St. Pete Beach is a barrier island city in Pinellas County covering Long Key from Blind Pass south to the historic Pass-a-Grille neighborhood, with the Gulf of Mexico on the west and Boca Ciega Bay on the east. Three bridges connect it to Treasure Island, to South Pasadena on the mainland, and to the Pinellas Bayway, a toll road to I-275, and downtown St. Petersburg is about 11 miles away by car.
Living in St. Pete Beach
St. Pete Beach formed in 1957, when a referendum merged four small beach towns, passing by five votes. It was named St. Petersburg Beach until 1994, when voters shortened the name to set it apart from St. Petersburg. Corey Avenue is its downtown street of restaurants, bars and shops, and City Hall is at 155 Corey Avenue. The Corey Avenue Sunday Market sets up every Sunday year-round with about 100 vendors selling produce, baked goods, crafts and prepared food. For transit, the SunRunner runs to downtown St. Petersburg every 15 to 30 minutes, the free Freebee electric shuttle serves the city, and the Suncoast Beach Trolley heads north along Gulf Boulevard to Clearwater Beach.
Pass-a-Grille and the Don CeSar in St. Pete Beach
Pass-a-Grille, at the south end, has been part of the city since the 1957 merger. Its name comes from a French phrase associated with the fishermen who settled there. The Pass-a-Grille Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 with 97 historic buildings, and a 2003 expansion added 354 more. Pass-a-Grille Beach, at the southern tip, is the quieter end of the island.
The Don CeSar, the pink hotel built from 1925 to 1928 in the Mediterranean and Moorish Revival styles, stands at the north edge of Pass-a-Grille. Developer Thomas Rowe named it for the hero of the opera "Maritana". The hotel was listed on the National Register in 1975 and reopened in March 2025.
The beach in St. Pete Beach
Tripadvisor ranked St. Pete Beach the top beach in the United States in 2021. Upham Beach Park is a main public access, and Pinellas County placed new sand there in fall 2025. The city runs a beach parking finder on its website for metered spaces along the island.
Homes in St. Pete Beach
Single-family homes are the most common property type, most built in the 1950s and 1960s, with later rebuilds, and many have water frontage on Boca Ciega Bay and the canals off it. Condominiums are mainly in 1960s to 1980s buildings, a large share of them Gulf-front or bayfront. There are also condo-hotel units in resort buildings and a smaller number of townhouses from the 1990s. In Pass-a-Grille, hundreds of buildings are counted in the historic district.
