Closest beach to Busch Gardens?

[leahjade]

If we don't go to WDW - might try Busch Gardens!

 

[Karalea]

St. Petersburg Beach especially Passe-A-Grille or Fort Desoto Clearwater is nice too.

Very close to Tampa - just across the Gandy Bridge.

 

[maddiesmom0116]

I love the Clearwater beach, very clean and fun stuff for the kids too. Captain Memo's Pirate Cruise is fun for all ages. In Tampa you also have one of the best zoo's in the country and it is rated the best kids zoo year after year. Big Cat Rescue is worth going to too. I think Busch Gardens is ok, but I don't feel the need to ever go again.

 

[melsherard]

We LOVED Busch Gardens! We were just there in January and had a great time! Check out the all you can eat dining plan while you are there.... we did that and saved a lot of money on food and drinks.... All you can eat all day in the restaurants... ice cream, entrees, drinks ,desserts etc...

We really liked Clearwater beach... it is beautiful! That's the only beach we made it to, but it was great...

 

[leahjade]

thanks for all the suggestions - how far away is the beach from Busch Gardens? I hate to go on vacation and drive all week long!

 

[okeydokey]

St Pete has a lovely county park, Fort Desoto. You need to pay to cross the bridge but the park doesn't charge admission and it is really nice.

 

[englishteacha]

Fort Desoto is really nice. My parents took me as a kid. We also really enjoyed Busch Gardens. It was a fabulous day with great rides and wonderful views of the animals. Their sit down restaurant, the Crown Colony, has some reasonably priced meals, too. We had a seat right at the window by the "savanna" and watched the giraffes as we ate. It was amazing.

 

[melsherard]

I want to say it is about a 1/2 hour drive? Not totally sure, but it is really worth it if you want to go to a nice beach. We actually drove there from WDW one year for a beach day... that was quite a drive, but even then we did not regret it.

 

[reginaastralis]

At most, I'd say Clearwater is about an hour from Tampa ... Fort Desoto might be a bit closer.

I personally, as a Tampa resident, do NOT like Tampa beaches. I'm incredibly spoiled in that sense. We used to spend a lot of time in Clearwater before they did a lot of changes to the roads ... and we used to skip school to go to Fort Desoto all the time. Anna Marie island is one of our favorite places to go ... can't beat it. Tampa has really AWESOME dog beaches ... which is the only way I'll stay in town.

We love Tampa (obviously). For the price, you can't beat Lowry Park Zoo, they are also doing a birthday promo this year ... but they are really a decent priced zoo in general.

If you check out half.com, they have books called "One tank trips" I don't know if they are available on Amazon or anything, but they were written by a news reporter here in town and the basis is "hidden gems" around Tampa that take a tank of gas or less to get to. If you want to check out some stuff that is off the beaten path, that's a good place to start.