The Florida peninsula called Pinellas is surrounded by water on three sides. It is shaped very much like the state of Florida. And like the state, on the west is the Gulf of Mexico. The east and south sides of the county face Tampa Bay, an area whose bountiful waters first attracted native Indian settlers many hundreds of years ago. 

Pinellas County Map   ( need acrobat reader?)

Pinellas is part of a four-county metropolitan statistical area (MSA) referred to as Tampa Bay. It includes Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando.

The Tampa Bay area has three nationally recognized cities that are critical to market studies of this area. They are Tampa (in Hillsborough County), St. Petersburg and Clearwater (both in Pinellas County).

An extensive network of roads and highways traverse Pinellas County, joining one community with another. The major thoroughfare is I-275, which runs north and south connecting the area with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and Manatee County to the south, and the Howard Frankland Bridge and Hillsborough County to the northeast. I-275 also connects with I-4 going east to Orlando from Tampa and I-75 heading north. U.S. 19 is an important north-south link that runs the entire length of Pinellas, and The Bayside Bridge is a three-mile north-south link between St. Petersburg's growing Gateway area, the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport, and Clearwater. In addition to the heavily-used Howard Frankland, two other bridges make Pinellas County an easy commute from Hillsborough and Tampa -- The Courtney Campbell Causeway runs east-west to Clearwater (State Road 60) and the Gandy Bridge connects St. Petersburg to Tampa and the Cross-Town Expressway.

In North Pinellas County, near Oldsmar, an East-West Parkway connects Pinellas and Hillsborough. Mid-county, from the Howard Frankland Bridge west to the Gulf Beaches at Indian Rocks, is State Road 688 (Ulmerton Road). And crossing Ulmerton are numerous major arteries to virtually all areas of Pinellas County.

Along the Gulf Beach communities, the main road is Gulf Boulevard, connecting our famous 35 miles of beachfront. It is also the address of hundreds of resorts, motels, hotels and condos.