Alton Towers is certainly one of our favorite theme parks within the UK. It’s house to an awesome many rides and sights, 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 means across the park via to creating positive you get to journey all of the rides you need to journey, even on a busy day.
This information is targeted particularly on suggestions 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, take a look at our full information to visiting Alton Towers.
That information goes into an awesome deal extra element in regards to the park on the whole, 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 positioned 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’s also a major funding of their hard-earned time and cash.
We’ve visited Alton Towers a number of instances through the years and we wished 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 embrace recommendations on find out 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 the very best worth for tickets, you’ll positively need to ebook your tickets prematurely on the official web site right here.
Tickets purchased on-line are practically at all times considerably cheaper than shopping for them in particular person on web site. 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 value noting that Alton Towers operates a dynamic pricing system, so on busier peak days tickets are typically costlier, and on quieter days tickets might be cheaper. Should you might be versatile together with your dates, you would possibly discover that selecting a unique day on your go to can prevent some cash.
We additionally advocate buying parking prematurely in case you are not staying on web site (parking is included for on-site lodge visitors). While there’s no saving for doing so, it saves you having to pay for parking on web site.
The Alton Towers Dungeon (positioned inside the park however requires an additional ticket) tickets are additionally cheaper if booked prematurely 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 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 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 common plan on 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 may help you propose your route and prevent time on the day.
Alton Towers is specified by completely different zones, every of which has a unique theme and every of which comprises a variety of rides and sights. You may be taught extra about all of the zones and particulars of each journey in my detailed Alton Towers information.
Relying in your group, chances are you’ll or might not find yourself visiting all of the zones. For instance, in case you are visiting with youthful youngsters, you might be seemingly 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 likely to 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 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 top necessities, you’re seemingly 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 web site 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 popular 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 might have Fastrack Passes you’ll have to alter your schedule. On very busy days with out Fastrack passes you may not have the ability to do greater than 3 or 4 large rides in a day. Conversely, on a quiet day or if 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), make sure to permit about an hour for that.
Having an thought of which rides you need to do as a bunch is a superb begin on your go to. You may then have a look at the map of the park and determine which areas it is advisable to go to.
It’s positively a good suggestion to journey all of the rides in a selected 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 relatively than experiencing the sights.
For these with any form of accessibility or incapacity situation, we extremely advocate studying the Alton Towers accessibility information, really useful routes, and insurance policies. Trip Entry Passes must be utilized on-line and visits utilizing the cross should be booked prematurely. If in case you have any questions, ask them prematurely so you are 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 a must have when visiting the park.
It has lots of performance that can enhance your go to, from reside journey queue instances, to managing your journey pictures, to a helpful 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 be free to obtain and use.
While a few 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 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 / Depart Late
To benefit from your time at Alton Towers it is best to plan to reach early after which ideally keep till the park closes. The longer you might be on web site, 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 usually begin working at round 10am, the park itself truly opens at 9am. So you possibly can go into the park and be a 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 may additionally keep open later than this). Nevertheless, this closing time is the final time you possibly can be a 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 it is advisable to depart the park for any cause, akin to to go to your automotive or let the children have a nap, then you definately simply have to ensure you get a hand stamp from an admission employees 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 benefiting from your time at Alton Towers makes lots 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 Trip Restrictions
Most theme park rides have minimal top restrictions for riders as a result 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 is likely to be affected by the journey top restrictions, for instance youngsters 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 may see all of the journey top restrictions on the official web site right here.
This can keep away from you losing time going to rides you can’t all journey collectively. Understanding which rides your youngsters can and may’t journey may help keep away from lots of tears and disappointment.
Understanding which rides are appropriate for which members of your group may even 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 Trip
If you’re a thrillseeker and wish the get essentially the most out of your day at Alton Towers, it’s actually vital that what you want to your first journey to be. We’d advocate choosing the journey which is prone to have the longest strains because the day progresses.
While it may be arduous to know precisely which rides will likely be hottest on any given day, as a common rule of thumb the newer extra thrilling rides are inclined to have the longest strains.
For instance, the Smiler and Nemesis Reborn are usually very fashionable 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 shortly.
For example, 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 targeted on the smaller rides and rides geared to youthful youngsters, lengthy strains are usually much less of a priority. However it may nonetheless be a good suggestion to start out with the rides your youngsters need to journey most.
