Alton Towers is one in every of our favorite theme parks within the UK. It’s dwelling to an ideal many rides and points of interest, from the kid-friendly rides and exhibits in CBeebies Land to the high-octane thrill rides such because the Smiler and Nemesis Reborn.
It’s the largest theme park within the UK, and we’ve have been fortunate sufficient to go to Alton Towers on many events.
On this information, we’re going to share you with all our ideas to assist make sure you get probably the most out of your Alton Towers go to, from discovering your manner across the park by means of to creating positive you get to journey all of the rides you need to journey, even on a busy day.
This information is concentrated particularly on ideas for visiting Alton Towers.
Should you’re searching for extra particulars on the park, together with details about all of the rides, eating places, opening occasions, ticket costs, our evaluations and extra, take a look at our full information to visiting Alton Towers.
That information goes into an ideal deal extra element in regards to the park usually, while this information focuses particularly on sharing tricks to get probably the most out of your go to.
15 Suggestions for Visiting Alton Towers
Alton Towers Resort is situated in central Staffordshire in England (about midway between Birmingham and Manchester) and is the most important theme park within the UK. The Alton Towers theme park sits on over 550 acres of land, with the bigger resort space totaling 910 acres.
A go to to Alton Towers is usually a particular journey with household and associates searching for a enjoyable day or two. For a lot of it’s also a big funding of their hard-earned time and cash.
We’ve visited Alton Towers a number of occasions over time and we wished to offer ideas and recommendation that will help you take advantage of your go to to Alton Towers and get probably the most out of your day.
These embody tips on the way to plan forward, save time, get monetary savings, keep away from surprises, and hopefully assist keep away from any tantrums!
Purchase Tickets & Parking in Advance
If you wish to get the most effective worth for tickets, you’ll undoubtedly need to guide your tickets upfront on the official website right here.
Tickets purchased on-line are almost at all times considerably inexpensive than shopping for them in particular person on website. Shopping for your tickets upfront additionally means you may go straight to the turnstile and skip any line for the ticket workplace.
It’s additionally price noting that Alton Towers operates a dynamic pricing system, so on busier peak days tickets are usually dearer, and on quieter days tickets will be inexpensive. Should you will be versatile together with your dates, you may discover that selecting a special day to your go to can prevent some cash.
We additionally suggest buying parking upfront in case you are not staying on website (parking is included for on-site resort visitors). While there’s no saving for doing so, it saves you having to pay for parking on website.
The Alton Towers Dungeon (situated inside the park however requires an additional ticket) tickets are additionally cheaper if booked upfront than if bought in-person on the day. They’re presently £2 per particular person cheaper on-line than in particular person.
Make a Basic Route Plan for the Day
Alton Towers is unfold out over a big space, and it may well take some time (typically so long as half an hour) to stroll from one journey to a different. So it’s a good suggestion to plan out your basic day and have a basic route plan for what you need to go to and in what order.
Because you presumably need to spend extra time having fun with the rides and points of interest than strolling, it’s a good suggestion to have a basic plan to your day on the park. Spending a while trying on the park map both on the park’s web site or within the park’s app might help you intend your route and prevent time on the day.
Alton Towers is specified by totally different zones, every of which has a special theme and every of which incorporates plenty of rides and points of interest. You’ll be able to study extra about all of the zones and particulars of each journey in my detailed Alton Towers information.
Relying in your group, you might or might not find yourself visiting all of the zones. For instance, in case you are visiting with youthful youngsters, you might be probably going to spend extra time in CBeebies Land and The World of David Walliams and never a lot time within the X-Sector and the Darkish Forest.
So a basic plan could be one thing like this “Buy tickets and parking upfront. Arrive at park at 9:30am, begin in CBeebies Land, break to have a packed snack, then go to World of David Walliams, stroll to Mutiny Bay and purchase lunch there, spend the remainder of day break up between Mutiny Bay and Katanga Canyon (save water rides for final!).”
Nevertheless, in case you are visiting with youngsters and adults who meet all of the journey peak necessities, you’re probably going to be heading for the larger rides.
A basic plan for Alton Towers if visiting the bigger rides and staying in a single day on website could be as follows.
