May 17, 2001|By Compiled From Staff Reports
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is an African-themed park and zoo featuring more than 2,700 animals, live shows, restaurants, shops and games.
The enhanced Serengeti Plain features rolling landscapes and lush vegetation where hundreds of African animals roam.
The plain blends its eastern and western portions with its southern acreage into one seamless 29-acre African savanna.
Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, bongo, addax, addra gazelle, eland, impala ostrich, elephant, marabou stork, East African crowned crane, sacred ibis all wander there.
The plain also features more than 150 species of African trees, shrubs, grasses and aquatic plants and mudbanks replicating marsh areas of the African savanna.
If it's thrills you seek, Busch Gardens has them. The park is home to the Southeast's largest double wooden roller coaster which features two distinct tracks totaling nearly 7,000 feet of thrills during the race to finish first.
On the Gwazi Lion or Gwazi Tiger experience, guests encounter six "flybys" of the two coasters at combined speeds reaching 100 mph.
The park is at the corner of Busch Boulevard and 40th Street, 8 miles northeast of downtown Tampa, 2 miles east of Interstate 275 at the Busch Boulevard exit and 2 miles west of Interstate 75 at exit 54.
Hours are 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. Admission is $45.68 plus tax for adults; $36.74 plus tax for children 3-9 and free for children 2 and younger. Parking is $5 for cars, $4 for motorcycles and $6 for trucks and campers.
For more information, call 1-800-4-ADVENTURE.
