Alton Towers is considered one of our favorite theme parks within the UK. It’s residence to an amazing many rides and points of interest, from the kid-friendly rides and reveals 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 essentially the most out of your Alton Towers go to, from discovering your approach across the park by to creating certain you get to journey all of the rides you wish to journey, even on a busy day.
This information is concentrated particularly on ideas for visiting Alton Towers.
Should you’re on the lookout for extra particulars on the park, together with details about all of the rides, eating places, opening instances, ticket costs, our critiques and extra, try our full information to visiting Alton Towers.
That information goes into an amazing deal extra element concerning the park typically, while this information focuses particularly on sharing tricks to get essentially the most out of your go to.
15 Ideas for Visiting Alton Towers
Alton Towers Resort is situated in central Staffordshire in England (about midway between Birmingham and Manchester) and is the biggest 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 buddies on the lookout for a enjoyable day or two. For a lot of it is usually a major funding of their hard-earned time and cash.
We’ve visited Alton Towers a number of instances through the years and we needed to offer ideas and recommendation that will help you take advantage of your go to to Alton Towers and get essentially the most out of your day.
These embrace recommendations on tips on how to plan forward, save time, lower your expenses, keep away from surprises, and hopefully assist keep away from any tantrums!
Purchase Tickets & Parking in Advance
If you wish to get one of the best value for tickets, you’ll undoubtedly wish to guide your tickets upfront on the official website right here.
Tickets purchased on-line are practically all the time considerably inexpensive than shopping for them in individual 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 value noting that Alton Towers operates a dynamic pricing system, so on busier peak days tickets are usually dearer, and on quieter days tickets might be inexpensive. Should you might be versatile together with your dates, you may discover that selecting a special day on your go to can prevent some cash.
We additionally suggest buying parking upfront if you’re not staying on website (parking is included for on-site lodge friends). While there’s no saving for doing so, it saves you having to pay for parking on website.
The Alton Towers Dungeon (situated throughout the park however requires an additional ticket) tickets are additionally cheaper if booked upfront than if bought in-person on the day. They’re at present £2 per individual cheaper on-line than in individual.
Make a Basic Route Plan for the Day
Alton Towers is unfold out over a big space, and it might probably take some time (generally so long as half an hour) to stroll from one journey to a different. So it’s a good suggestion to plan out your common day and have a common route plan for what you wish to go to and in what order.
Because you presumably wish to spend extra time having fun with the rides and points of interest than strolling, it’s a good suggestion to have a common plan on your day on the park. Spending a while wanting 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 accommodates a variety of rides and points of interest. You’ll be able to be taught extra about all of the zones and particulars of each journey in my detailed Alton Towers information.
Relying in your group, you might or could not find yourself visiting all of the zones. For instance, if you’re visiting with youthful children, 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 common plan is perhaps 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 cut up between Mutiny Bay and Katanga Canyon (save water rides for final!).”
Nevertheless, if you’re 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 common plan for Alton Towers if visiting the bigger rides and staying in a single day on website is perhaps as follows.
“Have breakfast in lodge at round 8am and head over to park for 9am opening with pre-booked tickets. Use visitor lodge 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”.
In fact, relying on how busy the park is and whether or not or not you may have Fastrack Passes you’ll have to alter 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 Cross it is possible for you to to slot in extra rides.
If you’re wanting to go to the Alton Towers Dungeon (further ticket wanted), you’ll want to permit about an hour for that.
Having an concept of which rides you wish to do as a gaggle is a good begin on your go to. You’ll be able to then take a look at the map of the park and work out which areas you must go to.
It’s undoubtedly a good suggestion to journey all of the rides in a particular space that you just wish 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 challenge, we extremely suggest studying the Alton Towers accessibility information, really helpful routes, and insurance policies. Journey Entry Passes have to be utilized on-line and visits utilizing the go have to be booked upfront. When you have any questions, ask them upfront so you’re ready on the day of your go to.
Obtain the Alton Towers App
While I’m nonetheless not satisfied that every little thing on this planet wants an app, I’ve to say that the Alton Towers app is fairly respectable, and a must have when visiting the park.
It has a whole lot of performance that may enhance your go to, from reside journey queue instances, to managing your journey images, to a useful map and navigation function that may get you all over the place within the park you wish to go.
There’s free WiFi throughout Alton Towers, so that you don’t want to fret about knowledge utilization. The app can also be free to obtain and use.
