Alton Towers is one among our favorite theme parks within the UK. It’s house to an incredible many rides and sights, 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 suggestions to assist make sure you get essentially the most out of your Alton Towers go to, from discovering your method across the park via to creating certain you get to journey all of the rides you need to journey, even on a busy day.
This information is concentrated particularly on suggestions for visiting Alton Towers.
In the event you’re searching for extra particulars on the park, together with details about all of the rides, eating places, opening instances, ticket costs, our evaluations and extra, try our full information to visiting Alton Towers.
That information goes into an incredible deal extra element in regards to the park typically, while this information focuses particularly on sharing tricks to get essentially 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 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 pals searching for a enjoyable day or two. For a lot of it is usually a big funding of their hard-earned time and cash.
We’ve visited Alton Towers a number of instances over time and we needed to supply suggestions 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 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 perfect value for tickets, you’ll positively need to ebook your tickets upfront on the official website right here.
Tickets purchased on-line are almost all the time considerably cheaper than shopping for them in particular person on website. Shopping for your tickets upfront additionally means you’ll be able to 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 typically costlier, and on quieter days tickets could be cheaper. In the event you could be versatile together with your dates, you may discover that selecting a special day to your go to can prevent some cash.
We additionally advocate buying parking upfront in case you are 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 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 at the moment £2 per particular person cheaper on-line than in particular person.
Make a Normal Route Plan for the Day
Alton Towers is unfold out over a big space, and it will possibly 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 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 sights than strolling, it’s a good suggestion to have a basic plan to 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 may also 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 lot of rides and sights. You possibly can study extra about all of the zones and particulars of each journey in my detailed Alton Towers information.
Relying in your group, you could or could not find yourself visiting all of the zones. For instance, in case you are 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 basic plan is likely to 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!).”
Nonetheless, in case you are visiting with youngsters and adults who meet all of the journey peak necessities, you’re possible 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 is likely to be 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 part of queue for most well-liked journey in Forbidden Valley, then do remaining Forbidden Valley Rides. Head to Darkish Forest for the joys 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 might have Fastrack Passes you’ll have to regulate your schedule. On very busy days with out Fastrack passes you won’t be capable to do greater than 3 or 4 large rides in a day. Conversely, on a quiet day or you probably have a Fastrack Go 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 enable about an hour for that.
Having an concept of which rides you need to do as a bunch is a good begin to your go to. You possibly can then take a look at the map of the park and work out which areas you should go to.
It’s positively a good suggestion to journey all of the rides in a particular space that you just 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 somewhat than experiencing the sights.
For these with any type of accessibility or incapacity difficulty, we extremely advocate studying the Alton Towers accessibility information, really helpful routes, and insurance policies. Journey Entry Passes must be utilized on-line and visits utilizing the go have to be booked upfront. You probably 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 all the things on the earth wants an app, I’ve to say that the Alton Towers app is fairly first rate, and vital when visiting the park.
It has quite a lot of performance that can enhance your go to, from dwell journey queue instances, to managing your journey pictures, to a useful map and navigation function that can get you in all places within the park you need 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 a number of the data within the app may also simply be discovered within the park, different issues like journey queue instances are a lot simpler to seek out within the app. Having all the knowledge in your pocket can actually assist when deciding which journey to go to subsequent.
The app could be downloaded right here.
Arrive Early / Go away Late
To take advantage of your time at Alton Towers it is best to 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’re going to get out of your ticket.
It’s vital to notice that while rides typically begin working at round 10am, the park itself truly opens at 9am. So you’ll be able to 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 yr and day, the park usually closes at 4pm or 6pm (for particular occasions it will possibly additionally keep open later than this). Nonetheless, this closing time is the final time you’ll be able to 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, it is best to nonetheless get to do the journey.
Now, if you should depart the park for any cause, reminiscent of to go to your automobile or let the children have a nap, then you definately simply must be sure you get a hand stamp from an admission workers member earlier than you exit so you’ll be able to reenter later. So you’ll be able to 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 quite a lot of sense as you might 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 as a consequence 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 is likely to be affected by the journey peak restrictions, for instance youngsters 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 possibly can see all of the journey peak restrictions on the official website right here.
This may keep away from you losing time going to rides which you can’t all journey collectively. Understanding which rides your children can and might’t journey may also help keep away from quite a lot of tears and disappointment.
Understanding which rides are appropriate for which members of your group may also mean you can divide your group up if you want, so everybody will get to expertise the sights they need 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 vital that you realize what you want to your first journey to be. We’d advocate selecting 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 basic rule of thumb the newer extra thrilling rides are likely to have the longest strains.
For instance, the Smiler and Nemesis Reborn are usually extremely popular rides with lengthy wait instances. So if these rides are in your to-do record, we advocate 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 using by 10.10am, solely 10 minutes after the journey opened. Later within the day, journey wait instances had been over 2 hours for that journey.
