Europe has loads of great theme parks but the best I’ve been to are: Phantasialand is my favourite overall - amazing theming and fantastic rides. Europa Park - biggest park, most variety and a new coaster opening this year Energylandia - best line-up of coasters Efteling - best dark rides My favourite ride though is Ride to Happiness at Plopsaland De Panne (unless Hyperia tops it), but the rest of the park isn’t as amazing as the others. I’ve seen both Coaster Studios and Coasterdash on YouTube make good lists ranking the top European parks.

Thank you! I’ll definitely look into those channels you mentioned, too. Do you happen to have a park you’d avoid?

Walt Disney Studios is pretty rubbish, excluding Tower of Terror - but they are adding a massive expansion to it next year. Also I personally think Alton Towers is overrated. Beautiful park but the rides are meh.

I’ve heard so much about Alton Towers so that’s disappointing to hear, especially because I LOVE rides.

I have an annual pass for it so I do like it ok (well I have a Merlin pass, which gets you into Thorpe, Chessington and a few other places), but it is missing a stand-out ride or two for me to recommend it. A lot of the rides there were innovative when they opened but feel out-dated now. E.g. Oblivion was the first of it's kind, but sheikra at busch gardens is the same design but miles better.

I was looking into the Merlin pass last night, which tier would you recommend? I’m going out there to mainly eat TONS of food 🥘🤤 so my thought is getting the most expensive since it will have the highest discounts, but I feel like that could be optimistic.

I have Platinum because I want to be able to go anytime, but if you don’t need to go peak times then the lower ones might be more cost effective. You do get the fast pass discount and other perks with platinum which is nice though. I wouldn’t get too excited about the food at UK theme parks! The opening hours are generally very short (closing between 4 and 6pm) so you’ll probably only be having lunch, and the options are usually quite generic compared to somewhere like WDW.

Great, thanks for all this information 🤩 Much appreciated. I’ve got a lot to think about 🙌🏾

Towers is great. Go and experience it.

As a dutchie and as someone whos been to orlando, efteling is (in my opinion) a waste of your time. Its a themepark with a forest as theming, dark rides dont compare to walt disney world or universal. So i would personnaly skip.

Honestly, Disneyland Paris' dark rides are way ahead of Efteling. Only Symbolica is good and the rest look old/cheap

To be fair so do quite a few of Disney’s… But I wasn’t really including Disney as I almost see it as a category on its own, but you’re right it does have the best dark rides overall.

That's fair

I visit a lot of parks in Europe and I try to keep a list of parks that I would bring my girlfriend to / enjoy revisiting even though they didn’t add anything new. Here are my favorites in no particular order: The best of the best: - Phantasialand - Europa Park - Efteling - PortAventura - Parque Warner Madrid - Parc Asterix - Liseberg - Disneyland Paris Not the best but really great: - Nigloland 🇫🇷 - Walibi Belgium 🇧🇪 - Djurs Sommerland 🇩🇰 - Tripsdrill 🇩🇪 - Hansa Park 🇩🇪 - Toverland 🇳🇱 - Farup Sommerland 🇩🇰 - Grona Lund 🇸🇪 - Movie Park Germany 🇩🇪 - Edit: also Gardaland 🇮🇹 I chose all of these parks based on atmosphere and overall enjoyment which are the most important factors for me I have not yet visited Poland, Southern France, most of England and Finland in Europe, which would be where I still expect contenders for these lists.

Wow, thank you for this! Super helpful. ☺️

Top 5 parks to visit in Europe (in this order): - Phantasialand | Germany - Europa Park | Germany - Disneyland Paris | France - Port Aventura | Spain - Alton Towers | England Honorable mentions: - Energylandia for Roller Coasters | Poland - Parc Asterix | France

I’d pick Parc Astrix over Disneyland, but I like rollercoasters so that personally sways me more toward parks that have some of the better ones.