While among the info within the app can even simply be discovered within the park, different issues like journey queue instances are a lot simpler to search out within the app. Having all the data in your pocket can actually assist when deciding which journey to move to subsequent.
The app might be downloaded right here.
Arrive Early / Go away Late
To take advantage of your time at Alton Towers it’s best 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’re going to get out of your ticket.
It’s necessary to notice that while rides usually begin working at round 10am, the park itself truly opens at 9am. So you may go into the park and be a part of the queue for the primary journey you wish 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 might probably additionally keep open later than this). Nevertheless, this closing time is the final time you may be a part of a journey queue, not the final time the journey runs. So if you’re nonetheless in a line after closing time, it’s best to nonetheless get to do the journey.
Now, if you must depart the park for any motive, resembling to go to your automobile or let the youngsters have a nap, then you definitely simply have to be sure to get a hand stamp from an admission employees member earlier than you exit so you may reenter later. So you may take a break and return. This makes essentially the most sense for these staying in a single day on the Alton Towers Resort.
We expect that benefiting from your time at Alton Towers makes a whole lot of sense as you may have invested a good bit of cash into your go to, so ought to get the utmost worth from it.
Perceive any Journey Restrictions
Most theme park rides have minimal peak restrictions for riders because of well being and security causes. A number of of the rides even have most peak restrictions.
If you’re visiting Alton Towers with anybody who is perhaps affected by the journey peak restrictions, for instance kids or these over 6 ft 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.
This can keep away from you losing time going to rides which you could’t all journey collectively. Figuring out which rides your children can and might’t journey might help keep away from a whole lot of tears and disappointment.
Figuring out which rides are appropriate for which members of your group will even assist you to divide your group up if you want, so everybody will get to expertise the points of interest they wish to, and no-one will get upset about lacking out or having to attend round.
Plan your First Journey
If you’re a thrillseeker and need the get essentially the most out of your day at Alton Towers, it’s actually necessary that you realize what you prefer to your first journey to be. We’d suggest choosing the journey which is prone to have the longest strains because the day progresses.
While it may be laborious to know precisely which rides might be hottest on any given day, as a common rule of thumb the newer extra thrilling rides are likely to have the longest strains.
For instance, the Smiler and Nemesis Reborn are usually highly regarded rides with lengthy wait instances. 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 shortly.
For example, on a latest go to to Alton Towers I joined the road for Nemesis Reborn at 9.30am and was using by 10.10am, solely 10 minutes after the journey opened. Later within the day, journey wait instances have been over 2 hours for that journey.
For these targeted on the smaller rides and rides geared to youthful kids, lengthy strains are usually much less of a priority. However it might probably nonetheless be a good suggestion to start out with the rides your children wish to journey most.
Take into account the Fastrack Passes
If you’re visiting Alton Towers on a busier day, resembling a college vacation or a weekend, then the queue lengths for lots of the rides are prone to be pretty lengthy.
By pretty lengthy, we imply 1 – 2 hours wait time for the extra common rides. The most well-liked rides are usually the fun rides and large themed rides, however even the smaller rides can have lengthy wait instances on a busy day (or if they’re new to the park).
The excellent news is which you could skip nearly all of the strains by investing in a Fastrack Cross. There are a selection of Fastrack passes accessible, that are named Bronze, Gold, Silver and Platinum.
The go you select will depend upon which rides you actually wish to journey, in addition to your price range. It’s additionally attainable to purchase a single Fastrack go on a per journey foundation for lots of the rides, which is usually a good option to journey a particular journey shortly when you don’t wish to put money into an entire Fastrack go.
Apart from the Platinum Fastrack go, all the opposite passes permit you one entry to the particular Fastrack line for every journey that has Fastrack. Nearly all of rides do have Fastrack, aside from the CBeebies Land rides and among the different smaller rides.
The Platinum Fastrack go is the one go which lets you use the Fastrack line as many instances as you need for every journey. It’s additionally the costliest, and actually aimed toward those that wish to journey as many rides as attainable, a number of instances in a day.
We have now visited Alton Towers on a really busy day, and the wait time for lots of the rides was properly over an hour, with many rides having two hour wait instances. With our Fastrack passes, we largely received onto rides in 5 or ten minutes. So for us it made an enormous distinction, which means as an alternative of using three or 4 rides within the day, we have been in a position to journey each journey within the park.
In fact, the Fastrack Passes received’t make sense for everybody. We’ve visited Alton Towers on quiet days the place wait instances are often not more than 20 minutes for a journey, by which case a Fastrack Cross makes much less sense.