“Have breakfast in resort at round 8am and head over to park for 9am opening with pre-booked tickets. Use visitor resort entrance. Be a part of queue for most well-liked journey in Forbidden Valley, then do remaining Forbidden Valley Rides. Head to Darkish Forest for the fun rides then have lunch at Woodcutter Grill. After lunch head to Wicker Man, then end the day at X-Sector”.
After all, relying on how busy the park is and whether or not or not you have got Fastrack Passes you’ll have to modify your schedule. On very busy days with out Fastrack passes you won’t have the ability to do greater than 3 or 4 large rides in a day. Conversely, on a quiet day or in case you have a Fastrack Move it is possible for you to to slot in extra rides.
If you’re wanting to go to the Alton Towers Dungeon (additional ticket wanted), remember to enable about an hour for that.
Having an thought of which rides you need to do as a gaggle is a good begin to your go to. You’ll be able to then take a look at the map of the park and determine which areas you have to go to.
It’s undoubtedly a good suggestion to journey all of the rides in a particular space that you simply need to do earlier than transferring on to a brand new space. In any other case you’re going to spend extra time strolling between areas fairly than experiencing the points of interest.
For these with any form of accessibility or incapacity subject, we extremely suggest studying the Alton Towers accessibility information, advisable routes, and insurance policies. Experience Entry Passes have to be utilized on-line and visits utilizing the move should be booked upfront. If in case you have any questions, ask them upfront so you are ready on the day of your go to.
Obtain the Alton Towers App
While I’m nonetheless not satisfied that every part on this planet wants an app, I’ve to say that the Alton Towers app is fairly first rate, and vital when visiting the park.
It has a variety of performance that can enhance your go to, from stay journey queue occasions, to managing your journey images, to a useful map and navigation characteristic that can get you in every single place within the park you need to go.
There’s free WiFi throughout Alton Towers, so that you don’t want to fret about information utilization. The app can be free to obtain and use.
While a few of the info within the app may also simply be discovered within the park, different issues like journey queue occasions are a lot simpler to seek out within the app. Having all the data in your pocket can actually assist when deciding which journey to go to subsequent.
The app will be downloaded right here.
Arrive Early / Depart Late
To take advantage of your time at Alton Towers you need to plan to reach early after which ideally keep till the park closes. The longer you might be on website, the extra it is possible for you to to see and do, and the extra worth you’ll get out of your ticket.
It’s vital to notice that while rides typically begin working at round 10am, the park itself really opens at 9am. So you may go into the park and be part of the queue for the primary journey you need to go on. Or simply seize a espresso or wander the gardens.
For closing, relying on the time of 12 months and day, the park usually closes at 4pm or 6pm (for particular occasions it may well additionally keep open later than this). Nevertheless, this closing time is the final time you may be part of a journey queue, not the final time the journey runs. So in case you are nonetheless in a line after closing time, you need to nonetheless get to do the journey.
Now, if you have to go away the park for any purpose, corresponding to to go to your automotive or let the children have a nap, then you definately simply must be sure to get a hand stamp from an admission workers member earlier than you exit so you may reenter later. So you may take a break and return. This makes probably the most sense for these staying in a single day on the Alton Towers Resort.
We predict that benefiting from your time at Alton Towers makes a variety of sense as you have got invested a good bit of cash into your go to, so ought to get the utmost worth from it.
Perceive any Experience Restrictions
Most theme park rides have minimal peak restrictions for riders as a result of well being and security causes. Just a few of the rides even have most peak restrictions.
If you’re visiting Alton Towers with anybody who could be affected by the journey peak restrictions, for instance kids or these over 6 toes tall, then it’s a good suggestion to perform a little research upfront as to which rides are going to be appropriate for the entire group. You’ll be able to see all of the journey peak restrictions on the official website right here.
It will keep away from you losing time going to rides that you may’t all journey collectively. Figuring out which rides your youngsters can and might’t journey might help keep away from a variety of tears and disappointment.
Figuring out which rides are appropriate for which members of your group may also help you divide your group up if you want, so everybody will get to expertise the points of interest they need to, and no-one will get upset about lacking out or having to attend round.
