Have you tried Tampa's Coast Bike Share rental program? It's been almost a year since their debut and with the perfect weather this time of year we decided to give it a try. Here is a video of our bike adventure at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. If you decide you want to give it a go, we have some tips to get you started. 

Tip #1 : It's not free, so don't forget to bring a credit card. We thought the bikes were a free rental program provided by the city of Tampa. Luckily it doesn't cost a fortune! So if it's not free how do we get these locks off the bike? 

Tip #2 : Download the SoBi app (https://app.socialbicycles.com/) and create an account beforehand. Creating an account saves you from having to do it when you are standing right in front of your bike. Plus I don't like signing up for stuff and inputting credit card information on my phone because it always seems to take longer than doing it on my computer. 

Tip #3 : There is no need to reserve a bike if you are standing right in front of the one you want. The instructions were a bit confusing and we thought it was required to reserve a bike. There is no need to and all you have to do is input the code on the keypad to unlock the bike. 

We paid $5 for an hour and it went by pretty fast. When we locked our bikes, we didn't realize that the app was tracking our entire trip. It even gave information on how many calories we burned. 

We both haven't ridden a bike in ages, so it was a lot of fun for us. The beautiful view of the University of Tampa, the river, riding in-between the water fountains,  and watching the sunset was indeed worth the $5.