For these centered on the smaller rides and rides geared to youthful youngsters, lengthy strains are typically much less of a priority. However it will possibly nonetheless be a good suggestion to start out with the rides your children need to journey most.
Take into account the Fastrack Passes
If you’re visiting Alton Towers on a busier day, reminiscent of a faculty vacation or a weekend, then the queue lengths for most 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 typically the joys rides and massive 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 can skip nearly all of the strains by investing in a Fastrack Go. There are a selection of Fastrack passes obtainable, that are named Bronze, Gold, Silver and Platinum.
The go you select will depend upon which rides you actually need to journey, in addition to your funds. It’s additionally attainable to purchase a single Fastrack go on a per journey foundation for most of the rides, which generally is a good option to journey a particular journey rapidly should you don’t need to put money into an entire Fastrack go.
Aside from the Platinum Fastrack go, 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, except for the CBeebies Land rides and a number of 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 most costly, and actually geared toward those that need to journey as many rides as attainable, a number of instances in a day.
We now have visited Alton Towers on a really busy day, and the wait time for most of the rides was properly over an hour, with many rides having two hour wait instances. 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 using three or 4 rides within the day, we had been capable of journey each journey 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 journey, during which case a Fastrack Go makes much less sense.
You possibly can purchase Fastrack Passes upfront of your go to right here. You too can purchase them in particular person on website, nevertheless try 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 Go you need.
Pack a Smartphone Charger
The probabilities are that you will be utilizing your smartphone quite a bit at Alton Towers. You’ll be taking pictures and movies of your adventures, utilizing the Alton Towers app to verify journey instances and discover your method round, and plenty extra moreover. And all that use goes to empty the battery.
While there are charging stations obtainable at Alton Towers for a price, we expect a way more smart resolution is simply to put money into a transportable battery pack to your cellphone. These can cost your cellphone from flat a number of instances over (relying on the capability), and imply you’ll be capable to maintain utilizing your cellphone all day with out fear.
There are quite a lot of choices on the market, we at the moment use one like this which labored properly to cost our telephones and our pals’ 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 is usually 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 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 basic plan for lunch so if there’s a particular place you need to eat, you may make your option to that space for lunchtime.
Observe that for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, a number of the sit down eating places at Alton Towers are asking folks to order meals with cell app you should obtain. 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. In the event you don’t need to order through 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 supply one for accessibility and inclusion causes even when they at first say you must order on-line.
Now, should you don’t need to pay theme park costs for meals and also you need to get monetary savings (and doubtless a while), think about bringing alongside your individual meals and snacks.
Alton Towers has a couple of totally different picnic areas, and you’re greater than welcome to convey your individual meals to the park. This may be an effective way to save cash in your go to, particularly in case you are visiting as a bunch or household, as meals prices for a couple of folks can rapidly add up.
We all know some households wish to pack their very own meals, however then splurge on one thing like ice cream or cotton sweet for the children.
Convey a Refillable Water Bottle
You’ll be doing quite a lot of strolling at Alton Towers, and it’s going to be an extended day. So that you positively need to keep hydrated.
Quite than having to pay for drinks or purchase bottles of water, you’ll be able to 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 be capable to get monetary savings by utilizing the Coca-Cola Refill stations all through the park.
To make use of these, you should buy one of many refillable Coke Freestyle cups (priced at £15 throughout our final go to) after which you’ll be able to drink as a lot as you want. You should 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 inns (see and ebook all of the choices right here) or at a close-by lodge.
We now have completed 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 house.
In the event you solely select to remain one night time, we’d advocate making it the night time earlier than your go to. This manner you’ll be capable 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 inns positively has its benefits. First, the inns are all themed, so your total expertise might be prolonged. The theming extends from the principle areas via to every room, and there’s additionally leisure on provide within the lodge areas as properly.
One other benefit of staying on website is that it offers you time to take pleasure in a number of the different sights on website that you just won’t in any other case have time to take pleasure in.
These embrace 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 value experiencing.
In the event 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 predominant benefits of staying in one of many on-site inns is which you can enter the park through 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 record, then you’ll be able to 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 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’ll be able to skip all that and be straight into the park as a substitute.
For extra data and an in depth breakdown of what every lodge has to supply, see my full Alton Towers information.
You possibly can ebook the resort inns as a part of a package deal together with your park entrance right here. They usually run presents via the yr, so do try what’s on provide as you may be capable to avoid wasting cash in your go to.
Lodging close to Alton Towers
As an alternative of staying on website, you can even keep at a close-by lodge. We now have additionally completed this, staying round 10 minutes drive away on the night time 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, somewhat than the 2 hour wait that occurred afterward.
