Singer Island is a 2 mile long island with a beach everywhere you turn.  The best hotel to stay in is the Singer Island Resort.  You can feel refreshed and relaxed when you spend time on the beach.  Another way to unwind in Florida is by going to my favorite nail spa called the Venetian Nails, which is a couple miles from Singer Island.  You’ll need to get both a manicure and a pedicure since they do an amazing job! You can spend up to 3 hours there and it feels like only minutes.

Last, but certainly not least, the best place to go for dinner while staying in Singer Island is a restaurant called Spoto’s Oyster Bar.  It is right outside Singer Island, but it is very close.  If you love seafood (like I do) then this is the best restaurant to go to .  They are fun and friendly with the most amazing food.

Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida is no exception.  Five large roller coasters were spread throughout the park which gave me enough time to get my blood flowing back to normal before I hopped on another fast moving ton of steel.  My favorite coaster was the Kumba, which is the favorite by many as it has been consistently voted one of the top roller coasters around the world by enthusiasts. Check out the pictures I found online

Every Busch Gardens in the country has a different theme to it; in Tampa Bay the park has an African presence to it.  All of the rides have African names like Kumba, SheiKra, Gwazi, and Montu.  But the park gets more creative than cleaver names – it has have live animals in the park. This includes 500 tropical birds that can be viewed in the Bird Garden, including flamingos, my favorite, which I caught on camera.

While walking through the safari and viewing some bigger animals like lions, hyenas, lemurs, giraffes, crocodiles and elephants, I forgot that I was about to get in line for SheiKra, another tall coaster that stops for 4 seconds before it goes down the first hill. That’s the other picture above.

The day seemed like we had traveled to an amusement park in Africa between the animals that caught our eye and the rides that caught our breath! A perfect day trip while visiting Florida

Arabian Nights in Orlando is a really cool place where they have people ride around on horses as they’re acting out a story. It sounds kind of lame, but the lights and effects are cool, and if you get into the story you really feel like you are stepping back into the Ancient Middle East.

The story is about a Prince and Princess who are busy with their wedding festivities when an uninvited guest arrives. The Prince calls upon his Black Stallion to protect his family from harm, and the scenes play out dramatic battles that really grab your attention. The show was especially interesting because they had lighting effects, and at some parts they used horses that were decorated in glow in the dark paint, pertaining to the story.

When you enter the building, you walk into a room where you can stand around and drink soda while watching a funny (yet really lame) magic show. They then lead you into the main room, which has the performance arena in the middle, and bleacher-style seating facing the center. They hand out little menus, and as you’re choosing what to get they bring out salads and some bread. Honestly, I remember thinking that the food was nothing special. They advertise it as one of the best dinner shows ever, but the show was definitely better than the dinner. I remember my mashed potatoes were kind of cold, and my dad grumbled about the food for a while after.

But besides the food, the show was actually really entertaining. It’s cool to see men and women working with the horses and galloping around while acting out the story, and you can tell the horses are used to the show and all the people. At the end of the show, you are allowed to come up to the center area, where you can pet the horses and talk to the horse trainers (actors?) I particularly remember that the man I talked to was really buff, and that his horse was used to the constant petting from all the other kids.

The Arabian Nights dinner show was a memorable experience. Don’t expect much on the food front, but otherwise, prepare for a night of fun.

Visit http://www.arabian-nights.com/ for more information.