PortAventura is located on the Costa Daurada in Catalonia, Spain. PortAventura is the most visited theme park in Spain, attracting, on average, 3.5 million guests a year. The resort also includes a water park, five hotels, an RV Park and a convention centre. The park originally opened in 1995. The Tussauds group, which owned 40% of the park, sold the majority of its shares to Universal in 1998 and the park was branded as Europe’s first Universal Studios Park. However, Universal sold its interest in the park in 2004 and the Universal name was dropped by 2005. Since then, the park has been known as PortAventura. Its no surprise that this park is so popular, there are many great attractions and the theming is wonderful. Thus, this list was pretty hard to limit. Nevertheless, here are my top five favourite attractions at PortAventura.
5. Stampida
This racing, wooden roller coaster built by Custom Coasters International is 1 km long and reaches speeds of 70 km/h. One of only two dual-tracked roller coasters CCI ever built, this coaster is a fast and intense ride. As a huge fan of wooden coasters, I think this is a stand out at PortAventura.
4. Furius Baco
This intamin wing coaster begins with a hydraulic launch, blasting riders from 0 to 135 km/h in just 3 seconds. The coaster itself is one of the most intense rides I have personally ever experienced. Not only this, but it is also excellently themed. The story goes that a professor is preparing to launch his new grape collecting machine, but when his monkey assistant pulls the wrong lever, the contraption turns into an out-of-control catapult.
3. Dragon Kahn
Dragon Khan opened in 1995, making it one of the park’s only two coasters on opening day. It is a steel sit-down roller coaster with eight inversions, making it a world record until the opening of the ten-inversion Colossus in Thorpe Park, United Kingdom in 2002. Although a little old and rattly these days, this coaster still rides well enough for it to make my list.
2. Shambhala
Many people may be surprised to see this as number two and I completely understand that. Shambhala remains my favourite coaster at PortAventura, however it has moved down due to the opening of a different type of attraction. Themed as if it is in the Himalayas, this B&M hypercoaster is 256ft tall and reaches speeds of 83mph. Shambala is a great coaster and definitely ranks high in my list of favourite hyper coasters.
1. Sesame Street: Street Mission
Probably my most controversial pick on this list, but I can’t help it. This attraction is, at least for me, an unexpectedly brilliant addition to PortAventura. As the park’s only dark ride, this mixture of screen simulator type segments and animatronic figure scenes is much needed within the park’s lineup. However, it’s not just the fact that it’s novel to PortAventura, this ride is without a doubt one of the best themed and most fun shooting dark rides i’ve ridden.
Let me know what your favourite rides at PortAventura are! Have you had a chance to ride Sesame Street: Street Mission yet? If so, do you like it as much as I do?
Click here to check out our complete guide to PortAventura.
