Qualla: Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Walk into Busch Gardens Williamsburg through Banbury Cross and the first thing you notice is the Big Ben. Not the real one - a simulacrum of Elizabeth Tower, sized down to fit a park entrance, half-timbered Tudor buildings huddled at its base. Turn the corner past the Globe Theatre - a double-sized replica of Shakespeare's London playhouse - and the path climbs toward Heatherdowns, the Scottish hamlet, where Clydesdales and Border Collies wait beside a working train station. The park covers 422 acres of woods, ravines, and bridges across the Rhine River, all of it themed to a traditional postcard Europe that doesn't quite exist. The Loch Ness Monster's interlocking loops loom above the trees. The whole thing opened on May 16, 1975, and it has never really stopped expanding.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg: How It Got Here

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Busch Gardens Williamsburg exists because two men with money agreed on a strategy. In the 1960s and 1970s, Winthrop Rockefeller - then Governor of Arkansas and chairman of Colonial Williamsburg - met with Gussie Busch of Anheuser-Busch and negotiated a package deal that brought a...

Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Ten Hamlets

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The park is organized as ten European hamlets - England, Scotland, Ireland, France, French Colonial Canada, two German hamlets representing the Rhineland and Bavaria, and three Italian sections including Festa Italia, which celebrates Marco Polo's return from China. Two transport...

Busch Gardens Williamsburg: The Coasters

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has accumulated a serious coaster collection. Loch Ness Monster opened in 1978 as an Arrow Development looper and is the first and only roller coaster in the world to feature interlocking loops, where two trains pass through the same vertical loops at t...

Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Christmas Town and Howl-O-Scream

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The park's seasonal events have become destinations of their own. Howl-O-Scream, the Halloween event, began in 1999 with vampires, zombies, witches, and skeletons stalking the hamlets after dark. Christmas Town, launched in 2009, decorates the park with millions of lights and doz...

Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Wolves and Clydesdales

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Jack Hanna's Wild Reserve, originally opened in 2000 and merged with the Killarney hamlet as the Jack Hanna Trail in 2017, includes Eagle Ridge, a 3,000-square-foot rehabilitation area for bald eagles, and Wolf Haven and Wolf Valley, together covering more than 8,000 square feet ...