Plan your First Experience
If you’re a thrillseeker and need the get probably the most out of your day at Alton Towers, it’s actually vital that you recognize what you prefer to your first journey to be. We’d suggest selecting the journey which is more likely to have the longest traces because the day progresses.
While it may be onerous to know precisely which rides will probably be hottest on any given day, as a basic rule of thumb the newer extra thrilling rides are likely to have the longest traces.
For instance, the Smiler and Nemesis Reborn are usually very talked-about rides with lengthy wait occasions. So if these rides are in your to-do listing, we suggest heading to these rides as quickly as you arrive and becoming a member of the road. This could get you onto these rides rapidly.
For instance, on a current go to to Alton Towers I joined the road for Nemesis Reborn at 9.30am and was driving by 10.10am, solely 10 minutes after the journey opened. Later within the day, journey wait occasions have been over 2 hours for that journey.
For these targeted on the smaller rides and rides geared to youthful kids, lengthy traces are typically much less of a priority. However it may well nonetheless be a good suggestion to begin with the rides your youngsters need to journey most.
Think about the Fastrack Passes
If you’re visiting Alton Towers on a busier day, corresponding to a faculty vacation or a weekend, then the queue lengths for most of the rides are more likely to be pretty lengthy.
By pretty lengthy, we imply 1 – 2 hours wait time for the extra well-liked rides. The preferred rides are typically the fun rides and massive themed rides, however even the smaller rides can have lengthy wait occasions on a busy day (or if they’re new to the park).
The excellent news is that you may skip the vast majority of the traces by investing in a Fastrack Move. There are a number of Fastrack passes accessible, that are named Bronze, Gold, Silver and Platinum.
The move you select will rely on which rides you actually need to journey, in addition to your finances. It’s additionally potential to purchase a single Fastrack move on a per journey foundation for most of the rides, which could be a good technique to journey a particular journey rapidly when you don’t need to put money into a complete Fastrack move.
Aside from the Platinum Fastrack move, all the opposite passes enable you one entry to the particular Fastrack line for every journey that has Fastrack. Nearly all of rides do have Fastrack, excluding the CBeebies Land rides and a few of the different smaller rides.
The Platinum Fastrack move is the one move which lets you use the Fastrack line as many occasions as you need for every journey. It’s additionally the costliest, and actually geared toward those that need to journey as many rides as potential, a number of occasions in a day.
We have now visited Alton Towers on a really busy day, and the wait time for most of the rides was effectively over an hour, with many rides having two hour wait occasions. With our Fastrack passes, we largely bought onto rides in 5 or ten minutes. So for us it made an enormous distinction, which means as a substitute of driving three or 4 rides within the day, we have been capable of journey each journey within the park.
After all, the Fastrack Passes gained’t make sense for everybody. We’ve visited Alton Towers on quiet days the place wait occasions are normally not more than 20 minutes for a journey, during which case a Fastrack Move makes much less sense.
You’ll be able to purchase Fastrack Passes upfront of your go to right here. It’s also possible to purchase them in particular person on website, nevertheless you need to be conscious that the Fastrack passes do come from a restricted pool and so they can promote out.
If you’re visiting throughout peak season and also you do need a Fastrack, then shopping for upfront is a good suggestion to make sure you get the Fastrack Move you need.
Pack a Smartphone Charger
The probabilities are that you will be utilizing your smartphone so much at Alton Towers. You’ll be taking images and movies of your adventures, utilizing the Alton Towers app to test journey occasions and discover your manner round, and much extra moreover. And all that use goes to empty the battery.
While there are charging stations accessible at Alton Towers for a price, we predict a way more wise answer is simply to put money into a conveyable battery pack to your cellphone. These can cost your cellphone from flat a number of occasions over (relying on the capability), and imply you’ll have the ability to maintain utilizing your cellphone all day with out fear.
There are a variety of choices on the market, we presently use one like this which labored effectively to cost our telephones and our associates’ telephones on a current go to to Alton Towers.
Make a Meals Plan
Along with making a basic plan about what rides and attraction you need to go to upfront, it’s also a good suggestion to consider what and the place you need to eat. Pondering forward can prevent money and time.
