Alton Towers is one in all our favorite theme parks within the UK. It’s residence to an important 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 suggestions to assist make sure you get essentially the most out of your Alton Towers go to, from discovering your manner across the park by way of to creating positive you get to experience all of the rides you wish to experience, even on a busy day.
This information is targeted particularly on suggestions for visiting Alton Towers.
In the event you’re in search of 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 guide to visiting Alton Towers.
That information goes into an important deal extra element concerning the park on the whole, 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 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 commonly a particular journey with household and buddies in search of a enjoyable day or two. For a lot of it is usually a major funding of their hard-earned time and money.
We’ve visited Alton Towers a number of instances through the years and we needed to offer suggestions and recommendation that will help you benefit from your go to to Alton Towers and get essentially the most out of your day.
These embody tips on how one can 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 very best worth for tickets, you’ll undoubtedly wish to book your tickets in advance on the official site here.
Tickets purchased on-line are practically at all times considerably inexpensive than shopping for them in individual on website. Shopping for your tickets prematurely additionally means you possibly can 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 costlier, and on quieter days tickets could be inexpensive. In the event you could be versatile together with your dates, you would possibly discover that selecting a unique day to your go to can prevent some cash.
We additionally suggest purchasing parking in advance if you’re not staying on website (parking is included for on-site resort company). 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 prematurely than if bought in-person on the day. They’re at the moment £2 per person cheaper online than in individual.
Make a Basic Route Plan for the Day
Alton Towers is unfold out over a big space, and it could actually take some time (typically so long as half an hour) to stroll from one experience 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 to your day on the park. Spending a while trying on the park map both on the park’s website or within the park’s app can assist you intend your route and prevent time on the day.
Alton Towers is specified by totally different zones, every of which has a unique theme and every of which comprises quite a few rides and points of interest. You’ll be able to be taught extra about all of the zones and particulars of each experience in my detailed Alton Towers guide.
Relying in your group, you might or might not find yourself visiting all of the zones. For instance, if you’re visiting with youthful children, you’re possible 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 could be one thing like this “Buy tickets and parking prematurely. 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!).”
Nonetheless, if you’re visiting with youngsters and adults who meet all of the experience top necessities, you’re possible 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 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 popular experience 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’ve Fastrack Passes you’ll have to regulate your schedule. On very busy days with out Fastrack passes you won’t be capable of do greater than 3 or 4 large rides in a day. Conversely, on a quiet day or if 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 should definitely permit about an hour for that.
Having an concept of which rides you wish to do as a gaggle is a superb begin to your go to. You’ll be able to then have a look at the map of the park and work out which areas it is advisable to go to.
It’s undoubtedly a good suggestion to experience all of the rides in a selected space that you just wish to do earlier than shifting 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 sort of accessibility or incapacity subject, we extremely suggest studying the Alton Towers accessibility guide, really useful routes, and insurance policies. Ask any questions you might have prematurely so you’re ready on the day of your go to.
Obtain the Alton Towers App
While I’m nonetheless not satisfied that all the things on the earth wants an app, I’ve to say that the Alton Towers app is fairly first rate, and essential when visiting the park.
It has a number of performance that can enhance your go to, from stay experience queue instances, to managing your experience images, to a useful map and navigation function that can 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 information utilization. The app can also be free to obtain and use.
While a number of the info within the app can even simply be discovered within the park, different issues like experience 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 experience to go to subsequent.
The app could be downloaded here.
Arrive Early / Go away Late
To benefit from your time at Alton Towers you must plan to reach early after which ideally keep till the park closes. The longer you’re 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 necessary to notice that while rides usually begin working at round 10am, the park itself really opens at 9am. So you possibly can go into the park and be part of the queue for the primary experience 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 could actually additionally keep open later than this). Nonetheless, this closing time is the final time you possibly can be part of a experience queue, not the final time the experience runs. So if you’re nonetheless in a line after closing time, you must nonetheless get to do the experience.