Contemplate the Fastrack Passes
If you’re visiting Alton Towers on a busier day, akin 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 well-liked 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 you can skip nearly all of the strains by investing in a Fastrack Move. There are a number of Fastrack passes obtainable, that are named Bronze, Gold, Silver and Platinum.
The cross you select will rely upon which rides you actually need to journey, in addition to your finances. It’s additionally potential to purchase a single Fastrack cross on a per journey foundation for lots of the rides, which could be a good strategy to journey a selected journey shortly in the event you don’t need to spend money on an entire Fastrack cross.
Apart from the Platinum Fastrack cross, 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, except for the CBeebies Land rides and a few 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 journey. It’s additionally the costliest, and actually geared toward those that need to journey as many rides as potential, a number of instances in a day.
We’ve visited Alton Towers on a really busy day, and the wait time for lots of the rides was effectively over an hour, with many rides having two hour wait instances. With our Fastrack passes, we largely obtained onto rides in 5 or ten minutes. So for us it made an enormous distinction, that 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 normally not more than 20 minutes for a journey, through which case a Fastrack Move makes much less sense.
You may purchase Fastrack Passes prematurely of your go to right here. It’s also possible to purchase them in particular person on web site, nonetheless 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 prematurely is a good suggestion to make certain you get the Fastrack Move you need.
Pack a Smartphone Charger
The possibilities are that you’re going to be utilizing your smartphone lots at Alton Towers. You’ll be taking pictures and movies of your adventures, utilizing the Alton Towers app to examine journey instances and discover your means round, and plenty extra in addition to. 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 wise answer is simply to spend money on a conveyable battery pack on your telephone. These can cost your telephone from flat a number of instances over (relying on the capability), and imply you’ll have the ability to maintain utilizing your telephone all day with out fear.
There are lots of choices on the market, we presently use one like this which labored effectively to cost our telephones and our buddies’ telephones on a current go to to Alton Towers.
Make a Meals Plan
Along with making a common plan about what rides and attraction you need to go to prematurely, 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 variety of meals distributors and eating places within the park open throughout 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. Anticipate typical theme park costs.
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 need to eat, you may make your strategy to that space for lunchtime.
Notice 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 tough time getting this to work on two completely 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 through a smartphone app, you would possibly need 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 a must to order on-line.
Now, in the event you don’t need to pay theme park costs for meals and also you need to lower your expenses (and possibly a while), contemplate bringing alongside your personal meals and snacks.
Alton Towers has a couple of completely different picnic areas, and you might be greater than welcome to deliver your personal meals to the park. This may be a good way to economize in your go to, particularly in case you are visiting as a bunch or household, as meals prices for a couple of folks 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 children.
Deliver a Refillable Water Bottle
You will be doing lots of strolling at Alton Towers, and it’s going to be a protracted day. So that you positively need to keep hydrated.
Fairly than having to pay for drinks or purchase bottles of water, you possibly can deliver 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 gentle drinks within the park, you would possibly have the ability to lower your expenses by utilizing 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 ebook all of the choices right here) or at a close-by lodge.
We’ve performed 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.
Should 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 have the ability to enter the park at opening time and benefit from your day.
Lodging at Alton Towers
Staying on web site at one of many Alton Towers resort inns positively has its benefits. First, the inns are all themed, so your total expertise will likely be prolonged. The theming extends from the primary areas via to every room, and there’s additionally leisure on supply within the lodge areas as effectively.
One other benefit of staying on web site is that it offers you time to take pleasure in a few of the different sights on web site that you simply may not 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 performed each of those when staying in a single day and suppose they’re each value experiencing.
Should you keep on web site, 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 foremost benefits of staying in one of many on-site inns is 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 possibly can are available 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 primary park entrance. On busy mornings the monorail queue might be 40 minutes lengthy, whereas the stroll to the primary park entrance from the inns is round 20 minutes. So you possibly can 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 may ebook the resort inns as a part of a bundle together with your park entrance right here. They usually run presents via the yr, so do take a look at what’s on supply as you would possibly have the ability to avoid wasting cash in your go to.
Lodging close to Alton Towers
As a substitute of staying on web site, you too can keep at a close-by lodge. We’ve additionally performed 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 obtained to journey Nemesis Reborn as one of many first riders with solely a brief wait, relatively than the 2 hour wait that occurred afterward.