You’ll be able to purchase Fastrack Passes upfront of your go to right here. You too can purchase them in individual 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 Cross you need.
Pack a Smartphone Charger
The probabilities are that you will be utilizing your smartphone rather a lot at Alton Towers. You’ll be taking images and movies of your adventures, utilizing the Alton Towers app to examine journey instances and discover your approach 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 charge, we predict a way more smart resolution is simply to put money into a conveyable battery pack on your cellphone. These can cost your cellphone from flat a number of instances over (relying on the capability), and imply you’ll have the ability to preserve utilizing your cellphone all day with out fear.
There are a whole lot of choices on the market, we at present use one like this which labored properly to cost our telephones and our buddies’ telephones on a latest go to to Alton Towers.
Make a Meals Plan
Along with making a common plan about what rides and attraction you wish to go to upfront, it is usually a good suggestion to consider what and the place you wish to eat. Pondering forward can prevent money and time.
There are a variety of meals distributors and eating places within the park open in the course of the day, from scorching canine and ice cream stands to sit down 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 take a look at the park map and have a common plan for lunch so if there’s a particular place you wish to eat, you may make your option to that space for lunchtime.
Word that because the COVID-19 pandemic, among the sit down eating places at Alton Towers are asking individuals 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 wish to order by way of a smartphone app, you may wish to simply say you don’t have a smartphone and order with a employees 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 wish to pay theme park costs for meals and also you wish to lower your expenses (and doubtless a while), contemplate bringing alongside your personal meals and snacks.
Alton Towers has a number of totally different picnic areas, and you might be greater than welcome to convey your personal meals to the park. This may be an effective way to economize in your go to, particularly if you’re visiting as a gaggle or household, as meals prices for a number of individuals can shortly add up.
We all know some households wish to pack their very own meals, however then splurge on one thing like ice cream or candyfloss for the youngsters.
Convey a Refillable Water Bottle
You will be doing a whole lot of strolling at Alton Towers, and it’s going to be a protracted day. So that you undoubtedly wish to keep hydrated.
Reasonably than having to pay for drinks or purchase bottles of water, you may convey your personal 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 mushy drinks within the park, you may have the ability to lower your expenses through the use of the Coca-Cola Refill stations all through the park.
To make use of these, you must 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 need to use the identical cup on future visits for a decrease per day price.
Keep In a single day
One actually good option 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 lodge.
We have now accomplished each, and so they every have their execs and cons.
Staying two nights could make it simpler to get there early and keep till closing the park with out worrying about heading residence.
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 might be prolonged. The theming extends from the principle areas by to every room, and there’s additionally leisure on supply within the lodge areas as properly.
One other benefit of staying on website is that it provides you time to get pleasure from among the different points of interest on website that you just won’t in any other case have time to get pleasure from.
These embrace the Splash Landings water park and the park themed Mini Golf. We’ve accomplished each of those when staying in a single day and assume they’re each value experiencing.
Should you keep on website, you additionally get free on-site parking, which is able to prevent a bit of cash if you’re driving to Alton Towers.
Lastly, one of many primary benefits of staying in one of many on-site accommodations is which you could enter the park by way of the lodge visitor solely entrance, which is close to the lodge 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 in early and be a 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 principle park entrance. On busy mornings the monorail queue might be 40 minutes lengthy, whereas the stroll to the principle park entrance from the accommodations is round 20 minutes. So you may skip all that and be straight into the park as an alternative.
For extra info and an in depth breakdown of what every lodge has to supply, see my full Alton Towers information.
You’ll be able to guide the resort accommodations as a part of a package deal together with your park entrance right here. They usually run presents by the 12 months, so do try what’s on supply as you may have the ability to avoid wasting cash in your go to.
Lodging close to Alton Towers
As an alternative of staying on website, you may as well keep at a close-by lodge. 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 received 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 primary benefit of staying exterior the park is that you just get a wider alternative of lodging, it may be higher worth, and it’s going to be a extra conventional lodge expertise. Relying on the lodge, it might even be a little bit of a quieter and extra enjoyable expertise because the on-site accommodations are highly regarded with households.
Each might be good choices that are properly value contemplating on your Alton Towers go to. If you’re keen on a lodge, listed below 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 variety 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* lodge presents a variety of en-suite rooms and there’s an on-site restaurant and bar. Breakfast is accessible. 10 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Heywood Corridor – This property presents a variety of self-contained residences, every with a small kitchen an en-suite toilet. There’s additionally a scorching tub and backyard for friends use. 12 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Whiston Corridor – A former nineteenth century corridor which has been transformed into a contemporary mid-range lodge 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 particularly was excellent. 13 minutes’ drivee from Alton Towers.
