Alton Towers Guide
Our Alton Towers guide is here to help you plan your visit to the park.
Alton Towers is the largest and most popular theme park in the UK. The park is currently operated by the Merlin Entertainments Group, who also run the Legoland parks and several of the UK’s other major attractions such as Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle and the London Eye. The park was originally a private estate until the late 20th century when it was transformed into a theme park.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that the park started to add a serious amount of new rides. Since then the park has become one of the largest family attractions in the UK. The park is usually open from mid-March to early November, but it can be closed on certain days in the quieter months of this period.
Alton Towers has always been our favourite theme park in the UK as we believe it has the best selection of roller coasters out of all the parks in the UK. Furthermore, for a park not operated by Disney, Alton Towers is excellently themed and very well maintained. The park also offers a variety of attractions for younger children, with CBeebies land being one of the greatest child friendly zones we’ve seen out of all the parks we have visited across the world.
Location
The park is located in a small village called Alton, in the county of Staffordshire. The park’s main season runs from March through to the end of October.
Address
Farley Ln
Alton
Stoke-on-Trent
ST10 4DB
Time needed at Alton Towers
Even for locals, Alton Towers is a full day park. If you’re a first time visitor to the park and want to ensure you ride every major attraction, then we recommend 2 days at the park if you have time.
Attractions at Alton Towers
Alton Towers has a fantastic selection of rides. The park has a variety of large coasters that will satisfy any thrill seeker and, as already mentioned, a great variety of attractions for younger children in the incredibly popular CBeebies Land and Gangsta Granny The Ride . As far as dark rides go, Alton Towers doesn’t have an incredible selection. However, the brand new ‘The Curse at Alton Manor’ is a great addition! Plus Hex is an absolute classic and not to be missed!
Major Roller Coasters at Alton Towers
Nemesis (B&M Inverted Coaster)
Galactica (B&M Flying Coaster)
Wicker Man (GCI Wooden Coaster)
Oblivion (B&M Dive Coaster)
Smiler (A Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster, with the most inversions in the world)
Rita (Intamin Launched Steel Coaster)
Thirteen (Intamin Steel Coaster with a Drop Track element)
Spinball Whizzer (Maurer Spinning Coaster)
Our top 5 coasters at Alton Towers
- Nemesis
- Wicker Man
- Smiler
- Thirteen
- Oblivion
Fast Pass
Alton Towers offers a paid version of Fast Pass called FastTrack. A variety of FastTrack options are available, from unlimited rides on all major attractions to a single ride on one coaster. These can sell out on busy days so we would advise you to buy in advance online if you are going to the park on a very busy day.
Food at Alton Towers
Alton Towers provides the regular theme park fast food options such as chicken, chips, hot dogs and burgers. Fast food outlets can be found throughout the park. The park also has three very popular sit down restaurants. The ‘Explorer’s Pizza Pasta Buffet’ is a fan favourite unlimited dining option. ‘Woodcutter’s Bar and Grill’ has a fully stocked bar and serves delicious options such as steaks, burgers, salads and chicken.
Finally, our personal favourite, ‘The Rollercoaster Restaurant’. The restaurant gets its name from the fact that your meal is delivered to your table on a roller coaster track. Both the food and delivery at this restaurant are great and make for a unique experience. We highly recommend that you visit this restaurant. If you do plan on visiting then be sure to try and book online before your visit, although not all days are always available to book so you can queue instead. This can be done on the Alton Towers website. If you are unable to book, in order to avoid long lines, we would recommend that you plan to eat at this restaurant outside of the traditional lunch and dinner times. For more information on the rollercoaster restaurant click here to check out our review.
Events at Alton Towers
Scarefest
Over the last couple of years, we have particularly enjoyed visiting the park at Halloween time during Scarefest. During this event, the park remains open longer than normal, allowing for awesome night rides on some of the coasters. There are also a variety of Halloween themed offerings throughout the park from walkthrough horror houses to more child friendly and more traditional offerings such as trick or treating. The event runs on select dates throughout October. Admission into the horror houses must be purchased separately. We strongly advise that you book these in advance as they often sell out in advance on busy nights.
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest was Alton Towers new event for 2020 and is aimed at both families and thrill seekers. The event provides themed entertainment and delicious food, such as bratwursts and pretzels. Oktoberfest runs on select dates towards the end of September and start of October.
Fireworks
Alton Towers fireworks event takes place across the weekend closest to Bonfire night (5th November), on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The event provides one of the best bonfire fireworks displays in the UK. It’s very popular and often sells out in fast. Therefore, make sure you book your tickets in advance if you plan on attending this event.
Mardi Gras
This Carnival- inspired takeover will dazzle you with an explosion of colours, sensational flavours, high-energy music and so much more! There are carnival krewes themed to the parks carious lands, providing fun entertainment!
Festival of Thrills
This is a celebration of the parks coasters, which brings additional fun to the park in the form of music and decorations.
Christmas
A selection of family rides will be open and a brand-new Towers Street Christmas Market with over 60 market stalls will feature. In addition to this, there is the experience Lightopia ‘Sense of Seasons’ a magical, immersive journey through the 4 seasons that will transport you to al land where you can control time. There will also be a selection of seasonal entertainment, characters and eat delicious food!
Hotels
Alton Towers has a variety of accommodation options on-site. The park has three themed hotels; the Alton Towers Hotel, Splash Landings and the CBeebies Hotel. The CBeebies Hotel is most suitable for those with younger children. You can also stay on-site at Alton Towers in Stargazing Pods or in the Enchanted Village.
There are also several bed and breakfast options in the village of Alton. Most of these are within a 5 minutes’ drive of the park.
Stuff to do nearby
Alton Towers also has a water park on-site as well as crazy golf. We enjoy playing their golf at the end of our day at the park. However, it can be busy at this time so be prepared to wait. The water park, located in the Splash landings Hotel, is indoor. We recommend that you allocate half a day to experience the water park. A separate ticket is required to enter the water park.
There is also a Spa located inside the Alton Towers Hotel. The Spa is open to everyone, not just hotel guests, and remains open all year round.
The park also has a ropes course. The course, called the Enchanted Forest Tree Top Quest, is clearly signposted when driving down to the resort accommodation car parks. There are 2 courses; the high ropes course and the low ropes course. The low ropes course is suitable for smaller children. To avoid disappointment, we advise you to book a time slot online before your visit. It is also cheaper if you book in advance.
If you have ever been on Hex at Alton Towers then you will know about the story of the chained oak. The real chained oak is located within 5 minutes’ drive of the park’s entrance. For more information, click here to read our article on how to visit the chained oak.
Alton Towers Guide Top Tips
Buy your tickets online in advance to save both money and time.
You can often get buy 1 get 1 free vouchers for park entrance. These are most often found on Kellogg’s cereal boxes.
The park will obviously be busiest at weekends and during school holidays in the UK.
If you plan to attend on a busy day, buy skip the line passes, called fast track, for all the major attractions at the park.
Alton Towers has a very useful app which shows live queue times, can help with directions and is also a good place to find out about park hours, special offers and any special events.
Queues will be shortest at the start and end of the day.
Pay for parking at the start of your day to avoid queues.
Queues close when the park closes so if the park closes at 5pm you can still get in line at 4:59pm no matter the wait time.
For more information, visit Alton Towers official website.
Please also check out our Thorpe Park Guide.
Thanks for reading our Alton Towers Guide.