Cotanchobee Park

If you are downtown it’s a great place for a cute picnic. I took my students on a field trip down there, and then we had a nice relaxing lunch at the park. My daughter enjoys the playground. The historical monuments are a cute addition. I have been here for yoga festivals and other pop-​up markets, which this made a great location for.
It’s a three because the parking situation is ridiculous.
Also, the park gets really hot, only certain parts are shaded… therefore the spray area is no where near large enough.

Every time I pass this park, it’s desolate. There just seems to be something missing. A monument, or a giant sculpture? What about a stage? This would be a great location for some outdoor concerts. To compete with Curtis Hixon and the surrounding area, this place needs something more to bring people in.
This elongated park has a nice playground for the kiddos. There is even a small splash pad at the North East corner. This park is mostly grass with plenty of trees & shade, and is located along the Riverwalk. While I was there, I found myself being pulled away by the thought of exploring the Riverwalk. There was nothing grabbing my attention, or making me want to stay.
I did use the restroom while I was there, and I must say, it is one of the cleanest and nicest public park restrooms I’ve visited. Hopefully, there is more to come for this excellently located park.

This park just got a facelift as part of the River Walk project downtown, bumping my estimation up a ways. They have bathrooms now, in addition to their great playground – better geared for younger kids than Curtis Hixon, and a water play area bordering the History Center that has a newly added shade area. It’s definitely a great place to take the kids to play, especially as part of a visit to the Aquarium or Children’s Museum. Come out, enjoy the playground, water play area, field, and stroll along the river. It’s a fabulous way to spend a nice day out in downtown Tampa.

The location is the draw to this nice small walking park that run from Channelside to the Marriott waterside. It is a huge improvement over the scrubby area that was present before, completes the Riverwalk to Channelside and hosts numerous community events such as Bark in the Park. They have done nice job with the playground and opening up a previously unused area. I would say it is a pleasant walk if you’re at the Convention center and want to view Harbour Island and the cruise ships on the way to Channelside. If you didn’t know it was there then check it out when there is an event going on.

I always knew about this park, but had no idea what it was called, until now. Cotanchobee /​Fort Brooke Park sits along the Tampa Riverwalk and stretches from the Tampa Bay Times Forum all the way around to the Tampa Convention Center. You’ll walk past the Tampa History Museum and the Marriott Waterside Convention Hotel as you follow the trails overlooking Garrison Channel separating downtown from Harbour Island.
The park is very clean with kids play areas, walking trails, and lots of open green spaces for people practicing yoga, bicycling, and jogging. I saw people walking their dogs through the park, and was very happy to see them cleaning up after their pooches since I would hate to be the guy rolling out my yoga mat and practicing the downward-​facing dog yoga pose in an area that was not Springtime fresh.
There is lots to see and do in this section of downtown Tampa, and it is easy to make a day out of visiting some of the great museums, and then having a picnic in the park while the kids let off some steam. Oh, and they have clean restrooms too!

This park sits along the Riverwalk, it’s overall small but clean. It has restrooms and a kids play area.
I personally like it for an outdoors workout but it’s great for dogs (not fenced) and kids. It’s usually not busy but you may see a homeless or two sitting around the area. Every now and then the county will do some small events as well as the History Center.
The Columbia Café at the History Center has outdoors seating that allows you to enjoy the view of both the park and the water. Overall a relaxing and quiet day outdoors.

Why 3 stars? Because it’s come a long way, but there’s still room to grow.
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I used to work at the Forum, when this park wasn’t in existence. (Notice I typed «this» park because spelling out the name of it requires about 100 mental/​physical calories. We will now refer to it as C-​park.)
C-​park is pretty to look at and makes the experience walking along the water more pleasurable, but I don’t know how many people enjoy walking around back here. Maybe I’m off, but I don’t think a ton of people from Harbour Island come across the river to walk around a small park.
That being said, in 2009, there was basically nothing down there… so I will give the city props for the beautification.