Aww, come on, guys. Tourist trap? If Disney is nervous enough about our little amusement park to try to create a world-class zoo of its own, don´t you think Busch Gardens has transcended the appellation of ¨tourist trap?¨ Busch Gardens is great! As zoos go, it´s one of the most accessible and well designed in the country, with a very successful breeding program and an eye for wildlife preservation. The roller coasters are nothing to sneeze at either, and if the place can divert a single tourist from the giant black hole of Orlando/Kissimmee, we say more power to ´em. Yeah it´s overpriced, and those lines can get long, and the walkways aren´t organized very conveniently, and the whole place is tinged with the odor of cotton candy and elephant dung — but they give you FREE BEER. And that´s worth more than an alleged cheap feel from Tigger any day.
Busch Gardens, 3000 E Busch Blvd., Tampa, 888-800-5447.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.