Alton Towers Trip Advice

Bee113

Myself and a group of friends (all students) are thinking of going to Alton Towers sometime after the 17th of August. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on where to stay, how to get there, and packages available, etc. We are considering staying three nights, maybe spending two days in the park. We would also be interested in staying in an area with a good nightlife. Any advice at all would be more than appreciated!

rossie1977

first thing first alton towers is in the middle of nowhere, its miles from any major city so if you want nightlife then i would recommend only one day in the park, the best town for nightlife in that area is easily nottingham but its not the closest major city (thats probably stoke), either way if you choose to stay in bigger town and not close to the park then you will run up bills for taxis or buses

what about blackpool as an alternative, theme park is at the end of town (so no need for buses and taxis) and imo almost as good as alton towers, accommodation in town is cheap and you have a beach, friday and saturday night in blackpool has great nightlife between the central and north pier including the biggest club in the uk

Bee113

Yeah, we were considering staying in stoke-on-trent, what's the nightlife like there would you know? Cool, we'll definitely have to bring Blackpool into the consideration so! Any thoughts on Thorp Park as well?

9_Iron

Would agree with the comments about Alton Towers: it really is in the middle of the countryside and public transport to it is not the best. In saying that, if you could consider hiring a car, then it would be easily reached from any of Stoke, Notts, Derby, even Manchester or Birmingham.
Brilliant day out if you can make it

In saying that, Thorpe Park is really good too: much smaller than Alton Towers, but with as many, if not more, big thrill rides and rollercoasters.
It's also easily reached from central London (check the website for train/bus details).
However, because of the size and proximity to London, it can get very, very busy, especially over the summer months. If it's possible for you to wait until September, when the schools are back, it would be a much more pleasant experience there.

Whatever you decide, enjoy....Oblivion and Nemesis are about as much fun as a body can have (legally anyway!!)

TYJ

Bee113 wrote: »

Myself and a group of friends (all students) are thinking of going to Alton Towers sometime after the 17th of August. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on where to stay, how to get there, and packages available, etc. We are considering staying three nights, maybe spending two days in the park. We would also be interested in staying in an area with a good nightlife. Any advice at all would be more than appreciated!

Go to alton towers for 2 days, you wont get everything done in one day, we tried it :pac:

Bee113

9_Iron wrote: »

Would agree with the comments about Alton Towers: it really is in the middle of the countryside and public transport to it is not the best. In saying that, if you could consider hiring a car, then it would be easily reached from any of Stoke, Notts, Derby, even Manchester or Birmingham.
Brilliant day out if you can make it

In saying that, Thorpe Park is really good too: much smaller than Alton Towers, but with as many, if not more, big thrill rides and rollercoasters.
It's also easily reached from central London (check the website for train/bus details).
However, because of the size and proximity to London, it can get very, very busy, especially over the summer months. If it's possible for you to wait until September, when the schools are back, it would be a much more pleasant experience there.

Whatever you decide, enjoy....Oblivion and Nemesis are about as much fun as a body can have (legally anyway!!)

Oh really? Saw that there was buses to it and was thinking "Oh great!" but now that sounds like it should be a bit of a concern! Only problem is that none of the group who are going have full driving licences! Would make things soooo much easier if we could do that!

You've read my mind, crowds in Thorpe Park is what's putting me off it...that and I've been to Alton before a few times and can't get enough of it! :P We were thinking about September, but Leaving Cert results come out on the 17th of August and we thought this would be a good celebration! September may be the way to go though...just don't wanna end up all bruised for the debs!

9_Iron

Bee113 wrote: »

Oh really? Saw that there was buses to it and was thinking "Oh great!" but now that sounds like it should be a bit of a concern! Only problem is that none of the group who are going have full driving licences! Would make things soooo much easier if we could do that!

You've read my mind, crowds in Thorpe Park is what's putting me off it...that and I've been to Alton before a few times and can't get enough of it! :P We were thinking about September, but Leaving Cert results come out on the 17th of August and we thought this would be a good celebration! September may be the way to go though...just don't wanna end up all bruised for the debs!

There are buses from the train stations of the nearby towns/cities, like Stoke, Uttoxeter and Derby. But they are limited and I can guess they would be pretty busy in August (again, school holidays make a big difference).

If you've done Alton Towers before, then I'd definitely suggest giving Thorpe Park a go on this occasion: the rides complement each other nicely (there's a Nemesis in each; AT has Rita/Oblivion, TP has Stealth/Saw and so on), so if you love AT, you'll love TP.
And you have London on your doorstep :cool:

Ihackedboardz

Alton Towers - Where the magic never ends, or so the commercial says.
Imagine my disappointment when it closed at 7.30...

Savman

I have to be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with Alton Towers (shock horror). I thought the rides themselves were short and the park was huge so took hours to navigate, you wouldn't mind if you had the climate of Florida or Spain but in overcast chilly British weather it can be a bit cumbersome.

There are still some great rides there, however.

Blackpool is very underrated IMHO.

Bee113

I do really like the sound of Thorpe Park, it's just the queues that have me concerned! But if it ends up being easier to organise than Alton then I can deal with them! As for Blackpool I have a few friends that've been and so I'll have to ask them what they thought of it!

If anyone knows anywhere that runs packages to any of these places that would be really great! Thanks for all your help with this!

rossie1977

Savman wrote: »

Blackpool is very underrated IMHO.

yeah coastergrotto has it ahead of alton

zuroph

got to agree, the rides are far too short in alton towers to justify the queues on busy days. also the nightlife in stoke was not enjoyable IMO