The principle benefit of staying outdoors the park is that you just get a wider selection of lodging, it may be higher worth, and it’s going to be a extra conventional lodge expertise. Relying on the lodge, it could even be a little bit of a quieter and extra enjoyable expertise because the on-site inns are extremely popular with households.
Each could be good choices that are properly value contemplating to your Alton Towers go to. If you’re focused on a lodge, listed below 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 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 obtainable. 8 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers
- Peakstones Inn – This 3* lodge presents a spread of en-suite rooms and there’s an on-site restaurant and bar. Breakfast is offered. 10 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Heywood Corridor – This property presents a lot of self-contained flats, 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 superb. 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 offered and there’s a restaurant and bar for different meals. 13 minutes drive from Alton Towers
- The Royal Oak – This inn presents a spread of snug rooms within the city of Ashbourne. There’s a restaurant and bar on website with meals obtainable. 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 personal lodging. 22 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
After all, there are heaps extra choices to think about. You possibly can see a full vary of lodging choices close to Alton Towers on Reserving.com right here, which incorporates a lot of 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, it would be best to make meal reservations upfront of your go to. This consists of 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 expertise. Reservations are free, and detailed details about the way to ebook might be despatched to you as a part of your reserving affirmation.
The extra common instances, reminiscent of round 7:00pm to 7.30pm for dinner and round 8am for breakfast, ebook up quick, so if you would like extra selection, we advise reserving properly upfront. You possibly can all the time change the time of your reservation should you change your thoughts, topic to availability.
When you can nonetheless usually eat with out a reserving at one of many inns, it may be an extended look forward to 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 inns), you additionally must ebook these dinner reservations upfront. This restaurant can generally be booked out a few weeks upfront. In the event you can’t get a reservation throughout your keep, attempt to go for lunch the place reservations aren’t required.
Take into account the Digital Picture Go
If you wish to have reminiscences of your time at Alton Towers, then we’d counsel investing in a Digital Picture Go to your go to. While you’ll be able to clearly take pictures throughout the park, the one place the place pictures is strictly forbidden is on the rides.
The excellent news is that each one the rides have their very own pictures 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 sights with a photograph shoot factor, reminiscent of in CBeebies Land, the place you’ll be able to have extra pictures taken of your go to.
The Digital Picture Go offers you entry to all of the journey pictures out of your day at Alton Towers, for you and anybody in your group. The pictures are all delivered digitally through the Alton Towers app, and you may then share them with pals digitally, or print them together with your most well-liked print service.
On a current go to to Alton Towers as a bunch of six (4 adults and two children) we ended up with over 100 digital photos between the six of us, which made the Digital Picture Go greater than value it.
The principle tip I’d give could be to have all of the pictures taken and added to the app, after which on the finish of the day you’ll be able to 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 pictures, you’ll be able to pay to unlock greater decision variations with no watermark. In any other case, should you don’t like them, you don’t must pay.
The pictures keep within the app for 90 days after your go to, so you might have loads of time to determine. After you have bought, they then stay within the app for an extra yr, throughout which era you’ll be able to obtain them to your system and maintain them without end.
You possibly can in fact additionally purchase the Digital Picture Go upfront of your go to or throughout your go to. It’s usually introduced as an choice while you purchase your tickets.
Nonetheless, until you’re a hundred percent sure you’re going to need the pictures, 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 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 all the time going to get it proper. So we advocate being ready for a spread of eventualities. We’d typically counsel contemplating packing the next, which you’ll be able to regulate relying on the time of yr you’re visiting:
Take Benefit of Free Exhibits and Leisure
Alton Towers has much more to supply than thrilling rides. There are additionally a lot of free reveals and different kinds of leisure on provide, a lot of that are good in case you are visiting the park with youthful youngsters.
These reveals generally is a good option to take a break and sit down while being entertained. Exhibits fluctuate, however embrace dwell motion reveals such because the Furchester Resort, 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 dwell stage arrange subsequent to the Alton Towers lake which regularly hosts performances. You’ll want to verify the schedule while you arrive to see what’s on in your specific day.
If you’re staying in one of many on-site inns, then the celebration doesn’t cease while you get again for the night time. Every resort usually has dwell performances every night time so that you can take pleasure in 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 may discover helpful.
- We now have a full information to visiting Alton Towers, which has all the things you should know. It consists of data on all of the rides, inns, actions and plenty extra.
- For wider UK journey planning, we have now steered one week and two week UK itineraries
- We now have 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
- In the event 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 the perfect day journeys from Edinburgh to get you began. We even have a information to getting from London to Edinburgh.
- We now have a information to 10 of the perfect 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 might have something you’d add to the above, or a query about an upcoming go to? Simply tell us within the feedback under!
