Tampa Bay Area Attractions

Even if you stay on the beaches 20 miles to the west, you should consider driving into Tampa for a mild taste of metropolis. If you have children in tow, they may demand that you go into the city so they can ride the rides and see the animals at Busch Gardens. Once there, you can also educate them (and yourself) at the Florida Aquarium and the city's other fine museums. Additionally, historic Ybor City has the bay area's newest and most contemporary nightlife.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
3000 East Busch Boulevard • Tampa, FL • 813.987.5283 • 888.800.5447
Although its heart-stopping thrill rides get much of the ink, this venerable theme park (it predates Disney World) ranks among the largest zoos in the country. It had 4.5 million visitors in 2002. It's a don't-miss attraction for children and adults, who can see, in person, all those wild beasts they've watched on the Animal Planet, and they'll get better views of them here than at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando. Busch Gardens has several thousand animals living in naturalistic environments that help carry out the park's overall African theme. Most authentic is the 80-acre plain, strongly reminiscent of the real Serengeti of Tanzania and Kenya, upon which zebras, giraffes, and other animals graze. Unlike the animals on the real Serengeti, however, the grazing animals have nothing to fear from lions, hyenas, crocodiles, and other predators, which are confined to enclosures, as are hippos and elephants.

The Florida Aquarium
701 Channelside Drive • Tampa Bay, FL • 813.273.4000
See more than 5,000 aquatic animals and plants that call Florida home at this entertaining and informative attraction. The exhibits follow a drop of water from the pristine springs of the Florida Wetlands Gallery, through a mangrove forest in the Bays and Beaches Gallery, and out onto the Coral Reefs, where an impressive 43-foot-wide, 14-foot-tall panoramic window lets you look out to schools of fish and lots of sharks and stingrays. Also worth visiting are the "Explore a Shore" playground to educate the kids, a deep-water exhibit, and a tank housing moray eels. You can also go out on the bay to look for birds and sea life on 90-minute Dolphin Quest cruises in the Bay Spirit, a 64-foot diesel-powered catamaran. The aquarium also has added a new Dive with the Sharks program

Henry B. Plant Museum
401 West Kennedy • Tampa Bay, FL • 813.254.1891
Originally built in 1891 by railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant as the 511-room Tampa Bay Hotel, this ornate building alone is worth a short trip across the river from downtown to the University of Tampa campus. Its 13 silver minarets and distinctive Moorish architecture, modeled after the Alhambra in Spain, make this National Historic Landmark a focal point of the Tampa skyline. Although the building is the highlight of a visit, don't skip its contents: art and furnishings from Europe and the Orient; and exhibits that explain the history of the original railroad resort, Florida's early tourist industry, and the hotel's role as a staging point for Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War.

Museum of Science and Industry
4801 East Fowler Avenue • Tampa Bay, FL • 813.987.6300
A great place to take the kids on a rainy day, MOSI is the largest science center in the Southeast and has more than 450 interactive exhibits. You can step into the Gulf Hurricane and experience 74 mph winds or explore the human body in The Amazing You. If your heart is up to it, you can ride a bicycle across a 98-foot-long cable suspended 30 feet above the lobby. You can also watch stunning movies in Florida's first IMAX dome theater or take a 5-minute ride in a flight simulator. Outside, trails wind through a 47-acre nature preserve with a butterfly garden.

Adventure Island
1000 Malcom McKinley Drive • Tampa Bay, FL • 813.987.5600
If the summer heat gets to you before one of Tampa's famous thunderstorms brings late-afternoon relief, you can take a waterlogged break at this 25-acre outdoor water theme park near Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. You can also frolic here during the cooler days of spring and fall, when the water is heated. The Key West Rapids, Tampa Typhoon, Gulf Scream, and other exciting water rides will drench the teens, while other, calmer rides are geared toward younger kids. There are also places to picnic and sunbathe, a games arcade, a volleyball complex, and an outdoor cafe. If you forget to bring your own, a surf shop sells bathing suits, towels, and suntan lotion.

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