There are a selection of meals distributors and eating places within the park open in the course of the day, from scorching canine and ice cream stands to take a seat down eateries just like the Woodcutter’s Bar and Grill and the Rollercoaster Restaurant. Count on typical theme park costs.
It may be a good suggestion to have a look at the park map and have a basic plan for lunch so if there’s a particular place you need to eat, you may make your technique to that space for lunchtime.
Word that for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, a few of the sit down eating places at Alton Towers are asking folks to order meals together with your smartphone after scanning a QR code. We had a troublesome time getting this to work on two totally different events on the Woodcutter’s Bar & Grill.
The second time we went, we ended up having to order with an individual after a number of failed makes an attempt to get it to work. Should you don’t need to order by way of a smartphone app, you may need to simply say you don’t have a smartphone and order with a workers member on the bar from a bodily menu. I consider they’ve to offer one for accessibility and inclusion causes even when they at first say it’s important to order on-line.
Now, when you don’t need to pay theme park costs for meals and also you need to get monetary savings (and possibly a while), contemplate bringing alongside your individual meals and snacks.
Alton Towers has a couple of totally different picnic areas, and you might be greater than welcome to convey your individual meals to the park. This may be an effective way to economize in your go to, particularly in case you are visiting as a gaggle or household, as meals prices for a couple of folks can rapidly add up.
We all know some households prefer to pack their very own meals, however then splurge on one thing like ice cream or candyfloss for the children.
Carry a Refillable Water Bottle
You’ll be doing a variety of strolling at Alton Towers, and it’s going to be a protracted day. So that you undoubtedly need to keep hydrated.
Quite than having to pay for drinks or purchase bottles of water, you may convey your individual refillable water bottle after which use the water refill stations that are dotted all through the park. We use these water bottles by Klean Kanteen, however there are heaps to select from.
If you’re planning to purchase tender drinks within the park, you may have the ability to get monetary savings through the use of the Coca-Cola Refill stations all through the park.
To make use of these, you have to buy one of many refillable Coke Freestyle cups (priced at £15 throughout our final go to) after which you may drink as a lot as you want. You should use the identical cup on future visits for a decrease per day value.
Keep In a single day
One actually good technique to take advantage of your time at Alton Towers is to remain in a single day, both at one of many on-site accommodations (see and guide all of the choices right here) or at a close-by resort.
We have now accomplished each, and so they every have their professionals and cons.
Staying two nights could make it simpler to get there early and keep till closing the park with out worrying about heading dwelling.
Should you solely select to remain one evening, we’d suggest making it the evening earlier than your go to. This manner you’ll have the ability to enter the park at opening time and take advantage of your day.
Lodging at Alton Towers
Staying on website at one of many Alton Towers resort accommodations undoubtedly has its benefits. First, the accommodations are all themed, so your general expertise will probably be prolonged. The theming extends from the primary areas by means of to every room, and there’s additionally leisure on provide within the resort areas as effectively.
One other benefit of staying on website is that it offers you time to get pleasure from a few of the different points of interest on website that you simply won’t in any other case have time to get pleasure from.
These embody the Splash Landings water park and the park themed Mini Golf. We’ve accomplished each of those when staying in a single day and suppose they’re each price experiencing.
Should you keep on website, you additionally get free on-site parking, which can prevent a bit of cash in case you are driving to Alton Towers.
Lastly, one of many major benefits of staying in one of many on-site accommodations is that you may enter the park by way of the resort visitor solely entrance, which is close to the resort monorail cease.
This entrance brings you into the park proper subsequent to Galactica and Nemesis Reborn. If these rides are in your to-do listing, then you may are available early and be part of the road for them earlier than anybody else.
It additionally means you don’t must queue for the monorail, or stroll to the primary park entrance. On busy mornings the monorail queue will be 40 minutes lengthy, whereas the stroll to the primary park entrance from the accommodations is round 20 minutes. So you may skip all that and be straight into the park as a substitute.
For extra info and an in depth breakdown of what every resort has to supply, see my full Alton Towers information.
