Suggestions for Visiting Alton Towers

Alton Towers is considered one of our favorite theme parks within the UK. It’s house to an ideal many rides and points of interest, from the kid-friendly rides and exhibits in CBeebies Land to the high-octane thrill rides such because the Smiler and Nemesis Reborn.

It’s the largest theme park within the UK, and we’ve have been fortunate sufficient to go to Alton Towers on many events.

On this information, we’re going to share you with all our ideas to assist make sure you get probably the most out of your Alton Towers go to, from discovering your method across the park via 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 ideas for visiting Alton Towers.

In case you’re searching for extra particulars on the park, together with details about all of the rides, eating places, opening occasions, ticket costs, our opinions and extra, take a look at our full information to visiting Alton Towers.

That information goes into an ideal deal extra element concerning the park on the whole, while this information focuses particularly on sharing tricks to get probably the most out of your go to.

15 Suggestions for Visiting Alton Towers

Alton Towers Resort is 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 commonly a particular journey with household and buddies searching for a enjoyable day or two. For a lot of additionally it is a big funding of their hard-earned time and money.

We’ve visited Alton Towers a number of occasions through the years and we needed to supply ideas and recommendation that will help you take advantage of your go to to Alton Towers and get probably the most out of your day.

These embody recommendations 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 e book your tickets upfront on the official web site right here.

Tickets purchased on-line are practically at all times considerably inexpensive than shopping for them in individual on web site. Shopping for your tickets upfront additionally means you may go straight to the turnstile and skip any line for the ticket workplace.

It’s additionally price noting that Alton Towers operates a dynamic pricing system, so on busier peak days tickets are usually dearer, and on quieter days tickets will be inexpensive. In case you will be versatile along with your dates, you would possibly discover that selecting a unique day on your go to can prevent some cash.

We additionally suggest buying parking upfront in case you are not staying on web site (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 web site.

The Alton Towers Dungeon (positioned 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 Common Route Plan for the Day

Alton Towers is unfold out over a big space, and it may 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 basic day and have a basic 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 basic 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 will help you intend 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 incorporates various 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 information.

Relying in your group, you could or might not find yourself visiting all of the zones. For instance, in case you are visiting with youthful youngsters, you might be doubtless going to spend extra time in CBeebies Land and The World of David Walliams and never a lot time within the X-Sector and the Darkish Forest.

So a basic plan could be one thing like this “Buy tickets and parking upfront. Arrive at park at 9:30am, begin in CBeebies Land, break to have a packed snack, then go to World of David Walliams, stroll to Mutiny Bay and purchase lunch there, spend the remainder of day cut 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 experience top necessities, you’re doubtless 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 web site 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 part of queue for most popular experience 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 modify your schedule. On very busy days with out Fastrack passes you won’t have the ability to do greater than 3 or 4 large rides in a day. Conversely, on a quiet day or 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 (additional ticket wanted), be sure you 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 have a look at the map of the park and determine which areas you could go to.

It’s undoubtedly a good suggestion to experience all of the rides in a selected space that you simply 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 reasonably than experiencing the points of interest.

For these with any type of accessibility or incapacity concern, we extremely suggest studying the Alton Towers accessibility information, beneficial routes, and insurance policies. Trip Entry Passes must be utilized on-line and visits utilizing the cross have to be booked upfront. In case 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 all the things on the 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 number of performance that may enhance your go to, from dwell experience queue occasions, to managing your experience photographs, to a useful map and navigation function that may get you in all places 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 a number of the data within the app can even simply be discovered within the park, different issues like experience queue occasions 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 move to subsequent.

The app will be downloaded right here.

Arrive Early / Go away Late

To take advantage of your time at Alton Towers you must 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 may go into the park and be a 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 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 may be a part of a experience queue, not the final time the experience runs. So in case you are nonetheless in a line after closing time, you must nonetheless get to do the experience.

