Busch Gardens Tampa: a perfect combo between adrenaline and nature
The Tampa theme park, two hours from Orlando, has incredible roller coasters and an unforgettable safari. Our experience at Busch Gardens.
If your family or group has different tastes and ages, Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida is the perfect place to spend a great day. There are incredible proposals for those who enjoy the adrenaline of roller coasters, super entertaining games for the little ones and a wonderful zafari to get in touch with exotic animals such as giraffes, rhinos and many more.
Located in Tampa, this SeaWorld company theme park combines what is an amusement park with a nature reserve with species that you could only see in the depths of Africa.
Busch Gardens: a date with the best roller coasters
Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States; Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent a day in the one in Florida and it was a wonderful experience for all ages. Without a doubt, it is the perfect place for lovers of vertigo and adrenaline, but there is much more to it than roller coasters and high-speed proposals.
Busch Gardens offers visitors 120 hectares of fascinating recreations, based on exotic explorations around the world. In fact, it houses one of the largest zoos in the United States, with more than 12,000 animals.
We tell you about our experience and what we found on our visit, in January 2023, with an excellent temperature. What to do at Busch Gardens and what are the must-see attractions.
A day at Busch Gardens
We begin our tour by strolling through the Bird Gardens, a gigantic aviary where more than 500 tropical birds from around the world paint the sky in a rainbow of brilliant colors. Right there our encounter with animals began, which continued with flamingos, kangaroos and birds.
We continue with our tour and arrive at the theme area for the little ones, Sesame Street Safari of Fun. In this section there is a small roller coaster and a huge maze of nets that many adults are encouraged to enjoy in the company of their children. It's really awesome.
It was very hot, so we went to the Stanley Falls Flume in Stanleyville. At this family-friendly attraction, we board a boat where we get drenched in fun. In front, a few meters away, was Sheikra, a roller coaster designed for the brave, where they leave you still for several seconds, overlooking a 90-degree free fall that will receive you mercilessly moments later. We cheered up: it was incredible.
Emboldened, we put the body on Tigris, another of the most famous roller coasters in the park, which takes you through the sky at more than 100 kilometers per hour and gives a large number of turns that will make you never forget this feline.
Then we enter Jungala, where we have fun in the boats of the Congo River Rapids, an attraction full of waterfalls and aquatic caves that guarantees a fabulous time.
In this area, we knew we had one more challenge: there is one of the best roller coasters in the world: Kumba. Proposal? Fall from 20 meters and spin 360 degrees for more than 10 seconds, taking the adrenaline to unimaginable extremes.
It was already noon, so we had lunch in the land of Pantopia, where we ran into two other roller coasters, one family-friendly and the other extreme, and Falcon's Fury... We must confess that our courage ended up there: we didn't dare. It was enough to see that tremendous "elevator" going up 90 meters and then turn your seat 90 degrees and let yourself fall at 96 kilometers per hour to decide that in this case we would count the "experience" from the outside. Sorry, reader.
Then we move on to Nairobi and we get on the train that runs through the entire park and takes you on a safari where you can see elephants, zebras, giraffes and much more. The train, called the "Serengeti Express Railway" (Serengeti Express Railway), moves through the Serengeti Plain, giving away the opportunity to observe herds of African animals roaming free.
In The Edge of Africa they add up from hippos to lions and, at the end, you can take a ride on Cheetah Hunt, which was at the time the fastest roller coaster in the world.
At the end of the day, we went to the last thematic area, Egypt, where two other roller coasters awaited us: Cobra's Course, more familiar, and Montu, high intensity. They're worth it. Get up the courage and give it a try.
Iron Gwazi - The world's fastest and steepest hybrid roller coaster
In March 2022, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay debuted its new Iron Gwazi attraction, the tallest hybrid roller coaster in North America and the fastest and steepest hybrid roller coaster in the world.
The attraction takes excitement to new heights, plunging park guests from a 206-foot peak to a 91-degree drop and reaching top speeds of 76 miles per hour.
Iron Gwazi includes a dozen airtime moments, three inversions, as he races along more than 4,075 feet of purple steel track. With a 48” height requirement, Iron Gwazi is a thrill ride that thrill-seeking families can take on together.
Animal Care Center
The Animal Care Center is an area of the park where visitors can view - and even participate in - the animal care experience. From X-rays to surgeries, many veterinary procedures are on display in a state-of-the-art facility.
For the little ones, you will also find entertainment in the lands of Congo and Timbuktu. There, the whole family can enjoy the Castaways Critter, a show that takes place in the Garden Theater, or "A is for Africa", a musical performance starring Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster and other favorite characters from Sesame Street.
To find out the price of tickets to Busch Gardens, schedules and other issues, visit its official site.