The primary benefit of staying outdoors 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 lodge expertise. Relying on the lodge, it might even be a little bit of a quieter and extra stress-free expertise because the on-site inns are very fashionable with households.
Each might be good choices that are effectively 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 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 amenities. 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 obtainable. 10 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
- Heywood Corridor – This property presents a variety of self-contained flats, every with a small kitchen an en-suite lavatory. 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 lodge with its personal golf course. A variety 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 amenities. Breakfast is obtainable 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 comfy rooms within the city of Ashbourne. There’s a restaurant and bar on web site 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 non-public lodging. 22 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
After all, there are tons extra choices to contemplate. You may see a full vary of lodging choices close to Alton Towers on Reserving.com right here, which incorporates a variety of vacation leases as effectively.
Make Meal Reservations if Staying In a single day
Should you resolve 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 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 find out how to ebook will likely be despatched to you as a part of your reserving affirmation.
The extra well-liked instances, akin to round 7:00pm to 7.30pm for dinner and round 8am for breakfast, ebook up quick, so if you’d like extra selection, we advise reserving effectively prematurely. You may 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 out a reserving at one of many inns, it may be a protracted look ahead to a desk otherwise you may not get your selection of a restaurant.
If you wish to eat on the Rollercoaster Restaurant (positioned within the park however strolling distance from inns), you additionally have to ebook these dinner reservations prematurely. This restaurant can generally be booked out a few weeks prematurely. Should you can’t get a reservation throughout your keep, attempt to go for lunch the place reservations will not be required.
Contemplate the Digital Photograph Move
If you wish to have reminiscences of your time at Alton Towers, then we’d counsel investing in a Digital Photograph Move on your go to. While you possibly can clearly take pictures 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, normally positioned to seize a key second throughout 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 ingredient, akin to in CBeebies Land, the place you possibly can have further pictures taken of your go to.
The Digital Photograph Move 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 buddies digitally, or print them together with your most popular print service.
On a current go to to Alton Towers as a bunch of six (4 adults and two youngsters) we ended up with over 100 digital photos between the six of us, which made the Digital Photograph Move greater than value it.
The primary tip I might give could be to have all of the pictures taken and added to the app, after which on the finish of the day you possibly can 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 pictures, you possibly can pay to unlock greater decision variations with no watermark. In any other case, in the event you don’t like them, you don’t have to pay.
The pictures keep within the app for 90 days after your go to, so you might have loads of time to resolve. Upon getting bought, they then stay within the app for an extra yr, throughout which period you possibly can obtain them to your system and maintain them perpetually.
You may after all additionally purchase the Digital Photograph Move prematurely of your go to or throughout your go to. It’s usually introduced as an possibility while you purchase your tickets.
Nevertheless, except you might be a hundred percent 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 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 will get, and the climate forecast isn’t at all times going to get it proper. So we advocate being ready for a spread of eventualities. We’d usually counsel contemplating packing the next, which you’ll be able to alter relying on the time of yr you might be visiting:
Take Benefit of Free Exhibits and Leisure
Alton Towers has much more to supply than thrilling rides. There are additionally a variety of free exhibits and different varieties of leisure on supply, a lot of that are good in case you are visiting the park with youthful youngsters.
These exhibits could be a good strategy to take a break and sit down while being entertained. Exhibits range, however embrace reside motion exhibits such because the Furchester Resort, Hey Duggee, Bluey, and Teletubbies exhibits. Most of the exhibits 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 frequently hosts performances. You’ll want to examine 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 social gathering doesn’t cease while you get again for the night time. Every resort usually has reside performances every night time so that you can take pleasure in as effectively.
Additional Studying
That’s it for our suggestions 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 would possibly discover helpful.
- We’ve a full information to visiting Alton Towers, which has all the things it is advisable to know. It consists of data on all of the rides, inns, actions and plenty extra.
- For wider UK journey planning, we have now advised one week and two week UK itineraries
- We’ve 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 finest day journeys from Glasgow, our information to issues to do in Edinburgh, our itinerary for Skye and the Highlands, our information to the finest day journeys from Aberdeen, and our information to the very best day journeys from Edinburgh to get you began. We even have a information to getting from London to Edinburgh.
- We’ve a information to 10 of the very best 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 might have something you’d add to the above, or a query about an upcoming go to? Simply tell us within the feedback under!
