FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

7. Thorpe Park

© Merlin Entertainment

Location: Chertsey, Surrey, United Kingdom
Map:
PDF

About: Until the new millennium, Thorpe Park was a family getaway, through-and-through! With only a few water rides, family flat rides, and a safari car ride in its lineup, the park was divided into charming and detailed themed lands. But starting in 2002, the park expanded aggressively. Since then, Thorpe has built five massive coasters and obliterated most of its early family offerings and themed lands, opting instead to proudly proclaim itself as the nation's thrill capital (opposite sister park Alton Towers, which leans in a more family direction). Thorpe's sudden growth spurt has left its identity a bit muddled, but you can't argue with an extreme coaster lineup like theirs... 

Signature Attractions: Designed as a sort of volcanic "spin-off" of Alton Tower's world famous Nemesis, Thorpe's Nemesis Inferno doesn't surpass its older sister, but it's a fantastic complimentary ride. The park's launched Stealth coaster has always been a fan favorite. SAW: The Ride opened in 2009 as a grisly and grimy Gerstlauer Euro-fighter based on the disturbing film franchise, while 2012 saw the addition of the similarly-dark The Swarm, a B&M Wing Rider coaster specializing in incredible near-miss optical illusions with the remnants of an embattled and destroyed military base. The park also seemed to regret its dramatic shift away from family rides and made up for it with 2014's Angry Birds Land.

8. Blackpool Pleasure Beach

© Technifex

Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Map:
Online

About: Blackpool Pleasure Beach, like many coastal boardwalks throughout the world, is a low-priced-entry amusement park pier where guests can purchase wristbands or ride tickets to pay-per-ride on the boardwalk's assortment of attractions. It harkens back to an earlier (and in some ways, simpler) time of parkgoing. 

Signature Attractions: The park is filled with attractions like the historic and  totally unique Steeplechase three-laned horse-riding coaster and The Big One, the towering 235-foot coaster that makes the park a thrill-lover's paradise. Classically British is the Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic dark ride. Even then, probably the most iconic ride at the park, however, is Valhalla – a startling water dark ride through the afterlife world of Viking lore hidden behind a rocky cliff face. The ride features fire, water, real ice, and animatronic figures. 

9. PortAventura

© PortAventura

Location: Salou, Catalonia, Spain
Map:
PDF

About: Concieved and built with Anheuser-Busch (the brewery company behind Busch Gardens and SeaWorld) and briefly owned by Universal Parks (during which time it was named Universal's Port Aventura), this Spanish park has a history as varied as its ride line-up. Today, the park is just part of a full-fledged resort (which includes four hotels and a water park) and is the most-visited park in Spain and the 6th most visited in Europe. The adventure-themed park contains ports based on the Mediterranean, Mexico, the Far West, Polynesia, and China.

© Thinkwell Group

Signature Attractions: The surprising Furius Baco coaster (above) was Intamin's first foray into winged seating, launching guests from a dark ride and out into a vineyard on a grape-harvesting machine. Interestingly, the ride proves that "less is more" by featuring almost no elevation change, focusing instead on pure speed. The park's China land contains its two biggest coasters. B&M's twisted Dragon Khan flips 8 times along its twisted circuit, while the white track of the new Shambhala towers over it with a 256 foot drop - the tallest in Europe.

10. Terra Mítica

© Sally Rides

Location: Benidorm, Comunitat Valenciana, Spain
Map:
PDF

About: Practically down the road from PortAventura is the similarly-themed Terra Mítica. Like PortAventura, this ancient-adventure themed park briefly captured the eye of American park operaters and was named Terra Mítica: A Paramount Park for a few years in the early 2000s. Paramount filed for bankrupcy protection to exit its management contract with the Spanish park shortly before exiting the business altogether and selling its American portfolio to Cedar Fair. While not as large as PortAventura, Terra Mítica is sizable and contains some really stellar attractions. 

Signature Attractions: The Magnus Colossus wooden coaster is built into the rocky cliffs that serve as the park's backdrop, and features a unique double-down drop. The park's most unique ride might be El Laberinto del Minotauro, an interactive dark ride built by Sally Corp. (who are responsible for the Ghost Blasters, Boo Blasters, and Scooby Doo dark rides in America). This particular dark ride, though, challenges guests to score points by shooting mythological enemies in a dark labyrinth. At any number of points along the ride's circuit, low-scoring vehicles are re-routed to the exit! Only those carts that can keep scores high make it to the finale encounter with the Minotaur himself.

11. Gardaland

Location: Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy
Map:
Interactive

About: Now owned and operated by the same folks behind Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, Gardaland is slowly being transformed and expanded into a world class theme park resort. With lands roughly based on Medieval times, Arabian Nights, a Western town, a pirate port, and more, the park is in transition as it grows and adds new coasters frequently.

