Alton Towers Tips
Listed below are Alton Towers tips submitted by Theme Park Tourist readers and editors. Do you have a tip that could help other theme park visitors save time, save money or just have a better time on their next trip to Alton Towers? Why not add it now? You'll need to register first.
Subscribe to receive weekly Alton Towers tips and news.
If you can't afford to stay in the Alton Towers or Splash Landing hotels, there is a fantastic alternative.
The Chained Oak Farm B&B is located almost next to the park, so close that at the end of the b&b's drive way you can hear screams from Oblivion! This B&B is particularly good for a couple of reasons:
1) price and location (£65 for a double, including a really hearty breakfast in the morning) the proximity of the b&b means you can walk to the park (avoiding parking fees). If you ask the ownners (who are very friendly!) they'll give you directions to the security entrance to the park who will wave you through to the main entrance, saving you a good 30mins walk!
2) If you've been to the park before and have been on Hex, you'll know of the legend of the great Chained Oak. The Chained Oak Farm is named after this very tree and it is situated in their vast grounds!!! There are a couple of small sign posts off their drive way which direct you to the tree, it isn't advertised by the park at all and we only came across it by chance, but it's pretty creepy and is obviously not just something put in place to endorse Hex.
If you're interested in booking at the Chained Oak, I recommend booking in advance as they've only got a few rooms. Definately recommend the B&B, particularly for couples as it's a bit quieter and more mature than staying in either of the Alton Towers hotels.
Google chained oak farm for contact details!
The best time to ride Spinball Whizzer without a long wait is to join the queue just before the park's scheduled closing time. It's the queue, not the ride, that closes - so you can take advantage of the extra time and avoid the long queues that Spinball has for most of the rest of the day.
Everyone goes straight to Spinball Whizzer because it is near the front gates. This means that queue at Spinball is actually longer first thing than it is later in the day. Rush straight to Nemesis instead and ride Nemesis and Air before the queues develop.
Having tried Thirteen in most ride positions definitely head straight to the back for the best thrill ride. If you are looking for a gentler ride you can't get any better than the front row!
There should never be a reason for you to pay full price at Alton Towers or Thorpe Park as there are always so many special offers around for these two parks. Look out for discounts in newspapers, or use Clubcard vouchers to obtain free entry. And don't forget to check TPT's Special Offer Watch!
If you're attending Alton Towers' Scarefest Halloween event, and don't mind staying up late, make sure you hit the horror mazes that are located outside the park itself after 9pm (when the park shuts). If not, you'll miss out on seeing the park and its rides in the dark - the best bit of Scarefest.
This is quite surprising, bank holidays are sometimes the most quietest times to go, because everyone thinks that it will be extremely busy so they don't bother going, thus leaving us with a pretty quiet Alton Towers! It all depends on luck, May 1st 2009 (queues were about 10 minutes maximum), It was almost empty, May 1st 2010, it was fairly busy, but it wasn't a case of buying fast tracks, queues were about 30 minutes long.
Alton Towers, Legoland Windsor, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures, Drayton Manor, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Flamingo Land
Take a picnic in a cool bag to save queuing at the food halls and save money too.
The Sun always run a two free tickets offer in March each year. Take advantage of this by collecting nine Sun vouchers and choose which week you would like to go (until closing in November)
