Busch Gardens Tampa is a large theme park with an unusual combination of world-class roller coasters and a genuine African wildlife component. The park's "Serengeti Plain" is a 65-acre paddock where giraffes, elephants, rhinos, zebras, and ostriches roam relatively freely, visible from the elevated railway and from safari tour vehicles. The wildlife experience is more credible than you might expect from a theme park.
The coasters are the primary draw for most visitors. Cheetah Hunt — a 4,400-foot launched coaster through the Serengeti landscape — is the signature ride. Montu, an inverted coaster with seven loops and corkscrews, remains one of the best in the Southeast. Iron Gwazi, a hybrid steel-and-wood coaster that opened in 2021, is now regarded as one of the most intense coasters in the world.
Busch Gardens is about eight miles north of downtown Tampa and easily reached by car. Allow a full day. The park is large and the queues for popular coasters can be long in peak season; arrive early and do the major coasters first. The park has its own bus service from the downtown Tampa Visitor Center.