Tarpon Springs is a great place to live. If it’s Tarpon Springs real estate you are interested in, Tarpon Springs offers many types of homes, from bungalows to gated communities to mansions. You can enjoy the waterfront view from your front porch along the beautiful Anclote River. There are many beautiful waterfront communities in Tarpon Springs along the Gulf of Mexico and bordering Lake Tarpon. For roughly $3 million dollars you can buy a 6000 square foot home that is reminiscent of old European grandeur on S. Florida Avenue that has a wide open view of the Gulf of Mexico. The property sits on 1.6 private acres. On the low end, you can buy a condo-hotel with waterfront access for under $150,000. There are many other great choices in between for Tarpon Springs real estate on and off the water.
For recreational activities in Tarpon Springs, my family and I have spent many days at Howard Park, with picnic facilities, playgrounds and its own beach where we enjoy the beautiful Florida sunsets. Tarpon Springs is known for its historic Sponge Docks and the biggest Epiphany celebration in the country, held annually in the month of February. You can enjoy authentic Greek food and pastries in its many restaurants. We enjoy a little restaurant called Plakas where they say they are the “Greek McDonalds”. They have wonderful gyros and offer appetizers of Greek specialties such as marinated octopus! The Sponge Dock area also offers shopping, day-trip cruises, casino cruises or fishing trips. You can have a tour aboard a sponge boat and watch divers as they retrieve sponges from the Gulf of Mexico. You can also visit authentic Greek clubs where men spend the afternoon telling stories and playing cards.
Along with its Sponge Docks, Tarpon Springs offers a 120,000 gallon aquarium, a Performing Arts Center, a Cultural Center, and the Leepa-Ratner Museum of Art which has been brought to the city by the St. Petersburg College of Tarpon Springs. For the fourth time in four years, St. Pete College has been rated number 1 in the state of Florida for distance education.
We also enjoy attending the Sunset Beach concerts, The Fine Arts Festival each April and attending wine tasting events at the Tarpon Springs Castle Winery. The historic downtown area offers First Fridays and Second Saturdays where the shops and restaurants are open late and there often is free entertainment to enjoy while you shop and dine.
Tarpon Springs, in northern Pinellas County, is centrally located to Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater and is only 90 minutes away from Disney World and Sea World which are in Orlando, Florida. Tarpon Springs is a great place to call home or buy real estate with all it has to offer.