Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Busch Gardens is really three parks in one: a ride park, an animal park, and a botanical park, as this lovely orchid display demonstrates.

Gwazi is a dual-track wooden roller coaster.

The Hospitality Center at Busch Gardens Africa serves complimentary Anheuser-Busch beer products.

Land of the Dragons at Busch Gardens Africa offers pint-sized rides for the park's younger guests.

The Flamingoes at Busch Gardens are quite photogenic.

Another lovely orchid display at Busch Gardens Tampa.

One of Busch Garden's signature coasters is SheKra, a floorless diving coaster. After climbing a steep lift hill and making a sweeping 180-degree turn, the unique 24-passenger cars hang momentarily before diving 200 feet straight down.

SheiKra makes a second vertical dive into an underground, fog-shrouded tunnel.

As SheiKra heads back to the loading station, it sends a plume of water onto the midway at Busch Gardens.

The Jungala area at Busch Gardens Africa includes an exhibit featuring Bengal tigers.

Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa, Florida

The tiger exhibit includes a pop-up dome from which guests can get an up-close view of the animals.

Jungala includes an elaborate climbing structure.

Guests can make their own music at Jungala.

Jungala includes a viewing glass embedded into the floor of the orangutan exhibit. A hammock beneath the glass encourages the orangutans to hang around and check out the humans (and vice-versa).

Colorful characters meet and greet the guests at Jungala.

The Surge is a mini freefall ride inside a mountain crater at Jungala.

Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa is one of the world's best inverted (trains hang beneath the track) roller coasters.

The feet of Montu's riders dangle as the coaster runs its course.

With the train hanging beneath the tracks, Montu sends its passengers racing upside down into a loop.

One of Montu's unique features is its underground passageways. The coaster dives low to the ground into the four chambers.

The Edge of Africa exhibit includes lions.

Baby meerkats nurse with their mother at the Edge of Africa exhibit at Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa.

The train at Busch Gardens Africa travels through the middle of its Serengeti Plain and offers passengers some up-close views of the free-roaming animals, such as these rhinos.

A weeks-old baby zebra at Busch Gardens.

For an extra fee, Busch Gardens Africa offers Serengeti Safari Tours which takes guests aboard open trucks into the Serengeti Plain for real close and personal interactions with the animals.

This guest takes "real close and personal interactions with the animals" to a whole new level.

A lovely topiary animal guards the Crown Colony, the full service restaurant at Busch Gardens Tampa. The tables overlook the Serengeti Plain.

An alligator suns himself at Busch Gardens Africa.