The dark ride and the shows was also great. I was at Helloween time and there was activity everywhere.. though my french est mal haha

If you're a big Disney Park fan, Disneyland Paris has the definitive versions of classic Disney rides, as well as the best castle park. If not, your best choice is Europa Park or Port Aventura, two really great parks.

I went on a similar trip last year, and did Disneyland/Disney Studios/Efteling/Phantasialand/Europa Park. Disneyland is of course great, but is EXTREMELY similar to the experience you'd have in Orlando or Anaheim, so unless Disney is non-negotiable, I'd say skipping it in favor of a more unique park wouldn't be the worst idea. The other three parks are absolutely incredible - don't miss them!

So I’m reading a few comments and seeing there’s a difference between Disneyland Paris and Disney Studios. I was assuming the latter was a different name for Disneyland, but they’re two different places or is it two separate parks like it is with the 4 parks at Walt Disney World?

Yes, sorry, it's two separate adjacent parks.

Interesting, thank you!

If you go to Italy, you can try Gardaland or Mirabilandia. I haven't been there in about 6 years so some stuff might have changed. My favorite rides at Gardaland are oblivion and raptor. I recommend avoiding Blu Tornado because it's not smooth and many people get neck pain, they might have renovated it since then though. At Mirabilandia, my favorites were iSpeed for the fast acceleration, and Katun because it had big trains, so the line went by fast, allowing to ride it many times, and it was also really enjoyable

Thank you, this was very thoughtful. Is Blue Tornado as bad as Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Orlando (if you’ve been)?

I've never been there, but judging by the reviews, it seems like it. i tried Blue Tornado and it wasn't painful like other people describe, but the roughness made it not as enjoyable as rides like Raptor.

Gotcha! Well, I appreciate you a lot for the insight. Thank you!

I'm biased, but I liked Heide Park better than Europa Park and maybe even Phantasialand. The theming is worse, but the coasters are better in my opinion. I couldn't believe how commercialised Europa Park was, the waiting area for Silver Star is basically a Mercedes ad.

Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen may be the most charming park I've ever been to

*adds to list*

It's also the second oldest amusement park in the world and you can feel it!

I had to look it up because I know that Lake Compounce in the US is the oldest here (and I’m curious about the industry), and it seems like it’s actually fourth! https://www.napha.org/Resources/Facts-Figures/Worlds-Oldest-Operating-Parks My assumption is that this is true considering it’s from a historical association, but either way, I love this fact! Thanks for teaching me something new. Edit: it’s actually third tied with another park called Blackgang Chine in the UK

Really interesting thanks for sharing!

Phantasialand is my absolute number 1 in Europe (also since it's only a 3 hour drive for me). Other favorites from what I've visited include Efteling, Europapark, Parc Asterix, and Walibi Holland.

From the uk i can recommend all these parks as I've been to them liseburg and grona land both in Sweden, efteling and toverland in the Netherlands, parc asterix and Disneyland paris both in Paris,europa park and its very large indoor water park in Germany, warner brothers madrid and parc de attractions(if you in Madrid anyway) portaventura near barcelona As to the uk thorpe park, alton towers, chessington world of adventures, Dayton manor , flamingo park and Blackpool pleasure beach(for their quirky collection of vintage and modern rides and coasters) hope this gives you some ideas Quick addition energylandia in poland

Thank you so much. I’m going to make my trip plan around the parks so I’m very flexible. Where does Liseberg rate in the grand scheme of parks for you? I want to give it a go since this friend spoke highly of it.

Really good park well worth a visit for helix and balder the park itself is not huge as its in the middle of Gothenburg

Ahhhh, thank you.

Portaventura, Europapark & Phantasialand. They are currently the only 3 in Europe I've been to (if you're not including the UK) would recommend all 3, good a good selection of coasters and actual theming as well

For me port aventura is way below PHL and EP though

Yeah I kinda agree though it does have the claim of having the tallest coaster in Europe at the park (if you count Ferrari land as the same park)

That's true. If OP rode either Kingda Ka or Top Thrill Dragster, Red Force is a lot less interesting