What is the best destination to visit for a theme park vacation? You can find top parks in pretty much any major tourist region around the world, but which one really captures your imagination? If you could visit anywhere, where is the place you would choose to go?
Let's start with California - the home to the original parks from Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld. It's Legoland's first home in America, too, as well as the home of the most-visited parks from Six Flags and Cedar Fair.
Or maybe you prefer the roller coasters in the Midwest - the home to record-setting rides at Cedar Point, Kings Island, Holiday World, and Six Flags Great America.
The Atlantic coast also offer many great attractions, from Carowinds in the Carolinas up to Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion in Virginia then to Hersheypark in Pennsylvania and on up the coast to other parks including Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
But the attendance king is the United States is Florida - home to the Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando resorts, as well as SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Legoland.
Across the Atlantic, the United Kingdom offers many Merlin-owned theme parks, including the historic Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, just outside London. It's also home to the popular Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Legoland Windsor, as well as many smaller attractions across Britain.
Perhaps Europe would be your pick. Not only is the continent home to Disneyland Paris, there's also Europe Park, Efteling, PortAventura World, and Tivoli Gardens - which might be the grandfather of all parks worldwide.
The United Arab Emirates has come on strong in the past decade, offering not just Warner Bros. World and Ferrari World on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island, but also the Dubai Parks and Resorts' Motiongate, Bollywood Parks and a Legoland. The Expo 2020 Dubai world's fair is happening right now, too.
China has shown the largest growth in theme park attractions over the past decade, however, with the new Universal Studios Beijing this year joining Shanghai Disneyland and other highly-visited parks from Chimelong and OCT Group. Let's also count Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park here, too.
South Korea offers two of the world's most popular parks in Everland and Lotte World.
Japan is the home to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, as well as Universal's most-visited park, Universal Studios Japan and its new Super Nintendo World. You also can visit the popular Nagashima Spa Land or Fuji-Q Highland.
Finally, Australia offers the Gold Coast theme parks of DreamWorld, Warner Bros. Movie World, and Sea World.
If you want to consider other attractions at these destinations, please go ahead. It's your dream vacation, after all. So in voting below, don't just pick the destination you visit most often, or that you will visit next, or that you think you best can afford. We want to hear which destination appeals most to you and your family. And in the comments, please tell us why.
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I had to vote for Japan based solely on the fact that Tokyo Disneysea currently tops my White Whale list of theme park destinations, with several others closely following behind
That’s a tricky one because of the way the question is phrased.
If the question had been “which theme park would you most like to visit” then Tokyo Disneysea would be top of the list. However as a ‘dream destination’ for a theme park vacation it doesn’t stack up for me because there’s only the two parks. It would have to be Florida (Orlando) as there’s 8 world class parks accessible (including Busch Gardens Tampa) so more than enough to keep me occupied for 2 weeks or more.
I figured Japan would be the popular choice here due to Tokyo DisneySea, but there are two things that significantly reduce it's appeal to me for a theme park trip: 1. Outside of Disney and Universal, the theme park scene of Japan looks pretty lackluster, and 2. DisneySea looks extremely impressive for 2000s theme park design, but doesn't appear to stand out nearly as much to me when compared to more recent projects (hot take: Shanghai Disneyland looks more intriguing to me than Tokyo DisneySea). That's not a diss on the park or country (and it would be my second choice from this list), but if you can only pick one, it's not the one I'd go for.
So, where would I pick? Hard not to choose the continent of Europe (specifically Germany and the Benelux). Perhaps it's just because I've been doing a ton of research for a potential trip next summer, but IMO Europe looks like the theme park mecca of the world. There are of course the major parks like Efteling, Europa Park, and Phantasialand which appear to be on par with Disney and Universal in terms of theming (plus they use original IP rather than just bringing in popular media franchises), but even the smaller parks have theming that puts most domestic regional parks to shame. Plus, when it comes to the coaster scene, hard to argue with the place that produced almost all the headliner steel coasters before RMC burst onto the scene. Lastly, when it comes to non-park attractions (because it would be a waste to travel halfway around the world just for theme parks), Europe holds a lot more appeal to me than anywhere in Asia.
Even though its minor I really would like to see GA Aquairum and Zoo Atlanta. I'm more of a national park and nature tourist over theme parks
@AJ Hummel Great to hear you are going to visit Efteling in my home country. Have a great time in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.
Agree with AJ's pick of Europe. In addition to the many parks mentioned before, Energylandia, Liseberg, and Futuroscope appear to be fantastic parks to check out. Phantasialand is possibly at the top of my non-usa parks to visit list right now as it has some of the best themed thrilling roller coasters in the world.
Japan and China are close 2nd and 3rds. They just have soooo many parks that I haven't been to, mostly quirky parks that many western fans like myself know so little about.
I would have to choose Japan. Tokyo DisneySea looks like an incredible park. The design, and beauty of the park, makes it atop of the list. Tokyo Disneyland, also features many of the best versions of rides, found in other Disney parks worldwide.
I pick Japan because this year was supposed to be my year of going there. But Covid came and said, “Not this year!”
was torn between europe and japan (i live in Orlando so get to live that dream regularly) and ultimately settled on europe. my visit to efteling a few years whetted my appetite for more of the whimsy that seems to be prevalent in european parks. ultimately, it was the thoughts of visiting phantasialand and tivoli that kept me from clicking japan.
While Orlando always my go-to, I would love to see Disney Seas or try the Europe parks.
I voted for China as I've already been to Japan, but I'd also LOVE to go back to Japan again.
(I will not mention parks "most nearby", which I attend often, I mention only those that would require "travel")
#1 Puy du Fou (Most intrinsic superlative quality story telling park in the whole world... for me there is NO better. Every single show in Puy du Fou pulverises anything Disney has ever produced. Believe me... It's HAUTE CUISINE in the theme park world, not fast food !..... )
#2 DisneySea
#3 Disney Animal Kingdom
Samples...
#4 Ba Na Hills (Vietnam) One sample of 'cultural travel' type of theme parks in S-E Asia
#5 Xenses Park (Cancun, Mexico) One sample of different natural cave based action theme parks in Yucatan
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Even though it's not my #1 pick, I will send Australia some love today. It's got a theme park with an Austin Powers meet and greet. How can you possibly top that?