Now, if you could depart the park for any motive, resembling to go to your automobile or let the youngsters have a nap, you then simply have to be sure you get a hand stamp from an admission workers member earlier than you exit so you may reenter later. So you may take a break and return. This makes probably the most sense for these staying in a single day on the Alton Towers Resort.

We predict that benefiting from your time at Alton Towers makes a number 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 attributable to 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 youngsters or these over 6 toes tall, then it’s a good suggestion to do a little analysis upfront 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 web site right here.

This may keep away from you losing time going to rides that you may’t all experience collectively. Understanding which rides your youngsters can and may’t experience will help keep away from a number of tears and disappointment.

Understanding which rides are appropriate for which members of your group will even will 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 probably the most out of your day at Alton Towers, it’s actually vital that you understand what you prefer to your first experience to be. We’d suggest choosing the experience which is more likely to have the longest traces because the day progresses.

While it may be onerous to know precisely which rides can be hottest on any given day, as a basic 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 fashionable rides with lengthy wait occasions. So if these rides are in your to-do record, 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 occasions have been over 2 hours for that experience.

For these centered on the smaller rides and rides geared to youthful youngsters, lengthy traces are usually much less of a priority. However it may nonetheless be a good suggestion to start out with the rides your youngsters wish to experience most.

Contemplate 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 more likely to be pretty lengthy.

By pretty lengthy, we imply 1 – 2 hours wait time for the extra in style rides. The preferred rides are usually the joys rides and large themed rides, however even the smaller rides can have lengthy wait occasions on a busy day (or if they’re new to the park).

The excellent news is that you may skip nearly all of the traces by investing in a Fastrack Go. There are a selection of Fastrack passes accessible, 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 price range. It’s additionally attainable to purchase a single Fastrack cross on a per experience foundation for lots of the rides, which generally is a good technique to experience a selected experience rapidly in the event you don’t wish to put money into 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 experience that has Fastrack. The vast majority of rides do have Fastrack, apart from 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 occasions as you need for every experience. It’s additionally the most costly, and actually aimed toward those that wish to experience as many rides as attainable, a number of occasions in a day.

Now we have 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 occasions. With our Fastrack passes, we principally bought onto rides in 5 or ten minutes. So for us it made an enormous distinction, that means as a substitute of driving three or 4 rides within the day, we have been capable of experience each experience within the park.

After all, the Fastrack Passes gained’t make sense for everybody. We’ve visited Alton Towers on quiet days the place wait occasions are often not more than 20 minutes for a experience, during which case a Fastrack Go makes much less sense.

You should buy Fastrack Passes upfront of your go to right here. You too can purchase them in individual on web site, 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 desire 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 photographs and movies of your adventures, utilizing the Alton Towers app to test experience occasions and discover your method round, and much extra apart from. And all that use goes to empty the battery.

While there are charging stations accessible at Alton Towers for a payment, we predict a way more smart resolution is simply to put money into a conveyable battery pack on your telephone. These can cost your telephone from flat a number of occasions over (relying on the capability), and imply you’ll have the ability to preserve utilizing your telephone all day with out fear.

There are a number 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 basic plan about what rides and attraction you wish to go to upfront, additionally it is 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 through the day, from sizzling 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 have a look at the park map and have a basic plan for lunch so if there’s a particular place you wish to eat, you can also make your technique to that space for lunchtime.

Notice 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 along 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. In case you don’t wish to order by way of a smartphone app, you would possibly wish 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 it’s a must to order on-line.

Now, in the event you don’t wish to pay theme park costs for meals and also you wish to get monetary savings (and doubtless a while), contemplate bringing alongside your individual meals and snacks.

Alton Towers has a number of completely different picnic areas, and you might be greater than welcome to deliver 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 gaggle or household, as meals prices for a number 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 candyfloss for the youngsters.

Carry a Refillable Water Bottle

You’re going to be doing a number of strolling at Alton Towers, and it’s going to be a protracted day. So that you undoubtedly wish to keep hydrated.

