fits.
- Getting Around Tampa Bay — the free streetcar that makes the downtown cluster car-free.
- Where to Stay in Tampa Bay — staying downtown puts three museums within walking distance.
- Best Time to Visit Tampa — museums are the summer afternoon answer.
- Best Restaurants and Food in Tampa Bay — including the Columbia Cafe inside the History Center.
- Best Day Trips from Tampa — for the Frank Lloyd Wright campus at Lakeland.
- Shopping in Tampa Bay — including why museum shops beat the souvenir strips.
- Tampa Travel Guide — downtown parking arithmetic, taxes, and which free days are worth planning around.
Sources and verification
Museum admissions, hours and discount programs change, and free-evening schedules change more often than headline prices. Everything below was checked in September 2026 against the institution’s own published information.
- Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg — address, phone, full admission scale, Tuesday-to-Sunday hours with Monday closure, Museums for All free admission with a SNAP EBT card, the select-Thursday Art After Dark evenings at $16 with under-18s free, and the ParkMobile parking arrangement, from mfastpete.org, checked 19 September 2026.
- The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art — address, full admission scale, daily hours with the Tuesday 8pm closing and 7:30pm last admission, the $10 Tuesday pricing, and the South Core Parking Garage at $2 an hour, from thejamesmuseum.org, checked 19 September 2026. The page made no mention of Museums for All, NARM or Blue Star participation.
- The Dalí Museum — the full admission scale including local and discounted rates, the Thursday-after-5pm pricing, the $15 dome add-on, the cards-only on-site policy, the roughly 30-day online release, and participation in Museums for All, Blue Star Museums and NARM, thedali.org, checked 19 September 2026.
- Tampa Museum of Art — admission scale, the college-student and SNAP/EBT free admission, opening hours with the Thursday 8pm closing, and the Thursday 4–8pm pay-what-you-will “Art on the House” program, tampamuseum.org, checked 18 September 2026.
- Tampa Bay History Center — admission scale, daily hours, address, the 90,000 artifacts, the Touchton Map Library and the Columbia Cafe on site, tampabayhistorycenter.org, checked 18 September 2026.
- Henry B. Plant Museum — hours, closures including the Gasparilla closure, address, and the building’s history as the Tampa Bay Hotel from 1891 to 1932, its National Historic Landmark status and its Spanish-American War use, plantmuseum.com, checked 18 September 2026. Current admission was not verified in this update and is deliberately not stated.
- Ybor City Museum State Park — the $4 admission, free entry for children 5 and under, Wednesday-to-Sunday hours, the address and phone, and the Ferlita Bakery building, floridastateparks.org, checked 19 September 2026. The district’s 14 December 1990 National Historic Landmark designation and building count are from the National Park Service.
- Glazer Children’s Museum — admission, Florida resident rate, the 20% concession, the $5 Access Pass for up to four guests with EBT/SNAP/WIC, school-year and summer hours, the all-day wristband re-entry policy and the W.F. Poe Garage arrangement with its van-accessible levels, glazermuseum.org, checked 19 September 2026.
- MOSI — daily opening, the 2017 closure of approximately 85% of the building and the IMAX, and the 2022 abandonment of the downtown relocation, checked 18 September 2026.
- Tampa Theatre and the Straz Center — seat counts, opening year, event volume, the five Straz theaters and the Jaeb Theater’s lack of an elevator, checked 18 and 19 September 2026.
- Tampa Bay CityPASS — price, nine-day validity and the seven-attraction choice set, citypass.com/tampa-bay, checked 18 September 2026.
- City of Tampa Parking Division — the W.F. Poe Garage rate and daily maximum and the on-street zone rates, tampa.gov/parking, checked 19 September 2026.
A note on method and on a gap we have left visible. This guide is researched and written from institutions’ own published information and public records. It is not based on visiting these museums, an interview, a press preview, or original photography, and no one here has walked a gallery with a stopwatch — the visit lengths are estimates from collection size and layout, offered as guidance rather than measurement. We have not stated current admission for the Henry B. Plant Museum because we did not verify it in this update, and we would rather send you to the museum’s own site than print a number we are unsure of. Where an institution’s page did not mention a reciprocal programme, as the James’s did not, we have said that rather than assuming either way. Discount evenings in particular are worth confirming on the date you plan to go: the MFA’s Art After Dark runs on select Thursdays rather than all of them, and that kind of qualifier is exactly where a guide page goes stale.
Photo credits
The Tampa Bay History Center: photo by Christopher Hollis, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Lykes Atrium at the Tampa Bay History Center, seen from above the Columbia Cafe: photo by Christopher Hollis, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.