Now, if it is advisable to go away the park for any purpose, similar to to go to your automobile or let the youngsters have a nap, then you definitely simply must be sure you get a hand stamp from an admission workers member earlier than you exit so you possibly can reenter later. So you possibly can 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 profiting from your time at Alton Towers makes a number of sense as you’ve invested a good bit of cash into your go to, so ought to get the utmost worth from it.
Perceive any Trip Restrictions
Most theme park rides have minimal top restrictions for riders on account of well being and security causes. A number of of the rides even have most top restrictions.
If you’re visiting Alton Towers with anybody who could be affected by the experience top restrictions, for instance kids or these over 6 toes tall, then it’s a good suggestion to do a little analysis prematurely as to which rides are going to be appropriate for the entire group. You’ll be able to see all of the experience top restrictions on the official site here.
This may keep away from you losing time going to rides that you may’t all experience collectively. Realizing which rides your children can and might’t experience can assist keep away from a number of tears and disappointment.
Realizing which rides are appropriate for which members of your group may also let you 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 Trip
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 understand what you prefer to your first experience to be. We’d suggest choosing the experience which is prone to have the longest traces because the day progresses.
While it may be exhausting to know precisely which rides will probably be hottest on any given day, as a common rule of thumb the newer extra thrilling rides are inclined to have the longest traces.
For instance, the Smiler and Nemesis Reborn are usually very talked-about 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 rapidly.
For example, on a latest 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 experience opened. Later within the day, experience wait instances had been over 2 hours for that experience.
For these targeted on the smaller rides and rides geared to youthful kids, lengthy traces are usually much less of a priority. However it could actually nonetheless be a good suggestion to start out with the rides your children wish to experience most.
Take into account the Fastrack Passes
If you’re visiting Alton Towers on a busier day, similar to 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 widespread 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 that you may skip the vast majority of the traces by investing in a Fastrack Pass. There are a number of Fastrack passes out there, that are named Bronze, Gold, Silver and Platinum.
The cross you select will rely on which rides you actually wish to experience, in addition to your finances. It’s additionally potential to purchase a single Fastrack cross on a per experience foundation for lots of the rides, which could be a good strategy to experience a selected experience rapidly in the event you don’t wish to put money into a complete Fastrack cross.
Aside from the Platinum Fastrack cross, all the opposite passes permit you one entry to the particular Fastrack line for every experience that has Fastrack. Nearly all of rides do have Fastrack, excluding the CBeebies Land rides and a number of the different smaller rides.
The Platinum Fastrack cross is the one cross which lets you use the Fastrack line as many instances as you need for every experience. It’s additionally the costliest, and actually geared toward those that wish to experience as many rides as potential, 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 principally obtained onto rides in 5 or ten minutes. So for us it made an enormous distinction, which means as an alternative of driving three or 4 rides within the day, we had been capable of experience each experience within the park.
After all, 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 experience, during which case a Fastrack Cross makes much less sense.
You’ll be able to buy Fastrack Passes in advance of your visit here. You too can purchase them in individual on website, nevertheless try to be conscious that the Fastrack passes do come from a restricted pool they usually can promote out.
If you’re visiting throughout peak season and also you do need a Fastrack, then shopping for prematurely 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 verify experience instances and discover your manner round, and much extra in addition to. And all that use goes to empty the battery.
While there are charging stations out there at Alton Towers for a payment, we predict a way more smart answer is simply to put money into a transportable battery pack to your telephone. These can cost your telephone from flat a number of instances over (relying on the capability), and imply you’ll be capable of maintain utilizing your telephone all day with out fear.
There are a number of choices on the market, we at the moment 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 prematurely, 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.
It may be a good suggestion to have 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 can also make your strategy to that space for lunchtime.
If you wish to get monetary savings (and doubtless a while), take into account bringing alongside your personal meals and snacks.