- The Duncombe Arms – This pub/lodge is present in Ellastone and presents air-conditioned rooms with espresso machines and en-suite services. Breakfast is accessible and there’s a restaurant and bar for different meals. 13 minutes drive from Alton Towers
- The Royal Oak – This inn presents a variety 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 alternative of shared or non-public lodging. 22 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
In fact, there are heaps extra choices to think about. You’ll be able to see a full vary of lodging choices close to Alton Towers on Reserving.com right here, which incorporates a variety of vacation leases as properly.
Make Meal Reservations if Staying In a single day
Should you resolve 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 lodge eating places get busy, so reservations are required to ensure that them to have the ability to guarantee everybody has a great expertise. Reservations are free, and detailed details about tips on how to guide might be despatched to you as a part of your reserving affirmation.
The extra common instances, resembling round 7:00pm to 7.30pm for dinner and round 8am for breakfast, guide up quick, so in order for you extra alternative, we advise reserving properly upfront. You’ll be able to all the time change the time of your reservation when you change your thoughts, topic to availability.
When you can nonetheless usually eat with no reserving at one of many accommodations, it may be a protracted anticipate a desk otherwise you won’t get your alternative of a restaurant.
If you wish to eat on the Rollercoaster Restaurant (situated within the park however strolling distance from accommodations), you additionally have to guide these dinner reservations upfront. This restaurant can generally 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 will not be required.
Take into account the Digital Photograph Cross
If you wish to have recollections of your time at Alton Towers, then we’d counsel investing in a Digital Photograph Cross on 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 every one the rides have their very own images methods in place, often 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 photos! Moreover, there are some particular points of interest with a photograph shoot aspect, resembling in CBeebies Land, the place you may have extra images taken of your go to.
The Digital Photograph Cross provides 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’ll then share them with buddies digitally, or print them together with your most well-liked print service.
On a latest go to to Alton Towers as a gaggle of six (4 adults and two children) we ended up with over 100 digital photos between the six of us, which made the Digital Photograph Cross greater than value it.
The primary tip I’d give can be to have all of the images taken and added to the app, after which on the finish of the day you may resolve 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 resolve you just like the images, you may pay to unlock increased decision variations with no watermark. In any other case, when you don’t like them, you don’t have to pay.
The images keep within the app for 90 days after your go to, so you may have loads of time to resolve. After you have bought, they then stay within the app for an extra 12 months, throughout which period you may obtain them to your system and preserve them eternally.
You’ll be able to after all additionally purchase the Digital Photograph Cross upfront of your go to or throughout your go to. It’s usually offered as an possibility once you purchase your tickets.
Nevertheless, until 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 season. 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 all the time going to get it proper. So we suggest being ready for a variety of eventualities. We’d usually counsel contemplating packing the next, which you’ll alter 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 a variety of free reveals and different kinds of leisure on supply, lots of that are good if you’re visiting the park with youthful kids.
These reveals is usually a good option to take a break and sit down while being entertained. Reveals fluctuate, however embrace reside motion reveals such because the Furchester Lodge, Hey Duggee, Bluey, and Teletubbies reveals. Most of the reveals additionally embrace the chance to take a photograph with the characters.
Moreover, there’s a reside stage arrange subsequent to the Alton Towers lake which regularly hosts performances. You’ll want to examine the schedule once you arrive to see what’s on in your specific day.
If you’re staying in one of many on-site accommodations, then the social gathering doesn’t cease once you get again for the evening. Every resort usually has reside performances every evening so that you can get pleasure from as properly.
Additional Studying
That’s it for our ideas for visiting Alton Towers! We hope you discovered it helpful.
Earlier than you go, we needed to share a number of of our different guides that you just may discover helpful.
- We have now a full information to visiting Alton Towers, which has every little thing you must know. It contains info on all of the rides, accommodations, actions and much extra.
- For wider UK journey planning, now we have recommended 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, recommendations on a weekend in York, recommendations on Visiting Oxford on a Day Journey, and issues to do in Cambridge
- Should you’re heading to Scotland, try 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 one of the best 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 one of the best Stately Properties 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 may have something you’d add to the above, or a query about an upcoming go to? Simply tell us within the feedback beneath!
