Hudson with Kids

The Beach, Such As It Is

The first thing to know about Hudson is that the beach is not the sugar-white postcard you might associate with the Gulf coast further south. It is real, it is local, and it is where the town has always gone to cool off. SunWest Park sits on Old Dixie Hwy and pulls a 4.5 rating from nearly four thousand reviews, which is about as close to a consensus as this town gets. The park has the sand, the swim area, and enough room for a family to spread out without stepping on the next towel. It is the kind of place where the kids can burn off the morning and the adults can sit still for an hour.

For the older generation, the water has been the point since the 1930s. Shrimping and fishing employed about half the working men here from then through the 1950s, and that history is still visible in the working boats and the general lack of fuss. Nobody is going to sell you a seashell on a string. That is not the job.

The Park That Keeps Its Name

There is also Veterans Memorial Park on Hicks Rd, rated 4.6 from about fifteen hundred reviews. It is quieter than SunWest, more of a neighborhood green space with ball fields and room to run. If your kids need to kick a ball or just wander, this is the spot. It is not a destination; it is a place you go when you live here and the couch has lost its appeal.

Robert J. Strickland Memorial Park, built in the 1960s, is still the community’s beach. It is the old one, the one the locals actually use, and it does not care about your expectations.

Where to Eat Without a Scene

You are not coming to Hudson for a food scene. You are coming to Hudson because the kids are hungry and the options are honest. Ram's Family Restaurant on Little Rd has a 4.7 rating from over two thousand reviews, which makes it the highest-rated sit-down spot in town. It is a family restaurant in the plainest sense: no gimmicks, no theme, just a room full of people eating.

On the other end of the spectrum, the fast food corridor on State Rd 52 has the usual suspects. McDonald's, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Taco Bell, and Checkers are all within a mile of each other, and they all have the ratings you would expect—mid-threes, high-threes, nothing that will change your life but nothing that will ruin your day either. The McDonald's on State Rd 52 pulls a 3.5 from over three thousand reviews, which is about what a McDonald's in a small Florida town should pull.

If you want something with a little more character, Frank's Restaurant on US-19 has a solid 4.2 from 2,300 reviews, and Beef 'O' Brady's on State Rd 52 matches that rating with a slightly smaller crowd behind it. Best of Philly Cheesesteak on US-19 is another 4.3 option, same score as Sam's Beach Bar on Clark St, which is the closest thing Hudson has to a waterfront institution. Sam's pulls a 4.3 from over nine thousand reviews, which is a lot of opinions for a town this size. That number suggests people drive here for it.

Famous Sal's Pizza & Italian Eatery and Mamma Mia Pizzeria both sit at 4.3 and 4.2 respectively, and Circle S BBQ on US-19 holds a 4.2 from about 1,600 reviews. None of these places are going to be written up in a national magazine. They are going to feed you, and that is the deal.

The Town Itself

Hudson is not a resort. The median age here is 64.4 years, which means the kids you bring will stand out. That is fine. The town has a median household income of about $49,000, a median home value of $239,200, and a median gross rent of $1,038. It is not wealthy, and it does not try to be.

The history is thin but real. Isaac Hudson moved his family into the uninhabited brush of coastal Pasco County in 1878 and let a post office run out of his house. The Fivay Company cut timber here and shipped it by rail to Tampa until the company failed in 1912, and then the town stalled. The Port of Hudson neighborhood was made in 1950 when W.L. Hendry and his sons dug inlets from the coast around Hudson Springs and used the fill to raise dry ground for houses. That is the whole story, and it is enough.

The town once proclaimed itself the gopher racing capital of the world, and nobody disputed it. That is the energy you are dealing with. It is a place that made up its own claim to fame, put it on a sign, and moved on.

The Practical Part

About 1,298 of the 7,632 housing units in Hudson are held for seasonal or recreational use. That means a lot of the houses around you are empty most of the year, which keeps the beaches quiet and the roads manageable. There are 2,042 vacant units, which sounds bad until you realize it is just the rhythm of a town that half-wakes up in the winter.

The unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, and only 18.1 percent of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. This is not a college town. It is a town of people who work, fish, and retire.

Bring the kids to SunWest for the water. Bring them to Veterans Memorial for the grass. Feed them at Ram's or Sam's or, honestly, the Checkers if that is what the car wants. Hudson will not perform for you. It will just be there, and for a family that is usually enough.