Alton Towers has a couple of totally different picnic areas, and you’re greater than welcome to carry your personal meals to the park. This may be a good way to save cash in your go to, particularly if you’re visiting as a gaggle or household, as meals prices for a couple of individuals can rapidly add up.
Convey a Refillable Water Bottle
You’ll be doing a number of strolling at Alton Towers, and it’s going to be an extended day. So that you undoubtedly wish to keep hydrated.
Fairly than having to pay for drinks or purchase bottles of water, you possibly can carry 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 tons to select from.
If you’re planning to purchase delicate drinks within the park, you would possibly be capable of get monetary savings through the use of the Coca-Cola Refill stations all through the park.
To make use of these, it is advisable to buy one of many refillable Coke Freestyle cups (priced at £15 throughout our final go to) after which you possibly can drink as a lot as you want. You should utilize the identical cup on future visits for a decrease per day value.
Keep In a single day
One actually good strategy to benefit from your time at Alton Towers is to remain in a single day, both at one of many on-site inns (see and book all the options here) or at a close-by resort.
We have now completed each, they usually 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.
In the event you solely select to remain one evening, we’d suggest making it the evening earlier than your go to. This fashion you’ll be capable of enter the park at opening time and benefit from your day.
Lodging at Alton Towers
Staying on website at one of many Alton Towers resort hotels undoubtedly has its benefits. First, the inns are all themed, so your total expertise will probably be prolonged. The theming extends from the principle areas by way of to every room, and there’s additionally leisure on supply within the resort areas as properly.
One other benefit of staying on website is that it offers you time to get pleasure from a number of the different points of interest on website that you just 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 completed each of those when staying in a single day and suppose they’re each price experiencing.
In the event you keep on website, you additionally get free on-site parking, which can prevent a bit of cash if you’re driving to Alton Towers.
Lastly, one of many most important benefits of staying in one of many on-site inns is that you may enter the park through 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 possibly can are available early and be part of the road for them earlier than anybody else.
It additionally means you don’t should queue for the monorail, or stroll to the principle park entrance. On busy mornings the monorail queue could be 40 minutes lengthy, whereas the stroll to the principle park entrance from the inns is round 20 minutes. So you possibly can skip all that and be straight into the park as an alternative.
For extra info and an in depth breakdown of what every resort has to supply, see my full Alton Towers guide.
You’ll be able to ebook the resort inns as a part of a package deal together with your park entrance here. They usually run presents by way of the 12 months, so do try what’s on supply as you would possibly be capable of avoid wasting cash in your go to.
Lodging close to Alton Towers
As an alternative of staying on website, you may also keep at a close-by resort. We have now additionally completed this, staying round 10 minutes drive away on the evening earlier than our go to.
This allow us to arrive early and meant I obtained to experience 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 outdoors 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 resort expertise. Relying on the resort, it might even be a little bit of a quieter and extra stress-free expertise because the on-site inns are very talked-about with households.
Each could be good choices that are properly 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 preferred 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 amenities. 8 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers
- The Bay Tree – a really well-reviewed B&B with en-suite lodging and breakfast out there. 8 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers
- Peakstones Inn – This 3* resort presents a variety of en-suite rooms and there’s an on-site restaurant and bar. Breakfast is on the market. 10 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Heywood Hall – This property presents quite a few self-contained residences, every with a small kitchen an en-suite rest room. There’s additionally a scorching tub and backyard for company use. 12 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Whiston Hall – 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 particularly was superb. 13 minutes’ drivee from Alton Towers.
- The Duncombe Arms – This pub/resort is present in Ellastone and presents air-conditioned rooms with espresso machines and en-suite amenities. Breakfast is on the market 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 comfy rooms within the city of Ashbourne. There’s a restaurant and bar on website with meals out there. 19 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- YHA Ilam Hall – 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 personal lodging. 22 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
After all, there are tons extra choices to contemplate. You’ll be able to see a full vary of lodging choices close to Alton Towers on Booking.com here, which incorporates quite a few vacation leases as properly.
