My mom and I were lucky enough to do several add-on Busch Gardens Tampa Animal Tours when we visited the park back in January. Today, I thought I would tell you what you can expect if you book one of these tours and provide a few tips.
Busch Gardens Tampa Animal Tours
You can see lots of animals with a regular ticket to this Tampa Bay theme park. So, don’t feel pressure to buy the add-on Busch Gardens Tampa Animal Tours. However, I can say from experience that these tours really add something to your theme park day. Plus, lots of these are unique experiences I’ve never seen at another theme park! Granted there is a penguin tour, which looks similar to the SeaWorld Orlando tour we did back in 2022. However, by and large, this park has lots of unique offerings!
Serengeti Safari
I think one of the must do’s when you visit this park is the Serengeti Safari! You can typically get this one for around $50/person, sometimes less, sometimes more. However, it’s the only place I’ve been to where you literally ride a truck out and get to hand feed giraffes! My mom and I absolutely loved this one! It’s so unique and fun! If we ever go back, we will be doing this one again.
I will say, the tours earlier in the day appeared to have fewer people on them. So, we will try booking one of those as our tour was completely full and there were a few too many people in our group in our opinion. Some people attempted to hog time with the giraffes and kept trying to film themselves with the animals instead of moving out of the way. Nonetheless, we were able to feed the giraffes and got awesome pictures from this experience!
Australia Insider
To be honest, my mom and I booked this one on a Black Friday promo and weren’t even sure what we booked. Haha! It ended up being really cool though. We got a personal tour of the Kangaloom area, including meeting some birds. Then, we got to feed some kangaroos! It was neat to hold a cup with food while a kangaroo approached and then put their paws on the cup too as they ate! This one is around $50, depending on when you do it. Personally, it’s only worth it if you are a fan of kangaroos and/or want to feed them.
Aldabra Tortoise
The other add on I was most excited for was the tortoise! I love turtles and tortoises! So, getting to feed and be up-close with one of the world’s largest tortoises was amazing! My mom wasn’t really looking forward to this one, but quickly found herself enjoying it! They remind me of dinosaurs with their ancient looking skin and bodies. So much fun! For around $20/person, it’s one of the more affordable options and it’s well-worth it in my opinion.
Hippo Insider
This one took us behind the scenes to a special area to pet a hippo! You don’t realize how big these creatures are until you are right beside one! I don’t recommend wearing long sleeves or anything fancy on this one though as the hippos secrete “blood sweat” which can stain your clothes! They hand you wipes immediately afterwards to clean your hands, but just something to keep in mind if you book this one. It costs around $40, but is a neat experience for sure!
Tips for Animal Tours
- Look for deals. These tours can be pricey. We booked most of our experiences during their big Black Friday/Cyber Monday special. The Safari wasn’t on sale during that promo, so we used an annual passholder discount on it.
- Make a schedule. Some of these tours are offered only 1-2 times a day. So, check out the various tours of interest and see if times conflict before booking them.
- Arrive early. All but one of these experiences (the Australia Insider one) met at the same location towards the back of the park. The tour check in features a nice tent with some shade to wait for the tour under. They also have some free water you can drink while you wait. It was nice to sit and relax for a few minutes before our tours in this area.
- Wear comfortable shoes. By this I mean closed toe shoes. You will want your feet protected from both animals and the environment when you enter an animal’s habitat. Trust me.
So, have you ever done one of the Busch Gardens Tampa Animal tours?
Leave a Reply