Busch Gardens is an amusement park located in Tampa, Florida.
As its name would suggest, the amusement park is owned by the Busch Entertainment Company, a subsidiary of the world famous brewing company Anheuser-Busch. In fact, when the amusement park opened back in 1959 on the site of the brewery, it started out with a bird show as a kind of hospitality venture where you could watch the birds and other animals before entering a beer garden where you’d be greeted with a sample of free Busch beer to drink.
However, some years later when the brewing plant was shut down, the amusement park needed to focus on other attractions to capture its visitors. It began to focus on the development of its exotic tropical landscape into an African theme and introduced even more exotic animals. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s when the first rollercoasters began to appear at the amusement park. It has grown over the years into becoming one of Florida’s most popular and most famous amusement park destinations.
Today, the amusement park is divided up into a number of areas, all of which have an African theme such as Timbuktu, Nairobi, Congo and several others. Depending on which area you’re in, there are some which feature the latest thrill seeking rollercoasters, such as Scorpion, Montu, Kumba and Cheetah Chase as well as plenty of rides for younger children and several water rides to cool you down.
The amusement park is also home to around 2,000 endangered and exotic animals many of which can be found in the area called ‘Nairobi’. The Myombe Reserve’s Great Ape Domain is one of the most popular attractions at the amusement park where you can see chimpanzees and gorillas getting up to lots of mischief in this replication of a tropical rainforest. In the amusement park’s Edge of Africa area, you can walk through in complete safety and encounter rhinos, hippos, lions, meerkats, hyenas and lemurs.
The amusement park is set in exquisitely beautiful grounds with plenty of mature trees and colourful flowers and fountains everywhere, making it very pleasant for those who care to stroll through the grounds of the amusement park to escape from the Florida sunshine and to get into the shade for a while.
See also:
Amusement Parks: Trees of Mystery - a Potted History
Amusement Parks: The Santa Cruz Beach Broadwalk - a Potted History
Amusement Parks: Wild Rivers - a Potted History
Amusement Parks: Raging Waters San Dimas - a Potted History