Europa-Park, Germany – Review
By Dominic Picksley, September 2025
The fabulous Europa-Park – celebrating its 50th birthday this year – has once again just been honoured at the Golden Ticket Awards after being crowned the ‘best theme park in the world’ for an incredible 10th time.
And having spent two days there this summer with two coaster-mad teenagers, I can honestly say it deserves all the accolades thrown at it. It is simply perfect in every way.
Tucked away in the south-west corner of Germany, a stone’s throw from the River Rhine, Black Forest and the French border, Europa-Park is a marvellous smorgasbord of delights for theme park fans young, old and middle-aged, with literally something for everybody.
Located in the tranquil town of Rust, you can see why it is so highly rated – thrilling coasters, imaginative dark rides, amazing theming, wow factors around every corner, lovely surroundings, excellent food options and top-notch operations all combine to make this place a world-class venue for thrill seekers and families alike.
In area, it’s less than half the size of Alton Towers, but has more than twice the number of attractions – over 100 at the last count – while the park is divided up into 16 sections, nearly all named after European countries.
“The attention to detail is staggering”
And every area is literally just like being in that country, the attention to detail is staggering; there’s the wooden chalets and Alpine trees of Switzerland, the whitewashed buildings of Greece (where it actually felt really hot as well), the marble floorings of Croatia (also very hot here), the colourful frontages of the buildings in Scandinavia, the Venetian-style decor of Italy, the street cafes of France, plus the Olde English vibe of England, with the Three Piglets pub, London bus and a stunning replica of the Globe Theatre. And there’s even a tiny area for Liechtenstein, with literally just one attaction, the Balloon Ride.
We joined the long queues at the spectacular entrance on our first-ever visit and once through, we headed straight to the monorail for a trip around the park – we were set to walk miles over the next two days so what better way to start then with a comfortable ‘tour’ of this amazing place where we were able to suss out some of the attractions from a good vantage point and without using too many muscles.
We gazed in wonder at all the themed lands that spread out in all directions, with our first port of call eventually being Iceland, where we headed to Blue Fire, a launch coaster built in 2008 by Mack Rides, a family-owned company that not only created nearly every attraction in the park, but also owns it.
“One of the finest rollercoasters on the planet”
Europa-Park is a brilliant showcase for Mack Rides, who started off building stagecoaches in the late 18th century, before turning its attention to amusement parks nearly 100 years later, and is now widely recognised as one of the finest companies of its kind in the world, designing and building some of the greatest (and most innovative) coasters, flat rides, dark rides, and log flumes on the planet.
Blue Fire, with its launched start, where it accelerates to 62mph in just 2.5 seconds and flings you round four inversions (it felt like I was about to be thrown out of my seat at one point) was a great place to start and we got on pretty quickly thanks to bagging immediate places in the virtual queue – to access this you need the park’s app and be signed in; every few minutes you have the chance to ‘jump the queue’ at certain rides by clicking one of the attractions on offer, but you’d better be quick as they’re gone in seconds (and if you are lucky enough to snag a place in the virtual queue, you can’t select another one until you’ve either used it or cancelled it).
“Stunning and frightening”
Not long after we rode Silver Star – in France – where it climbed to 240 feet (just a little bit higher than Hyperia, the UK’s tallest coaster), before powering through several camelback hills, giving some great air time.
But the piece de resistance has to be the world’s first stryker coaster, Voltron Nevera, located in Croatia. I’d watched a few POVs of this multi-launch monster, with seven inversions, on YouTube before heading to Germany and it looked both stunning and frightening in equal measure.
Only opened in 2024, it takes its inspiration from Nikola Tesla’s experiments with electricity and is arguably one of the finest rollercoasters on the planet…
Europa-Park Admission & Opening Times
One-day tickets cost €44 for children (ages 4–11) and seniors (60+), and €52 for adults (12+). Two-day tickets are available for €81 (children and seniors) and €98 (adults).
For more information and to plan your visit, go to www.europapark.de/en.
Summer season: March 22 – September 26, open daily from 9am–6pm.
Winter season: November 29 – January 18 (closed December 24–25), open daily from 11am–7pm.
