Getting the flavor of...Tampa—host of this year’s RNC

Tampa—host of this year’s RNC

“Sports, museums, and nature tug at the sleeve” in Tampa, said Andrea Sachs in The Washington Post. Anyone attending a convention in this mild-mannered Florida city will be rewarded if they do some exploring. Even when the NFL’s Buccaneers aren’t playing, the team’s home stadium “indulges visitors’ football fantasies” by offering tours that include a stroll onto the field, into a locker room, and aboard the large pirate ship that looms above one end zone. The Museum of Science and Industry “lets visitors geek out on such brainy-kid topics as mummies, dinosaurs, and, my closet obsession, extreme weather”: A simulator puts you right in the center of a hurricane with 75-mph winds. Most “worthy of a long layover,” though, is historic Ybor City, a small-scale neighborhood that once produced more cigars than Cuba. Italian-Americans outnumber Cuban immigrants in today’s Ybor City, but reminders of its vibrant heyday are everywhere.

The Dems’ party town—Charlotte, N.C.

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The host city of the Democrats’ convention is pure New South, said Sarah Aarthun in CNN.com. Native Charlotteans are actually hard to find in this city of 730,000, which has become “a melting pot of accents and cultures.” A lot of newcomers are drawn to the city by its big banking institutions—Bank of America and Wells Fargo’s East Coast offices are located here. “But the mild weather and its proximity to the beach and the mountains are what entice people to lay down roots.” The resulting diversity has generated an eclectic restaurant scene, in which ethnic food coexists with such Southern standbys as barbecue and “the best fried chicken you will ever eat.” Cultural attractions vary widely too, even when you consider only the two biggest to open in the last few years. The Levine Center for the Arts, a complex comprising three museums and an intimate theater, is one. The other is the NASCAR Hall of Fame.