You’ll be able to guide the resort accommodations as a part of a bundle together with your park entrance right here. They usually run affords by means of the 12 months, so do take a look at what’s on provide as you may have the ability to avoid wasting cash in your go to.
Lodging close to Alton Towers
As a substitute of staying on website, it’s also possible to keep at a close-by resort. We have now additionally accomplished this, staying round 10 minutes drive away on the evening earlier than our go to.
This allow us to arrive early and meant I bought to journey Nemesis Reborn as one of many first riders with solely a brief wait, fairly than the 2 hour wait that occurred afterward.
The principle benefit of staying exterior the park is that you simply get a wider selection of lodging, it may be higher worth, and it’s going to be a extra conventional resort expertise. Relying on the resort, it could even be a little bit of a quieter and extra enjoyable expertise because the on-site accommodations are very talked-about with households.
Each will be good choices that are effectively price contemplating to your Alton Towers go to. If you’re all in favour of a resort, listed here are some suggestions within the space, sorted by approximate driving distance from the resort:
- The White Hart – a well-liked inn within the village of Alton, providing a spread of en-suite rooms. 7 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers
- The Laurel’s B&B – It is a well-rated B&B which serves breakfast. Rooms are en-suite with tea/espresso making services. 8 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers
- The Bay Tree – a really well-reviewed B&B with en-suite lodging and breakfast accessible. 8 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers
- Peakstones Inn – This 3* resort affords a spread of en-suite rooms and there’s an on-site restaurant and bar. Breakfast is out there. 10 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Heywood Corridor – This property affords plenty of self-contained flats, every with a small kitchen an en-suite rest room. There’s additionally a scorching tub and backyard for visitors use. 12 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Whiston Corridor – A former nineteenth century corridor which has been transformed into a contemporary mid-range resort with its personal golf course. A spread of en-suite rooms can be found, and breakfast is obtainable. We loved our keep right here and the meals specifically was excellent. 13 minutes’ drivee from Alton Towers.
- The Duncombe Arms – This pub/resort is present in Ellastone and affords air-conditioned rooms with espresso machines and en-suite services. Breakfast is out there and there’s a restaurant and bar for different meals. 13 minutes drive from Alton Towers
- The Royal Oak – This inn affords a spread of snug rooms within the city of Ashbourne. There’s a restaurant and bar on website with meals accessible. 19 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- YHA Ilam Corridor – This youth hostel is present in a gothic corridor set in 84 acres of parkland. There’s an on-site breakfast, kitchen for self-catering, and a selection of shared or non-public lodging. 22 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
After all, there are heaps extra choices to contemplate. You’ll be able to see a full vary of lodging choices close to Alton Towers on Reserving.com right here, which incorporates plenty of vacation leases as effectively.
Make Meal Reservations if Staying In a single day
Should you determine to remain at one of many on-site accommodations, you’ll want to make meal reservations upfront of your go to. This contains breakfast and dinner mealtimes.
The resort eating places get busy, so reservations are required to ensure that them to have the ability to guarantee everybody has a superb expertise. Reservations are free, and detailed details about the way to guide will probably be despatched to you as a part of your reserving affirmation.
The extra well-liked occasions, corresponding to round 7:00pm to 7.30pm for dinner and round 8am for breakfast, guide up quick, so if you would like extra selection, we advise reserving effectively upfront. You’ll be able to at all times change the time of your reservation when you change your thoughts, topic to availability.
Whilst you can nonetheless usually eat with out a reserving at one of many accommodations, it may be a protracted await a desk otherwise you won’t get your selection of a restaurant.
If you wish to eat on the Rollercoaster Restaurant (situated within the park however strolling distance from accommodations), you additionally must guide these dinner reservations upfront. This restaurant can typically be booked out a few weeks upfront. Should you can’t get a reservation throughout your keep, attempt to go for lunch the place reservations usually are not required.
Think about the Digital Picture Move
If you wish to have recollections of your time at Alton Towers, then we’d counsel investing in a Digital Picture Move to your go to. While you may clearly take images throughout the park, the one place the place images is strictly forbidden is on the rides.