Quite than having to pay for drinks or purchase bottles of water, you may deliver 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 smooth drinks within the park, you would possibly have the ability to get monetary savings through the use of the Coca-Cola Refill stations all through the park.

To make use of these, you could 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 would like. You need to use the identical cup on future visits for a decrease per day price.

Keep In a single day

One actually good technique to take advantage of your time at Alton Towers is to remain in a single day, both at one of many on-site resorts (see and e book all of the choices right here) or at a close-by resort.

Now we have 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 house.

In case you solely select to remain one night time, we’d suggest making it the night time earlier than your go to. This fashion you’ll have the ability to enter the park at opening time and take advantage of your day.

Lodging at Alton Towers

Staying on web site at one of many Alton Towers resort resorts undoubtedly has its benefits. First, the resorts are all themed, so your total expertise can be prolonged. The theming extends from the primary areas via to every room, and there’s additionally leisure on supply within the resort areas as properly.

One other benefit of staying on web site is that it offers you time to get pleasure from a number of the different points of interest on web site that you simply won’t in any other case have time to get pleasure from.

These embody the Splash Landings water park and the park themed Mini Golf. We’ve completed each of those when staying in a single day and suppose they’re each price experiencing.

In case you keep on web site, you additionally get free on-site parking, which is able to prevent a bit of cash in case you are driving to Alton Towers.

Lastly, one of many primary benefits of staying in one of many on-site resorts is that you may enter the park by way of the resort visitor solely entrance, which is close to the resort monorail cease.

This entrance brings you into the park proper subsequent to Galactica and Nemesis Reborn. If these rides are in your to-do record, then you may 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 will be 40 minutes lengthy, whereas the stroll to the primary park entrance from the resorts is round 20 minutes. So you may skip all that and be straight into the park as a substitute.

For extra data and an in depth breakdown of what every resort has to supply, see my full Alton Towers information.

You’ll be able to e book the resort resorts as a part of a package deal together with your park entrance right here. They typically run provides 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 may also keep at a close-by resort. Now we 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 experience Nemesis Reborn as one of many first riders with solely a brief wait, reasonably than the 2 hour wait that occurred in a while.

The principle 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 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 resorts are very fashionable with households.

Each will be good choices that are properly price contemplating on your Alton Towers go to. If you’re interested by a resort, 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 accessible. 8 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers
• Peakstones Inn – This 3* resort provides a spread of en-suite rooms and there’s an on-site restaurant and bar. Breakfast is out there. 10 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
• Heywood Corridor – This property provides various self-contained flats, every with a small kitchen an en-suite rest room. There’s additionally a sizzling tub and backyard for company use. 12 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
• Whiston Corridor – A former nineteenth century corridor which has been transformed into a contemporary mid-range resort with its personal golf course. A variety of en-suite rooms can be found, and breakfast is obtainable. We loved our keep right here and the meals specifically was superb. 13 minutes’ drivee from Alton Towers.
• The Duncombe Arms – This pub/resort is present in Ellastone and provides air-conditioned rooms with espresso machines and en-suite amenities. Breakfast is out there and there’s a restaurant and bar for different meals. 13 minutes drive from Alton Towers
• The Royal Oak – This inn provides a spread of comfy rooms within the city of Ashbourne. There’s a restaurant and bar on web site with meals accessible. 19 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.
• YHA Ilam Corridor – This youth hostel is present in a gothic corridor set in 84 acres of parkland. There’s an on-site breakfast, kitchen for self-catering, and a selection of shared or non-public lodging. 22 minutes’ drive from Alton Towers.

After all, there are heaps extra choices to contemplate. You’ll be able to see a full vary of lodging choices close to Alton Towers on Reserving.com right here, which incorporates various vacation leases as properly.

Make Meal Reservations if Staying In a single day

In case you resolve to remain at one of many on-site resorts, you’ll want to make meal reservations upfront of your go to. This consists of breakfast and dinner mealtimes.

