Thorpe Park or Alton Towers

Thorpe Park or Alton Towers, which park is best? Thorpe Park and Alton Towers are two of the largest and most popular theme parks in the United Kingdom. Both parks are owned and operated by the Merlin Entertainment group and attract millions of guests each year.

Alton Towers is located in Alton, Staffordshire,England. The park opened back in 1980 on April 4th. Alton Towers was built on the site of an old country estate and the ruins of the old stately home still be found at the centre of the park. In fact, this house was the home of the Earls of Shrewsbury for many years. As well as the house still being present, many of the gardens built in the land are still available for guests of the park to walk around.

Thorpe Park is located in Surrey, England and opened on the 24th May 1979. Thorpe Park was built on a less visually appealing site as the area had been previously used as a site to excavate gravel. The site was then developed to host the world ski championships in 1975 before becoming Thorpe Park.

Rollercoasters

Alton Towers currently operates nine rollercoasters whereas Thorpe Park operates seven roller coasters. Not all of these coasters in each park are major thrill rides as some are more suitable to small children. Both parks have one inverted coaster. However, Alton Towers inverted coaster, Nemesis, is much more highly regarded than Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park.

Each park also has a launched coaster. Rita at Alton Towers and Stealth at Thorpe Park. These two coasters have very different track layouts but, in my opinion, are both ok coasters and hard to choose between. Overall, Stealth is probably the more popular.

Galactica at Alton Towers, originally Air, is a lie down roller coaster. Thorpe Park does not have a lie down coaster but, unlike Alton Towers, does have a wing coaster. Thorpe Park’s wing coaster, The Swarm, is themed around an apocalyptic alien invasion. The area around the ride is nicely themed. However, I feel that both these coasters are weak versions of these types of coaster compared to those found in Europe and the USA.

The Smiler at Alton Towers is a world class rollercoaster and currently holds the world record for most inversions with fourteen. A similar style coaster at Thorpe Park is Saw: the ride. This attraction is based on the popular horror film Saw and contains some very well themed sections. However, the ride does not provide the same level of thrill as The Smiler.

Oblivion at Alton Towers was the worlds first vertical drop coaster. Although short, the drop alone is thrilling enough to make this a must do during any visit to Alton Towers. The last major coaster to be mentioned at Alton Towers is Thirteen. The ride was built on the site of the Corkscrew. The steel coaster takes you on a journey through the woods. The ride then takes you into a dark building in which riders experience a drop track element.

Colossus at Thorpe Park, the parks final major coaster, is a steel coaster with ten inversions. Colossus was Thorpe parks first major rollercoaster when it opened in 2002 and originally held the record for most inversions. These days, the ride experience on Colossus is a little rough.

Winner: Alton Towers

Water rides

Alton Towers has two water rides, Congo River Rapids and Battle Galleons. Congo river rapids is a traditional rapids ride and is intertwined with the family friendly Mine train coaster. The Battle Galleons ride send rides round a slow moving track in small pirate ship themed vehicles. Riders then battle with other guests on separate vehicles by shooting water at them with the built in water guns.

Thorpe Park has three water rides; Depth Charge, Storm Surge and Tidal Wave. Depth charge is a 40 foot water slide in which guests sit in inflatable boats as they travel down the bumpy 40 foot tall slide. Storm surge also fits more into the category of a water slide than a water ride. Guests sit in inflatable large rings. A conveyor belt like lift system transports guest to the top where they then spin and speed down the winding slide. The major water ride at Thorpe Park is Tidal Wave. Tidal wave has a 85.2 foot drop and is more thrilling than any of the water rides at Alton Towers.

Other major attractions

Both parks have good horror based attractions. Duel is a haunted house themed shooter style attraction at Alton Towers. Located in the Gloomy Woods section, this dark ride is a fairly good haunted house attraction. The exterior of the attraction is particularly well themed. Hex is another haunt themed attraction at Alton Towers. The ride tells the story of the local legend of the the chained oak tree. The ride was built inside the ruins of the old estate home. The attraction involves several pre shows that setup the finale. The final section of the ride is a well themed Vekoma mad house attraction. Thorpe parks answer to a horror style attraction comes in the form of the Derren Browns Ghost train. Dubbed as the world first psychological theme park attraction, the attraction involves illusion, virtual reality and motion simulation.

Both Alton Towers and Thorpe Park have many other flat rides. Out of the two parks, Thorpe Park has the more impressive collection and a greater quantity of flat rides. Thorpe park has a variety of flat rides for thrill seekers as well as having a good selection of child friendly flat rides. A particular favourite of ours is Rush, the 75 ft and 50 mph giant swing at Thorpe Park. Alton Towers, unfortunately, have removed some of their more popular flat rides over the last few years such as Ripsaw and Submission. These rides were removed to try and reduce screaming in the park. This was necessary due to a series of noise complaints from locals. In fact, these complaints turned into a law case against the park in which the park was controversially found guilty of noise nuisance.

Overall feel of the parks

A theme park is far more than just rollercoasters and thrill rides. The best theme parks in the world create a great atmosphere. This can be created by amazing theming, beautiful settings, effective theme music and enthusiastic staff. When it comes to setting, Alton Towers is the clear winner. The Towers and gardens at Alton Towers give the park a unique feeling. When deciding between Alton Towers or Thorpe Park, I feel that the atmosphere within the parks is the biggest difference between the two. Alton Towers is bigger and more beautiful. Furthermore, with the parks two large hotels, waterpark and mini golf a visit to Alton Towers feels more like going a holiday destination compared to Thorpe Park. The experience of riding the monorail from the car park to the entrance at Alton Towers also helps build anticipation and adds an extra layer of atmosphere to the park. 

Winner: Alton Towers

Alton Towers or Thorpe Park: Overall verdict

We love visiting both parks and both have a great collection of roller coasters which will satisfy the needs of any thrill seeker. In our opinion, Alton Towers does have a slightly better selection of coasters. Combining this with the parks unique and beautiful setting, we believe that Alton Towers is the best theme park in the UK.

Overall Winner: Alton Towers

Which park do you prefer? Let us know in the comments section below.

Also please check out our article ranking the top 5 theme parks in the UK.