The excellent news is that each one the rides have their very own images programs in place, normally positioned to seize a key second in the course of the journey the place you’re looking most excited or terrified. Naturally these could make for some memorable pictures! Moreover, there are some particular points of interest with a photograph shoot aspect, corresponding to in CBeebies Land, the place you may have further images taken of your go to.
The Digital Picture Move offers you entry to all of the journey images out of your day at Alton Towers, for you and anybody in your group. The images are all delivered digitally by way of the Alton Towers app, and you may then share them with associates digitally, or print them together with your most well-liked print service.
On a current go to to Alton Towers as a gaggle of six (4 adults and two youngsters) we ended up with over 100 digital pictures between the six of us, which made the Digital Picture Move greater than price it.
The principle tip I’d give could be to have all of the images taken and added to the app, after which on the finish of the day you may determine if you wish to pay for them. Earlier than you pay for them they are often previewed in a small model with a watermark. Should you determine you just like the images, you may pay to unlock greater decision variations with no watermark. In any other case, when you don’t like them, you don’t must pay.
The images keep within the app for 90 days after your go to, so you have got loads of time to determine. After getting bought, they then stay within the app for an extra 12 months, throughout which period you may obtain them to your machine and maintain them without end.
You’ll be able to after all additionally purchase the Digital Picture Move upfront of your go to or throughout your go to. It’s usually introduced as an possibility whenever you purchase your tickets.
Nevertheless, except you might be 100% sure you’re going to need the photographs, our advice is to attend till you see all of them earlier than deciding to purchase.
Be Ready for Solar & Rain
The climate in England is notoriously fickle, even within the peak of summer time. We’ve had experiences the place we visited Alton Towers throughout two days, with the primary day being pouring rain and the second day being gloriously scorching sunshine.
So that you simply by no means know fairly what you’re going to get, and the climate forecast isn’t at all times going to get it proper. So we suggest being ready for a spread of eventualities. We’d typically counsel contemplating packing the next, which you’ll modify relying on the time of 12 months you might be visiting:
Take Benefit of Free Reveals and Leisure
Alton Towers has much more to supply than thrilling rides. There are additionally plenty of free exhibits and different forms of leisure on provide, a lot of that are good in case you are visiting the park with youthful kids.
These exhibits could be a good technique to take a break and sit down while being entertained. Reveals fluctuate, however embody stay motion exhibits such because the Furchester Lodge, Hey Duggee, Bluey, and Teletubbies exhibits. Lots of the exhibits additionally embody the chance to take a photograph with the characters.
Moreover, there’s a stay stage arrange subsequent to the Alton Towers lake which frequently hosts performances. It would be best to test the schedule whenever you arrive to see what’s on in your explicit day.
If you’re staying in one of many on-site accommodations, then the celebration doesn’t cease whenever you get again for the evening. Every resort usually has stay performances every evening so that you can get pleasure from as effectively.
Additional Studying
That’s it for our ideas for visiting Alton Towers! We hope you discovered it helpful.
Earlier than you go, we wished to share a couple of of our different guides that you simply may discover helpful.
- We have now a full information to visiting Alton Towers, which has every part you have to know. It contains info on all of the rides, accommodations, actions and much extra.
- For wider UK journey planning, we’ve got steered one week and two week UK itineraries
- We have now guides to many different cities in England. See our information to issues to do in Manchester, issues to do in Stratford upon Avon, issues to do in Bristol, issues to do in Portsmouth, tips about a weekend in York, tips about Visiting Oxford on a Day Journey, and issues to do in Cambridge
- Should you’re heading to Scotland, take a look at our 2 day Edinburgh itinerary, our Glasgow and Loch Lomond itinerary, our information to the greatest day journeys from Glasgow, our information to issues to do in Edinburgh, our itinerary for Skye and the Highlands, our information to the greatest day journeys from Aberdeen, and our information to the most effective day journeys from Edinburgh to get you began. We even have a information to getting from London to Edinburgh.
- We have now a information to 10 of the most effective Stately Houses in England, a few of which aren’t that removed from Alton Towers
And that’s it! Have you ever ever visited Alton Towers? Do you have got something you’d add to the above, or a query about an upcoming go to? Simply tell us within the feedback beneath!
