Alton Towers: Lodges Breaks Nearby

Writer: I’m a regular visitor to Alton Towers, we have Merlin passes as a family and live around 30 minutes away. I’ve been visiting the Towers for over 20 years and think I now can finally find my way across the gardens! 

Quick tips/ things to know

• If you are staying over, book the Roller Coaster restaurant for after the park is closed. It’s great fun to eat there but it gets booked up really far in advance. 
• Plan your rides before you get there: The park is massive, if you zig-zag around you’ll be exhausted! 
• All the drink refill stations have tap water free to refill your OWN bottles.
• Towers Street hot dog, near the entrance, is usually the quickest place to get food that’s not as expensive as in a restaurant. 
• If you go on battle galleons – you will get soaked! 
• If you need a break from the rides head to the gardens, they’re well worth a visit while you are there.

Around The Park Tips

1 – Head to a big ride first depending on the time you arrive. 

This depends on what time you arrive at the park. This is from my experience. Please note days varies and these are just from my experiace. If you go in the middle of the summer it will be busy all the time.

For example, the park opens at 10 

If you arrive before 9.30 head to Wickerman or Smiler. 

The queues for Nemesis, Galactica, Rita and Thirteen rarely get an as big first thing. They are usually less than an hour until lunchtime other than on the really busy days. 

If you arrive after 9.30 then avoid Wickerman as the queue usually ends up being nearly 90 minutes when it opens and rarely gets any bigger than that. Head over to Galactica and Nemesis and get a couple of rides in over there before joining one of the larger queues. 

2 – Hit Some Short Queues If You Have Younger Kids

Or if you’re bored of queueing! There are some rides that generally have shorter queues than the bigger riders but are still part of the theme park day. 

Here’s some that we regularly go on as they have shorter queues 

• Duel – Shooter ride
• Runaway mine train – Choo Choo! 
• Justin’s Pie-o-Matic (CBeebies land) – Sponge ball shooter fun
• Spinball Whizzer – Spinning rollercoaster
• Retro rides – THere are 4 of them fitted around the park in 2022, these are like fairground rides. 
• Squirt people on battle galleons – No queue, you can just use the shooters around the ride to soak the people coming round the ride – watch out though as they will shoot back! 

3 – Go Out Of Season If You Can

Try and avoid the peak months of June – July – August if you can (And Halloween and fireworks).

If you have preschool children go during the week out of the main season will give you a much better day with a lot less queuing. At the time of writing it is mid-week at the start of May, the biggest queue in CBeebies is 35 minutes. Thre are a number of rides with no queues.  

For older children weekends at the start and end of the season tend to be cheaper away from the school holidays. Early May and late September are the times we try to go more as it’s easier with smaller queues on average.