Make Meal Reservations if Staying In a single day
In the event you determine to remain at one of many on-site inns, you’ll want to make meal reservations prematurely of your go to. This consists of breakfast and dinner mealtimes.
The 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 how one can ebook will probably be despatched to you as a part of your reserving affirmation.
The extra widespread instances, similar to round 7:00pm to 7.30pm for dinner and round 8am for breakfast, ebook up quick, so if you would like extra alternative, we advise reserving properly prematurely. You’ll be able to at all times change the time of your reservation in the event you change your thoughts, topic to availability.
When you can nonetheless usually eat with no reserving, it may be an extended await a desk otherwise you won’t get your alternative of a restaurant.
Take into account the Digital Photograph Cross
If you wish to have reminiscences of your time at Alton Towers, then we’d counsel investing in a Digital Photo Pass to your go to. While you possibly can 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 experience 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 ingredient, similar to in CBeebies Land, the place you possibly can have further images taken of your go to.
The Digital Photograph Cross offers you entry to all of the experience images out of your day at Alton Towers, for you and anybody in your group. The images are all delivered digitally through the Alton Towers app, and you’ll then share them with buddies digitally, or print them together with your most popular 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 price it.
The principle tip I might give could be to have all of the images taken and added to the app, after which on the finish of the day you possibly can 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. In the event you determine you just like the images, you possibly can pay to unlock increased decision variations with no watermark. In any other case, in the event 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’ve loads of time to determine. After getting bought, they then stay within the app for a further 12 months, throughout which period you possibly can obtain them to your gadget and maintain them perpetually.
You’ll be able to in fact additionally purchase the Digital Photograph Cross prematurely of your go to or throughout your go to. It’s usually offered as an choice once you purchase your tickets.
Nonetheless, until you’re a hundred percent sure you’re going to need the photographs, our suggestion 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 top 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 variety of eventualities. We’d usually counsel contemplating packing the next, which you’ll regulate relying on the time of 12 months you’re visiting:
Take Benefit of Free Reveals and Leisure
Alton Towers has much more to supply than thrilling rides. There are additionally quite a few free shows and different forms of leisure on supply, lots of that are good if you’re visiting the park with youthful kids.
These exhibits could be a good strategy to take a break and sit down while being entertained. Reveals range, however embody stay motion exhibits such because the Furchester Lodge, Hey Duggee, Bluey, and Teletubbies exhibits. Most 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 regularly hosts performances. It would be best to verify the schedule once you arrive to see what’s on in your specific day.
If you’re staying in one of many on-site inns, then the social gathering doesn’t cease once you get again for the evening. Every resort usually has stay performances every evening so that you can get pleasure from as properly.
Additional Studying
That’s it for our suggestions for visiting Alton Towers! We hope you discovered it helpful.
Earlier than you go, we needed to share a couple of of our different guides that you just would possibly discover helpful.
- We have now a complete guide to visiting Alton Towers, which has all the things it is advisable to know. It consists of info on all of the rides, inns, actions and much extra.
- For wider UK journey planning, we’ve recommended one week and two week UK itineraries
- We have now guides to many different cities in England. See our information to things to do in Manchester, things to do in Stratford upon Avon, things to do in Bristol, things to do in Portsmouth, tips about a weekend in York, tips about Visiting Oxford on a Day Trip, and things to do in Cambridge
- In the event you’re heading to Scotland, try our 2 day Edinburgh itinerary, our Glasgow and Loch Lomond itinerary, our information to the best day trips from Glasgow, our information to things to do in Edinburgh, our itinerary for Skye and the Highlands, our information to the best day trips from Aberdeen, and our information to the very best day trips 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 best Stately Homes 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’ve something you’d add to the above, or a query about an upcoming go to? Simply tell us within the feedback under!