Signature Attractions: The steel mine-train coaster Mammut is nearly identical to Disney's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but set in the snowy mountains of an archaeological dig. The wild Sequoia Adventure is a rare S&S Screaming Squirrel model, basically flipping the wild mouse coaster on its side with torturously uncomfortable results (do yourself a favor and click the ride's name to watch the video). The park's most ambitious addition was 2011's Raptor, the first of B&M's now-famous Wing Rider coasters. Raptor swirls through 3 inversions and encounters countless "near-miss" elements with scattered scenery, giving the impression to riders and onlookers that collision is unavoidable. Of all the Wing Riders, Raptor is by far the most impressive in action.

12. Kennywood

Image: Kennywood

 

Location: West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, United States
Map:
Online

About: Kennywood is one of those traditional, family-style amusement parks that dot the landscape throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. And to be fair, we could've chosen any one of those charming, old-timey parks to fill the last slot on our collection. Kennywood is a nice middle ground, with historic coasters, antique dark rides, and a few new, high-tech additions that make it a perfect, timeless family park.

Signature Attractions: The park is rightfully renowned for its classic dark rides. The Old Mill (currently given an unfortunate overlay as Garfield's Nightmare) first opened in 1901. Yes, 1901. Noah's Ark is a walkthrough dark ride dating to 1936. Similar dark rides dotted the world for many, many decades, but Kennywood's is now the only one left in the U.S. The newer, trackless Ghostwood Estates and an enclosed wild mouse (fittingly themed as The Exterminator) round out the park's dark rides.

It also features three John Miller classic coasters (Jack Rabbit, Racer, and Thunderbolt), plus two incredible modern additions. The Phantom's Revenge hyper-coaster is built on a cliff, with its second drop being its tallest, diving 228 feet into a ravine. Meanwhile, 2010's Sky Rocket is a launched, inverting Premier coaster perfect for the family.

Conclusion

Alright, is that list exhaustive? Certainly not. Your favorite park may have been left out again. So let's be clear: there are hundreds of incredible parks across the world that never get the attention they deserve. It's a bit like arguing that your local taco joint should be as famous as Chipotle. You'd probably be right to think so, but it's an unwinnable war! Disney and Universal will always be international draws that are engrained in pop culture. Let's face it: Efteling will probably never reach that level of fame. 

So when our news and features favor Universal and Disney, know that we're not pretending that incredible parks like the ones above don't exist. It's not that we think Disney and Universal are the end-all, be-all. It's just that, like it or not, they're the giants. We hope you'll visit some of the parks we've mentioned here and the many, many, many more just like them. They deserve it!

What's your favorite park not owned by Disney or Universal, and why? Tell us in the comment section below! Then remember to make the jump to 12 MORE Underdog Parks to check out the second half of this list!

 
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Comments

In reply to by Frank (not verified)

20? You're padding their count quite a bit don't you think? Try 12. Plus the park is disgusting, dirty, and very unreliable in regards to park operations. I avoid that park along with most other six flags property like the plague.

The two major parks in Ohio, but for different reasons. Cedar Point in that it is a pure Amusement Park, it does have some theming and is sort of broken up into areas but most of those are named after the biggest ride in the area ie; Gemini Midway, Millennium Midway and the Main Midway. There is the Frontier Trail area that leads to Frontierland. But Cedar Point is mainly a Thrill Amusement Park whereas down in Mason Kings Island is a Theme Park. Kings Island though has gone through changes due to its various owners I would have to say in the beginning it was a truer Theme Park with the Hanna Barbera characters running around and even when Paramount took over the theming was very noticeable in that the newer rides were named after some of Paramounts popular films. Even now that Cedar Fair owns it the theming is quite heavier compared to most of the original Cedar Fair parks even though the movie names had to be dropped due trademark rules.

You left off one park that is literally in Disney's and Universal's backyard, Busch Gardens Tampa. Great coasters and lots of exotic animals.

Love both Kennywood and Busch Gardens Williamsburg!

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a great theme park....glad you listed it. I would say that Dollywood also is an excellent pkace to visit and have fun. Besides the theme park, a family can also enjoy her water park Splash Mountain. Dolly's Dixie Stampede complements her theme park. With all the other attractions around that area plus the beauty of the mountains, Dollywood is a fine place for a theme park vacation.

View More Comments

Add new comment

About Theme Park Tourist

Theme Park Tourist is one of the web’s leading sources of essential information and entertaining articles about theme parks in Orlando and beyond.

We are one of the world’s largest theme park guide sites, hosting detailed guides to more than 80 theme parks around the globe.

Find Out More About Us...

Plan Your Trip

Our theme park guides contain reviews and ratings of rides, restaurants and hotels at more than 80 theme parks worldwide.

You can even print them.

Start Planning Now...