Roller coasters are great, but I also love an amusement park that offers lots of variety for everyone in the family: fun kids rides, shows for the folks who don't want to stand in coaster lines all day, theme areas to add interest, and maybe an animal park or brewery tour thrown in for a little extra adventure. I love the nicely kept grounds and little shops of the different country villages that are scattered around Busch Gardens. If you like a theme park with lots of variety, then you'll love Busch Gardens!

For several years my family would pack up a couple car loads of people and head south to one of Virginia's two major theme parks: Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Paramount's Kings Dominion (see my epinion on Kings Dominion for more info). We'd usually camp nearby and get up early enough to be at the park before it opened so that we could dash in and get several rides on our favorite coasters before the teeming millions managed to clog the lines for us. While my brothers and our friends loved the coasters, my sister and her family looked for more sedate rides for the kids, or for shows and shops. We could usually manage to satisfy everyone fairly well at either Kings Dominion or Busch Gardens...


RIP OFF ALERT!
I used to like Busch Gardens. That was until they instituted an unfair pricing scheme in which they refuse to sell affordable season passes to residents of states other than Virginia. What's up with THAT?!?

Is a D.C. resident's money any less green than a Virginia residents??

This kind of corporate monkey business is sleazy at best and outright fraud if you ask me my HONEST opinion. I don't want to do business with sleaze buckets like that, so I'll recommend Virginia visitors go to Kings Dominion and AVOID BUSCH GARDENS. They SUCK!!


Coasters & Rides:
* Loch Ness Monster: steel coaster with intertwined loops, 114' drop at 60 mph.
* Big Bad Wolf: steel coaster with free-swinging cars suspended from overhead rail. I love the way the cars swing out as you drop towards the river, pulling up just short of splash-down
* Alpengeist: new inverted steel coaster where you stand on a platform and get strapped in. Lots of spins and vertical loops
* Apollos Chariot: new steel coaster that's advertised as a "hypercoaster". Drops 210 feet at 73 mph. Seats are elevated above the cart to create more of a flight sensation.

They used to have a wicked coaster called Drachen Fire, but I didn't see it last year. I don't know what happened to it or why they closed it down.

I also enjoy the water rides, like the Roman Rapids where you seem to get water dumped on you every couple minutes, and the newer Escape from Pompeii where you've got this sort of ersatz Roman village.

Family Stuff:
This is the area where Busch Gardens really shines. There are lots of rides for kids, plus there are things for families to do as a whole: like the Rhine River ride or the safari tour. There are more shows than at Kings Dominion, and there are diffrent things to do in the different theme villages: Germany, Italy, France, Scotland, and England. The Oktoberfest area is a lot of fun with the huge festival hall with plenty of good food and good cheer --- not to mention loud oom-pah music! We also like strolling through the stable to see the Budweiser Clydesdales --- some seriously huge horses!

Getting There:
Busch Gardens is located in Williamsburg, off I-64 about 40 miles east of Richmond.

Where to Stay:
There are LOTS of hotels nearby in Williamsburg, plus you could go west a few miles toward Richmond and scarf on rooms there. We've always camped when going to Busch Gardens, and there are several campgrounds in the area, but none particularly convenient. One year we got a place that was located right smack dab next to some railroad tracks --- as we discovered when the SuperChief roared through at 3 in the morning!

Comparison to Kings Dominion:
Overall, Busch Gardens is the better choice for most families with lots of different tastes to cater to. There's more to keep kids interested, and there's more to do for people who are tired of roller coasters and spin-n-barf rides, or who are just tired of waiting in the long lines that invariably show up on weekend afternoons.

Coaster-heads will find plenty of rides to keep them busy, and some of the rides are really great (love swinging below the Big Bad Wolf as it drops toward the Rhine River!) Overall though, I think Kings Dominion has the better roller coasters for the die-hard coaster-heads, mostly because they have three wood coasters whereas Busch Gardens has none.


Overall, Busch Gardens can be a lot of fun for the whole family. Unfortunately, their sleazy marketing schemes detract from the experience.

I love the variety of things to do at Busch Gardens, I love the Oktoberfest area for the food and night time rides, and I love some of the coasters, like the Big Bad Wolf. I just don't like sleaze and won't recomment Busch Gardens.


Recommended: Yes