Christmas Town
Holiday overlay with millions of lights, seasonal shows and festive food across the park.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Hybrid resort · North America
🇺🇸 Tampa, United States
A serious coaster park wrapped around a serious zoo
Overall score7.5
Opened
1959
Size
335 acres (136 ha)
Rides
28 attractions
Avg. visit
8 hours
Ticket range
$55–$60 USD
Events & shows
Food & Wine Festival
Tasting cabins around the park paired with a weekend concert series.
Howl-O-Scream
Separately ticketed after-hours Halloween event with haunted houses and scare zones.
Summer Nights
Extended summer hours with fireworks, street entertainment and late ride operations.
Visual Archive
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is an African-themed animal park with one of the deepest thrill line-ups in the United States — Iron Gwazi, SheiKra, Montu, Cheetah Hunt and Tigris — set alongside a 65-acre Serengeti Plain and one of North America's largest zoological collections.
Plan Your Visit
Hours & tickets
- Operating hours
- Typically 10am-6pm, extended to 9pm or later on summer weekends and during Howl-O-Scream
- Seasonal closures
- Open year-round
- Queue-skip pass
- Quick Queue and Quick Queue Unlimited skip-the-line passes, roughly $35-$110 depending on date and tier. From about $60 USD.
- How long to stay
- Full day
- Multi-day tickets
- 2-park and 3-park tickets bundle Busch Gardens with Adventure Island and SeaWorld Orlando; a Fun Card gives unlimited visits for the rest of the calendar year.
- Season pass
- Annual or season pass from about $165 USD.
Getting there
- Nearest airport
- Tampa International (TPA), ~10 miles
- Public transit
- HART city buses stop near the park and paid shuttles run from Orlando hotels, but most visitors drive
- Parking
- On-site parking available. Around $30 USD per day.
- Staying over
- No on-site hotel; numerous partner hotels sit within a few miles along Busch Boulevard.
Accessibility
- Accessibility
- Flat, paved paths throughout with wheelchair and ECV rental inside the gate; a Ride Accessibility Program assesses guests and issues a boarding pass listing suitable rides.
Good to know
- Who it suits
- A zoo-and-thrills hybrid: the Serengeti Plain animal experiences and Sesame Street Safari of Fun suit young children, while the coaster lineup is aimed at teens and adults
- Best time to visit
- January to March for mild weather and short queues; summer afternoons bring heat and thunderstorms
- Dining
- Casual American and barbecue plus an all-day dining deal; the Serengeti Overlook and animal-view dining are the standouts
- Outside food
- Outside food and drink are not permitted.
- Weather cover
- Mostly open-air; animal houses, shops and theatres provide shelter, but coasters close in Florida thunderstorms.
- Baby care
- Baby care centre with changing and nursing facilities near Sesame Street Safari of Fun.
- Rentals on site
- Stroller / pushchair hire and Lockers available on site.
- Currency & payment
- Cashless park - cards and mobile wallets only, with cash-to-card kiosks on site.
- Official app
- Busch Gardens Tampa Bay app (iOS/Android): wait times, map, Quick Queue and mobile dining.
Archival records
World's steepest hybrid roller coaster
North America's first dive coaster
World's tallest and longest inverted coaster at opening