The resort eating places get busy, so reservations are required to ensure that them to have the ability to guarantee everybody has a superb expertise. Reservations are free, and detailed details about how one can e book can be despatched to you as a part of your reserving affirmation.

The extra in style occasions, resembling round 7:00pm to 7.30pm for dinner and round 8am for breakfast, e book up quick, so if you’d like extra selection, we advise reserving properly upfront. 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 typically eat with no reserving at one of many resorts, it may be a protracted anticipate a desk otherwise you won’t get your selection of a restaurant.

If you wish to eat on the Rollercoaster Restaurant (positioned within the park however strolling distance from resorts), you additionally have to e book these dinner reservations upfront. This restaurant can typically be booked out a few weeks upfront. In case you can’t get a reservation throughout your keep, attempt to go for lunch the place reservations are usually not required.

Contemplate the Digital Picture Go

If you wish to have reminiscences of your time at Alton Towers, then we’d recommend investing in a Digital Picture Go on your go to. While you may clearly take photographs 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 techniques in place, often positioned to seize a key second through the experience the place you’re looking most excited or terrified. Naturally these could make for some memorable pictures! Moreover, there are some particular points of interest with a photograph shoot aspect, resembling in CBeebies Land, the place you may have extra photographs taken of your go to.

The Digital Picture Go offers you entry to all of the experience photographs out of your day at Alton Towers, for you and anybody in your group. The photographs are all delivered digitally by way of the Alton Towers app, and you’ll then share them with buddies digitally, or print them along with your most popular print service.

On a latest go to to Alton Towers as a gaggle of six (4 adults and two youngsters) we ended up with over 100 digital pictures between the six of us, which made the Digital Picture Go greater than price it.

The principle tip I might give can be to have all of the photographs 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. In case you resolve you just like the photographs, you may 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 photographs keep within the app for 90 days after your go to, so you might have loads of time to resolve. After getting bought, they then stay within the app for a further yr, throughout which period you may obtain them to your machine and preserve them perpetually.

You’ll be able to after all additionally purchase the Digital Picture Go upfront of your go to or throughout your go to. It’s usually offered as an possibility while you purchase your tickets.

Nevertheless, except you might be 100% 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 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 sizzling sunshine.

So that you simply by no means know fairly what you’re going to get, and the climate forecast isn’t at all times going to get it proper. So we suggest being ready for a spread of eventualities. We’d usually recommend contemplating packing the next, which you’ll modify 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 various free exhibits and different kinds of leisure on supply, a lot of that are excellent in case you are visiting the park with youthful youngsters.

These exhibits generally is a good technique to take a break and sit down while being entertained. Exhibits fluctuate, however embody dwell motion exhibits such because the Furchester Resort, 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 dwell stage arrange subsequent to the Alton Towers lake which regularly hosts performances. It would be best to test the schedule while you arrive to see what’s on in your specific day.

If you’re staying in one of many on-site resorts, then the get together doesn’t cease while you get again for the night time. Every resort usually has dwell performances every night time 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 simply would possibly discover helpful.

• Now we have a whole information to visiting Alton Towers, which has all the things you could know. It consists of data on all of the rides, resorts, actions and much extra.
• For wider UK journey planning, we’ve got prompt one week and two week UK itineraries
• Now we 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, recommendations on a weekend in York, recommendations on Visiting Oxford on a Day Journey, and issues to do in Cambridge
• In case you’re heading to Scotland, take a look at our 2 day Edinburgh itinerary, our Glasgow and Loch Lomond itinerary, our information to the greatest day journeys from Glasgow, our information to issues to do in Edinburgh, our itinerary for Skye and the Highlands, our information to the greatest day journeys from Aberdeen, and our information to the very best day journeys from Edinburgh to get you began. We even have a information to getting from London to Edinburgh.
• Now we have a information to 10 of the very 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 might have something you’d add to the above, or a query about an upcoming go to? Simply tell us within the feedback beneath!